European Parliament Elections 2014 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

European Parliament Elections 2014 - Coursework Example The elections involve various parties that included the European People’s Party, Party of European Socialists, Alliance of liberals and Democrats of Europe, the party of the European Left and the party of European Alliance for Freedom among others.  Ã‚   For fairness and equity of distribution of members and the authority span in the union, countries involved all participated in the election of the President to the committee that led and provides oversight mandate to the countries. These have developed to shape politics in the management of affairs of the European Union. Therefore, they provide a control aspect that makes the union stronger and much active economically. As part of the EU integration principles, the elections provide ground for improvement and evaluation of progress to the European Union. Through the formation and the parliament formed, it is much easier to understand and tackle the challenges that face the European Union block and relate to the policy matters of the European Union. These aspects have a picture drawn in the body of the material. For years, the elections of the members of the European Union parliament have remained centred and held during June as for the previous elections. In 2014, the elections were held in May as a gesture to create more time for the election of the president of the European Commission, which would have coincided if not brought backwards. The fact that the Pentecost weekend was to take place at the same time also provide an influence on the changes that came to occur. One of the major roles that the European Union has to play as of current is stabilizing the economy of the member states of the European Union. Since the great recession that started as of June 2009, the whole world has suffered massively due to the economic crisis that has affected many economies (Maier, 2011, p.208). Through these recessionary activities, economies like that of Greece, Cyprus Spain, Portugal and Cyprus massively affected leading to a difficult time in the European Union.   From this time, the effect of the recession hit even into the EU leadership aspects.  Ã‚  

Strategic Choice in HRM Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Strategic Choice in HRM - Case Study Example The company will also conduct employee redeployment, an activity whereby workers are moved from one working environment to another. The reasons for reassignment will be to increase efficiency, to reduce costs or for the purposes of trainings to build on the skills workers. Redeployment and retrenchment of workers cause’s stressful conditions to the employees as there remain uncertainties about their future in terms of security of their current occupation. During the redeployment process, employees are expected to maintain their performance under the changes in the workplace cultures, organisational structures and changes in the role they play in their works and responsibilities. Job insecurity is termed as being cross-sectional, moist researches are conducted either after the redeployment has been conducted or during the time when the affected individuals are trying to cope up with the new job environment. Therefore, it remains to be known how the workers manage to cope up wit h the extensive change of environment and how it correlates to the different stages of redeployment. In addition, it remains unknown how different individuals or the organisation cope up with the impacts of redistribution. Job uncertainties affect an organisations cultures; redeployment entails that in every point in time there shall be a new face in the team (Koontz 2009, p.179). The cultures may be different from their new organisation; consequently, this will impact the healthy organisation culture that had been put in place before the initialisation of the process of downsizing that affects the employee. Redeployment without a pay increment is a form of discouragement to the employee. However, modern managers have instituted a program of redeploying workers where they accompany them with a salary increase. Standfast Insurance has a plan to loan its workforce to another company.

Detailed Analysis Of Silent Hill Two Media Essay

Detailed Analysis Of Silent Hill Two Media Essay Silent Hill 2 is a 2001 survival horror/puzzle game released for the playstation 2 by Konami. It is the sequel to the first Silent Hill game released in 1999 for the original playstation. Silent Hill 2 is seen by many as landmark game, which capitalised on elements of game design previously ignored or seen as of secondary importance. It is difficult to categorise the appeal of Silent Hill 2, as at first glance its gameplay could appear primitive or certainly repetitive, while its subject matter and storyline are nothing new to the horror genre. To put it in more prosaic terms Silent Hill 2 is very much more than the sum of its parts, and this makes it a particularly interesting candidate for in depth analysis. For the greatest part of this essay I will refer to the game via the shorthand reference: SH2. Gameplay in SH2 revolves around a mixture of puzzle solving and simple combat. As the main protagonist progresses through the town of Silent Hill, he must fight various monsters using a variety of weapons. These range from a simple plank to a hunting rifle. In keeping with the survival horror nature of the game, ammunition is quite scarce as are the supplies necessary for healing, and individual enemies can take significant time and effort to kill. The player will find him/herself conserving ammunition for the stronger enemies and bosses, and thus any encounter with a monster brings with it a sense of trepidation and anxiety. Even the least powerful of the monsters becomes formidable if the players health and ammo is low, and he/she is forced to use the wooden plank. This is compounded by the fact that the enemies in SH2 are extremely resistant to damage and take a considerable time to kill outright (though they may be knocked to the ground for a temporary immobilisation). All of the se elements combine to nurture a sense of extreme reluctance to progress through the towns environs, and help create a fear of the unknown path ahead. Unfortunately the game fails to find the right balance between challenge and enjoyability with its combat. Defeating the monsters in Silent Hill is far more tedious than it is gripping. There is far too little variety in the methods of attack and too much time is required to kill each one that soon combat becomes a slow and repetitive affair of repeatedly swinging the iron bar at low powered enemies in order to conserve ammo. Furthermore once an enemy locks into combat with the player, it no longer becomes necessary to reposition the main character, resulting in gameplay requiring no more input than holding down the attack button. There is no heads up display in SH2, and the player must access the start menu to see how much ammo or health remains. When the player has taken excessive damage the playstation controller will subtly vibrate alerting him/her to the condition they are in. This merely adds to the frustrating nature of the combat in SH2, as no clear indication of how much damage can be taken against an enemy is ever given. This results in the player frequently dying while fighting the numerous minor enemies, even with plenty of health packs in reserve. Attacks given and received in combat are accompanied by a vibration of the controller which masks the warning vibrations when close to death and further jeopardises health management. This is a grave shortcoming which detracts from the rather well designed puzzle element of SH2. Puzzles range from fairly untaxing instances of collecting and combining items to extremely cryptic riddles requiring a good deal of thought to solve. The riddles show imagination in their intricacy and leave the player with a sense of achievement for having solved them. Unfortunately instances of these riddles are far less frequent than the occurrence of monsters in silent hill. SH2 is the story of James Sunderland, a man looking for his deceased wife after receiving a letter from her which says that she is waiting for him in the town of Silent Hill, a place where they used to holiday when she was alive. James wife was named Mary, and he begins the game with a photograph of her along with the letter signed by her in his inventory. The game begins with James having driven to Silent Hill only to find the entrance road blocked. He stops at a highway toilet , examines his own reflection in the bathroom mirror, reads the letter from his wife again and decides to enter the town on foot. James commences walking through the woods. The games atmosphere is established early on by thick fog and strange disconcerting noises as he makes his way. James eventually comes upon a graveyard and we are introduced to the games first non-playable character: Angela. As James finds her she is sitting among the tombstones. The conversation between the two seems disjointed. This sets the tone for the dialogue in the game. Much of what Angela says makes little sense, James asks her questions but she seems incapable of giving him a straight answer, as though her thoughts are not fully in the present. We gather enough from what she says to learn that she is looking for her mama in Silent Hill. At a later point in the game we learn that Angela had an abusive childhood and that this has left her with a desire to end her own life. Her father was killed (it seems likely by Angela), and the family home burned down. James proceeds to enter the town proper. Everything is covered in a thick fog. The town looks for the most part normal except that it is utterly deserted and the cars, signage, and architecture have an outdated feel. We soon meet our first enemy- a non descript grotesque humanoid shape which James dispatches with the aid of a wooden plank. Soon James finds himself in an apartment building. The building is in an appalling state of repair, displaying many signs of decay with walls stained horribly with rust, mildew and blood. Here we meet our second character, Eddie. The room we find Eddie in does not display such advanced decay. Eddie is in the process of vomiting into the toilet when we meet him, and the body of a human can be seen in the kitchen unit. This is not overly remarkable in light of the monsters roaming the apartment, but Eddie is instantly defensive in his conversation with James, and his frequent uncalled for denials that he murdered the man in the kitchen lead us to suspect that he in fact did. It is noteworthy that Eddie never mentions the monsters, which would conveniently explain the body. Eddie appears to be a man of limited intelligence- coarse, with a cruel side to his nature. When James finds his way out of the apartment he discovers a little girl named Laura wandering the streets by herself. Laura tells James that she shared a ward with Mary in the hospital during Marys illness. This strikes James as highly suspect, Mary was supposed to have died three years ago, when Laura would have been very young indeed. He tries to question Laura on the matter but just like the previous conversations with Angela and Eddie, it bears little fruit. James continues on towards Rosewater Park, one of the places which would fit Marys description of a special place from her letter. Instead of Mary James meets a woman who calls herself Maria. James is astounded at Marias appearance, as she looks almost identical to his dead wife Mary. Their personalities are less similar however; Mary is extraverted and bawdy whereas Mary was reserved and ladylike. Maria is dressed in a suggestively low cut outfit with a mini skirt and an incident later on in Heavens Night strip club infers that she works as a stripper. Maria says she doesnt know Mary and takes James confusing of the two women badly. It is significant that James should meet Maria in the place he expected Mary, not to mention the similarities in appearance. Maria resolves to join James in his search for Mary. After an episode in the hospital Maria is violently killed on front of James by a sinister pyramid headed monster which is seemingly impervious to attack. Later on he finds her i nexplicably alive and well before she is again killed on front of him. This pattern repeats itself three times in the game, as James is forced to witness his dead wifes doppelganger murdered in front of him. James receives no explanation for this, or the manner in which Maria seems to share memories of Mary with James; and though she becomes angry when James confuses the two women, it seems that even she confuses herself with Mary. James surmises that Marys special place must be the hotel by the lake and makes his way there. He encounters Laura and Eddie at various times but their conversations reveal little apart from the extent of their mutual confusion. In a prison on the way to the Hotel James meets Eddie in a room full of recently murdered human corpses. This is strange as Silent Hill appears to have been deserted for some time. Eddie has lost his mind, and starts talking about having to kill people for making fun of him. Eddie becomes convinced James is just like all the rest and tries to kill James but fails, losing his own life in the process. James finally reaches the Hotel. A look in the games inventory screen reveals that Marys note has gone blank. This raises the question of whether or not it ever existed. James reaches the room where he and Mary stayed. The room is in perfect condition and is empty apart from a vcr and a television. James inserts a video he found elsewhere in the Hotel and watches in horror at footage of himself putting a pillow over Marys face in her hospital bed. It finally becomes clear- James killed Mary. He sits with his head bowed for some time until Laura enters. We wonder how she made it into the hotel past all of the monsters and traps. James tells Laura he killed Mary. At this point the player realises the origin of James confusion. Mary was dying and James killed her and subsequently blocked out the memory. Now the chronology of the game makes more sense; Mary didnt die but merely got sick three years ago and James killed her much more recently. This explains how Laura had met her not long ago. It transpires that Marys illness badly affected her appearance and demeanour, causing her to lash out at James. This goes some way to explaining why James did what he did. Just before the final boss James again meets Angela. She is consumed by despair and James can do nothing to dissuade her from suicide. James is forced to witness the death of Maria at the hands of pyramid head one last time before proceeding to the roof of the Hotel where an evil incarnation of either Mary or Maria (depending on the players actions during the game) awaits. There are four endings to SH2: 1: In the Leave ending, the woman on the roof is Maria yet again, disguised as Mary in an attempt to trick James. James refuses her and Maria transforms into a monster. After James defeats this Boss Maria, he finds himself by Marys bedside once again. He explains to Mary that he killed her to end her suffering but also selfishly to end his own difficulty in having to care for her. He reads Marys letter in full and then leaves the town with Laura. 2: The in water ending is the same as above except instead of leaving with Laura we hear the sounds of James car driving into a lake. We surmise that he could not live without Mary and chose to drown himself. Marys letter scrolls across a screen with a watery background. 3: In the Maria ending James is reunited with Maria after the fight and the pair leave town together. As he helps her into his car she begins coughing. It seems likely that Maria will fall ill just like Mary did. It could be construed as a punishment for James, or perhaps even a chance of salvation if he sees Marias illness to the end, the way he never did for Mary. 4: The rebirth ending, which can only be unlocked during a replay sees James killing boss Maria, and then taking Marys body out to an island in Toluca Lake via boat. It appears as though he intends to resurrect Mary using various talismans he found in game at the church on the island. SH2, with its multiple endings and abundant ambiguity has no single reading or interpretation. Just as James discovers his own true past after watching the video the player must assemble his/her own definitive narrative based on the events they have witnessed. Many of the events negate each other, or have causes and consequences which are mutually exclusive. These include Marys note which disappears partway through the game, or Marias frequent resurrections. It becomes apparent after some reflection that if SH2 provides an account of these inconsistencies it is not made explicit and its left up to the player to make sense of events. The one theme each one of the endings have in common is that someone along the line in the story, be it Maria or Mary, turns out to be a figment of James imagination. Given that each ending allows for this possibility it seems likely that much of what James has experienced in Silent Hill was a product of his own mind. This reasoning is the only way to bui ld a logical picture of the events of SH2. The best way to examine this theory is to look closer at James encounters with the other characters in the game. The characters in SH2 converse with each other in a disjointed way, as though each inhabits a separate reality which only they have access to. It appears as though the town presents a subjective reality to each person who visits it. It also makes sense to think that each characters reality can only be observed when they meet face to face. The evidence for this is quite strong when one examines how the characters interact. Eddie never once mentions the monsters that threaten James, for him Silent Hill is a place full of people who make fun of him. James never sees any of these people except lying dead in and around Eddie. The town is less dilapidated when we meet Eddie, such as in the apartment room, where sports posters adorn the wall. It is uncertain why Silent Hill drew Eddie to it but his experience there is a failure, he loses his mind and commences slaughtering everyone. His experience of Silent Hill ends when he meets a real person- James, who kills him. Angela provides an even more dramatic example. When James rescues her she is being threatened by a monster that she refers to as daddy. This scene provides a good insight into how the town manifests itself to different people. The room is full of the decor of a domestic living room, even though it occurs in an underground labyrinth. Angela apparently sees Silent Hill through the eyes of her childhood. She saw her father while all James saw was a monster. The last time James meets Angela it is in the burning hallway. This seems to be a representation of how her childhood home burned down. James remarks that its hot as hell in here, while Angela replies You see it too? For me its always like this. The fire only exists when Angela is near; when James leaves the room, the Hotel is back to its damp rotting self. The town seems perfectly normal in the presence of Laura, and this explains how an eight year old girl could run from place to place without being harassed by monsters. In the bowling alley we find Laura and Eddie together eating a pizza. This too is revealing. The silent Hill James experiences is far too old and unsanitary a place to find food in, whereas for Laura and Eddie it appears just ordinary enough to find a pizza. Now we have some idea of how the town works for different people we can make more sense of James experiences. Firstly the chances of Maria being a real person seam dubious. Unlike the other characters in the game Maria is the only one who shares James experiences and can witness the things he can. This is evidence against her existence outside of James imagination, as none of the other characters seem to have any idea what James means when he talks of monsters. Furthermore none of the other characters ever see Maria, and when she and James arrive at the bowling alley she stays outside, away from Laura and Eddie so as not to reveal her illusory nature by appearing on front of people who cannot see her. There is also the more obvious discrepancy of her many deaths and resurrections; the other characters seem much more conventional in this regard. Finally there are the comparisons between Maria and Mary. She has the same body, and appears in the same spot James expects to see Mary- all suggestive of an imaginary Maria hypotheses; a construct of James mind composed of elements of his dead wife. Pyramid head, like all the monsters in SH2, is a further construct of James imagination. He plays a role in that he forces James to face his own guilt by killing the image of his wife before his eyes again and again. James admits this to himself before the final fight with the twin pyramid heads: thats why I needed you, needed someone to punish me for my sins. Interestingly James never actually harms pyramid head during combat. All the encounters with him are survived by endurance rather than by beating him. In the end it is pyramid head that kills himself. So the definitive narrative of SH2 is thus: James, forced to care for what was left of his sick wife, decided to kill her rather than have either of them suffer any longer. Once he had killed her however, he was filled with feelings of guilt and began living in denial, telling himself and others that she had died three years ago. In fact however; he hated himself, and needed to face the truth of what he had done, and so he was drawn to the town of Silent Hill where the forces of the town led him on a journey to face himself. Aesthetically SH2 has a very unified and clear vision of itself. As an audio visual experience the different elements tie together very well and form quite a cohesive feeling game of seamless stylistic integrity. Particular attention was given to the design of the monsters which reflect the nature of James inner turmoil. Apart from pyramid head every monster in SH2 is feminine in nature. Even the indistinguishable humanoid shapes that spit acid have high pitched female voices and long legs. Some of the monster designs have sexual overtones such as the mannequins or the nurses. It seems plausible to read this as a manifestation of James relationship towards womankind since he murdered his wife. It could even be said that the form of the monsters are derived from the nature of Marys disfiguring illness. The sense of atmosphere in SH2 is superbly well crafted. To this end the designers have employed prolific use of heavy fog and darkness to create a fear of progressing forward into the unknown. This is coupled with the use of a noise grain filter that lends an organic feel to the textures and ties in with the static motif reflected in the radio. The noise filter plays tricks on the eye, making walls appear to crawl and adding to the sense of chaos and unease. Every area exhibits a very high level of detail, with various bits of rubbish, graffiti, and detritus creating a thoroughly believable, lived in, (though abandoned) town. The minimal soundtrack is no less appropriate, with Akira Yamaoka opting more for industrial or ambient soundscapes than a conventional soundtrack (although a conventional song was also composed for the game). The imagination displayed in the composition of the soundtrack is impressive. Yamaoka employed very few conventional instruments, instead creating deeply unsettling otherworldly cacophonies of banging iron, bee-hives, saws, miscellaneous improvised percussion, sirens, wild animals, and heavy machinery. It is unfortunate therefore considering the quality of SH2 as an aesthetic experience, to find it marred by the camera. SH2 uses a third person viewpoint at all times with only a miniscule degree of control afforded to the player. The game has a very cinematic attitude to camera placement and as a result the camera is tyrannical in its inflexibility. Examination of the detail in the graphics is forbidden at all times by the camera, which will change position at the drop of a hat to the other side of a room. Though the camera positions are clearly deliberately chosen to lend the game an avant-garde and cinematic veneer they succeed only in hampering movement, increasing combat difficulty and generally detracting from SH2s enjoyment on every level. In conclusion the strength of Silent Hill 2 lies in its ability to tell a compelling and intriguing story while successfully evoking a palpably uneasy atmosphere. SH2 represents an advance in the video game as form, as it redefines the areas in which a game succeeds at entertaining. By all traditional standards the gameplay is uninspired, even tedious at times, yet SH2 remains a deeply affecting and compelling experience. The attention to detail in the feel of the game, along with the subtle, mature, and ambiguous storyline create a game of tremendous artistic unity, which represents a true formal leap in video games. .

Sodium :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Life could not exist without compounds of sodium. These compounds hold water in body tissues, and a severe deficiency of sodium can cause death. Blood contains sodium compounds in solution. Sodium compounds are used in industry in the manufacture of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, in metallurgy, in sodium vapor lamps, and in the production of hundreds of every day products. One of the most common sodium compounds is table salt, or sodium chloride. In its pure form sodium is a silver-white, soft and waxy metallic element. It is the sixth most abundant element on Earth and occurs in more that trace amounts in the stars and sun.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The secret that led to low-cost production was learned in 1789, when the French chemist Nicolas Leblanc discovered how to make soda out of common salt. The compound called soda is sodium carbonate. Crude sodium carbonate is called soda ash. The carbonate also combines with water in crystals known as washing soda, or sal soda. Soda is used in manufacturing soap, glass, dyestuffs, and explosives and as the basis for making other sodium compounds. Other sodium compounds, with some of their uses, are: baking soda(sodium bicarbonate), an ingredient of baking powder; borax (sodium borate), a food preservative; and caustic soda, or lye (sodium hydroxide), used in soapmaking. Some properties of sodium are: Symbol Na, Atomic Number 11, Atomic Weight 22.9898, Boiling Point 1,621.2 F, and Melting Point 208.06 F.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sodium belongs to the group of elements known as alkali metals. It is never found uncombined in nature and was first isolated by the English scientist Sir Humphry Davy in 1807. Lighter than water, pure sodium can be cut with a knife at room temperature and is brittle at low temperatures. It conducts heat and electricity easily and exhibits a photoelectric effect, that is, it emits electrons when exposed to light. In its pure form, sodium oxidizes

Macbeth: The Struggle Against Evil Essay

Thesis Statement: In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character Macbeth constantly battles against his evil nature. As the play progresses, Macbeth seems to have become a completely evil tyrant, but he never fully ends his struggle against evil. Introduction I. Macbeth: a noble and virtuous character II. Struggle with temptation and evil A. Witches B. Himself C. Lady Macbeth III. Murder of Duncan A. Before the murder B. Effects of the murder IV. Murder of Banquo V. Murder of Macduff’s family VI. Lasting nobility and signs of conscience Conclusion William Shakespeare’s primary source for Macbeth was Holinshed’s History of Scotland. The fictional character, Macbeth, is based mainly on the actual Macbeth who Holinshed writes about. This Scottish play is, â€Å"Shakespeare’s chief tragic gift to the world at large† (Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher 279). Although it is his shortest play, it is often considered to be his best. In it he depicts the â€Å"corruption of a soul† in a way that both excites us, yet at the same time brings fear to us (Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher 279). He is a character with whom, we are strangely able to identify, and whose destruction we cannot watch without feelings of fright and pity (Alden 276). It is a play, which becomes the personal tragedy of Macbeth, a noble character whose flaws cause his downfall. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character Macbeth constantly battles against his evil nature. As the play progresses, Macbeth seems to have become a completely evil tyrant, but he never fully ends his struggle against evil. Initially, Macbeth is portrayed as a brave, noble, and loyal man. He is well known and praised by many, including Duncan, the King of Scotland, who praises him for his loyalty and successes in battle. Macbeth seems to be the quintessence of nobility. Walter Curry states, â€Å"He knows what it is to be actively loyal to king and country, to accept duty, to promote justice, amity, and piety† (112). Before meeting the witches, he seems to have a â€Å"definite disposition†, to be resolute in his choices, and free from ambiguity (Curry 104). According to Raymond Alden, â€Å"The principle point is that Macbeth is presented to us at the outset in a nobly attractive form and is actually, in some sense, a good man† (276). When he meets the witches, they help instill evil thoughts into his mind. They see, â€Å"what passions drive him and what dark desires await their fostering† (Curry 116). He struggles with these evil thoughts which are already rooted within him. His real temptation begins after hearing Johnson 2 the witches’ predictions saying that he will become king. Curry says that the witches’ prophecy, â€Å"arouses his passions and inflames his imagination to the extent that nothing is but what is not† (78). Realizing his flaws in character and that he wants the kingdom, they feed his strong sense of ambition and self-love. Curry explains that the witches, â€Å"symbolize a secret world of evil spirits that with satanic cunning lie in wait for human souls, conquering the unguarded heart and rejoicing in hurling their victim to the dust of misery and sin†(57). Their purpose is, â€Å"to stimulate Macbeth’s imagination to the point of grasping some underlying emotional, moral, or intellectual content† (Curry 55). Through their temptation, the witches are able to confuse and corrupt his judgement so that he is lead towards choosing the means to reach his desired goal, to become king. After the first appearance of the witches, Macbeth’s pride and ambition begin to overcome him. Evil thoughts of how he could obtain the crown run through his mind. He really begins to go through an internal struggle against evil. Curry says that he is too concerned not with, â€Å"attaining the ultimate good, but of flattering his inordinate love of self† (113). He is incapable of using correct judgement and making a reasonable decision. He knows that to become king, he will have to commit murder. He is very sensible and thinks about what the consequences of his actions would be. He still has a strong sense of conscience; although, his ambition is beginning to overtake him. Alden observes that Macbeth’s evil thoughts are, â€Å"in the making, instead of ready made; and they struggle against that sense of their vileness which we have already observed† (277). Duncan is a good and virtuous king; he is also Macbeth’s cousin. The power of his ambition is demonstrated when he says, â€Å"I have no spur / to prick the sides of Johnson 3 my intent but / vaulting ambition, which oerleaps itself / and falls on th’ other† (1.7.25-28). â€Å"Vaulting ambition† is his chief character flaw and his only reason to kill the king. Edward Dowden points out that, â€Å"Shakespeare does not believe in any sudden transformation of a noble and loyal soul into that of a traitor and murderer† (223). Macbeth’s conscience still bothers him, even though he knows what course of action he should take. After much contemplation, he resolves not to kill Duncan, but his decision doesn’t last long. Evil thoughts overcome him. Lady Macbeth is also seen as an evil with which he struggles against. She understands Macbeth very well and knows exactly how to manipulate him. She knows that he is a good man. This is demonstrated to us when she says, â€Å"Yet I do fear thy nature; / It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, / Art not without ambition, but without / the illness should attend it† ( 1.5.16-20). She also knows that he will probably not go through with his plans without her pressuring and influencing him to go through with them. She decides that she must rid of anything that interferes with him becoming king. Macbeth tells her that he has decided not to kill the king and she becomes infuriated. She knows that he is a very proud man, so by questioning his manhood she is able to convince him to kill the king. According to Curry, â€Å"He dares do all that may become a man. And it is precisely this established foundation of his self-esteem that Lady Macbeth assaults. She charges him with unmasculine weakness and contemptible cowardice† (118). She is a very influential force upon him and holds much power. Macbeth succumbs to the temptation and evil of his wife. Even though he has given into the temptation and evil, he continues to have a strong sense of conscience and fears the evil act which he is soon going to commit. Johnson 4 Macbeth goes through a major struggle with his guilt and conscience when he commits his first murder, the murder of Duncan. Wilson Knight observes that, â€Å"He himself is hopelessly at a loss, and has little idea as to why he is going to murder Duncan† (121). Macbeth is nervous and feels very guilty about murdering him. He feels so guilty that he even becomes delusional and starts imagining things. His regretting conscience and struggle against evil is demonstrated to us when directly after murdering him, he hears voices saying, â€Å"Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor / Shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more† (2.2.41-42). He is very remorseful and doesn’t want to think about the evil act which he has just committed. His remorse and conscience is shown after killing Duncan when he says, â€Å"This is a sorry sight† (2.2.20). He is very rattled and on edge because of his sins. Beginning after the first murder, there is a dramatic change in the Macbeth’s character. Curry says, â€Å"It is a profound alteration in the state of his personality, an astounding dislocation of the very center of being, which fixes itself immediately in a habit inclining to further crime† (104). After murdering Duncan, it’s as if the good in him begins to diminish. He starts to lose some of his conscience and begins transforming into an almost evil character. Curry quotes Thomas Aquinas in saying, â€Å"when man through one sinful act loses honor, charity, or shame, or anything else that withdraws him from evil, he thereby falls into another sin, the first being the accidental cause of the second† (119). He becomes less concerned with conscience, and more concerned with completing what he has already begun: â€Å"I am in blood stepped so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er† (3.5.37- ). He feels like it is too late for him to turn back now, and that he has nothing left to lose at this point. Johnson 5 It becomes easier for Macbeth to commit the second and third murders. A â€Å"train† of sins and crimes follow the first crime he commits (Curry 120). The second murder is the murder of Banquo. Banquo was one of his close colleagues but his, â€Å"wracking passions, frayed nerves, and inordinate apprehension of the imagination,† have led him to believe that Banquo’s knowledge Could be a possible threat to him (Curry 127). He built it up in his mind that Banquo was the main source of all his problems and a very significant threat to his kingdom. Thinking that doing evil will be easier if he does it quickly, he says, â€Å"The very firstlings of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand† (4.1.147-148). Taking this irrational course of action leads to the third murder that Macbeth commits, the murder of Macduff’s family. Macduff is one of the main people who oppose Macbeth and pose a major threat. Without any rational reason, and in a rage of anger, he surprises Macduff’s castle and kills everyone in his family. By this time it seems as if so many of his sins have built up, and that almost all of the goodness which he initially had has left him. He remains an almost completely evil tyrant. Although finally, it seems like there is no goodness and nobility remaining in him, there is. Macbeth never fully allows himself to become entirely evil. There are still lasting signs of conscience and virtue shown in his character. Curry explains, † Macbeth remains essentially human and his conscience continues to witness the diminution of his being. There is still left necessarily some natural good in him; sin cannot completely deprive him of his rational nature, which is the root of his inescapable inclination to virtue†(133). Even when Macbeth is about to die, he demonstrates nobility by not killing himself or giving up. He also did not want to kill Macduff because he felt guilty about spilling so much of his blood already. This shows his Johnson 6 lasting conscience and virtue. Thomas Aquinas is quoted as stating that, â€Å"no human being can become completely evil† (Curry 89). Initially, it is easy to see all of Macbeth’s good virtues, but later after he has committed all of his evil acts, it becomes very difficult. It’s almost as if the evil takes over and becomes second nature to him, but not quite. Doing the evil acts is always difficult for him, and through it all he is able to maintain his conscience and some virtues. He never becomes completely evil because of his conscience, which causes a great deal of mental suffering. The good in him is never fully destroyed, and we hold admiration for him even up to the time of his death: â€Å"Macbeth’s language is the grave utterance of the very heart, conscience-sick, even to the last faintings of moral death† (Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher 230). Works Cited Alden, Raymond. Shakespeare. New York: Duffield, 1922. Curry, Walter C. Shakespeare’s Philosophical Patterns. Ann Arbor: LSU UP, 1959. Dowden, Edward. Shakespeare: A Critical Study of His Mind and Art. New York: Harper, 1880. Jonson, Ben, Beaumont, and Fletcher. Shakespeare. Liverpool: Howell, 1874. Knight, Wilson. The Wheel of Fire: Interpretations of Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: Meridian, 1957. Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Literature, Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes: The British Tradition. Ed. Ellen Bowler et al. Saddle River, New Jers4ey: Prentice, 1999. 272-361.

Key Dimensions

It is a matter of fact that change is essential and inevitable part of the modern society and it significance is really dominant and great. Every public and private companies/organizations are subjected to rapid and frequent changes, because the world changes as well. A location and size of company doesn’t matter. Simply saying, it is practically impossible for the company to avoid changes, because they are phenomena which are universally accepted. Modern managers are working on finding ways how to staff a sense of control over changing situations. Actually resistance to change doesn’t mean that that the staff is against them, it means that they object only the way the changes are implemented. (Organizational Change 2006)Staff resists to changes simply because the reason for the change is unclear for them. Negative reactions can be caused by, for example, by ambiguity in jobs, costs and equipment.   The next reason is that staff wasn’t consulted about the possi ble changes and they appear to be an accomplished fact. It means that employees are willing to know what is going on in organization, especially if their jobs may be affected.The third reason of resistance is when the possible changes may threaten the existing patterns of working relationships between employees. People resist to changes also when they are not satisfied with personnel, monies and timetables or when the benefits for introducing changes are inadequate for the involved trouble. Especially staff is against changes when their power or status in organization is affected. Therefore, managers should tactfully introduce changes so that the majority of employees will be satisfied.(Rosenberg 20)The most important task for managers is to make their firms learning organizations. There are many tactics and approaches, but the most proper approach is to teach the staff well providing relevant stimuli for such learning. Different teaching and education programs may be successfully i mplemented. Also bonuses and personal approvals are allowed. Employees actually should be highly motivated. (Yerkes 462)Innovations are very important if the firm/organization wants to remain competitive in modern environment. Innovation is introduction of new methods and things with a definite purpose to improve the organization’s performance. Innovation is combination of knowledge applied to new service, processes and products.Organizational innovation involves creative ideas in order to make â€Å"tangible difference in the domain in which the innovation occurs†. (Hyde 64) Innovation is characterized by the following issues: relative advantage meaning that innovations have to produce significant improvements to be adapted; simplicity meaning that innovation should be easily understood and presented; inexpensiveness; easy to try meaning that new method should be easily introduced and abandoned if necessary; easy to measure meaning that benefits such as time, efficien cy and money should be easily calculated.(Hyde 64)It is apparent that stresses are also inevitable part in each organization. There are many potential sources of stress within organizational structure. For example, organization size may be a stressor.   Large organizations sometimes cause the sense of helplessness among employees. The next source is technology used by an organization for products or service production. Design of organization may negatively affect employees creating the sense of being controlled as a machine.The additional stress sources are personal conflicts, job design and work roles. (Laurus 773) It is known that stresses have negative results as they are the reasons of high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, stomach ulcers and heart attacks. Stress results also in depressions and anxieties as well as sleeplessness may worsen cognitive functioning. In the result a person may lose concentration and confidence in decision-making. There are many ways to mana ge stress such as, for example, altering stressors themselves, altering moderators of the stressors, lessening individual’s responses and alleviating the stress consequences. Organization can manage stress by providing support services, conflict resolution and cognitive therapy. (Kahn et al. 99)ReferencesAdaptation to change (2006) Bitpipe White papers online, Retrieved September, 30, from http://www.bitpipe.com/rlist/term/Change-Management.html?psrc=RTP.Hyde, A.C. (2002) Understanding Innovation in Management. The Public Manager, 31, 3, 64.  James Morrison, & Ian Wilson. (1996) The Strategic Management Response to the Challenge of Global Change, Strategic Management, 7, 3, 25-27.Kahn, R.L., Wolfe, R.P., Quinn, R.P., Snoek, J.D., & Rosenthal, R.A. (1964). Organizational Stress: Studies in Role Conflict and Ambiguity. New York: Wiley, 98-102.Lazarus, R.S., DeLongis, A., Folkman, S., & Gruen, R. (1985). Stress and Adaptational Outcomes: The Problems of Confounded Measures.   American Psychologist, 40, 770-779.Organizational change management (2006) Journal of Organizational Change Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited Retrieved September, 30, from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/info/journals/jocm/jocm.jspRosenberg, Deanne. (1993, January) Eliminating Resistance to Change. Security Management, 37, 1, 20-23.Yerkes, R.M. & Dodson, J.D. (1988). The Relation of Strength of Stimulus to Rapidity of Habit-Formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, 18, 459-482.

William Bascom essays

William Bascom essays Nowadays peoples minds have been polluted by various sources. Television over emphasizes the pursuit of sex, money, and violence. This causes people to believe that a materialistic life is the most fulfilling and meaningful but, I believe that there is more to life than materialistic things. Spiritual fulfillment can also have positive emotional effects. Earning other peoples respect and honor is also believed by some to be meaningful. Accomplishments and achievements can also determine a meaningful life. There are many ways to achieve a meaningful life. William Bascom had many achievements during his lifetime. He was a deep-sea oceanographer. He assisted scientific study of the earths crust, by drilling the ocean bottom and gathering examples of the earths second layer. He took many unusual risks during the course of his career. He conquered cancer and stood up for his beliefs, which led many people to respect him. He was also an outkast when he believed that human waste would feed the growing population of fish, this caused him to become a controversial figure. He also had many tangible accomplishments, he found the Glomar explorer, the Spanish galleon that contained three bronze statues, and he discovered the Brother Jonathan. This man achieved a meaningful life through respect and accomplishments. On the other hand, Charles Hartshorne was always spiritually in touch with God. He proved Gods existence through 16 different arguments more than any other philosopher had done. On top of that great achievement he taught philosophy at the University of Chicago. Teaching is considered to be a novelty of the world. He was a well-known philosopher and always ahead of his time. Both Bascom and Hartshorne lead very meaningful lives. One had many tangible accomplishments to show for his time on earth, while the other lead a meaningful life through teaching, which is considered t ...

Endangered Fetuses essays

Endangered Fetuses essays When I think of outside forces effecting a growing fetus I automatically think of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, these environmental agents that can cause damage are known as teratogens. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is the all encompassing diagnoses that includes, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), partial fetal alcohol syndrome (p-FAS), and alcohol related neuro-developmental disorder (ARND). Prenatal alcohol exposure can have serious and permanent adverse effects on children. The extent and severity of a child' s condition depends on several factors, such as how much alcohol the pregnant mother consumed and how often and at what point during her pregnancy she drank. Usually with heavy drinking the most serious outcome fetal alcohol syndrome arises. This is characterized by 3 main points, slow physical growth, a distinctive pattern of abnormal facial features and central nervous system disorders. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome effects the entire growth process for babies because the brain is in development from the third week of pregnancy, however there are critical areas, it would affect weeks 9-20 the most because that is the time when they are most susceptible. By the second trimester most of the brains billions of neurons are already in place but the cells that support and feed the neurons known as glial cells are increasing at a rapid rate, from now until even after birth the brain weight will increase ten times over. During the last 3 months of pregnancy the cerebral cortex where most of human intelligence lies enlarges and continues to grow. The most brain growth occurs during this time, the brain also begins to "wrinkle" inside the skull promoting maximum surface area for a small skulls that still needs to go through the birth canal. It is for these reasons that these times in prenatal development from the 9th week up to the 38th week are so important for the mother to abs tain from alcohol and let the brain develop. Prenatal alcohol exposu...

War Hawks and the War of 1812

War Hawks and the War of 1812 The War Hawks were members of Congress who put pressure on President James Madison to declare war against Britain in 1812. The War Hawks tended to be younger congressmen from southern and western  states. Their  desire for war was prompted by expansionist tendencies. Their agenda included adding Canada and Florida to the territory of the United States as well as pushing the frontier further west despite resistance from Native American tribes. Reasons for War The War Hawks cited multiple tensions between the two 19th-century powerhouses as arguments for war. Tensions included violations that the British committed regarding U.S. maritime rights, the effects of the Napoleonic Wars and lingering animosity from the Revolutionary War.   At the same time, the western frontier was feeling pressure from Native Americans, who formed an alliance to stop the encroachment of white settlers. The War Hawks believed that the British were financing the Native Americans in their resistance, which only incentivized them to declare war against Great Britain even more. Henry Clay Although they were young and even called the boys in Congress, the War Hawks gained influence given the leadership and charisma of Henry Clay. In December 1811, the U.S. Congress elected  Henry Clay  of Kentucky as speaker of the house. Clay became a spokesperson for the War Hawks and pushed the agenda of war against Britain. Disagreement in Congress Congressmen mainly from northeastern states disagreed with the War Hawks. They did not want to wage war against Great Britain because they believed their coastal states would bear the physical and economic consequences of an attack by the British fleet more than southern or western states would. War of 1812 Eventually, the War Hawks swayed Congress. President Madison was eventually convinced to go along with the demands of the War Hawks, and the  vote to go to war  with Great Britain passed by a relatively small margin in the U.S. Congress. The War of 1812 lasted from June 1812 to February 1815. The resulting war was costly to the United States. At one point British troops marched on Washington, D.C. and  burned the White House and the Capitol. In the end, the expansionist goals of the War Hawks were not achieved as there were no changes in territorial boundaries. Treaty of Ghent After 3 years of war, the War of 1812 concluded with the Treaty of Ghent. It was signed on December 24, 1814 in Ghent, Belgium. The war was a stalemate, thus the purpose of the treaty was to restore relations to status quo ante bellum. This means that U.S. and Great Britain borders were to be restored to the condition they were in before the War of 1812. All captured lands, prisoners of war and military resources, such as ships, were restored.   Modern Usage The term hawk still persists in American speech today. The word describes someone who is in favor of beginning a war.

Diabete Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Diabete - Essay Example The patient is drowsy and the pulse rate is counted as 110. The respiration is fast at 25 deep and sighing breaths per minute, acetone on breath and keto-acidosis has been made. Type I diabetes can occur in patients of any age and is characterised by the inability of the pancreas to secrete the hormone insulin due to autoimmune destruction of the beta cells. It occurs in children quite abruptly, though new antibody tests have been developed to detect new onset adult form of type I diabetes mellitus known as LADA (latent Auto-immune Diabetes of Adults). What distinguishes them from other diabetic patients is the fact that if insulin is withdrawn, they develop ketosis and eventually ketoacidosis. Hence such patients are always dependent on exogenous insulin. Many of the pathophysiological disturbances in a patient with DKA can be measured by a clinician and should be monitored on a real-time basis throughout the course of the treatment. Attention to clinical laboratory data can help the clinician to track and prevent the onset of secondary lethal complications such as hypoglycemia and hyponatremia and hypokalemia. In the absence of insulin, the primary anabolic hormone, muscles and fats as well as the liver do not take up glucose. Counter regulatory hormones such as glucagons, GH and catecholamines enhance triglyceride breakdown into free fatty acids and gluconeogenesis causing an upshot in the level of serum glucose levels in DKA while there is no insulin. Betaoxidation of these free fatty acids then lead to increased ketone body formations. Metabolism in DKA shifts from the normal fed state to the fasting state characterised by fat metabolism. Secondary complications of primary metabolic derangement include an ensuing metabolic acidosis as ketone bodies deplete extra-cellular and cellular acid buffers. The hyperglycaemia induced osmotic diuresis depletes phosphates, potassium, sodium and water together with glucose and ketones. Most commonly, it depletes 10% of body water and 5mEq per kg of body mass of potassium. The total body potassium may be masked by acidosis by sustaining an increased serum potassium level. The levels can fall precipitously once the rehydration and insulin treatments start. Loss of ketoanions in urine with brisk diuresis and intact renal function may also lead to hyperchloremic metabolic acidosis. Frequency In the USA, DKA is seen in patients with type I diabetes. The incidence is grossly 2% patient years of diabetes and almost 3% of diabetes patients initially presenting with DKA. It can occur in type 2 diabetic patients as well though not as a rule. The mortality rate of DKA is nearly 2% per episode. Before the discovery of insulin in 1922, the mortality rate was almost 100 percent. Though patients less than 19 years of age are more prone to DKA, it can occur to a person of any age. History of patients and symptoms at presentation. Clinicians should look out for the classical symptoms of hyperglycemia such as thirst, polyuria, polydispisia and nocturia. Other symptoms include: Generalised weakness Lethargy Nausea Fatigue Decreased perspiration Confusion Increased appetite and Anorexia Clinicians should also be on the

How airlines have been effected by the economic recession and how they Essay

How airlines have been effected by the economic recession and how they adapted - Essay Example ironment of cutthroat business, the company must adapt dynamic strategies within the broader paradigm of ethical consideration which would meet the shrinking pocket of the customer. At the same time, the strategic plans must also ensure comfortable margin of profit for the companies. Hence, airlines are being creative in the following ways: Dynamic pricing as per the demands of the customers have become the most common strategy of the airlines. Low fare strategy and giving fringe benefits with higher fare has become popular as it attracts not only those customers who work within the defined budgets but also the premium class who an afford extra. Interesting some airlines have also started offering different classes like business class, executive, economic and premium economic depending on the legroom and extra facilities like free drink, enclosed cabin, etc. Customers are being offered innovative packages and arrangement within flights. While some airlines like Virgin offer personal space by allotting front row for business class, others like British Airways is giving its premium economy class more privacy, space and comfort in a secluded cabin. Kay (1995) says that business relationships are linkages that promote organizational growth. Airlines are evolving new ways of earning and seasonal tickets for defined tourist places are being offered at flexible prices. Thus, airlines are also forging alliances with leisure market, corporate world etc. to boost their revenue. In the current times, food and drinks that were taken for granted on long routes have now become charged items. The local airlines and some international airlines have started charging for the food and drinks from the customers. The airlines compensate the financial loss on low fare by charging exorbitantly on eatables on flight. Space allocation or leg room has become a scarce item. The airlines have increasingly been charging customers for extra legroom and for preferred seat like window or

Medical Reimbursement Methodologies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Medical Reimbursement Methodologies - Essay Example The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans were really the blue prints from modern health insurance. That which started as a hospital plan for public school teachers at the Baylor University Hospital, became the model for Blue Cross Plans around the US. Essentially, these were prepaid plans for hospital services under a contractual agreement. Blue Cross dates back to 1933 where with support from American Hospital Association, this started as a nonprofit plan that covered only hospital charges. By 1946, this plan spread across 43 states and starting from 9% in 1940, in 1950, it covered about 57% of the population. In order to avoid conflict with the in-clinic private practice, to start with this was hospital oriented. This was endorsed by AMA, and later a new plan evolved in 1939, which was known as Blue Shield, and this evolved through development of active service plans. This was sign of commitment to private health insurance as the means to spread the financial risk of sickness without f ear of threatening personal interests of the physician. These plans were literally responses to challenge thrown by national health insurance. In due course of time, they started working together to provide both hospital and physician coverage. Now, these plans jointly provide a comprehensive care through either joint corporations or close working relationships. Since these plans were not for profit to begin with, the commercial insurance providers were skeptical to start with, but later, with the success of these plans, they also started providing health insurance. 3. Explain why the lack of universal health care coverage can raise health care costs. If there is a lack in universal healthcare coverage, there is cost involved in healthcare. Those who are uninsured and uncovered, they will have to pay from their pocket. Therefore, they try to tolerate symptoms and ignore

Manegment theory and practice case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Manegment theory and practice case study - Essay Example In 1999 Nissan was the third largest car manufacturing company in Japan and around the world. However in comparison to 1996, when Nissan had last made a profit its production was down, its market share was slipping, it losses mounting and utilization of production capacity was poor. There was an urgent need to find a suitable alliance partner, willing to invest in the company, if Nissan were to survive (p. 3). Renault on the other hand in 1999 had become lean through restructuring and downsizing was in a position to make strategic investments to further its future business activities. Renault mainly operated in Western Europe, from where it derived 85% of its revenue. Renault had limited activities in the important geographical regions of Asia, North America, and Eastern Europe. (p. 4). Investing in Nissan was attractive to Renault, as it provided Renault access to the important markets of Asia and North America due to Nissan’s active presence in these markets. However, there were major issues in the form of the organizational culture variances, diversity in the workforces of the two companies and management practices that would pose major problems in the smooth merger of these two car manufacturers and the changes that would have to be brought about in the corporate culture and management practices at Nissan (p. 5-6). After long drawn negotiations the alliance between Renault and Nissan came into being in 1999, with Renault acquiring 36.8% stake in Nissan. Carlos Ghosn from Renault was appointed as Chief Executive of Nissan and given the responsibility of leading through the restructuring and developing of Nissan focusing on the objectives of the Nissan Revival Plan (NRP) actual profitability by 2000, an operating profit greater than 4.5%, and reducing debt by 50% at the end of the fiscal year 2002 (p.7). The rest of the story is the manner in which Carlos Ghosn through inspired leadership achieved the seemingly impossible

Extended Producer Responsibilities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Extended Producer Responsibilities - Essay Example The consumers can pay a fee when the y purchases a new vehicle. This fee will then be managed by a third party in this case the party can be EPA. On the part of the manufactures I would ensure that they have goals set in recycling the vehicles. This program can be modified on the condition that the manufacturer is located outside the U.S. to comply with the law. This will involve setting a law that requires all imported cars in the United States should come from countries with rigorous disposal laws. Also, an extra import fee should be incorporated to aid the disposal of the vehicle. This program will definitely influence product designers in research & development group. Example plastic which comprise of the largest portion of currently non-recycled material will make the product designers & development group to replace it with materials which can be recycled. Countries who also wish to export automobiles in United States will have to adapt to stringent vehicles recycling

Hobbies Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Hobbies - Article Example I love McDonalds, and Starbucks is my home away from home. Some people like to collect to stamps, some like to paint'..I like to eat. Simple! I have yet another hobby that most people aren't aware off. I'm a serial killer!! Yes I'm the same person who some people and even animals are afraid off. Yes...and that's because I kill mosquitoes. I have a record hunting spree of killing 103 mosquitoes in a single hour. I kill by the dozen and that too with my bare hands. And I enjoy it. Weird right' Well that's me! Oh I left the favorite hobby of mine for the last. This is the most normal hobby that I have and it's a kind of hobby that most people have. Yes I'm talking about reading books. Bookworm sounds too nerdy, yet if it had been something cool, I would be a a proud bookworm. But obviously I read E-books. Harry Potters, Lord of the Rings, Stephan Kings, Dan Browns'.you name it and I most probably would have read it. I suppose you weren't expecting such a normal hobby from me, right' Wel l, I have to say it again'that's me '

Extended Producer Responsibilities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Extended Producer Responsibilities - Essay Example The consumers can pay a fee when the y purchases a new vehicle. This fee will then be managed by a third party in this case the party can be EPA. On the part of the manufactures I would ensure that they have goals set in recycling the vehicles. This program can be modified on the condition that the manufacturer is located outside the U.S. to comply with the law. This will involve setting a law that requires all imported cars in the United States should come from countries with rigorous disposal laws. Also, an extra import fee should be incorporated to aid the disposal of the vehicle. This program will definitely influence product designers in research & development group. Example plastic which comprise of the largest portion of currently non-recycled material will make the product designers & development group to replace it with materials which can be recycled. Countries who also wish to export automobiles in United States will have to adapt to stringent vehicles recycling

Critique of Pure Reason Essay Example for Free

Critique of Pure Reason Essay Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is the central figure in modern philosophy. He synthesized early modern rationalism and empiricism, set the terms for much of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy, and continues to exercise a significant influence today in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and other fields. The fundamental idea of Kants â€Å"critical philosophy† — especially in his three Critiques: the Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787), the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and the Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790) — is human autonomy. He argues that the human understanding is the source of the general laws of nature that structure all our experience; and that human reason gives itself the moral law, which is our basis for belief in God, freedom, and immortality. Therefore, scientific knowledge, morality, and religious belief are mutually consistent and secure because they all rest on the same foundation of human autonomy, which is also the final end of nature according to the teleological worldview of reflecting judgment that Kant introduces to unify the theoretical and practical parts of his philosophical system. 1. Life and works Immanuel Kant was born April 22, 1724 in Konigsberg, near the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Today Konigsberg has been renamed Kaliningrad and is part of Russia. But during Kants lifetime Konigsberg was the capitol of East Prussia, and its dominant language was German. Though geographically remote from the rest of Prussia and other German cities, Konigsberg was then a major commercial center, an important military port, and a relatively cosmopolitan university town. [1] Kant was born into an artisan family of modest means. His father was a master harness maker, and his mother was the daughter of a harness maker, though she was better educated than most women of her social class. Kants family was never destitute, but his fathers trade was in decline during Kants youth and his parents at times had to rely on extended family for financial support. Kants parents were Pietist and he attended a Pietist school, the Collegium Fridericianum, from ages eight through fifteen. Pietism was an evangelical Lutheran movement that emphasized conversion, reliance on divine grace, the experience of religious emotions, and personal devotion involving regular Bible study, prayer, and introspection. Kant reacted strongly against the forced soul-searching to which he was subjected at the Collegium Fridericianum, in response to which he sought refuge in the Latin classics, which were central to the schools curriculum. Later the mature Kants emphasis on reason and autonomy, rather than emotion and dependence on either authority or grace, may in part reflect his youthful reaction against Pietism. But although the young Kant loathed his Pietist schooling, he had deep respect and admiration for his parents, especially his mother, whose â€Å"genuine religiosity† he described as â€Å"not at all enthusiastic. † According to his biographer, Manfred Kuehn, Kants parents probably influenced him much less through their Pietism than through their artisan values of â€Å"hard work, honesty, cleanliness, and independence,† which they taught him by example. [2] Kant attended college at the University of Konigsberg, known as the Albertina, where his early interest in classics was quickly superseded by philosophy, which all first year students studied and which encompassed mathematics and physics as well as logic, metaphysics, ethics, and natural law. Kants philosophy professors exposed him to the approach of Christian Wolff (1679–1750), whose critical synthesis of the philosophy of G. W. Leibniz (1646–1716) was then very influential in German universities. But Kant was also exposed to a range of German and British critics of Wolff, and there were strong doses of Aristotelianism and Pietism represented in the philosophy faculty as well. Kants favorite teacher was Martin Knutzen (1713–1751), a Pietist who was heavily influenced by both Wolff and the English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). Knutzen introduced Kant to the work of Isaac Newton (1642–1727), and his influence is visible in Kants first published work, Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces (1747), which was a critical attempt to mediate a dispute in natural philosophy between Leibnizians and Newtonians over the proper measurement of force. After college Kant spent six years as a private tutor to young children outside Konigsberg. By this time both of his parents had died and Kants finances were not yet secure enough for him to pursue an academic career. He finally returned to Konigsberg in 1754 and began teaching at the Albertina the following year. For the next four decades Kant taught philosophy there, until his retirement from teaching in 1796 at the age of seventy-two. Kant had a burst of publishing activity in the years after he returned from working as a private tutor. In 1754 and 1755 he published three scientific works — one of which, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755), was a major book in which, among other things, he developed what later became known as the nebular hypothesis about the formation of the solar system. Unfortunately, the printer went bankrupt and the book had little immediate impact. To secure qualifications for teaching at the university, Kant also wrote two Latin dissertations: the first, entitled Concise Outline of Some Reflections on Fire (1755), earned him the Magister degree; and the second, New Elucidation of the First Principles of Metaphysical Cognition (1755), entitled him to teach as an unsalaried lecturer. The following year he published another Latin work, The Employment in Natural Philosophy of Metaphysics Combined with Geometry, of Which Sample I Contains the Physical Monadology (1756), in hopes of succeeding Knutzen as associate professor of logic and metaphysics, though Kant failed to secure this position. Both the New Elucidation, which was Kants first work concerned mainly with metaphysics, and the Physical Monadology further develop the position on the interaction of finite substances that he first outlined in Living Forces. Both works depart from Leibniz-Wolffian views, though not radically. The New Elucidation in particular shows the influence of Christian August Crusius (1715–1775), a German critic of Wolff. [3] As an unsalaried lecturer at the Albertina Kant was paid directly by the students who attended his lectures, so he needed to teach an enormous amount and to attract many students in order to earn a living. Kant held this position from 1755 to 1770, during which period he would lecture an average of twenty hours per week on logic, metaphysics, and ethics, as well as mathematics, physics, and physical geography. In his lectures Kant used textbooks by Wolffian authors such as Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762) and Georg Friedrich Meier (1718–1777), but he followed them loosely and used them to structure his own reflections, which drew on a wide range of ideas of contemporary interest. These ideas often stemmed from British sentimentalist philosophers such as David Hume (1711–1776) and Francis Hutcheson (1694–1747), some of whose texts were translated into German in the mid-1750s; and from the Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), who published a flurry of works in the early 1760s. From early in his career Kant was a popular and successful lecturer. He also quickly developed a local reputation as a promising young intellectual and cut a dashing figure in Konigsberg society. After several years of relative quiet, Kant unleashed another burst of publications in 1762–1764, including five philosophical works. The False Subtlety of the Four Syllogistic Figures (1762) rehearses criticisms of Aristotelian logic that were developed by other German philosophers. The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God (1762–3) is a major book in which Kant drew on his earlier work in Universal History and New Elucidation to develop an original argument for Gods existence as a condition of the internal possibility of all things, while criticizing other arguments for Gods existence. The book attracted several positive and some negative reviews. In 1762 Kant also submitted an essay entitled Inquiry Concerning the Distinctness of the Principles of Natural Theology and Morality to a prize competition by the Prussian Royal Academy, though Kants submission took second prize to Moses Mendelssohns winning essay (and was published with it in 1764). Kants Prize Essay, as it is known, departs more significantly from Leibniz-Wolffian views than his earlier work and also contains his first extended discussion of moral philosophy in print. The Prize Essay draws on British sources to criticize German rationalism in two respects: first, drawing on Newton, Kant distinguishes between the methods of mathematics and philosophy; and second, drawing on Hutcheson, he claims that â€Å"an unanalysable feeling of the good† supplies the material content of our moral obligations, which cannot be demonstrated in a purely intellectual way from the formal principle of perfection alone (2:299). [4] These themes reappear in the Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Magnitudes into Philosophy (1763), whose main thesis, however, is that the real opposition of conflicting forces, as in causal relations, is not reducible to the logical relation of contradiction, as Leibnizians held. In Negative Magnitudes Kant also argues that the morality of an action is a function of the internal forces that motivate one to act, rather than of the external (physical) actions or their consequences. Finally, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime (1764) deals mainly with alleged differences in the tastes of men and women and of people from different cultures. After it was published, Kant filled his own interleaved copy of this book with (often unrelated) handwritten remarks, many of which reflect the deep influence of Rousseau on his thinking about moral philosophy in the mid-1760s. These works helped to secure Kant a broader reputation in Germany, but for the most part they were not strikingly original. Like other German philosophers at the time, Kants early works are generally concerned with using insights from British empiricist authors to reform or broaden the German rationalist tradition without radically undermining its foundations. While some of his early works tend to emphasize rationalist ideas, others have a more empiricist emphasis. During this time Kant was striving to work out an independent position, but before the 1770s his views remained fluid. In 1766 Kant published his first work concerned with the possibility of metaphysics, which later became a central topic of his mature philosophy. Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics, which he wrote soon after publishing a short Essay on Maladies of the Mind (1764), was occasioned by Kants fascination with the Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), who claimed to have insight into a spirit world that enabled him to make a series of apparently miraculous predictions. In this curious work Kant satirically compares Swedenborgs spirit-visions to the belief of rationalist metaphysicians in an immaterial soul that survives death, and he concludes that philosophical knowledge of either is impossible because human reason is limited to experience. The skeptical tone of Dreams is tempered, however, by Kants suggestion that â€Å"moral faith† nevertheless supports belief in an immaterial and immortal soul, even if it is not possible to attain metaphysical knowledge in this domain (2:373). In 1770, at the age of forty-six, Kant was appointed to the chair in logic and metaphysics at the Albertina, after teaching for fifteen years as an unsalaried lecturer and working since 1766 as a sublibrarian to supplement his income. Kant was turned down for the same position in 1758. But later, as his reputation grew, he declined chairs in philosophy at Erlangen (1769) and Jena (1770) in hopes of obtaining one in Konigsberg. After Kant was finally promoted, he gradually extended his repertoire of lectures to include anthropology (Kants was the first such course in Germany and became very popular), rational theology, pedagogy, natural right, and even mineralogy and military fortifications. In order to inaugurate his new position, Kant also wrote one more Latin dissertation: Concerning the Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible World (1770), which is known as the Inaugural Dissertation. The Inaugural Dissertation departs more radically from both Wolffian rationalism and British sentimentalism than Kants earlier work. Inspired by Crusius and the Swiss natural philosopher Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728–1777), Kant distinguishes between two fundamental powers of cognition, sensibility and understanding (intelligence), where the Leibniz-Wolffians regarded understanding (intellect) as the only fundamental power. Kant therefore rejects the rationalist view that sensibility is only a confused species of intellectual cognition, and he replaces this with his own view that sensibility is distinct from understanding and brings to perception its own subjective forms of space and time — a view that developed out of Kants earlier criticism of Leibnizs relational view of space in Concerning the Ultimate Ground of the Differentiation of Directions in Space (1768). Moreover, as the title of the Inaugural Dissertation indicates, Kant argues that sensibility and understanding are directed at two different worlds: sensibility gives us access to the sensible world, while understanding enables us to grasp a distinct intelligible world. These two worlds are related in that what the understanding grasps in the intelligible world is the â€Å"paradigm† of â€Å"NOUMENAL PERFECTION,† which is â€Å"a common measure for all other things in so far as they are realities. † Considered theoretically, this intelligible paradigm of perfection is God; considered practically, it is â€Å"MORAL PERFECTION† (2:396). The Inaugural Dissertation thus develops a form of Platonism; and it rejects the view of British sentimentalists that moral judgments are based on feelings of pleasure or pain, since Kant now holds that moral judgments are based on pure understanding alone. After 1770 Kant never surrendered the views that sensibility and understanding are distinct powers of cognition, that space and time are subjective forms of human sensibility, and that moral judgments are based on pure understanding (or reason) alone. But his embrace of Platonism in the Inaugural Dissertation was short-lived. He soon denied that our understanding is capable of insight into an intelligible world, which cleared the path toward his mature position in the Critique of Pure Reason (1781), according to which the understanding (like sensibility) supplies forms that structure our experience of the sensible world, to which human knowledge is limited, while the intelligible (or noumenal) world is strictly unknowable to us. Kant spent a decade working on the Critique of Pure Reason and published nothing else of significance between 1770 and 1781. But its publication marked the beginning of another burst of activity that produced Kants most important and enduring works. Because early reviews of the Critique of Pure Reason were few and (in Kants judgment) uncomprehending, he tried to clarify its main points in the much shorter Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Come Forward as a Science (1783). Among the major books that rapidly followed are the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), Kants main work on the fundamental principle of morality; the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786), his main work on natural philosophy in what scholars call his critical period (1781–1798); the second and substantially revised edition of the Critique of Pure Reason (1787); the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), a fuller discussion of topics in moral philosophy that builds on (and in some ways revises) the Groundwork; and the Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790), which deals with aesthetics and teleology. Kant also published a number of important essays in this period, including Idea for a Universal History With a Cosmopolitan Aim (1784) and Conjectural Beginning of Human History (1786), his main contributions to the philosophy of history; An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? (1784), which broaches some of the key ideas of his later political essays; and What Does it Mean to Orient Oneself in Thinking? (1786), Kants intervention in the pantheism controversy that raged in German intellectual circles after F. H. Jacobi (1743–1819) accused the recently deceased G. E. Lessing (1729–1781) of Spinozism. With these works Kant secured international fame and came to dominate German philosophy in the late 1780s. But in 1790 he announced that the Critique of the Power of Judgment brought his critical enterprise to an end (5:170). By then K. L. Reinhold (1758–1823), whose Letters on the Kantian Philosophy (1786) popularized Kants moral and religious ideas, had been installed (in 1787) in a chair devoted to Kantian philosophy at Jena, which was more centrally located than Konigsberg and rapidly developing into the focal point of the next phase in German intellectual history. Reinhold soon began to criticize and move away from Kants views. In 1794 his chair at Jena passed to J. G. Fichte, who had visited the master in Konigsberg and whose first book, Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation (1792), was published anonymously and initially mistaken for a work by Kant himself. This catapulted Fichte to fame, but he too soon moved away from Kant and developed an original position quite at odds with Kants, which Kant finally repudiated publicly in 1799 (12:370–371). Yet while German philosophy moved on to assess and respond to Kants legacy, Kant himself continued publishing important works in the 1790s. Among these are Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (1793), which drew a censure from the Prussian King when Kant published the book after its second essay was rejected by the censor; The Conflict of the Faculties (1798), a collection of essays inspired by Kants troubles with the censor and dealing with the relationship between the philosophical and theological faculties of the university; On the Common Saying: That May be Correct in Theory, But it is of No Use in Practice (1793), Toward Perpetual Peace (1795), and the Doctrine of Right, the first part of the Metaphysics of Morals (1797), Kants main works in political philosophy; the Doctrine of Virtue, the second part of the Metaphysics of Morals (1797), a catalogue of duties that Kant had been planning for more than thirty years; and Anthropology From a Pragmatic Point of View (1798), based on Kants anthropology lectures. Several other compilations of Kants lecture notes from other courses were published later, but these were not prepared by Kant himself. Kant retired from teaching in 1796. For nearly two decades he had lived a highly disciplined life focused primarily on completing his philosophical system, which began to take definite shape in his mind only in middle age. After retiring he came to believe that there was a gap in this system separating the metaphysical foundations of natural science from physics itself, and he set out to close this gap in a series of notes that postulate the existence of an ether or caloric matter. These notes, known as the Opus Postumum, remained unfinished and unpublished in Kants lifetime, and scholars disagree on their significance and relation to his earlier work. It is clear, however, that these late notes show unmistakable signs of Kants mental decline, which became tragically precipitous around 1800. Kant died February 12, 1804, just short of his eightieth birthday. 2. Kants project in the Critique of Pure Reason. The main topic of the Critique of Pure Reason is the possibility of metaphysics, understood in a specific way. Kant defines metaphysics in terms of â€Å"the cognitions after which reason might strive independently of all experience,† and his goal in the book is to reach a â€Å"decision about the possibility or impossibility of a metaphysics in general, and the determination of its sources, as well as its extent and boundaries, all, however, from principles† (Axii. See also Bxiv; and 4:255–257). Thus metaphysics for Kant concerns a priori knowledge, or knowledge whose justification does not depend on experience; and he associates a priori knowledge with reason. The project of the Critique is to examine whether, how, and to what extent human reason is capable of a priori knowledge. 2. 1 The crisis of the Enlightenment To understand the project of the Critique better, let us consider the historical and intellectual context in which it was written. [5] Kant wrote the Critique toward the end of the Enlightenment, which was then in a state of crisis. Hindsight enables us to see that the 1780’s was a transitional decade in which the cultural balance shifted decisively away from the Enlightenment toward Romanticism, but of course Kant did not have the benefit of such hindsight. The Enlightenment was a reaction to the rise and successes of modern science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The spectacular achievement of Newton in particular engendered widespread confidence and optimism about the power of human reason to control nature and to improve human life. One effect of this new confidence in reason was that traditional authorities were increasingly questioned. For why should we need political or religious authorities to tell us how to live or what to believe, if each of us has the capacity to figure these things out for ourselves? Kant expresses this Enlightenment commitment to the sovereignty of reason in the Critique: Our age is the age of criticism, to which everything must submit. Religion through its holiness and legislation through its majesty commonly seek to exempt themselves from it. But in this way they excite a just suspicion against themselves, and cannot lay claim to that unfeigned respect that reason grants only to that which has been able to withstand its free and public examination (Axi). Enlightenment is about thinking for oneself rather than letting others think for you, according to What is Enlightenment? (8:35). In this essay, Kant also expresses the Enlightenment faith in the inevitability of progress. A few independent thinkers will gradually inspire a broader cultural movement, which ultimately will lead to greater freedom of action and governmental reform. A culture of enlightenment is â€Å"almost inevitable† if only there is â€Å"freedom to make public use of ones reason in all matters† (8:36). The problem is that to some it seemed unclear whether progress would in fact ensue if reason enjoyed full sovereignty over traditional authorities; or whether unaided reasoning would instead lead straight to materialism, fatalism, atheism, skepticism (Bxxxiv), or even libertinism and authoritarianism (8:146). The Enlightenment commitment to the sovereignty of reason was tied to the expectation that it would not lead to any of these consequences but instead would support certain key beliefs that tradition had always sanctioned. Crucially, these included belief in God, the soul, freedom, and the compatibility of science with morality and religion. Although a few intellectuals rejected some or all of these beliefs, the general spirit of the Enlightenment was not so radical. The Enlightenment was about replacing traditional authorities with the authority of individual human reason, but it was not about overturning traditional moral and religious beliefs. Yet the original inspiration for the Enlightenment was the new physics, which was mechanistic. If nature is entirely governed by mechanistic, causal laws, then it may seem that there is no room for freedom, a soul, or anything but matter in motion. This threatened the traditional view that morality requires freedom. We must be free in order to choose what is right over what is wrong, because otherwise we cannot be held responsible. It also threatened the traditional religious belief in a soul that can survive death or be resurrected in an afterlife. So modern science, the pride of the Enlightenment, the source of its optimism about the powers of human reason, threatened to undermine traditional moral and religious beliefs that free rational thought was expected to support. This was the main intellectual crisis of the Enlightenment. The Critique of Pure Reason is Kants response to this crisis. Its main topic is metaphysics because, for Kant, metaphysics is the domain of reason – it is â€Å"the inventory of all we possess through pure reason, ordered systematically† (Axx) — and the authority of reason was in question. Kants main goal is to show that a critique of reason by reason itself, unaided and unrestrained by traditional authorities, establishes a secure and consistent basis for both Newtonian science and traditional morality and religion. In other words, free rational inquiry adequately supports all of these essential human interests and shows them to be mutually consistent. So reason deserves the sovereignty attributed to it by the Enlightenment. 2. 2 Kants Copernican revolution in philosophy To see how Kant attempts to achieve this goal in the Critique, it helps to reflect on his grounds for rejecting the Platonism of the Inaugural Dissertation. In a way the Inaugural Dissertation also tries to reconcile Newtonian science with traditional morality and religion, but its strategy is different from that of the Critique. According to the Inaugural Dissertation, Newtonian science is true of the sensible world, to which sensibility gives us access; and the understanding grasps principles of divine and moral perfection in a distinct intelligible world, which are paradigms for measuring everything in the sensible world. So on this view our knowledge of the intelligible world is a priori because it does not depend on sensibility, and this a priori knowledge furnishes principles for judging the sensible world because in some way the sensible world itself conforms to or imitates the intelligible world. Soon after writing the Inaugural Dissertation, however, Kant expressed doubts about this view. As he explained in a February 21, 1772 letter to his friend and former student, Marcus Herz: In my dissertation I was content to explain the nature of intellectual representations in a merely negative way, namely, to state that they were not modifications of the soul brought about by the object. However, I silently passed over the further question of how a representation that refers to an object without being in any way affected by it can be possible†¦. [B]y what means are these [intellectual representations] given to us, if not by the way in which they affect us? And if such intellectual representations depend on our inner activity, whence comes the agreement that they are supposed to have with objects — objects that are nevertheless not possibly produced thereby? †¦[A]s to how my understanding may form for itself concepts of things completely a priori, with which concepts the things must necessarily agree, and as to how my understanding may formulate real principles concerning the possibility of such concepts, with which principles experience must be in exact agreement and which nevertheless are independent of experience — this question, of how the faculty of understanding achieves this conformity with the things themselves, is still left in a state of obscurity. (10:130–131) Here Kant entertains doubts about how a priori knowledge of an intelligible world would be possible. The position of the Inaugural Dissertation is that the intelligible world is independent of the human understanding and of the sensible world, both of which (in different ways) conform to the intelligible world. But, leaving aside questions about what it means for the sensible world to conform to an intelligible world, how is it possible for the human understanding to conform to or grasp an intelligible world? If the intelligible world is independent of our understanding, then it seems that we could grasp it only if we are passively affected by it in some way. But for Kant sensibility is our passive or receptive capacity to be affected by objects that are independent of us (2:392, A51/B75). So the only way we could grasp an intelligible world that is independent of us is through sensibility, which means that our knowledge of it could not be a priori. The pure understanding alone could at best enable us to form representations of an intelligible world. But since these intellectual representations would entirely â€Å"depend on our inner activity,† as Kant says to Herz, we have no good reason to believe that they conform to an independent intelligible world. Such a priori intellectual representations could well be figments of the brain that do not correspond to anything independent of the human mind. In any case, it is completely mysterious how there might come to be a correspondence between purely intellectual representations and an independent intelligible world. Kants strategy in the Critique is similar to that of the Inaugural Dissertation in that both works attempt to reconcile modern science with traditional morality and religion by relegating them to distinct sensible and intelligible worlds, respectively. But the Critique gives a far more modest and yet revolutionary account of a priori knowledge. As Kants letter to Herz suggests, the main problem with his view in the Inaugural Dissertation is that it tries to explain the possibility of a priori knowledge about a world that is entirely independent of the human mind. This turned out to be a dead end, and Kant never again maintained that we can have a priori knowledge about an intelligible world precisely because such a world would be entirely independent of us. However, Kants revolutionary position in the Critique is that we can have a priori knowledge about the general structure of the sensible world because it is not entirely independent of the human mind. The sensible world, or the world of appearances, is constructed by the human mind from a combination of sensory matter that we receive passively and a priori forms that are supplied by our cognitive faculties. We can have a priori knowledge only about aspects of the sensible world that reflect the a priori forms supplied by our cognitive faculties. In Kants words, â€Å"we can cognize of things a priori only what we ourselves have put into them† (Bxviii). So according to the Critique, a priori knowledge is possible only if and to the extent that the sensible world itself depends on the way the human mind structures its experience. Kant characterizes this new constructivist view of experience in the Critique through an analogy with the revolution wrought by Copernicus in astronomy: Up to now it has been assumed that all our cognition must conform to the objects; but all attempts to find out something about them a priori through concepts that would extend our cognition have, on this presupposition, come to nothing. Hence let us once try whether we do not get farther with the problems of metaphysics by assuming that the objects must conform to our cognition, which would agree better with the requested possibility of an a priori cognition of them, which is to establish something about objects before they are given to us. This would be just like the first thoughts of Copernicus, who, when he did not make good progress in the explanation of the celestial motions if he assumed that the entire celestial host revolves around the observer, tried to see if he might not have greater success if he made the observer revolve and left the stars at rest. Now in metaphysics we can try in a similar way regarding the intuition of objects. If intuition has to conform to the constitution of the objects, then I do not see how we can know anything of them a priori; but if the object (as an object of the senses) conforms to the constitution of our faculty of intuition, then I can very well represent this possibility to myself. Yet because I cannot stop with these intuitions, if they are to become cognitions, but must refer them as representations to something as their object and determine this object through them, I can assume either that the concepts through which I bring about this determination also con.

UV Visible Spectrophotometry and Solution Absorption

UV Visible Spectrophotometry and Solution Absorption All molecules absorb light at certain wavelengths.   The absorption of light by a solution may be used to determine the concentration of a solute or a mixture of solutes in solution. The Beer-Lambert law refers to the linear relationship between absorbance (A), and concentration (C) of an absorbing species. According to the two fundamental principals that govern the absorption of light by a solution, the absorption of light passing through a solution is exponentially related to the number of molecules of the absorbing solute, and thus the solute concentration, and the length of the absorbing solution. These principals are combined, and when working in concentration units of molarity, the Beer-Lambert law is as follows: For part A of this experiment the ÃŽÂ µ value at the à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¬max for Vitamin B12 was determined by measuring the absorbance of a known concentration of Vitamin B12 and by using the above Beer-Lambert formula. Vitamin B12 is a compound of significant nutritional and clinical importance. Assaying and understanding absorption of vitamin B12 helps with diagnosis of defects in humans that can lead to hematological and neurological complications. For part B of this experiment chlorophyll concentration of a leaf extract was calculated. In context to the experiment, eukaryotic green plants and algae, and prokaryotic cyanobacteria contain chloroplasts which have several pigment types, the most abundant of these being chlorophyll a. Green and blue-green coloured chlorophyll a absorbs maximum light energy at the photosynthetic reaction centre (during the light reaction of photosynthesis) at wavelengths in the blue (à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¬max 420 nm) and red (à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¬max 663 nm ) regions of the visible spectrum. The green-yellow coloured chlorophyll b is also present in all green plants and has an absorption spectrum (red à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¬max 645 nm and blue à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¬max 435 nm) slightly different from chlorophyll a. Normally the ratio of chlorophyll a:b is 3:1. As with most biological molecules chlorophyll is synthesised by biochemical pathways, and one intermediate molecule in the synthesis pathway is protochlorophyllide (à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¬max 626 nm) which is eventually converted into chlorophylls a and b. The amounts of chlorophyll and other pigments in plants can be determined using a spectrophotometer following extraction with various organic solvents. Based on the Beer-Lambert Law and a knowledge of absorption coefficients of pigments dissolved in particular solvents, equations have been derived to directly determine the concentrations of common pigments following extraction by measurement of the absorbance (A) of the solution at a given wavelength (à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¬max) in a cuvette.   For part 3 of the experiment, protein concentration was determined by use of UV and Visible spectrophotometry, and Construction of a Standard Graph.   The estimation of protein concentration is an important measurement in biological sciences. For pure samples of proteins absorbance measurements at 280 nm can be used to directly determine protein concentration; all proteins absorb in this region of the spectrum due to their aromatic amino acid residues (tyrosine, tryptophan and phenylalanine).   For protein mixtures, very dilute solutions, or for proteins with interfering chromophores, colourimetric methods must be used. These involve subjecting a pure protein standard of known concentration to a colourimetric reaction, and measuring the absorbance of the coloured end product. The sample protein of unknown concentration is subject to the same colourimetric reaction. The concentration of the sample protein can be read directly from a standard curve.   The Lowry assay involves the production of a blue (phosphomolybdate-tungstate) chromophore, from a copper-protein complex.   In this part of the practical, Lowry and direct absorbance methods were compared for the determination of the concentration of lysozyme in solution. The first of the methods makes use of a ÃŽÂ »max in the UV part of the spectrum and the other in the visible part of the spectrum.   Aims   To competently use a spectrophotometer and accociated cuvettes (cells) To relate absorbance of a solution to concentration using the Beer-Lambert law To determine the molar absorption (extinction) coefficient of vitamin B12 and compare its value with that from a standard reference table. To calculate the chlorophyll concentration in a leaf extract using absorbance values at defined wavelengths and a formula applicable to the solvent extraction medium. To measure protein concentration using direct absorbance and, following construction of a calibration curve, by a colourimetric method. Methods Part A To begin the experiment, the spectrophotomer was calibrated in accordance to the information given in the instrumentation booklet (p. 35, viii). Using distilled water in a plastic cuvette at a wavelength of 550 nm the spectrometer was then placed on zero. Using the provided Aqueous Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) solution at a stock concentration of 0.15 g dm-3 (relative molecular mass = 1.355 x 103 i.e. 1,355 Daltons ), The A value was measured and recorded at ÃŽÂ »max at 550 nm. The A value was Placed on the results sheet. The vitamin B12 solution concentration was converted from g dm -3 to mol dm-3 and then using this data the ÃŽÂ µ value for Vitamin B12 was calculated (see calculations). Part B For the second part of the experiment a sample of pigments extracted from dandelion leaves homogenized in an aqueous acetone extraction medium (80%) was provided. A clear pigment solution was needed for the test and so a check was carried out to ensure that there was no plant debris that may have interfered with light passage before the absorbance of the sample was measured. Using a Pasteur pipette, the clear extract was transferred into a clean quartz cuvette. The spectrophotometer was placed on zero using a quartz cuvette filled with an aqueous acetone mixture (80%) set at a à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¬max wavelength of 663 nm and the absorbance of the pigment solution was measured at 663 nm. The spectrophotometer was again placed on zero using the acetone solution (80%), however it was set at a à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¬max wavelength of 645 nm before the absorbance of the pigment solution was measured. The spectrometer was placed on zero for a third time and set at à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¬max wavelength of 626 nm. The absorbance of the pigment solution was again measured and all three sets of data were recorded. Part C (a) Direct absorbance A quartz cuvette was filled to the level with H20 and used as a standard to set the spectrophotometer at zero. Using another quartz cuvette the A value of the lysozyme solution of unknown concentration was measured at a ÃŽÂ »max of 280 nm. The value obtained was recorded. Having measured the A280 value of the unknown lysozyme sample, the concentration of lysozyme was calculated taking into consideration that ÃŽÂ µ280 of lysozyme = 3.65 x 104 dm3 mol-1 cm-1 and using the Beer-Lambert Law. The concentration of the lysozyme sample was then changed from mol dm-3 to à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ­gcm-3. (b) Colourimetric Lowry Assay (Preparation and Use of a Standard Curve) Using a stock reference standard BSA solution containing 250 à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ­g cm-3 protein, a series of dilutions of the stock were prepared accurately, as per the table below: Tube No: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 BSA stock (cm3) 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 5.0 H2O (cm3) 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.0 Note that the dilution factors for each tube were used to enable calculations for final concentrations of BSA in tubes 1- 8 inclusive (see calculations). These values are then used to plot a standard curve. Standard solution (1.0 cm3) prepared in the above table was placed in 8 clean, dry test tubes. unknown lysozome sample (1cm3) was placed into test tube 9, and H2O (1.0 cm3) was placed in test tube 10 as a water/reagent blank control. A solution of Lowry C (alkaline copper reagent) was made up by mixing Lowry B1 (0.5 cm3) with Lowry B2 (0.5 cm3) and lowry A (50 cm3). A solution of lowry D (Folin Ciocalteus phenol reagent) was then made up by diluting Folin reagent (5 cm3) with distilled H2O (10 cm3). Lowry C reagent (5.0 cm3) was added to all ten test tubes. The solution was mixed and left for 10 minutes. Lowry D reagent (1.0 cm3 ) was then added to each test tube and mixed well. All tubes were left for 30 minutes at standard temperature (37oc) for reaction and colour development to occur, after which time the test tube contents were thoroughly mixed. For test tubes 1-9, the A value at à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¬max 750 nm was measured. Test tube 10 was not measured as it was used as a H2O/reagent blank to zero the spectrophotometer. Calculations Part A Due to the fact that a known amount of solute has to be dissolved in a given volume of solvent to obtain a solution of the required concentration, the number of moles of the solid can be calculated from the following equation: n = Mass of solute Relative molecular mass To convert the Aqueous Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) solution from g dm -3 to mol dm-3 one must consider that the stock concentration is 0.15 g dm-3, and the relative molecular mass of Vitamin B12 is 1.355 x 103 . 0.15 / 1.355 x 103 = 0.11 x 103 To find the ÃŽÂ µ value (wavelength absorption coefficient) of vitamin B12 the Beer-Lambert law must be applied: A= 0.827 L= 1cm C= 0.11 x 103 dm3 mol-1 cm-1 at ÃŽÂ »max of 550 nm ÃŽÂ µ = unknown As A= ÃŽÂ µLC, the equation can be rearranged as follows to make ÃŽÂ µ the subject: ÃŽÂ µ = A/C Therefore: ÃŽÂ µ = 0.827/0.11 x 103 = 7.51 x 103 Part B Chlorophyll Concentration determination The following formula was used to calculate the concentration of pigment in the extract. Chlorophyll a = 12.67A663 2.65A645 0.29A626 Chlorophyll b = 23.6A645 4.23A663 0.33A626 Protochlorophyllide = 29.6A626 3.99A663 6.76A645 The absorbance (A) is the respective wavelengths obtained directly from the spectrophotometer with the use of a 1cm light path length cuvette. Chlorophyll a = (12.67 x 0.934) (2.65 x 0.390) (0.29 x 0.321) = 10.71 ug cm-3. Chlorophyll b = (23.6 x 0.934) (4.23 x 0.390) (0.33 x 0.321) = 20.29 ug cm-3. Protochlorophyllide = (29.6 x 0.934) (3.99 x 0.390) (6.76 x 0.321) = 23.92 ug cm-3. Part C (a) Direct absorbance Concentration of lysozyme was calculated using the Beer-Lambert law as follows: A = 0.177 ÃŽÂ µ = 3.65 x 104 dm3 mol-1 cm -1 L = 1cm C = Unknown The Beer-Lambert law can be rearranged, making C the subject of the equation. Therefore the value of C can be calculated as: C = A / ÃŽÂ µ C = 0.177 / 3.65 x 104 = 4.84 x 10-6 mol dm-3   The concentration of the lysozyme sample was then changed from mol dm-3 to à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ­gcm-3 Using the following formula: n= M / RMM 14.31 x 103 x 4.84 x 10-6 = 0.069g To change this from g to à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ­g it must be multiplied by 1000,000 as follows: 0.069 x 1000,000 = 69000 To then change this calculation from dm-3 to cm-3 it must be divided by 1000 as follows: 69000 / 1000 = 69 à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ­g cm-3 (b). Preparation and Use of a Standard Curve for Lowry Assay: Concentration (à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ­g cm-3) was calculated using the below figures: Tube No: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 BSA stock (cm3) 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 5.0 H2O (cm3) 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.0 Test tube 1. BSA stock (cm3) = 1.0 H2O (cm3) = 4.0 1.0 + 4.0 = 5 1.0 / 5 = 0.2 0.2 x 250 = 50 Test tube 2. BSA stock (cm3) = 1.5 H2O (cm3) = 3.5 1.5 + 3.5 = 5 1.5/5 = 0.3 0.3 x 250 = 75 Test tube 3. BSA stock (cm3) = 2.0 H2O (cm3) = 3.0 2.0 + 3.0 = 5 2.0 / 5 = 0.4 0.4 x 250 = 100 Test tube 4. BSA stock (cm3) = 2.5 H2O (cm3) = 2.5 2.5 + 2.5 = 5 2.5 / 5 = 0.5 0.5 x 250 = 125 Test tube 5. BSA stock (cm3) = 3.0 H2O (cm3) = 2.0 3.0 + 2.0 = 5 4.0 / 5 = 0.6 0.6 x 250 = 150 Test tube 6. BSA stock (cm3) = 3.5 H2O (cm3) = 1.5 3.5 + 1.5 = 5 3.5 / 5 = 0.7 0.7 x 250 = 175 Test tube 7. BSA stock (cm3) = 4.0 H2O (cm3) = 1.0 4.0 + 1.0 = 5 5.0 / 5 = 0.8 0.8 x 250 = 200 Test tube 8. BSA stock (cm3) = 5.0 H2O (cm3) = 0.0 5.0 + 0.0 = 5 5.0 / 5 = 1 1 x 250 = 250 Results 1. Molar absorption coefficient of vitamin B12: Absorbance reading at ÃŽÂ »max of 550nm (A550nm) 0.827 2. Absorption Pigment type A Value Absorption Concentration Chlorophyll a A663nm 0.934 10.71 Chlorophyll b A645nm 0.390 20.29 Protochlorophyllide A626nm 0.321 23.92 Fig. 1. a table showing the A value of three different pigment types found in a leaf extraction, and the measured absorbance and calculated concentration of each. 3. Lysozyme Concentration Determination: (a) Direct absorbance reading at ÃŽÂ »max of 280 nm (A280nm) 0.177 (b). Preparation and Use of a Standard Curve for Lowry Assay: Discussion Part A A). Using the data collected, the experimental the ÃŽÂ µ value (dm3 mol-1 cm-1) calculated during this experiment was compared to that of an ÃŽÂ µ value obtained from  commercial standard references data. ÃŽÂ »(nm) ÃŽÂ µ(dm3 mol-1 cm-1) Standard ÃŽÂ µ value 550nm 8.55 x 103 Experimental ÃŽÂ µ value 550nm 7.51 x 103 Fig. 4. a table to show a comparison between standard and experimental ÃŽÂ µ values. As the above data indicates, the experimental ÃŽÂ µ value obtained during this experiment differs from that of the standard ÃŽÂ µ value. B). Other than human and experimental errors, one possibility that could explain the differences in the ÃŽÂ µ values is that to a certain degree different spectrophotometers in the laboratory give different readings. If the standard ÃŽÂ µ value was recorded using a different spectrophotometer this could cause anomalies within the results. A second possibility is that the solution used to find the experimental ÃŽÂ µ value was not at a stock concentration of exactly 0.15 g. This would affect the calculations and hence a different result would be obtained to that of the standard ÃŽÂ µ value. Part B 1(a).The % of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and protochlorophyllide in the leaf extract can be calculated in the following way: chlorophyll a concentration = 10.71 ug cm-3 chlorophyll b concentration = 20.29 ug cm-3 protochlorophyllide concentration = 23.92 ug cm-3 10.71 + 20.29 + 23.92 = 54.92 Percentage of chlorophyll a = 10.71/54.92 x 100 = 19.5% Percentage of chlorophyll b = 20.29/54.92 x 100 = 36.9% Percentage of protochlorophyllide = 23.92/54.92 x100 = 43.6% 1(b).It can be seen from the above percentages that 43.6% of the leaf extract is composed of protochlorophyllide. This is the largest percentage present within the leaf extract and therefore it can be considered as the predominant pigment type. 2(a). The percentages obtained can also be used to calculate the ratio of chlorophyll a:b in the leaf extract. In the case of this experiment the ratio of chlorophyll a:b in the leaf extract was 2:1. 2(b). The determined value to be expected when calculating the ratio of chlorophyll a:b in the leaf extract was 3:1. One would expect this as there are three pigments in the leaf extract, that ideally should contribute evenly. However, The results from this experiment vary from the standard data as they show a ratio of 2:1 between chlorophyll a and b. The most probable reason for this variation is not due to anomalies in results or calculations, but the fact that not all leaf extracts will contain the standard amount of pigments. In some cases pigments may be present in a higher percentage of one than the other, as is this experiment where protochlorophyllide was the predominant pigment type. 3). Although the above ratio is only dealing with percentages of chlorophyll a and b present in the leaf extract, one must consider that the presence of protochlorophyllide must be allowed for in the formulae and hence in the calculations. This is because there are three pigment types involved in the leaf extract and so one must consider that the ratio of the whole leaf extract is actually 3:2:1 where the ratio of chlorophyll a:b is 2:1. 4). The use of a formula related to a given extraction solvent is a convenient method for determining the concentration of chlorophyll. However, making use of the Beer-Lambert Law the concentration of chlorophyll could also be found by preparation and use of a standard curve. Part C Determination of Protein Concentration by UV and Visible Spectrophotometry, Construction of a Standard Graph Proteins have aromatic side chains such as tryptophan tyrosine and phenylalanine which absorb light at 280nm. The Lowry method is based upon a combination of the biuret method and the oxidation of tyrosine and tryptophan residues. The biuret reaction involves the binding of Cu2+ under alkaline conditions to nitrogen found in the peptide bonds of proteins. This reaction gives off a deep blue colour. The folin reagent contains phosphomolybdotungstate acids which are reduced to tyrosine, tryptophan and polar amino acids. This creates an intense blue-green colour. (a). The data collected was used to create a graph, plotting a standard curve of A (Y axis) against BSA concentration (X axis) in à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ­g cm-3 (See fig.3). This graph, shown in fig.3., was effectively constructed assuming that the relationship between absorbance (A) and concentration (C) must be linear to satisfy the Beer-Lambert law. However, the Beer-Lambert relationship between absorption and concentration deviates from lineariy in the case of more concentrated solutions. Linear BSA standard curves are only obtained at low protein concentration and so therefore to decrease possible anomilies in the results, timing of both residue addition and mixing were crucial. Using the A value from test tube 9, it was possible to use the graph to determine the concentration of the unknown lysozyme sample in à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ­g cm-3. Results from the graph show that. (b) By examining the lysozyme concentration results obtained (in à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ­g cm-3), it is possible to make a comparison between the results for the colourimetric assay and the direct absorption technique. Results show that Lysozyme concentration for colormetric assay were (m/rmm thing) Lysozyme concentration results for direct absorbance technique were..(graph) These results are same/different. Due to the fact that different proteins have widely varying characteristics, there may be considerable errors within the data. With the colormetric assay any non-protein component of the solution that absorbs UV light could interfere with the assay, resulting in the production of colour by substances other than the analyte of interest. This would cause the results to vary from that of the direct absorbance technique. (c). For this experiment three different methods were used for concentration determination, each of which had different strengths and weaknesses with respect to their sensitivity, accuracy and convenience. The first of these methods was the use of a formula, to determine chlorophyll concentration. Using a formula gives a very accurate theoretical result but it is not particularly convenient as for calculations to be correct it can take a great deal of time and effort. Obviously with such calculations, they are not sensitive as there is no outside interference to affect results. Direct absorbance is not as sensitive as the colormetric method, but as it requires the use of a spectrophotometer, it is an accurate assay method. This also makes the method relatively convenient for determining the concentration of lysozyme present in a given solution as changes in absorbance of the lysozyme could be clearly seen and recorded using the spectrophotometer at a particular wavelength. The colourimetric method was also used to determine the concentration of lysozyme during this experiment. One benefit of using the Colormetric method is that it is extremely sensitive (down to a protein content of 20ug ml-1) and it is also moderately constant from one protein to another. However, with respect to accuracy, this method is subject to interference from a wide range of non-protein substances including many organic buffers. The choice of an appropriate standard is important as the intesnsity of colour produced for a particular protein is dependant on the number of aromatic proteins. As different proteins have a different number of aromatic residues, the Lowry assay is considered more of a qualitative measure of protein content more than quantitative method of determining protein concentraion. This method is not as convenient as the direct absorbance method in that it takes a lot longer to perform and there is a higher frequency of anomalies that must be accounted for. (d). The measurement of protein levels is of significant diagnostic importance in both clinical and veterinary medicine. In clinical medicine there are a wide variety of biomedical tests involving the measurement of protein levels, such as the detection of abnormal protein levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), suggesting that there is an abnormal process occurring in the central nervous system. Protein levels in urine samples are tested to monitor and evaluate kidney function, and essentially to detect and diagnose kidney damage and disease at and early stage. Serum protein tests are also important as they concern measurement of protein levels of albumin and globulin in the blood. Such tests are also important in veterinary medicine. According to reports from Cornell universities college of veterinary medicine, protein tests have been developed to accurately indicate canine liver failure caused by the toxin aflatoxin. (e). Another way in which protein concentration can be measured, other than by the use of a formula or a spectrophotometer is gel electrophoreses. This technique uses charged protein molecules to separate physical properties, as they are forced through a gel by an electrical current.