Psy270 Week6

Checkpoint Mind Over Matter Week 6 What is the difference between mental illness and insanity? (Hint: What is the important second prong of the McNaughten rule? )  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The McNaughten rule cannot be used to defend the actions of a person who drinks alcohol and then murders someone. Why not?  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Identify each of the following: o  Ã‚  Ã‚   Rational and guilty o  Ã‚  Ã‚   Guilty but insane o  Ã‚  Ã‚   Not guilty by reason of insanity  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If you were deciding this case, how would you rule? Briefly explain your decision.The difference between mental illness and insanity is mental illness doesn’t diminish the legal sense of a individuals capacity to know right and wrong. In terms of insanity, however it does indicate that an individual would not possess the capacity to know the differences between right and wrong. Mental defects such as diseases, retardation, or when hallucinations are experienced in some cases. The rule for McNaughten is simple knowing the difference between right and wrong and was the capacity affected to the point of not understanding a crime when committed. To use insanity in defense of a crime this rule had to be present in order to use.Mcnaughten’s rule can’t be used to defend intoxicated individuals because it is no longer used in some cases the rule was shortened and now it is knowing the difference between right and wrong. Since an individual is in a diminished state even if they know right from wrong even without mental disease individuals can use it in alcohol related incidents. Rational and guilty: When an individual is fully aware of the right and wrong of their actions this is the term used. Guilty but insane. Due to mental defect or disease and individual is not able to gain control over themselves even though they know the actions are wrong this is the term used.Guilty by reason of insanity. Such in the cases of Clark he had experienced a temporary state of impairment due to schizophrenia that resulted or impaired his capacity to determine right and wrong he thought the cop was an alien. Resulting in insanity temporarily this is the term used. My decision without all the facts and going on what I know from the reading Clark at some point knew what he was doing but at the time may have not and deserves a chance to make his way into a mental clinic for help now if he recovers and is determined sane he then should still serve out his sentence due to his knowing of his having a gun and firing it.If he can be effectively treated in prison then he should be given a half sentence due to impartial insanity. The fact the the police stated he lured the cop out and then ran was an indication of his guilt though regardless of mental illness he may have not been impaired after all. He should be sentenced to an institution where he could be effectively treated for his schizophrenia.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Essay

Dow Chemical V. US (1986) Dow Chemical company is presently efforting to reduce the CO2 emissions, increase fuel efficiency of vehicles which run with diesel engines. Dow Chemical has been successful in developing Diesel Particulate Filter   (DPF) technology that enhances the quality and efficiency of diesel engines in vehicles. Facts of the case    It was stated in the petition that Dow Chem operates on a 2,000-acre chemical plant which consists of numerous buildings with manufacturing equipment and piping conduits fixed between the various buildings.   Around the premises, there was heavy security maintained by Dow Chem, the respective petitioner. Issue – What is the case about? Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) appointed a commercial photographer to take photographs of the area from all altitudes as a part of aerial photography.   As a matter of fact, Dow Chem denied this particular activity of EPA which is why a suit was filed in Federal District Court against EPA stating that EPA violated the Fourth Amendment and exercised the powers beyond its statutes. Court decision Federal District Court stated that EPA violated Fourth Amendment by entering premises whereas Court of Appeals stated that as per Section114(a) of Clean Air Act, EPA has right to enter premises for inspection purposes [475 U.S.227,228]. Dissenting opinion Dow chem feared about the reveal of trade secrets which are supposed to be confidential and particularly photographs of aerial space, complex premises were of a great matter of concern for the Dow chemical plant whereas EPA considered only the premises of open area of the plant as a part of inspection and safety measures and not to violate any trade laws or statutory laws.    References U.S. Supreme Court DOW CHEMICAL CO. v. UNITED STATES, 476 U.S. 227 (1986) 476 U.S. 227 Accessed February 11, 2008 http://supreme.justia.com/us/476/227/case.html

Emerging Infectious Diseases Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Emerging Infectious Diseases - Research Paper Example Some emerging strains for instance avian influenza, resistant bacterial strains and respiratory tract viruses have become medically significant because of their high pathogenic nature and resistant new strains. Because of outbreaks and low preventive and medical measures, these emerging infectious diseases have a serious impact on the social, economic and agricultural impacts. Proper understanding about the disease, their clinical course, causative organisms and medical interventions are important to control and reduce their harmful effects on the mankind (Vaughan 2011). Emerging infectious diseases have become an interesting topic of research and study because of the vast medical knowledge they encompass and their conspicuous social, economic and medical impacts. A recent article in Los Angeles Times describes an astonishing aspect of urinary tract infections. The Canadian researchers have co-related the infection with ingestion of contaminated chicken. Beef and pork were less relat ed to urinary tract infections as compared to chicken which increases the risk for E.coli infection. The researchers have stated that the bacteria can enter the urinary tract from the intestine and the cause of contaminated chicken for urinary tract infections should always be considered. Hence, proper cooking and clean circumstances should be maintained while handling chicken. The chicken companies and chicken farms should be aware of this newly established yet important relation and perform strict sterilization and anti-contamination procedures to exclude any infection (Roan 2012). Zoonotic viruses also pose a serious threat to human immunity and are one of the emerging infectious diseases all over the world. A recent virus identified in a patient's blood was SFTSV virus that belonged to the Bunyaviridae family and was a phlebovirus. The virus causes a severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) and the disease manifests as fever with bleeding, gastrointestinal clinical fea tures and renal symptoms. The virus causing this infectious disease was found to be highly prevalent in China as it was positive in most of the provinces and a majority of population presented with positive results during the screening procedures. Mosquitoes and ticks are the vectors for this virus and molecular screening is suggested in the affected patients to identify this emerging zoonotic infectious disease. In China the prevalence of infectious diseases is also high because of the animals living in close relation to the human beings. Awareness about the zoonotic viruses, their vectors and the transmission is very important especially to the animal market professionals for the prevention and control of the disease. The economic factors of developing countries like Malaysia and China pose a major hindrance for the development of diagnostic techniques and molecular screening methods which are both specific and sensitive for the virus (Feldmann 2011). Outbreaks of Nipah virus in n orthern Bangladesh, affecting more than 30 people since the year 2011 has become prominent as an emerging infectious disease. With a mortality rate of 100% this disease has spread a wave of fear in the locals of northern Bangladesh. Fruit bats are the reservoirs for this virus and they spread the first Nipah virus infection through pig to

Report on Religious Field Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Report on Religious Field Research - Essay Example When I listened to Boundless Light Sangha (live meditation and Dharma message service) sitting at my home, I realized that Buddhism is much more than we think it is. I came to know many things about Buddhism that I didn’t know before and yes, definitely some misunderstandings were cleared. Buddhism is basically more of a saintly religion which focuses mainly on the personal religious development and accomplishment of profound insight into the genuine nature of life. It is a philosophy of enlightenment, meditation, morality, and wisdom (Boundless Light Sangha, 2012). The biggest conflict people have about Buddhism is whether it is a religion or not. It primarily depends on how you define religion. Some people define religion as the belief in the presence of one or more than one deities. According to this definition, Buddhism is not a religion. But, others exclude deities from the definition of religion and according to them, Buddhism is a religion. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, religion is any defined set or system of worship and belief which involves adoration of a supernatural entity. Pertaining to this definition, Buddhism would not be considered a religion. But then again, as I described earlier, there are more than 300 million practitioners of Buddhism all around the world and this wasn’t possible if all these people didn’t regard it to be a religion (In Guralnik, 1970). The second biggest misconception most of us have about Buddhism is that it is a pagan religion which means that they usually belief in gods or gods other than the usual worldwide accepted Christian God. However, Buddhists don’t usually restrict themselves to God or god(s). They are mainly focused about Dharma, which is not a belief into god or god(s). It is belief in reality or truth. Therefore, when a tragic or depressing event occur in our lives or our loved ones, Buddhists, like people of other religion won’t ask â€Å"Why did you do this to me God?!† That is

Bank Data Center (Security) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Bank Data Center (Security) - Assignment Example A bank data center should be constructed to withstand all physical threats such as terrorism, natural disasters, and corporate espionage. The bank’s data center will be located approximately 20 miles from the bank premises and about 100 feet from the transport network system such as roads.   It is only the chief information officer that is allowed to enter the room. The key security features that I will include in my design are: Appropriate location- I will locate the data center in 20 miles from the banks head officer and feet from the highway. The location should be void of power plants, earthquake fault line. There should be no indication of a data center location. Ensure redundant facilities- there should be a continuous supply electricity, data, and voice. The power lines should be underground. The power is leveraged according to the critical importance of the facility.

Business management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business management - Research Paper Example There was a tremendous surge in the penetration of internet - based connectivity in various parts of the world. Because of the rise of a internet based connectivity, it needs to be mentioned that the world has transformed into a single connected global entity. This has increasingly paved the way for easy synchronization of various trends related to globalization that are emerging from the different corners of the world. (International, 2011, p. 32) It needs to be mentioned that because of the trends of globalization, there is a tremendous amount of demand for new kinds of product and services that are emerging from various new as well as well established countries and economies around the world. As a result of this surge in demand, there is a high amount of business opportunity that is emerging in the global marketplace. Many new as well as established companies that are located in various geographical locations are increasingly focusing on the process of market expansion as well as the process of entering in the new markets to capitalize on the new business opportunities (Tsai, 2003, p. 158). In this assignment, the focus is on developing a business model for a new company while studying two companies based in the region of United Arab Emirates. For the purpose of doing that, the airline industry of UAE region has been selected. The two companies that have been selected from the aviation industry of UAE are Arab Emirates and Air Arabia. In explaining in a brief manner about the two companies, it can be stated that the airline company Emirates is the flagship carrier of the Emirates group. The airlines provide air transportation services to around 74 countries in six different continents. As of the year 2012, the airline company is credited with being the fourth largest company in the world in terms of flying international passengers as well as the amount of distance covered all around the globe. Talking about the other company, it can be stated that Air Arabia is the largest low cost carrier (LCC) in the Middle East and the North Africa region. The company connects around 82 destinations currently which includes various locations of Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Asia. The value offering of the company is comfort, reliance and great value for money kind of a service (airarabia.com, 2013). Mission Statements While discussing about the mission statements of the two companies belonging to the airline sector of the UAE region, it is very important to understand the meaning of the terms of mission and vision. The vision of a company is the long term goal of a company while the mission of a company is the short term goals of the company. To fulfill the objectives identified in the vision of a company, it is very important to fulfill the mission based goals. In discussing about values of Emirates, it can be stated that the focus is on building a strong and stable leadership team, which will play a major role in the process of designing a mbitious and calculated decisions and ground breaking ideas which will help in the creation of a great company (theemiratesgroup.com -1, 2013). The vision of the company is to be the world’s

Human Services using technology to overcome barriers Essay

Human Services using technology to overcome barriers - Essay Example Impediments may arise on the planning, funding, empowerment and in the execution of the service and these obstacles differ from a certain kind of human service to another. Obstacles may have different faces on each and every type of human service clientele but the barrier that gives the one of the most substantial effects is the adjustment to the trend in a certain demographic. Say for example, people who were born during the baby boomer period which is between 1946 and 1964 have contributed to a significant increase in the United States population during that time. And ever since the start of the baby boomer period, most companies and businesses have been using the age bracket as a trend to which product or service will benefit the big lot of the population and would also bring to them considerable profits. It goes the same way with human services, the rising number of a particular age group compels human service providers the need to expand and improve their services to be able to accommodate this demographic. If you count the years, the people born during the baby boomer period are now retired professionals or those who are already bidding for retirement. More and more people in the United States are getting older by the minute, meaning that these people are now prone to a rapid loss of cognition and physical handicap. Let’s take a look at the case of sidewalks and transit. In a recent news report, the aging boomers have been causing considerable traffic along sidewalks and local transit that were built for the younger ones. This has been a challenge for most cities in America because their communities are designed for a youth-oriented society. There have been local initiatives for some cities like New York who is now recognized by World Health Organization as a leader in promoting age-friendly communities. Other cities have also followed the footsteps of New York. Philadelphia aims to create a walk-able community which can help older adults to be hea lthier. In Portland, Oregon, there has been planning for new zoning policies to fit senior citizen’s concerns. In this situation we might be asking, how is the US going to cope up in this situation better than relying on mere local initiatives? The answer is sustaining and empowerment. This may be the second barrier identified in this particular type human service. By the year 2050, 20% of the American population will be seniors. And across the globe, roughly 2 billion people will be 60 years old or older and 400 million of them are over the age of 80. The United States should prepare for this situation and should promote an environment that would allow the older people to participate. Another barrier that human services might be facing for a long time is the financial structure of these types of organizations. The eagerness of human service organizations to improve the services they offer may not be equivalent to the actual financial resources they have. To be able to increa se their efficiency and

The Corporate Governance Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Corporate Governance - Article Example In civil-law countries, company law consists of statute law; in common-law countries, it consists partly of the ordinary rules of common law and equity and partly statute law. Two fundamental legal concepts underlie the whole of company law: the concept of legal personality and the theory of limited liability. Nearly all statutory rules are intended to protect either creditors or investors. There are various forms of legal business entities ranging from the sole trader, who alone bears the risk and responsibility of running a business, taking the profits, but as such not forming any association in law and thus not regulated by special rules of law, to the registered company with limited liability and to multinational corporations. In a partnership, members "associate," forming collectively an association in which they all participate in management and sharing profits, bearing the liability for the firm's debts and being sued jointly and severally in relation to the firm's contracts o r tortuous acts. All partners are agents for each other and as such are in a fiduciary relationship with one another. Limited-liability Companies or Corporations The company or corporation, unlike the partnership, is formed not simply by an agreement entered into between its first members; it must also be registered at a public office or courts designated by law or otherwise obtain the official acknowledgment of its existence. Under English and American law the company or corporation is incorporated by filing the company's constitution (memorandum and articles of association, articles or certificate of incorporation) signed by its first members at the Companies Registry in London or, in the United States, at the office of the state secretary of state or corporation commissioner. THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK GOVERNING BRITISH [companies overview] In Britain, the vast majority of companies are incorporated under the Companies Act 1985. The Act creates a distinction between private companies and public limited companies. Only a tiny fraction of companies incorporated in Britain are registered as public limited companies.Nevertheless, from a corporate governance perspective, they are of primary importance. A private company cannot apply to have its equity traded on a stock exchange, and debates about corporate governance in the United Kingdom have focused almost exclusively on companies that are publicly quoted. In the United Kingdom, most public companies that have their shares quoted for trading have been admitted to the Official List maintained by the Stock Exchange and are known as "listed" companies. A listed company is obliged to comply with the Listing Rules of London's Stock Exchange (commonly referred to as the "Yellow Book").The Yellow Book regulates the conduct of key transactions and imposes substantial disclosure obligations on listed companies.

Shindler's List Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Shindler's List - Essay Example Plot summary: The film’s plot revolves around the central character, Oskar Schindler. This protagonist is entirely different from conventional heroes because he is a cunning businessman. For instance, Schindler manipulates businessmen and slaves among the Jews in Europe. Besides, he was German and a member of Nazi Party. Gradually, he came to realize the fact that he is so attached to the Jewish slaves who worked for him in his factory. Thereafter, his aim was to save his workers from the Nazis. In the end, Schindler was able to save his workers and relocated them to a new site. But Schindler was aware of the fact that his identity as the member of Nazi Party will not help him to save himself from the Red Army. Besides, his workers agree with his plan to flee. Somehow, Schindler manages to escape from the Red Army and saves his life. Yosefa Loshitzky opined that, â€Å"As the first studio film to deal directly with the enormity of the Holocaust, one made by the most commercia lly successful director in the movie history, Schindler’s List attempts to provide the popular imagination with a master narrative about the Holocaust† (2). ... First of all, the director provides ample importance to the portrayal of the Polish Jews in the German concentration camps and ghettos. According to Jonathan Rosenbaum, â€Å"Likewise, SCHILDLER’S LIST assumes a desire to identify with the class in power; it can only tell us what it has to say about Schindler by turning us into Schindler-which also means turning us into a Nazi† (104). In the film, the Jewish victims of racial discrimination in Europe are relocated to a ghetto named as Krakow Ghetto. On the other side, Plaszow concentration camp is another location, where the victims are treated without mercy. To be specific, the Jews those who are not able to work are brutally murdered. In the film, Auschwitz concentration camp is another location where the Jewish victims are forced to undergo inhuman treatment from the German authorities. Gradually, the film’s plot develops into the lives of the Jewish workers under Schindler. In the initial stages, Schindler co nsidered his workers as mere slaves. Somehow, constant contact with the workers changed Schindler’s mind and he began to consider them as his extended family. This is entirely different from the atrocities faced by the other Jews during German holocaust. Tobias Goldschmidt stated that, â€Å"Spielberg’s most important argument for the production of Schindler’s List was the lack of knowledge about the Holocaust in the American society† (6). Still, Schindler’s Jews never mistrusted their master. They were aware of the fact that Schindler will not allow them to be in the hands of Gestapo. On the other side, Schindler’s relation with the members of Nazi Party was helpful for the Jewish workers. In addition, Schindler allowed his workers to

Component of Marketing Plan Essay Example for Free

Component of Marketing Plan Essay INTRODUCTION Marketing plan is the central instrument for directing and coordinating the marketing effort. The marketing plan operates at two levels: strategic and tactical. The strategic marketing plan lays out the target markets and the value proposition that will be offered, based on an analysis of the best market opportunities. The tactical marketing plan specifies the marketing tactics, including product features, promotion, merchandising, pricing, sales channels, and service. Marketing plan is a written document that summarizes what the marketer has learned about the market place and indicates how the firm plans to reach its marketing objectives. It contains tactical guidelines for the marketing programs and financial allocation over the planning period. It is one of the most important outputs of the marketing process. Marketing plans are becoming more customer and competitor oriented and better reasoned and more realistic than in the past. Marketing planning is becoming a continuous process to respond to rapidly changing market conditions. What is a Marketing Plan? A marketing plan provides direction for your marketing activities. Marketing plans need not be long or cost a lot to put together. Think of it as a road map, with detailed directions on how to get to your destination. Sure there may be a few bumps in the road, perhaps a diversion or two, but if the marketing plan is carefully researched, thoughtfully considered and evaluated, it will help the organization achieve its goals. The marketing plan details what you want to accomplish with your marketing strategy and helps you meet your objectives. The marketing plan: †¢ Allows the organization to look internally in order to fully understand the impact and results of past marketing decisions. †¢ Allows the organization to look externally in order to fully understand the market in which it chooses to compete. †¢ Sets future goals and provides direction for future marketing efforts that everyone in the organization should †¢Understand and support. †¢ Is a key component in obtaining funding to pursue new initiatives? Components of a Marketing Plan A marketing plan consists of following components: 1. Executive Summary 2. Situation Analysis 3. SWOT Analysis 4. Marketing Goals and Objectives 5. Marketing Strategies 6. Budget 7. Marketing audit 8. Evaluation and Control Executive Summary The executive summary is the first part of the marketing plan, but should be written after all other parts are completed. It is a brief overview of the entire plan and covers only the main points. It is useful to people you approach with your plan, such as investors, who may want to read a synthesized version to determine if they are interested in it before taking the time to read it in depth. The executive summary is also useful internally, as it helps to remind you and your employees of the organizations desired marketing goals and how to achieve them. Situation Analysis The situation analysis helps you to determine where your organization presently stands. It should examine whats going on outside of the organization, whats happening with consumers, and how the business is functioning internally. External Analysis What changes are taking place in your city, county, state, country and around the world that could potentially impact your business? Some things to investigate are: †¢ Changes in political positions and legislation at the local, state, and national level. †¢ Changes in technology †¢ Trends in societys values and habits †¢ Identify competitors and list their characteristics †¢ Economic conditions Customer Analysis Before developing a marketing plan its important to find out what consumers want and how they make purchase decisions. This may require some marketing research. Think about these factors: †¢ Current and potential customers †¢ Trends in consumer buying habits †¢ Why do consumers purchase this product or service? †¢ Why do others not purchase this product or service? Internal Analysis Knowing the state of the organization and its resources helps to determine where it is strong and what areas need attention. Include the following in the marketing plan: †¢ Current state of financial and human resources †¢ Anticipated state of financial and human resources †¢ Your businesss performance in relation to competitors The 5 Cs of Marketing can be summarized as: Company The product time line, experience in the market, etc. Collaborators (or Partners) Distributors, suppliers, and alliances. These are any companies that you work with on a day to day basis to help your company run. Customers This is your market. Ask yourself what benefits they are looking for. What motivates them in the purchase process? Where the customer does actually purchases your product? How the product is purchased (impulse buys, internet, etc)? Understand the quantity a customer will purchase and even trends in consumer tastes. Competitors Both your actual and potential competitors and those that directly or indirectly compete with you. Understand their products, positioning, market shares, strengths and weaknesses. Climate (or Environment) These are governmental policies and regulations that affect the market. It is also the economic environment around your company; which is the business cycle, inflation rate, interest rates, and other macroeconomic issues. Societys trends and fashions are found in the climate. The technological environment is creating new ways of satisfying needs (i.e. using technology to enhance the demand for existing products). SWOT Analysis Conducting a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis is essential in assessing the companys position and serves as a guide to developing marketing plans. Benefits of a SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis provides a fairly simple, low-cost way of assessing the company’s position. It presents information that is important in developing business and marketing plans, as well as setting organizational goals and objectives. It tells you where the company currently sits, and where it needs to go in the future. [pic] When conducting your SWOT analysis, you should: †¢ Examine your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats from a customers’ perspective. If you’re having trouble viewing issues that way, ask customers what they think or conduct surveys. †¢ Separate internal issues from external issues. The company’s strengths and weaknesses are internal; opportunities and threats are external. The key test to differentiate the two environments is to ask, â€Å"Would this issue exist if the firm did not exist?† If the answer is yes, the issue should be classified as external. Some things to consider about your company when determining your strengths and weaknesses are: †¢ Size and financial resources †¢ Scale and cost economies †¢ Customer Perceptions You will probably have to do some research on your competitors, your industry, and the environment in order to complete the opportunities and threats portion of your SWOT analysis. Here are some topics to consider: †¢ Trends in the competitive environment †¢ Trends in the technological environment †¢ Trends in the sociocultural environment Once you’ve finished a SWOT analysis for your company, include the resulting strategy in your business and marketing plans. Some key actions to take include: Transform strengths into capabilities by matching them with opportunities in the environment. Example Strength: The company has a very efficient order fulfillment and distribution process Opportunity: There is an unfulfilled need for the companys product in other countries Capability: The company is capable of distributing its products worldwide †¢ Convert weaknesses into strengths by investing strategically in key areas. Example Weakness: Employees are not familiar with the latest technology in the companys industry Investment: The employer sends employees to classes, workshops, and conferences Strength: Employees now have inside information on cutting edge technology relevant to the industry †¢ Weaknesses that cannot be converted into strengths become limitations. Example Weakness: A start-up company that has a tight distribution budget and no connections in the industry may have difficulty getting shelf space in stores Meaning to consumers: Consumers may not be able to find the companys products Minimization: Allow consumers to purchase products through other channels, such as a web site or mail order catalog. Marketing Goals and Objectives After determining your companys strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, youll have a better idea of what marketing goals and objectives should be set. Goals are the overall accomplishments that youd like to make and objectives are benchmarks to meeting those goals. You might say that goals are more qualitative and objectives are more quantitative. For example: Marketing Goal: Increase awareness of Product X Corresponding Objectives: Increase last years direct mail distribution by 20% this year; develop a web site for Product X by June 1st; participate in five trade shows by the end of the year. Goals must be realistic and consistent with the firms mission. Objectives must be measurable and time-specific. You may also want to include the person responsible and the budget required for each objective. Marketing Strategies In this section, youll define your primary, secondary, and tertiary target markets and their purchasing characteristics. Next, discuss the marketing mix elements (product, price, distribution, and promotion) as they relate to your product or service. Some questions you may want to answer for each target market include: Product †¢ What are the features and benefits of your product? †¢ What is your competitive advantage? †¢ How will you position and differentiate your product? †¢ What complementary products are available? †¢ What customer services are available? Price †¢ What are the costs associated with the product or service? †¢ What will your pricing strategy be? †¢ Will you give discounts? Distribution †¢ Who are your suppliers and intermediaries? †¢ How will you make the product or service conveniently available to consumers? †¢ What partnerships can be developed to distribute the product? Promotion †¢ Where will you advertise? †¢ What public relations activities will be involved? †¢ If you will be involved in personal selling, what is your sales strategy? †¢ What types of promotions will you run? †¢ What sponsorship opportunities are available? Setting the Promotion Mix When deciding how to properly utilize the marketing communications mix to meet your marketing objectives, it is important to consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of each component of the mix. Further, you must always define your total budget first (generally defined in the Marketing and/or Business Plan) and then decide upon the best way to leverage the different elements of the mix to maximize the return on your investment. You will balance the various parts of the mix to not only create an integrated approach to your marketing communications but you must also devote enough resources for each component to be successful. Here are some things to keep in mind: [pic]Reaches large, geographically dispersed audiences, often with high frequency; Low cost per exposure, though overall costs are high; Consumers perceive advertised goods as more legitimate; Dramatizes company/brand; Builds brand image; may stimulate short-term sales; Impersonal, one-way communication; Expensive [pic]Most effective tool for building buyers’ preferences, convictions, and actions; Personal interaction allows for feedback and adjustments; Relationship-oriented; Buyers are more attentive; Sales force represents a long-term commitment; Most expensive of the promotional tools [pic]May be targeted at the trade or ultimate consumer; Makes use of a variety of formats: premiums, coupons, contests, etc.; Attracts attention, offers strong purchase incentives, dramatizes offers, boosts sagging sales; Stimulates quick response; Short-lived; Not effective at building long-term brand preferences [pic]Highly credible; Very believable; Many forms: news stories, news features, events and sponsorships, etc.; Reaches many prospects missed via other forms of promotion; Dramatizes company or product; Often the most under used element in the promotional mix; Relatively inexpensive (certainly not free as many people thinkthere are costs involved) [pic]Many forms: Telephone marketing, direct mail, online marketing, etc.; Four distinctive characteristics: Nonpublic, Immediate, Customized, Interactive; Well-suited to highly-targeted marketing efforts Budget: †¢ The goal of your marketing budget is to control your expenses and project your revenues. †¢ It also assists in the coordination of your marketing activities within your organization. †¢ A realistic budget establishes a standard of performance for your actions, and communicates those standards to others responsible for implementing your marketing strategy. †¢ A well-designed budget is also a tool to keep you on target and indicate when there is needed modification of your marketing plan, especially if something goes really right or very wrong. Budgeting Approaches Where do you get budget numbers? How do you set a budget and organize it? What are some standard ways to measure your budget? There are several approaches you can take to create your budget. Examples of these approaches may include basing your budget on: †¢ Percent of projected gross sales. †¢ Percent of past gross sales. †¢ Per unit sales. †¢ Seasonal allocation. †¢ Projected cash flow. Select a budget methodology that will work best for your business. You may want to make this choice based on how you track your sales and revenues, or based on industry standards. Marketing Audit The Marketing Audit is committed to improving strategic decision making when companies are faced with specific business challenges. Our market research studies provide clarity and insight, often on the most important questions faced by top executives, corporate managers, and strategy professionals. Here are 10 of 25 key dimensions a marketing audit should assess: 1. Key factors that impacted the business for good or for bad during the past year. Including an evaluation of marketing surprises—the unanticipated competitive actions or changes in the marketing climate that affected the performance of the marketing programs. 2. The extent to which each decision in the marketing plan—e.g. targeting, positioning, pricing, advertising, etc.—was made after evaluating many alternatives in terms of profit-related criteria. 3. Marketing knowledge, attitudes, and satisfaction of all executives involved in the marketing function. 4. The extent to which the marketing program was marketed internally and bought into by top management and non-marketing executives. 5. Customer, distributor, vendor, and intermediary satisfaction based on research among key target groups. 6. The performance of advertising, promotion, sales force, and marketing research programs in terms of ROI. 7. The performance of non-traditional programs, particularly digital offerings, in terms of ROI. 8. Whether the marketing plan achieved its stated financial and non-financial goals and objectives. 9. Which aspects of the plan that failed to meet objectives with specific recommendations for improving next years performance. 10. The current value of brand and customer equity for each brand in the product portfolio. Evaluation and Control Many business owners forget the importance of evaluating their marketing plan. This is extremely important, because it serves as a guideline for what to do or not to do in the next marketing planning period. It is also ensures that the plan will be implemented properly. Some questions to be answered include: How will employees be evaluated and compensated for their work? †¢ How can communication between employees be improved? †¢ Do the employees share the firms values? †¢ Is management committed to the implementation of the marketing plan? †¢ What can be done if the product or service does not meet performance standards? †¢ What corrections can be made if the pricing, distribution, and promotion strategies do not accomplish the marketing goals and objectives? †¢ How will marketing activities be evaluated?

Applications of Semiconductor lasers

Applications of Semiconductor lasers Abstract- Semiconductor lasers have the potential to meet the demands of next generation high speed optical network applications and also have great impact on various other technology domains. Its low cost, easy wavelength tune ability, low power consumption and pure output make it ideal for optical communication applications. This paper is a review of the merits, demerits, current applications, commercial availability and future directions of semiconductor lasers in optical communication. Comparative analysis of these semiconductor lasers with respect to various parameters also been conducted. Keywords: Semiconductor lasers, Fabry-Perot laser, Distributed feedback (DFB) laser, External Cavity Diode Lasers (ECDL), Multi Quantum Well (MQW) laser, Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSEL) i.Introduction The semiconductor lasers were discovered in 1962 by Robert Hall and his team members [1, 2]. With the advent of this technology patents and articles started to publish on this technology but at that time this technology was not mature enough to realize the dreams of the scientists, engineers and physicist. But with advancement in the field and the enabling technologies soon made it possible to produce inexpensive commercially available semiconductor laser. The invention of semiconductor lasers not only revolutionizes the optical communication but it has many applications in other domains also. Semiconductor lasers are one of the popular optical communication light source for data transmission. They are supposed to be the laser of the future, because of their compactness in size, easy integration, more output power, optical pumps for solid-state lasers (primary light source i.e laser diode pumps another solid state lasers) and their rapid improvement. Semiconductor lasers are essentially diodes which produces coherent light through the process of stimulated emission. They uses semiconductor as a gain medium. The gain medium is pumped by an external source, which is electrical in nature in case of semiconductor lasers [3]. As they are basically p-n junctions, so they are compact and can be fabricated on large scale by the use of advance semiconductor IC technology. Semiconductor lasers are very efficient in converting electrical power into optical power [10]. In section.II basic types of semiconductor lasers are described in terms of their basic working procedure, advantages, disadvantages, commercial availability future directions and applications. Section.III produces the comparison of semiconductor lasers with respect to various parameters and section.IV contains the conclusion. II. Types of semiconductor lasers Following are the basic types of semiconductor lasers Fabry Perot (FP) Lasers Distributed Feedback (DFB) lasers Multi Quantum Well (MQW) laser External Cavity Diode Lasers (ECDL) Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSEL) A. Fabry-Perot (FP) lasers In FP lasers, mirrors create the right condition for the lasing to occur. Resonate cavity is formed when two mirrors are put in front of each other. The bouncing of light will take place between these two mirrors, the distance between these two mirrors are adjusted in such a way that this distance is the integral multiple of half wavelength, only is such scenario light will reinforce itself. Wavelengths that are not resonant they undergo destructive interference and deflect. One of the two mirrors is fully reflective and the second mirror allows very small amount of light to pass through [4]. Figure.1.a: Fabry Perot Laser conceptual structure, Ref: [4] Figure.1.b: Fabry Perot Laser structure, Ref: www.scholar.lib.vt.edu A.1. Advantages FP laser gives comb of (Amplified Spontaneous Emission) ASE peak uniform in frequency [5]. FP laser can be used for transmission of data with multimode optical fiber [6]. FP laser also have uniform intensity over Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) [5]. Perfect for optical links where long term power and wavelength stability is required. A.2. Disadvantages High dispersion in high speed and long transmission system because the spectral width can span as much as 5 nm [6]. At 2.5Gbps and higher the wavelength center of FP laser goes out of wavelength tolerance. Not suitable for long distances. With the improvement in VCSELs technology, applications of 1310 nm and 1550 nm applications are moving from FP laser to VCSEL. A.3. Future directions and Applications Increase in bandwidth up to 15 GHz (the running value) by reducing low frequency roll off parasitic effects of bias circuits by injection locking [7]. FP lasers can generate single longitudinal mode laser [8]. FP lasers external optical modulator for optical access network [9]. Spectral width of FP laser allows transmission to distances of 40 Km at 1.7 Gbps.[5] FP offers Corse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) with channels at 1.3ÃŽÂ ¼m and 1.5ÃŽÂ ¼m simultaneously on a single fiber [5]. FP lasers offer benefits in LAN that use one wavelength per fiber [6]. FP laser can be used as multi wavelength source of Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) for spectrum sliced [5]. The 1550 nm FP laser can support Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) [6]. A.4. Commercial availability of FP lasers Multiple Application Platform (MAP) FP laser [9] is FP laser source with key features like single mode or multi mode output, internal modulation, LAN extensions for instrumentation (LXI) compliant etc. This device has weight of almost of half kilo gram is capable of operating on different optical fibers such as Flexcorà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ and SMF-28 [10] with operational temperature range of 10à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ °C to 40à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ °C. This product is commercially available. B. Distributed feedback (DFB) lasers In FP laser there is feedback of light from the mirrors, this light feedback can be provided in distributed manner by series of closely spaced mirrors/reflectors (means there is a periodic variation in the width of the cavity). There is a corrugated section in the cavity; the incident light passes through section causes series of reflections. If the corrugation period is the integral multiple of half wavelength (Bragg condition) the resulting transmitted wave will add in phase. This mechanism suppresses other longitudinal modes and allow only single longitudinal mode whose wavelength is equal to twice the corrugation period. [11] Figure.2. DFB laser structure [4] B.1. Advantages DFB lasers provides better wavelength stability than cleaved end face laser [12] The line width of DFB is less than that of reflective end face lasers [12]. Low chirp [13] Better wavelength selectivity. DFB laser is used in high performance system because of its narrow spectral output width [6]. B.2. Disadvantages The amplitude of the standing wave is fixed because of gratings Emitted wavelength near threshold current cant be controlled [14] Wavelength chirp is associated with the spatial burning of the carrier holes. Some values of rare facet phase give unacceptable performance. B.3.Future directions and applications of Distributed feedback (DFB) lasers All optical flip-flop is one of the building block for fast optical packet switching as it temporary stores the header information while the payload is routed to the correct output port. Single distributed feedback (DFB) laser diode based, all optical flip flop can be used to serve this purpose. Experimental results shows that DFB lasers can provide optical memory in an economical way and at the same time shows fast switching of optical packets (as low as 45 ps can be achieved). Using DFB lasers as an all optical flip flop 40 Gbps can be switched. [15] Used in DWDM system where tune ability of signals are required. Used in the sensing of extreme narrow line width of the signal. B.4. Commercial availability of Distributed Feedback laser The production of Quantum dot pure Green laser [16] is possible by using DFB laser technology. DFB laser gives high reliability for optical communication to form quantum dot crystal with a wavelength of 1064nm [16]. There is significant amount of reduction in power consumption for converting 1064nm quantum dot laser from electricity to light by the use of DFB laser. C. Multi Quantum well (MQW) lasers In Quantum well lasers the active region is very narrow which causes quantum confinement to occur. The wavelength which emits is dependent on the width of the active region rather than the band gap. This feature gives shorter wavelength than conventional lasers [17]. Figure.3. Cavity structure of MQW laser [4] C.1. Advantages Enhanced gain due to quantum well structure and gain co-efficient is usually 3 times or more than single layer FP laser [13] Produce shorter oscillation wavelength Smaller linewidth enhancement factor (ÃŽÂ ±), at larger linewidth enhancement factor the laser instability is enhanced [13]. Small optical losses Better confinement of laser actions because of multiple active regions. Low threshold current High modulation speed Low temperature dependency C.2. Disadvantages The internal structure of MQW laser is designed such that it is more susceptible to back reflections. C.3. Future directions and Applications Modulating retro reflector combines optical retro reflector and optical modulator (MQW lasers). Strained quantum well technology can become the core technology for high performance semiconductor device by expanding the flexibility of band engineering [18]. Optical repeaters, as it gives saturated output power to about 3dBm. C.4.Commercial availability of MQW lasers SANYO GaAlAs index guided laser diodes with MQW structure, these are infrared powerful lasers source [19] of maximum power up to 200mW and wavelength range of 782nm to 830nm is commercially available. SONY GaAlAs index guided laser diodes with MQW structure; these are infrared powerful lasers source [19] gives optical power range from 90mW up to 60W. This huge optical output power gives high brightness. D. External Cavity Diode Lasers (ECDL) ECDL can also be used to achieve the single longitudinal mode wavelength. ECDL is a semiconductor based laser with one end of the laser diode has anti reflective coating and laser resonator is completed with collimating mirror and external mirror. As they are tunable lasers so for wavelength selection they use diffraction gratings. End mirror contains collimating lens and diffraction grating. The anti reflective coated end of the diode gets feedback from the diffracted beam. Tuning of the emitted wavelength is done through the rotation of the diffracting grating. There is some more variation for this setup. [11, 20] Figure.4. EDCL setup Ref: www.clu-in.org D.1.Advantages Side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) is better than -40 dB and has narrow intrinsic line width Pulse repetition rate can easily be selected [21] Filter can be inserted for the fixing of emission wavelength in mode locked diode laser [21] etc. D.2. Disadvantages The direction of output beam changes by rotating the diffraction grating which not suitable for many optical communication applications. In fixed direction of the output beam, the zero order reflection of the beam bounced by the mirror is lost. D.3.Future directions and applications Tunable continuous wave THz radiation can be generated by the use of dual mode ECDL from 250 MHz to several THz [22] Without mode hopping wavelength tuning over 40 nm around 1550 nm is expected by new configuration of EDCL with all dielectric thin film Fabry Perot filters. [23] Atomic clock: ECDL is used in the optical system of the atomic clock; it is used for the cooling and the detection of clock transition. [24] Mode locked ECDL are mostly used in optical communication (DWDM) for data transmission. [21] Testing and measurement in optical fiber communication Non-linear frequency conversion. D.4. Commercial availability of ECDL TEC-100 and TEC-120 [25] External cavity diode Littrow laser system gives optical output power up to 200mW and running range (mod-hop free) up to 30GHz. DLX-100 [26] External cavity tunable diode gives output power up to 1W and mod-hop free tuning up to 15GHz. E. Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSEL) VCSEL achieves single longitudinal mode operation in different manner. The active region is placed between two highly reflective surfaces/mirrors. These two reflective surfaces have alternated high and low refractive index. The reflectivity of the surfaces is between 99.5-99.9% that is why light oscillates perpendicularly through the layers and emits from the top or the bottom of the device. [27] E.1. Advantages It has high wavelength stability It is less sensitive to temperature (can operate reliably up to 80 à ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ °C) Less refrigeration is required for VCSEL as it operation do not emit much heat. It provides high powered per unit area ( up to 1200W/cm2) It emits circular beam as a transmitter which leads to small optical loss. Figure.5. VCSEL structure [4] E.2. Disadvantages Because of high mirror reflectivity in the VCSEL internal structure lowers the optical output power. They emit low output power (in mW) because of their small active medium volume. InP based VCSEL suffers from having low conduction band offset, low conduction band offset means low confinements of electron which results improper temperature stability of active material gain. To produce longer wavelength in VCSEL, mechanism of double fusion is used. This mechanism increases the cost as it is complicated procedure [28]. E.2. Future directions and applications of Vertical External Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VECSEL) [20, 32] There is an issue of optical power supply for Si-photonics transceiver which are being developed for high density optical interconnect on parallel processors can ideally solved by VECSEL as the emits in 1330 nm and 1550 nm. [29] High speed modulation up to 25 Gb/sec can be achieved by using VCSEL at low current of 7.4 KA/cm2. [30] Fast modulation frequency (in GHz) made its use in optical fiber communication as transmitter Ideal for local and metro area networks as they produce low output power. Threshold less laser [31] etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ E.3. Commercial availability of (VCSEL) VCSEL technology has flourished and gives wide range of products with ultra low noise, narrow line width, high optical output power (up to 1kW) and high speed modulation (speed >5GHz) [27]. For high optical output power up to 1KW, a module for cooling of this system is used and fiber is pigtailed for high brightness VCSEL array. VCSELs are commercially available in blue, green and UV lasers [27]. iii. Comparison of semiconductor lasers In this section DFB, ECDL, MQW and VCSEL are compared with respect to different parameters and their suitability as optical transmitter in different optical networks. Parameters Tuning agent Output power ( in dBm) Tuning speed Modulation speed Lasers DFB Temperature 13 Slow (m-sec) Fast (multi-GHz) MQW Quantum confined stark effect ~7 Fast( Fast(multi-GHz) VCSEL MEMs Optically pumped 6 Electrically pumped -3 Fast(ÃŽÂ ¼-sec) Fast ( few GHz) ECDL Peizo transducer ~13 Slow(m-sec) Slow ( Table.1: Comparison of semiconductor lasers Table.1 shows relative analysis of semiconductor lasers. Each semiconductor laser has got competitive advantage with respect to different parameter. Table.2 gives a comprehensive view of the semiconductor lasers and their application in a specific network type as an optical transmitter. Semiconductor Laser Network type FP laser Short to medium range (Local Metro) Networks DFB Laser Long haul network MWQ Laser Short to medium range (Local Metro) Networks ECDL Long haul network VCSEL Short to medium range (Local Metro) Networks Table.2: Semiconductor lasers with their network type support Lasers Max spectral output width FP 5 nm VCSEL 0.5 nm DFB 0.1 nm Table.3: Spectral width comparison of short range lasers Spectral output width measure the range of the wavelengths produce by a laser. From table.3 it is evident that DFB laser has the narrowest spectral output width, which makes DFB laser the best choice for high performance short range optical transmission systems. iv. Conclusion This paper gives a review on the semiconductor lasers, their working, applications, commercial availability and future directions. Relative analysis of these lasers shows that they have competitive advantage in one or other laser parameters and this analysis also shows that which semiconductor laser is appropriate to which type of optical network. Semiconductor lasers have wide applications in optical fiber communication. Lots of exciting research is going on in this field and there is still room of improvements.

The Horrors of Colonialism and Imperialism in Conrads Heart of Darknes

     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   From the onset of the novella Heart of Darkness, the narrator Marlow compares his subsequent tale of colonialism with that of the Roman colonization of Northern Europe and the fascination associated with such an endeavor. However, throughout his narration, Marlow challenges this viewpoint by painting a heinous picture of the horrors of colonialist ventures. In the opening of his tale, Conrad, through Marlow, establishes his thoughts on colonialism. He says that conquerors only use brute force, "nothing to boast of" because it arises, by accident, from another's weakness. Marlow sees colonization as; "Robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind - as it is very proper for those who tackle darkness." Furthermore, he sees such conquests as taking land and materials away from those people who "have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses." This epitomizes the futility in such an undertaking. Moreover as he understands it, colonization is only successful if there lies within it a "devotion to efficiency" and a creation of civilization, not exploitation (Conrad, 4). In his novella, through the eyes of his narrator Marlow, Conrad offers a frank critique of European imperial colonialism through the numerous oppositions of black and white and dark and light.   Through the individual characterization, Conrad creates the division between dark and light ... ...of Anthropology, Lawrence Univ.).  Ã‚   "Africa and Africans in Conrad's Heart of Darkness."  Ã‚   A Lawrence University Freshman Studies Lecture, 24 Jan. 1996.   Rpt. James Banks, Willamette Univ.; & Free Speech Television: http://www.freespeech.org/james/conrad/heart.htm (Accessed: Apr. 2002) Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness, New York: Dover, 1990. Dintenfass, Mark. "Heart of Darkness: A Lawrence University Freshman Studies Lecture." 14 Mar. 1996. *http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~csicseri/dintenfass.htm* (2  Ã‚  April 2002). Hayes, Dorsha. "Heart of Darkness: An Aspect of the Shadow," Spring (1956): 43-47.. McLynn, Frank. Hearts of Darkness: The European Exploration of Africa. New York: Carol & Gey, 1992.

A Look at Two Computer Hardware Review Websites :: Compare Contrast Papers

A Look at Two Computer Hardware Review Websites Although it is true that many people, when confronted with the task of buying a new computer, will simply go to the closest Best Buy and purchase whatever is on the shelf, an increasing number of people these days are turning to building their own computers. Whether they are interested in saving money, or just like the idea of being in control of what goes into their computer, they need to know which parts are the best for their needs, which parts are the best value. Getting this information from an impartial place can be challenging, but thankfully there are a few websites around today that have a reputation for giving honest reviews and going the extra mile to find the best hardware for your money. I am reviewing two of these sites today, Tom's Hardware Guide, and AnandTech. The first site I am reviewing is Tom's Hardware Guide. Tom's Hardware Guide(THG) is well known and is viewed as one of the most respected places to get information about computer hardware. It might not be immediately evident why anyone should believe that this website should have a lot of credibility, though. According to the "About Us" page, it was originally started in 1996 by Dr. Thomas Pabst, a doctor in Germany. Despite the fact that Tom was not a professional in a computer field, THG has grown to become one of the most popular and trusted places to get independent hardware reviews and has earned the credibility that it now has. I was not very impressed by the layout of the website. It looked like they were trying to put too much information onto the main page, and it was just too cluttered. The front page was full of news stories from the past few days that visitors to a computer hardware review site might find relevant, and links to some of their recent reviews even farther down on the main page. Along the sides there are a large number of computer related ads. I found it rather hard to find my way around the website.

Education Should No Longer Be Imparting of Knowledge Essay

â€Å"We must turn to the child as the key to the fate of our future life† (http://www. montessorisynergies. com/synergies/transformation/wisdom-of-montessori) [Accessed 5th May, 2013] The above quotation shall be explored & revealed in the further contents of this essay. To begin with, let us first start with a brief current scenario of education in our society. Current scenario of education â€Å"The school must mean something else than a place of instruction, where the one teaches the many, with pain on both sides, an effort carrying with it little success†. The schools today exist to transmit knowledge though teachers and the role of the students is to absorb this knowledge and get awarded as per their marks. The education today that we have in our society is primarily interested in defining the curriculum and establishing high standards. The focus on the needs of the individual learner is hardly seen. The issues such as how the children actually want to learn, how they need to be taught, what are they actually interested in learning about are considered irrelevant. Need of our society The need of our world today is a society that has peace, patience, tolerance, happiness, health, nonviolence, betterment of the mankind, safety, non-corruption, no poverty, and no racial discrimination. It needs a man who is active, attentive, confident, curious, expressive, helpful, honest, innovative, judgmental, observant, organized orientated, patient & socially active. Who is a human being? A human being is a unified personality who comes into being from a child through the years of infancy, toddlerhood, preschool & adolescence. Ultimately, child is the one who produces the man. The child before birth nside the mother’s womb grows only physically. After a child is born he starts developing mentally & completes his psychic growth outside the womb. When the birth of the child takes place; he has some hidden qualities in him which cannot be seen. As he continues to grow, he slowly starts revealing himself & starts showing these potentials/abilities. In order to have a society with attributes as mentioned earlier & which in turn needs a man with the required qualities, it is very important to focus ourselves on the development of the child to help him release his potentials since he is the maker of the man. Hence, there is an urgent need to focus on a new system of education based on the idea of freedom for the child within a carefully planned & structured environment. It is important to recognize the crucial importance of a child’s first years of development. It is during this time that a child’s power of absorption is the highest & permanent attitudes of learning are formed & which establish the person he will be in future. Dr. Maria Montessori, the great pioneering influential realized this need and developed the Montessori Education. As proposed by Dr Maria Montessori, it shall be now briefly discussed all the phases to be looked into to create this new system of education & how the focus on the right aids during each of these phases, help the child’s future development. The Absorbent Mind The child has a creative intelligence that exists in his unconscious mental stage. During the unconscious stage (0 to 3 years), he absorbs whatever is available in his environment. He learns to speak, to walk and gain control of his hands. Hence it is very much necessary to provide a carefully planned environment to the child since he will see and learn whatever is there in his environment. For e. g if we have an aggressive environment around him at home i. e. there is no calmness & peace, the child tends to develop as an aggressive personality since he absorbs that trait from his environment. After 3 years, the child enters into the period of conscious absorption. He starts applying now the functions that were created in the unconscious stage and has developed a will & memory. This helps him in developing his reasoning & concentration skills. He uses his hands & starts working and by means of work his ability develops to choose actions independently. He wants to do everything by himself. He starts developing an urge to become social & starts involving with peers as well which make him a good social being in the long run. Sensitive periods The child passes through a special time in which he is interested in one unique characteristic of his environment known as sensitive periods. He can easily develop this interest into ability if he is given the right environment & freedom. These periods are critical to a child’s self-development & interrupting a child while he is in the middle of a sensitive period can result in a powerful emotional response. He passes through the sensitive periods of order, movement, language, senses, small objects & social aspects. As we see further below, we realize that the right environment & freedom given to the child during each of these periods provide a strong base to lay the foundation of a well-developed human being. The child seeks order so he can adapt himself to his environment. For e. g. If a child who comes home from school, has a habit of seeing all the things at place & has his belongings are accessible to him & and one day the settings at home are changed completely, nothing is at the same place as earlier, the child starts showing a dislike. This disorder can be an obstacle to his development. The order helps him to orientate himself. He becomes organized & systematic which is a crucial requisite for his development. Another sensitive period that the child goes through is the sensitivity to five senses. The child is developing his senses & his attention is therefore directed towards the observation of the objects in his environment. In order to help him this development, Sensorial subject was introduced in the Montessori education to enable him to explore different attributes of the environment. By using all his basic five senses, the child is able to explore the qualities of the objects in his environment, with separate materials. For e. g. a child using his tactile(touch) & visual sense is able to explore the different dimensions of an object i. e. height, diameter etc. The usage of these materials develops in child the qualities of attention, experiment, observation, exploration, judgement & comparison. The sensitive period of movement is also very important for the child development. The child has started learning to crawl, walk, jump, climb, swing around & carry things and wants to perfect his movement. Hence it is important to provide the right environment & give freedom to develop his fine & gross motor skills for his life. He should be not stopped or provided help when he is able to do the activity himself. Foe e. g. if he is able to walk himself up till a point, we should not stop & pick him up just because we are not able to reach quickly to our destination. This makes the child frustrated & breaks his concentration. He does not gain the self-control & self-independence. The other sensitive period is to small objects. The child keeps observing all the small details around him. He focuses on the army of ants in the playground, the leaves, the flowers, everything around him which makes him to focus. He also wants to know the reason for all these activities which make him curious & intuitive. It is very important to answer his questions since discouraging his curiosity makes him less observant & lazy which will be followed till he becomes an adult. Sensitivity to language is another very important aspect. During this time the child is sensitive to the words around him & absorbs them. He takes in sounds, words to acquire language which is a pre requisite for the child to form into a man. The Montessori environment provides a rich vocabulary & right pronunciation to the child which helps him in refining his language. This makes him a good speaker, writer, reader & confident which develops his self-esteem. The Environment â€Å"Especially at the beginning of life must we, therefore, make the environment as interesting & attractive as we can† (The Absorbent Mind, Chapter 9, Page 103) Environment refers to the surroundings in which the child is growing. The environment needs to be very rich & it should provide all the things required for the child to develop since he has an absorbent mind & the sensitive periods. The Montessori environment includes the children, the teacher & the materials and offers the important elements for the optimal development of the child. Here is a brief discussion on these –  ·Beauty, order, reality & simplicity –The environment follows the concept of reality. The materials are real since the child has to ultimately face them in the real world later. Children are given freedom to work & speak with other children. This helps them to socialize. They are taught to respect the other children (should not disturb the other children), respect the material (should not destroy the material) and respect the the environment (should not hurt others and treat children/teachers with grace & courtesy).  ·The mixed age group children in a Montessori school encourage the social development & moral values of the children. The little ones learn from the older ones & the older ones learn by teaching the younger. I would like to state an example here from the observation I did for the child development. A younger child aged 2 1/2 years fell down from the swing in the play area. An older boy almost 4 years old quickly came to pick him up & consoled him not to cry. The mixed age group also removes competition. The Teacher The teacher is a growing person, always ready to learn new things & increase her self-knowledge. She should be mentally active & physically passive which means that she should have the capacity to observe that the child is in which state of development. The objects, not the teaching given by the mistress, form the principal agent, and it is the child who uses them, who is the active being, not the teacher† (The Discovery of the Child, Chapter 11, Page 179) Maria Montessori believed that the teacher’s duty is to let the child choose an activity himself by using the materials according to his own needs and interest. In this way, the materials become his object of development. She should not force the child to do a particular activity rather just act as a source of guidance & provide him the freedom to perform. Further to the above, a teacher must possess the following attributes in her – Respect for the child, should be able to channelize the potentials of the child in the right direction, clear all the obstacles in his development, social qualities such as friendly, understanding and tolerant. An addition, are the Laws of Development that are used by the child for revealing himself. These are described briefly as below – Law of work – Children start gaining all the qualities of patience, discipline & attention through the work with the materials. It is the magic of the work through the materials that enables them to use their energies in constructive development. Children keep on repeating the task till they achieve perfection. For e. g we can observe at home that if we give a small child a task of dusting a table, he will keep on doing it till he masters himself in cleaning the smallest particle of dust. Hence it is the work through the repetition & practice that he gains perfection. Law of independence – To be independent, a child should be allowed to work himself if he is able to, without the immediate help of others. The more he works himself, the more independent & self-confident he becomes. The independence can be given in the ways of – giving the opportunity to work with the materials (activities such as tie laces, button/unbutton, zip/unzip ), should be allowed to do things on his own for his personal care & hygiene like dressing, bathing, brushing hair & teeth and should be allowed to take decisions for himself for instance, for a club activity, we should let the child choose an activity as per his own interest rather than force him to choose something just for our own content. This will suppress the interest & affect the decision making ability of the child in the long run. Development of intelligence – Intelligence means application of knowledge. It is an ability to differentiate & make judgment. The sensorial materials are such that they help the child to focus on one quality. For e. g. the cubes in the pink tower are all of the same colors & concentrate only on the size. The focus of the child’s mind on one attribute leads him to make a comparison of the objects, thus helping him in developing his comparison & judgmental skills. Development of imagination & creativity –Imagination & creativity are inborn powers in the child that develop as he interacts with the environment. Imagination is based on something that we have experienced in the past. The cultural activities in a Montessori environment such as construction, technology, science, math, language, art & craft, music & imaginative play help to foster imaginative skills thus helping him in his future development. Development of emotional & spiritual life – A child needs a warm & loving environment to meet his emotional & spiritual needs. Through the daily life practical exercises in the Montessori environment, they are taught to be courteous & considerate. They learn how to share since there is only one single material for each activity & also develop patience since they need to wait for their turn once a child already working with the material finishes his activity. It was also observed that while working with the materials they undergo a stage where their physical & mental developments are both harmonized known as normalization. The prepared Montessori environment facilitates the process of normalization by offering materials. The normalised children have love of order, love of work, concentration, attachment to reality & nature, love of silence, obedience and self-discipline Dr. Maria Montessori was also able to identify the important tendencies (behavioral patterns) that compel the human beings to construct & refine themselves. These patterns are the ones that children isplay naturally and should be considered when preparing the environment – Exploration, order, communication, work, concentration, repetition, perfection, self-control, creativity & independence Children raised in environments prepared according to the basic human tendencies as above, tend to be secure, healthy, and happy children. The Parent â€Å"Parents have a very important mission. They are the only ones who can save their children by uniting & working together for the improvement of society† (The Secret of Childhood, Chapter 30, Page 215) Parenting is the most pleasurable & the most challenging job. Parents must protect their child & have a deep concern for him. They should take care of the below errors –  ·Showering with material goods – Should not equip their child with mobiles, videogames etc. as a substitute for the time & attention desired by him.  ·Unnecessary dependence on caretakers – Should not rely on caretakers since they themselves are too busy to devote time to their child.  ·Unrealistic praise – Should not offer unrealistic praise to their children in the form of compliments. When children fail to receive such compliments from the rest of the world, they become confused & lose their self-esteem. Paying more attention to negative behavior – Parents should not overlook their children’s good behavior & punish them for their bad behavior. Things such as not doing homework, poor marks, mess at home direct more attention of the parents. Thus children get more attention for being bad & hence try to keep on doing bad activities to get attention. This work will be an interest to parents, teachers & policy makers that attention to young children’s physical, emotional, social, moral development is very much important. A child is a mystery. He has the highest potentialities but we cannot make out that who he will be in future unless we help him in releasing these. He has his own natural powers to develop. His unknown energy within him can be utilized for the betterment of the mankind. Giving him the freedom and support to question, the child will become confident & enthusiastic. A method of schooling that will focus on personal development will produce more mature, creative and socially adept children. The verbal teaching as in today’s schools being substituted by Sensorial materials, which contain a control of error will permit the child o teach himself by his own effort. The actively & orderly prepared environment, sensorial materials and special ways of viewing & teaching the child in the Montessori education will help him to function independently. Children of different ages sharing the same classes will cooperate and help each other and learn how to live in a community and how to re-solve conflicts peacefully. Children will learn non-violence and conflict resolution. They will learn need to respect themselves, respect parents and respect other human beings . They will get a sense of their own ability to learn new things, master new skills & solve problems. This new way of education will provide a caring environment to the child’s learning & growing, focusing on his energy & understanding him, thereby enhancing his overall development. It will respect & honor the children. Through this nourishment of the new of education, he will become an adult with a commitment & strength to transform the society. This will help in providing peace & prosperity to the nation. This is a task of developing the inner potentials of a child in which everyone regardless of caste, creed & race must participate & share since it means bringing out a crucial element – the child, for the normal progress of mankind.

Rationalism: Empiricism and Knowledge Essay

First published Thu Aug 19, 2004; substantive revision Thu Mar 21, 2013 The dispute between rationalism and empiricism concerns the extent to which we are dependent upon sense experience in our effort to gain knowledge. Rationalists claim that there are significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience. Empiricists claim that sense experience is the ultimate source of all our concepts and knowledge. Rationalists generally develop their view in two ways. First, they argue that there are cases where the content of our concepts or knowledge outstrips the information that sense experience can provide. Second, they construct accounts of how reason in some form or other provides that additional information about the world. Empiricists present complementary lines of thought. First, they develop accounts of how experience provides the information that rationalists cite, insofar as we have it in the first place. (Empiricists will at times opt for skepticism as an alternative to rationalism: if experience cannot provide the concepts or knowledge the rationalists cite, then we don’t have them.) Second, empiricists attack the rationalists’ accounts of how reason is a source of concepts or knowledge. 1. Introduction The dispute between rationalism and empiricism takes place within epistemology, the branch of philosophy devoted to studying the nature, sources and limits of knowledge. The defining questions of epistemology include the following. 1. What is the nature of propositional knowledge, knowledge that a particular proposition about the world is true? To know a proposition, we must believe it and it must be true, but something more is required, something that distinguishes knowledge from a lucky guess. Let’s call this additional element ‘warrant’. A good deal of philosophical work has been invested in trying to determine the nature of warrant. 2. How can we gain knowledge? We can form true beliefs just by making lucky guesses. How to gain warranted beliefs is less clear. Moreover, to know the world, we must think about it, and it is unclear how we gain the concepts we use in thought or what assurance, if any, we have that the ways in which we divide up the world using our concepts correspond to divisions that actually exist. 3. What are the limits of our knowledge? Some aspects of the world may be within the limits of our thought but beyond the limits of our knowledge; faced with competing descriptions of them, we cannot know which description is true. Some aspects of the world may even be beyond the limits of our thought, so that we cannot form intelligible descriptions of them, let alone know that a particular description is true. The disagreement between rationalists and empiricists primarily concerns the second question, regarding the sources of our concepts and knowledge. In some instances, their disagreement on this topic leads them to give conflicting responses to the other questions as well. They may disagree over the nature of warrant or about the limits of our thought and knowledge. Our focus here will be on the competing rationalist and empiricist responses to the second question. 1. 1 Rationalism To be a rationalist is to adopt at least one of three claims. The Intuition/Deduction thesis concerns how we become warranted in believing propositions in a particular subject area. The Intuition/Deduction Thesis: Some propositions in a particular subject area, S, are knowable by us by intuition alone; still others are knowable by being deduced from intuited propositions. Intuition is a form of rational insight. Intellectually grasping a proposition, we just â€Å"see† it to be true in such a way as to form a true, warranted belief in it. (As discussed in Section 2 below, the nature of this intellectual â€Å"seeing† needs explanation. ) Deduction is a process in which we derive conclusions from intuited premises through valid arguments, ones in which the conclusion must be true if the premises are true. We intuit, for example, that the number three is prime and that it is greater than two. We then deduce from this knowledge that there is a prime number greater than two. Intuition and deduction thus provide us with knowledge a priori, which is to say knowledge gained independently of sense experience. We can generate different versions of the Intuition/Deduction thesis by substituting different subject areas for the variable ‘S’. Some rationalists take mathematics to be knowable by intuition and deduction. Some place ethical truths in this category. Some include metaphysical claims, such as that God exists, we have free will, and our mind and body are distinct substances. The more propositions rationalists include within the range of intuition and deduction, and the more controversial the truth of those propositions or the claims to know them, the more radical their rationalism. Rationalists also vary the strength of their view by adjusting their understanding of warrant. Some take warranted beliefs to be beyond even the slightest doubt and claim that intuition and deduction provide beliefs of this high epistemic status. Others interpret warrant more conservatively, say as belief beyond a reasonable doubt, and claim that intuition and deduction provide beliefs of that caliber. Still another dimension of rationalism depends on how its proponents understand the connection between intuition, on the one hand, and truth, on the other. Some take intuition to be infallible, claiming that whatever we intuit must be true. Others allow for the possibility of false intuited propositions. The second thesis associated with rationalism is the Innate Knowledge thesis. The Innate Knowledge Thesis: We have knowledge of some truths in a particular subject area, S, as part of our rational nature. Like the Intuition/Deduction thesis, the Innate Knowledge thesis asserts the existence of knowledge gained a priori, independently of experience. The difference between them rests in the accompanying understanding of how this a priori knowledge is gained. The Intuition/Deduction thesis cites intuition and subsequent deductive reasoning. The Innate Knowledge thesis offers our rational nature. Our innate knowledge is not learned through either sense experience or intuition and deduction. It is just part of our nature. Experiences may trigger a process by which we bring this knowledge to consciousness, but the experiences do not provide us with the knowledge itself. It has in some way been with us all along. According to some rationalists, we gained the knowledge in an earlier existence. According to others, God provided us with it at creation. Still others say it is part of our nature through natural selection. We get different versions of the Innate Knowledge thesis by substituting different subject areas for the variable ‘S’. Once again, the more subjects included within the range of the thesis or the more controversial the claim to have knowledge in them, the more radical the form of rationalism. Stronger and weaker understandings of warrant yield stronger and weaker versions of the thesis as well. The third important thesis of rationalism is the Innate Concept thesis. The Innate Concept Thesis: We have some of the concepts we employ in a particular subject area, S, as part of our rational nature. According to the Innate Concept thesis, some of our concepts are not gained from experience. They are part of our rational nature in such a way that, while sense experiences may trigger a process by which they are brought to consciousness, experience does not provide the concepts or determine the information they contain. Some claim that the Innate Concept thesis is entailed by the Innate Knowledge Thesis; a particular instance of knowledge can only be innate if the concepts that are contained in the known proposition are also innate. This is Locke’s position (1690, Book I, Chapter IV, Section 1, p. 91). Others, such as Carruthers, argue against this connection (1992, pp. 53–54). The content and strength of the Innate Concept thesis varies with the concepts claimed to be innate. The more a concept seems removed from experience and the mental operations we can perform on experience the more plausibly it may be claimed to be innate. Since we do not experience perfect triangles but do experience pains, our concept of the former is a more promising candidate for being innate than our concept of the latter. The Intuition/Deduction thesis, the Innate Knowledge thesis, and the Innate Concept thesis are essential to rationalism: to be a rationalist is to adopt at least one of them. Two other closely related theses are generally adopted by rationalists, although one can certainly be a rationalist without adopting either of them. The first is that experience cannot provide what we gain from reason. The Indispensability of Reason Thesis: The knowledge we gain in subject area, S, by intuition and deduction, as well as the ideas and instances of knowledge in S that are innate to us, could not have been gained by us through sense experience. The second is that reason is superior to experience as a source of knowledge. The Superiority of Reason Thesis: The knowledge we gain in subject area S by intuition and deduction or have innately is superior to any knowledge gained by sense experience. How reason is superior needs explanation, and rationalists have offered different accounts. One view, generally associated with Descartes (1628, Rules II and III, pp. 1–4), is that what we know a priori is certain, beyond even the slightest doubt, while what we believe, or even know, on the basis of sense experience is at least somewhat uncertain. Another view, generally associated with Plato. (Republic 479e-484c), locates the superiority of a priori knowledge in the objects known. What we know by reason alone, a Platonic form, say, is superior in an important metaphysical way, e. g. unchanging, eternal, perfect, a higher degree of being, to what we are aware of through sense experience. Most forms of rationalism involve notable commitments to other philosophical positions. One is a commitment to the denial of scepticism for at least some area of knowledge. If we claim to know some truths by intuition or deduction or to have some innate knowledge, we obviously reject scepticism with regard to those truths. Rationalism in the form of the Intuition/Deduction thesis is also committed to epistemic foundationalism, the view that we know some truths without basing our belief in them on any others and that we then use this foundational knowledge to know more truths. 1. 2 Empiricism Empiricists endorse the following claim for some subject area. The Empiricism Thesis: We have no source of knowledge in S or for the concepts we use in S other than sense experience. Empiricism about a particular subject rejects the corresponding version of the Intuition/Deduction thesis and Innate Knowledge thesis. Insofar as we have knowledge in the subject, our knowledge is a posteriori, dependent upon sense experience. Empiricists also deny the implication of the corresponding Innate Concept thesis that we have innate ideas in the subject area. Sense experience is our only source of ideas. They reject the corresponding version of the Superiority of Reason thesis. Since reason alone does not give us any knowledge, it certainly does not give us superior knowledge. Empiricists generally reject the Indispensability of Reason thesis, though they need not. The Empiricism thesis does not entail that we have empirical knowledge. It entails that knowledge can only be gained, if at all, by experience. Empiricists may assert, as some do for some subjects, that the rationalists are correct to claim that experience cannot give us knowledge. The conclusion they draw from this rationalist lesson is that we do not know at all. I have stated the basic claims of rationalism and empiricism so that each is relative to a particular subject area. Rationalism and empiricism, so relativized, need not conflict. We can be rationalists in mathematics or a particular area of mathematics and empiricists in all or some of the physical sciences. Rationalism and empiricism only conflict when formulated to cover the same subject. Then the debate, Rationalism vs. Empiricism, is joined. The fact that philosophers can be both rationalists and empiricists has implications for the classification schemes often employed in the history of philosophy, especially the one traditionally used to describe the Early Modern Period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries leading up to Kant. It is standard practice to group the major philosophers of this period as either rationalists or empiricists and to suggest that those under one heading share a common agenda in opposition to those under the other. Thus, Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz are the Continental Rationalists in opposition to Locke, Berkeley and Hume, the British Empiricists. We should adopt such general classification schemes with caution. The views of the individual philosophers are more subtle and complex than the simple-minded classification suggests. (See Loeb (1981) and Kenny (1986) for important discussions of this point.) Locke rejects rationalism in the form of any version of the Innate Knowledge or Innate Concept theses, but he nonetheless adopts the Intuition/Deduction thesis with regard to our knowledge of God’s existence. Descartes and Locke have remarkably similar views on the nature of our ideas, even though Descartes takes many to be innate, while Locke ties them all to experience. The rationalist/empiricist classification also encourages us to expect the philosophers on each side of the divide to have common research programs in areas beyond epistemology. Thus, Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz are mistakenly seen as applying a reason-centered epistemology to a common metaphysical agenda, with each trying to improve on the efforts of the one before, while Locke, Berkeley and Hume are mistakenly seen as gradually rejecting those metaphysical claims, with each consciously trying to improve on the efforts of his predecessors. It is also important to note that the Rationalist/Empiricist distinction is not exhaustive of the possible sources of knowledge. One might claim, for example, that we can gain knowledge in a particular area by a form of Divine revelation or insight that is a product of neither reason nor sense experience. In short, when used carelessly, the labels ‘rationalist’ and ‘empiricist,’ as well as the slogan that is the title of this essay, ‘Rationalism vs. Empiricism,’ can retard rather than advance our understanding. Nonetheless, an important debate properly described as ‘Rationalism vs. Empiricism’ is joined whenever the claims for each view are formulated to cover the same subject. What is perhaps the most interesting form of the debate occurs when we take the relevant subject to be truths about the external world, the world beyond our own minds. A full-fledged rationalist with regard to our knowledge of the external world holds that some external world truths can and must be known a priori, that some of the ideas required for that knowledge are and must be innate, and that this knowledge is superior to any that experience could ever provide. The full-fledged empiricist about our knowledge of the external world replies that, when it comes to the nature of the world beyond our own minds, experience is our sole source of information. Reason might inform us of the relations among our ideas, but those ideas themselves can only be gained, and any truths about the external reality they represent can only be known, on the basis of sense experience. This debate concerning our knowledge of the external world will generally be our main focus in what follows. Historically, the rationalist/empiricist dispute in epistemology has extended into the area of metaphysics, where philosophers are concerned with the basic nature of reality, including the existence of God and such aspects of our nature as freewill and the relation between the mind and body. Major rationalists (e. g. , Descartes 1641) have presented metaphysical theories, which they have claimed to know by reason alone. Major empiricists (e. g. Hume 1739–40) have rejected the theories as either speculation, beyond what we can learn from experience, or nonsensical attempts to describe aspects of the world beyond the concepts experience can provide. The debate raises the issue of metaphysics as an area of knowledge. Kant puts the driving assumption clearly: The very concept of metaphysics ensures that the sources of metaphysics can’t be empirical. If something could be known through the senses, that would automatically show that it doesn’t belong to metaphysics; that’s an upshot of the meaning of the word ‘metaphysics. ‘ Its basic principles can never be taken from experience, nor can its basic concepts; for it is not to be physical but metaphysical knowledge, so it must be beyond experience. [1783, Preamble, I, p. 7] The possibility then of metaphysics so understood, as an area of human knowledge, hinges on how we resolve the rationalist/empiricist debate. The debate also extends into ethics. Some moral objectivists (e. g. , Ross 1930) take us to know some fundamental objective moral truths by intuition, while some moral skeptics, who reject such knowledge, (e. g. , Mackie 1977) find the appeal to a faculty of moral intuition utterly implausible. More recently, the rationalist/empiricist debate has extended to discussions (e. g. , Bealer 1999, and Alexander & Weinberg 2007) of the very nature of philosophical inquiry: to what extent are philosophical questions to be answered by appeals to reason or experience? 2. The Intuition/Deduction Thesis The Intuition/Deduction thesis claims that we can know some propositions by intuition and still more by deduction. Many empiricists (e. g. , Hume 1748) have been willing to accept the thesis so long as it is restricted to propositions solely about the relations among our own concepts. We can, they agree, know by intuition that our concept of God includes our concept of omniscience. Just by examining the concepts, we can intellectually grasp that the one includes the other. The debate between rationalists and empiricists is joined when the former assert, and the latter deny, the Intuition/Deduction Thesis with regard to propositions that contain substantive information about the external world. Rationalists, such as Descartes, have claimed that we can know by intuition and deduction that God exists and created the world, that our mind and body are distinct substances, and that the angles of a triangle equal two right angles, where all of these claims are truths about an external reality independent of our thought. Such substantive versions of the Intuition/Deduction thesis are our concern in this section. One defense of the Intuition/Deduction thesis assumes that we know some substantive external world truths, adds an analysis of what knowledge requires, and concludes that our knowledge must result from intuition and deduction. Descartes claims that knowledge requires certainty and that certainty about the external world is beyond what empirical evidence can provide. We can never be sure our sensory impressions are not part of a dream or a massive, demon orchestrated, deception. Only intuition and deduction can provide the certainty needed for knowledge, and, given that we have some substantive knowledge of the external world, the Intuition/Deduction thesis is true. As Descartes tells us, â€Å"all knowledge is certain and evident cognition† (1628, Rule II, p. 1) and when we â€Å"review all the actions of the intellect by means of which we are able to arrive at a knowledge of things with no fear of being mistaken,† we â€Å"recognize only two: intuition and deduction† (1628, Rule III, p. 3). This line of argument is one of the least compelling in the rationalist arsenal. First, the assumption that knowledge requires certainty comes at a heavy cost, as it rules out so much of what we commonly take ourselves to know. Second, as many contemporary rationalists accept, intuition is not always a source of certain knowledge. The possibility of a deceiver gives us a reason to doubt our intuitions as well as our empirical beliefs. For all we know, a deceiver might cause us to intuit false propositions, just as one might cause us to have perceptions of nonexistent objects. Descartes’s classic way of meeting this challenge in the Meditations is to argue that we can know with certainty that no such deceiver interferes with our intuitions and deductions. They are infallible, as God guarantees their truth. The problem, known as the Cartesian Circle, is that Descartes’s account of how we gain this knowledge begs the question, by attempting to deduce the conclusion that all our intuitions are true from intuited premises. Moreover, his account does not touch a remaining problem that he himself notes (1628, Rule VII, p.7): Deductions of any appreciable length rely on our fallible memory. A more plausible argument for the Intuition/Deduction thesis again assumes that we know some particular, external world truths, and then appeals to the nature of what we know, rather than to the nature of knowledge itself, to argue that our knowledge must result from intuition and deduction. Leibniz (1704) tells us the following. The senses, although they are necessary for all our actual knowledge, are not sufficient to give us the whole of it, since the senses never give anything but instances, that is to say particular or individual truths. Now all the instances which confirm a general truth, however numerous they may be, are not sufficient to establish the universal necessity of this same truth, for it does not follow that what happened before will happen in the same way again. †¦ From which it appears that necessary truths, such as we find in pure mathematics, and particularly in arithmetic and geometry, must have principles whose proof does not depend on instances, nor consequently on the testimony of the senses, although without the senses it would never have occurred to us to think of them†¦ (1704, Preface, pp.150–151) Leibniz goes on to describe our mathematical knowledge as â€Å"innate,† and his argument may be directed to support the Innate Knowledge Thesis rather than the Intuition/Deduction Thesis. For our purposes here, we can relate it to the latter, however: We have substantive knowledge about the external world in mathematics, and what we know in that area, we know to be necessarily true. Experience cannot warrant beliefs about what is necessarily the case. Hence, experience cannot be the source of our knowledge. The best explanation of our knowledge is that we gain it by intuition and deduction. Leibniz mentions logic, metaphysics and morals as other areas in which our knowledge similarly outstrips what experience can provide. Judgments in logic and metaphysics involve forms of necessity beyond what experience can support. Judgments in morals involve a form of obligation or value that lies beyond experience, which only informs us about what is the case rather than about what ought to be. The strength of this argument varies with its examples of purported knowledge. Insofar as we focus on controversial claims in metaphysics, e. g.that God exists, that our mind is a distinct substance from our body, the initial premise that we know the claims is less than compelling. Taken with regard to other areas, however, the argument clearly has legs. We know a great deal of mathematics, and what we know, we know to be necessarily true. None of our experiences warrants a belief in such necessity, and we do not seem to base our knowledge on any experiences. The warrant that provides us with knowledge arises from an intellectual grasp of the propositions which is clearly part of our learning. Similarly, we seem to have such moral knowledge as that, all other things being equal, it is wrong to break a promise and that pleasure is intrinsically good. No empirical lesson about how things are can warrant such knowledge of how they ought to be. This argument for the Intuition/Deduction Thesis raises additional questions which rationalists must answer. Insofar as they maintain that our knowledge of necessary truths in mathematics or elsewhere by intuition and deduction is substantive knowledge of the external world, they owe us an account of this form of necessity. Many empiricists stand ready to argue that â€Å"necessity resides in the way we talk about things, not in the things we talk about† (Quine 1966, p. 174). Similarly, if rationalists claim that our knowledge in morals is knowledge of an objective form of obligation, they owe us an account of how objective values are part of a world of apparently valueless facts. Perhaps most of all, rationalist defenders of the Intuition/Deduction thesis owe us an account of what intuition is and how it provides warranted true beliefs about the external world. What is it to intuit a proposition and how does that act of intuition support a warranted belief? Their argument presents intuition and deduction as an explanation of assumed knowledge that can’t—they say—be explained by experience, but such an explanation by intuition and deduction requires that we have a clear understanding of intuition and how it supports warranted beliefs. Metaphorical characterizations of intuition as intellectual â€Å"grasping† or â€Å"seeing† are not enough, and if intuition is some form of intellectual â€Å"grasping,† it appears that all that is grasped is relations among our concepts, rather than facts about the external world. Moreover, any intellectual faculty, whether it be sense perception or intuition, provides us with warranted beliefs only if it is generally reliable. The reliability of sense perception stems from the causal connection between how external objects are and how we experience them. What accounts for the reliability of our intuitions regarding the external world? Is our intuition of a particular true proposition the outcome of some causal interaction between ourselves and some aspect of the world? What aspect? What is the nature of this causal interaction? That the number three is prime does not appear to cause anything, let alone our intuition that it is prime. These issues are made all the more pressing by the classic empiricist response to the argument. The reply is generally credited to Hume and begins with a division of all true propositions into two categories. All the objects of human reason or inquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds, to wit, â€Å"Relations of Ideas,† and â€Å"Matters of Fact. † Of the first are the sciences of Geometry, Algebra, and Arithmetic, and, in short, every affirmation which is either intuitively or demonstratively certain. That the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the square of the two sides is a proposition which expresses a relation between these figures. That three times five is equal to half of thirty expresses a relation between these numbers. Propositions of this kind are discoverable by the mere operation of thought, without dependence on what is anywhere existent in the universe. Though there never were a circle or triangle in nature, the truths demonstrated by Euclid would forever retain their certainty and evidence. Matters of fact, which are the second objects of human reason, are not ascertained in the same manner, nor is our evidence of their truth, however great, of a like nature with the foregoing. The contrary of every matter of fact is still possible, because it can never imply a contradiction and is conceived by the mind with the same facility and distinctness as if ever so conformable to reality. (Hume 1748, Section IV, Part 1, p. 40) Intuition and deduction can provide us with knowledge of necessary truths such as those found in mathematics and logic, but such knowledge is not substantive knowledge of the external world. It is only knowledge of the relations of our own ideas. If the rationalist shifts the argument so it appeals to knowledge in morals, Hume’s reply is to offer an analysis of our moral concepts by which such knowledge is empirically gained knowledge of matters of fact. Morals and criticism are not so properly objects of the understanding as of taste and sentiment. Beauty, whether moral or natural, is felt more properly than perceived. Or if we reason concerning it and endeavor to fix the standard, we regard a new fact, to wit, the general taste of mankind, or some other fact which may be the object of reasoning and inquiry. (Hume 1748, Section XII, Part 3, p. 173) If the rationalist appeals to our knowledge in metaphysics to support the argument, Hume denies that we have such knowledge. If we take in our hand any volume–of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance–let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames, for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion. (Hume 1748, Section XII, Part 3, p. 173) An updated version of this general empiricist reply, with an increased emphasis on language and the nature of meaning, is given in the twentieth-century by A. J. Ayer’s version of logical positivism. Adopting positivism’s verification theory of meaning, Ayer assigns every cognitively meaningful sentence to one of two categories: either it is a tautology, and so true solely by virtue of the meaning of its terms and provides no substantive information about the world, or it is open to empirical verification. There is, then, no room for knowledge about the external world by intuition or deduction. There can be no a priori knowledge of reality. For †¦ the truths of pure reason, the propositions which we know to be valid independently of all experience, are so only in virtue of their lack of factual content †¦ [By contrast] empirical propositions are one and all hypotheses which may be confirmed or discredited in actual sense experience. [Ayer 1952, pp. 86; 93–94] The rationalists’ argument for the Intuition/Deduction Thesis goes wrong at the start, according to empiricists, by assuming that we can have substantive knowledge of the external world that outstrips what experience can warrant. We cannot. This empiricist reply faces challenges of its own. Our knowledge of mathematics seems to be about something more than our own concepts. Our knowledge of moral judgments seems to concern not just how we feel or act but how we ought to behave. The general principles that provide a basis for the empiricist view, e. g. Hume’s overall account of our ideas, the Verification Principle of Meaning, are problematic in their own right. In various formulations, the Verification Principle fails its own test for having cognitive meaning. A careful analysis of Hume’s Inquiry, relative to its own principles, may require us to consign large sections of it to the flames. In all, rationalists have a strong argument for the Intuition/Deduction thesis relative to our substantive knowledge of the external world, but its success rests on how well they can answer questions about the nature and epistemic force of intuition made all the more pressing by the classic empiricist reply. 3. The Innate Knowledge Thesis The Innate Knowledge thesis joins the Intuition/Deduction thesis in asserting that we have a priori knowledge, but it does not offer intuition and deduction as the source of that knowledge. It takes our a priori knowledge to be part of our rational nature. Experience may trigger our awareness of this knowledge, but it does not provide us with it. The knowledge is already there. Plato presents an early version of the Innate Knowledge thesis in the Meno as the doctrine of knowledge by recollection. The doctrine is motivated in part by a paradox that arises when we attempt to explain the nature of inquiry. How do we gain knowledge of a theorem in geometry? We inquire into the matter. Yet, knowledge by inquiry seems impossible (Meno, 80d-e). We either already know the theorem at the start of our investigation or we do not. If we already have the knowledge, there is no place for inquiry. If we lack the knowledge, we don’t know what we are seeking and cannot recognize it when we find it. Either way we cannot gain knowledge of the theorem by inquiry. Yet, we do know some theorems. The doctrine of knowledge by recollection offers a solution. When we inquire into the truth of a theorem, we both do and do not already know it. We have knowledge in the form of a memory gained from.