Philosophy paper example Essays

Philosophy paper example Essays Philosophy paper example Essay Philosophy paper example Essay What is Freedom By the literal meaning, freedom refers to having the right to think, speak or act without getting restrained or hindered. Freedom of action on a philosophical perspective means the ability to be free from hindrances (Largen, 234). These restraints are not only external barriers to our actions but also internally from addictions or physical disabilities. Politically, it refers to having the right to speak, assemble, and the government restrictions on associations, organizations, and groups, for example, the media or religion. Such are examples of external freedom. My goal in this paper is to give a further discussion on the different features that relates to freedom which includes: Individuality-The freedom to create, develop and showcase the unique personality of an individuals life story both in public and in private. Protection against manipulation- Captured from the symbolic manipulation where one uses other people as a means of actualizing their needs. It is a standard feature with money matters where one pays others to make their ends meet. Freedom to make and live in the world-The society is an artifact where we are born not only to reside in but also to change it to our desires. It is a collaborative task to limit the abuse that can result from the actions. In his article titled The Two Concepts of Liberty, Isaiah Berlin says that negative freedom, is the lack of any constraints either internal or external. There is also another form of liberty he refers to as ;positive freedom; which raises an earlier question about the free will. One can have the freedom to act; that is being free of constraints even if the free will gets determined by the laws of nature.; What is Determinism Determinism, on the other hand, is a philosophical idea that every occurrence or the state of affairs, which includes every person;s action or decision, is an inevitable and necessary outcome of a previous state of affairs (OGrady, 16). On a stricter note, determinism should be differentiated from pre-determinism which is the notion that the entire history, as well as current and future events, is determined at the origins of the universe. Also, neither should it be confused with determination (OGrady, 17), which dictates that the previous events can determine events including the human activities without getting pre-determined back to the time before the individual;s birth or during the origins of the universe; What is Consciousness Consciousness is the natural state when one is awake, and the mind is aware of the surroundings. It comprises of four aspects namely feeling, intuiting, sensing, and thinking (Semir, 121). The four elements are inextricably co-joined in the mind and body it is almost impossible to separate them.; Consciousness enables living things to respond to situations grasped when whole and not just the features or parts that can relate to rules and regulations of computation. Its evolutionary advantage is that the organism can formulate a response to or determine the factors it is facing. This situation relates to characters that can engage with natural laws or laws of computation but which have particular features of whole combinations.;; To begin with is subjectivity. It is a conscious experience which is suffered by a conscious subject. These experiences get different from worldly objective features which are readily available for observation by anybody in a position to see them. They are felt only by the subject. Therefore, they significantly contribute to how the subject reacts to the world.; The second is qualia whereby conscious experiences do have features that exceed the physical properties that seem to cause them. A good example is the feel of pain or the look of colors. Human beings can sense color blue of the sky but the computer despite displaying blue on the screen, it does not experience what it is.; The last is unity whereby a conscious experience is described as unity by the subject experiencing many of these features all at once. This circumstance is particularly sensible in the case of visual experiences. Free Will Definition Free will can be referred to as common but mistaken in the layman;s sense that the adverb free gets to modify the concept will. Much clearly according to McCall (503), it is an indication of the elements of chance which is a primary requirement for the free will present in the determination of one;s self will itself. An agent is said to have free will if the person has the capacity coupled with the freedom to choose the course of action to take.; To cap it all, a study course in philosophy is necessary because apart from enhancing intellectual growth, it also prepares the graduate thoroughly for other careers based on the personal development acquired. The student gets the adequate skills necessary to add value to the face of their prospective employers. The thinking capacity helps in unveiling more about the world and how it works. References Largen, Kristin Johnston. Freedom From And Freedom For: Luthers Concept Of Freedom For The Twenty-First Century. Dialog, vol 52, no. 3, 2013, pp. 232-243. Wiley-Blackwell, doi:10.1111/dial.12048.; ; ;; Lee, Richard E. Determinism. 1st ed., Albany, the State University Of New York Press, 2010,; ; ; McCall, S. The Supervenience Of Truth: Freewill And Omniscience. Analysis, vol 71, no. 3, 2011, pp. 501-506. Oxford University Press (OUP), doi:10.1093/analys/anr051 OGrady, William. Processing Determinism. Language Learning, vol 65, no. 1, 2015, pp. 6-32. Wiley-Blackwell, doi:10.1111/lang.12091. Semir, Zeki. The Visual Brain And Its Many Consciousnesses. Frontiers In Human Neuroscience, vol 2, 2008, Frontiers Media SA, doi:10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.008.

The Unsolved Case of the Zodiac Killer

The Unsolved Case of the Zodiac Killer The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who stalked parts of Northern California from December 1968 through October 1969. Through a series of cryptic letters he sent to the press and others, he disclosed his motivation for the killings, offered clues to future murder plots, and adopted the nickname Zodiac. He took responsibility for murdering as many as 37 people, but police investigators have only confirmed five deaths and seven total attacks.   December 20, 1968   Betty Lou Jensen, 16, and David Arthur Faraday, 17, were parked at a secluded spot located on Lake Herman Road on the eastern side Vallejo, California. Witnesses noticed the young couple huddled together in the front seat of Faradays Rambler station wagon between around 10:15 and 11:00 p.m. Nothing about the couple seemed unusual to bystanders. But by 11:15 the scene had taken a tragic turn. The couple was discovered lying on the ground outside their bullet-riddled car. Betty Lou was found several feet from the car, dead from five gunshot wounds in the back. David was found closeby. He had been shot at close range in the head  but was still breathing. He died  en route to the hospital. Clues Detectives had few clues, aside from the fact that there was an earlier confrontation in the same area. Bill Crow and his girlfriend were parked in the same place as Faraday and Jensen just 45 minutes earlier. Crow told police that someone driving a white Chevy drove past them, stopped, and backed up. For unknown reasons, Crow sped away in the opposite direction. The Chevy turned around and followed the couple, but was unable to keep up after Crow made a sharp right turn at an intersection. Two hunters also reported seeing a white Chevy parked at a gravel turn-around on Lake Herman Road. They approached the car but did not see the driver inside. July 4, 1969   Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22, and Michael Renault Mageau, 19, were parked at the Blue Rock Springs Golf Course in Benicia around midnight. The golf course was four miles from where Jensen and Faraday were gunned down. A car pulled up behind the couples car, blocking them from driving away. A man, who Mageau believed was a police officer, got out of his car holding a bright flashlight that obscured his face. As the stranger approached the drivers side of the car he immediately began shooting at the couple, firing five nine-millimeter rounds into the car. Both Ferrin and Mageau were shot. The shooter turned to leave  but came back after hearing shouts coming from Michael. He fired four more times. One bullet hit Michael and two struck Darlene. The shooter then got into his car and drove away. Within minutes after the attack, three teens came across the couple and hurried to get help. When authorities arrived both Ferrin and Mageau were still alive, but Ferrin died before reaching the hospital. Clues Michael Mageau survived the attack and was able to give a description of the shooter to authorities. He described the attacker as a short, heavyset white man, about 5 8 and around 195 pounds. The Call At 12:40 a.m. an anonymous male caller contacted the Vallejo Police Department and reported the double murder. During the call, he also said he was responsible for the Jensen and Faraday murders. Police traced the call and found it was made from a phone booth located just blocks from the police department and less than a mile from Darlene Ferrins home. The caller told police: I wish to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to a public park, you will find the kids in a brown car. They have been shot by a nine-millimeter Luger. I also killed those kids last year. Good-bye The Zodiac Letters On Friday, August 1, 1969, the first known Zodiac letters were received by three newspapers. The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle,  and Vallejo Times-Herald each received an almost identical letter written by a person who took credit for the attacks on the four teens. He also gave details about the murders and included one-third of a mysterious cipher in each letter. The self-proclaimed killer demanded that the three letters be published on the front page of each newspaper by that Friday afternoon or he would go on a rampage and randomly kill a dozen people over the weekend. The letters were signed with a crossed-circle symbol. The letters were published and efforts to untangle the messages in the ciphers began by authorities and citizens. August 4, 1969 Police investigators stated publicly that they had doubts as to the authenticity of the letters in an attempt to get the killer to contact them again. The plan worked. On August 4th, another letter arrived at the San Francisco Examiner. The letter began with the words that have since haunted many involved in the case: Dear Editor This is the Zodiac speaking... It was the first time the killer used the name Zodiac. In the letter, the Zodiac included information which proved he was present during the murders and a message that his identity was hidden inside the ciphers. August 8, 1969 A high school teacher and his wife cracked the 408-symbol cipher. The last 18 letters could not be decoded. The message read: I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FORREST BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUE ANAMAL OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERENCE IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YOUR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL THE BEST PART OF IT IS THAE WHEN I DIE I WILL BE REBORN IN PARADICE AND THEI HAVE KILLED WILL BECOME MY SLAVES I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOI DOWN OR ATOP MY COLLECTIOG OF SLAVES FOR MY AFTERLIFE EBEORIETEMETHHPITI. The fact that the code did not contain the killers identity was a disappointment to the police, however, some believe the letters can be rearranged (and three more letters added) to spell Robert Emmet the Hippie. September 27, 1969   College students, Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22, and Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, were picnicking on a peninsula at Lake Berryessa near Napa, Ca. A man carrying a semi-automatic pistol and wearing a hooded costume approached the couple. He told them that he was an escaped convict from a Montana prison where he killed a guard and stole a car and that he wanted money and their car to drive to Mexico. The couple was cooperating fully with his demands, offering him money and the car keys and the three talked for  a while. He instructed Shepard to hog-tie Bartnell with precut pieces of a clothesline that he supplied. He then tied up Shepard and told the couple, Im going to have to stab you  people, and took out a long double-edged knife and stabbed Hartnell six times and Shepard ten times. He left the couple for dead and walked casually back to Hartnells car where he drew a crossed-circle symbol in black magic marker on the side of the car and the dates of the attacks in Vallejo. A  fisherman  discovered the couple and called the police. Both victims were still alive, but it took over an hour for medical help to arrive. Shepard died two days later after lapsing into a coma. Hartnell survived and gave police a detailed account of the events as well as a description of the attacker. The Call At 7:40 p.m. an anonymous caller contacted the Napa County Police Department. He spoke to officer David Slaight in what was described as a low, monotone voice. He told Slaight: I want to report a murder - no, a double murder. They are two miles north of park headquarters. They were in a white Volkswagen Karmann Ghia... and ended the call with, Im the one who did it. As in the Vallejo case, the call was traced to a phone booth just a few blocks from the police department. October 11, 1969   San Francisco cab driver Paul Stine, 29, picked up a passenger in Union Square and drove to the wealthy area of Cherry Street and Nob Hill. It was there that the passenger shot Stine in the temple, killing him, then removed his wallet, car keys and carefully tore off a large portion of his shirt. Three youngsters witnessed the event from a second-floor window across from the parked taxi. They contacted the police and described the  shooter  as a  white male, 25 to 30 years old, stocky build and a crew cut. An intensive manhunt was immediately launched, but somehow there was a mistake made as to the killers race and the police were searching for a black male. How this mistake was made was never reported and no one was ever apprehended for the  crime. It was later determined that police drove by a large white male fitting the original description just blocks from the shooting, but because of his  race, the police did not consider him a suspect. October 14, 1969 The Chronicle received another letter from the Zodiac. A piece of Stines  blood-soaked  shirt was enclosed and the author referred to the Stine murder, saying the police failed to catch him because they did not search the area properly. He then pointed to his next intended victims, school children. October 22, 1969 A caller identifying himself as the Zodiac contacted the Oakland Police Department and demanded on-air time on the Jim Dunbar television talk show with F. Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli, both famous defense lawyers. Belli appeared on the show and a call from someone saying they were the Zodiac came in while the show was being televised. He said his real name was Sam and asked that Belli meet him in Daly City. Belli agreed but the caller never showed. It was later determined that the call was a hoax and the imposter was a  mental patient  at the Napa State Hospital. November 1969 On November 8 and 9, the Chronicle received two Zodiac letters. The first one was a 340-character cipher. The second letter was seven pages long and included another piece of Stines shirt. In the letter, he claimed the police had stopped and talked with him three minutes after he shot Stine. He also drew a schematic of what he referred to as his death machine which was made to blow up large objects such as buses. December 20, 1969 Melvin Belli received a Christmas card at his home which included another piece of Stines shirt. In the card the Zodiac claimed he wanted help from Belli, ending with: Please help me I can not remain in control for much longer. Attempts from Belli to get the Zodiac to contact him again were made, but nothing ever happened. Some speculate that the card was written during a moment of clarity, while others believe it was another attention-getting hoax on the part of the Zodiac. March 22, 1970 On the evening of March 22, 1970, Kathleen Johns, who was eight-months pregnant, was on her way to meet her mother. She had her ten-month-old daughter in the back seat of the car. While on Highway 132 in San Joaquin County, west of Modesto, Johns pulled over after a driver pulled up alongside her and indicated that something was wrong with her car. The driver pulled over and told Johns that her wheel was wobbling. He said he would tighten the wheel bolts, but instead loosened them, then returned to his car and drove off. When Johns pulled away her tire fell off. The man in the car was not far ahead and backed up and offered Johns a ride to a gas station. She agreed  but became frightened when he failed to stop  at several  gas stations. The ride took over three hours of what Johns described as, silent aimless driving around. She was able to escape with her child when the driver stopped at an intersection. Johns fled across a field and hid until she saw the man drive away. She received help from a passerby and was taken to the local police department in Paterson. While at the station she saw a  wanted poster  with a composite sketch of the Zodiac and identified the person as the man who kidnapped her. Her car was later found gutted and burned. Throughout the years, Johns account of the nights events has changed from her original statement, leading some to question her story.   This was the last time anyone ever reported seeing the Zodiac. April 20, 1970 The Zodiac sent a letter to the Chronicle which included a 13-character cipher, a diagram of a bomb he planned to use to blow up a school bus, and a statement that he was not responsible for the February 18, 1970, bombing of a police station in San Francisco. He ended the letter with a score  [Zodiac Symbol]10, SFPD0. Authorities interpreted the number ten as a body count.   April 28, 1970 A card was sent to the Chronicle with the words,  I hope you enjoy yourselves when I have my BLAST  along with the cross-circle symbol. On the back of the card, the writer threatened to use his bus bomb if the Chronicle failed to publish the April 20 letter he sent detailing his plans to blow up a school bus. He also requested that people begin wearing Zodiac buttons. June 26, 1970 A letter received  at  the Chronicle contained another 32-letter cipher. The author said he was upset that he had not seen people wearing Zodiac buttons. He took credit for another shooting  but gave no specifics. Investigators suspected it was the shooting death of Sgt. Richard Radetich a week earlier. Also included was a Phillips 66 map of the Bay area. A clock-like face was drawn around Mount Diablo with a zero at the top, the number three on the right side, six on the bottom and a nine of the left side.  Next  to the zero, he wrote,  is to be set to Mag.N. The map and the cipher were supposed to give the location of a bomb he buried that was set to go off the following fall. This letter was signed  [Zodiac Symbol]12. SFPD0. July 24, 1970 In this letter, also sent to the Chronicle, the Zodiac took credit for abducting Kathleen Jones four months earlier and described burning the car, a fact that only one local paper, the Modesto Bee, had printed. July 26, 1970 In this next letter, the Zodiac included his own twisted version of the song  Ive Got a Little List  from Gilbert Sullivans musical, The Mikado. In it, he described how he planned to collect and torture his slaves. Also drawn on the letter was a giant crossed-circle, a score notation of  13, SFPD  and the words, PS. The Mount Diablo Code concerns Radians # inches along the radians. In 1981, Zodiac researcher Gareth Penn figured out that when placing a radian angle over the map, it pointed to two locations where Zodiac attacks took place. October 5, 1970 Three months had passed without any further communication from the Zodiac. Then, a card written with cut-out letters from magazines and newspapers was sent to the Chronicle. The card bore 13 holes and indicated that there had been another Zodiac victim and that he considered himself crackproof. Originally considered as a hoax, certain letter configurations and the phrase crackproof later reappeared in confirmed Zodiac letters, adding new authenticity to this one. October 27, 1970 Paul Avery, the key reporter in the Zodiac case for the Chronicle, received a Halloween card which included a threat on Averys life. The letter was posted in its entirety on the front page of the Chronicle and days later Avery received another letter urging him to investigate the similarities between the known Zodiac murders and the murder of college student Cheri Jo Bates years earlier. A Step Back In Time - October 30, 1966   On October 30, 1966, Cheri Jo Bates, 18, was studying at the Riverside City College library annex until the library closed at 9 p.m. Investigators suspect that her Volkswagen parked outside the library was tampered with prior to her leaving the library. The distributor coil and the condenser had been pulled out and the middle wire of the distributor was disconnected. Police believe that when she tried to start the car the person who disabled it approached her and offered his help. Somehow he lured her into a secluded dark driveway which sat between two empty houses, where police believe the two sat for about an hour and a half. The man later attacked Bates, beating her, slashing at her face and cutting her a total of 11 times, seven of which nearly decapitated her. Clues found at the scene included a size 10 heel-print, a Timex watch with a torn seven-inch wristband displaying the time 12:23, fingerprints and a palm print, skin tissue underneath the victims fingernails and hair and blood in her hands. On November 29, 1966, two identical letters were sent to the Riverside Police and the Riverside Press-Enterprise by someone claiming to be responsible for killing Bates. The letters included a poem titled  The  Cofession[sic] which offered details of the murder that only the police and the killer knew about. The letters also included a warning that she was not the first or the last of his victims. Many interpreted the tone of the letter as very similar to that of the Zodiac letters mailed after the Vallejo murders. In December 1966 a custodian at the Riverside City College discovered a poem carved into the underside of a folding desk. The poem, titled  Sick of living/unwilling to die  had a tone similar to that of the Zodiac as well as handwriting which looked like some found in the Zodiacs letters. Some believe the author, who signed the poem with the initials rh was describing the murder of Bates. Other theorize that the letter was written by a student who had unsuccessfully tried to kill themselves. However, Sherwood Morrill, one of Californias top Questioned Documents examiners, was of the opinion that the true author of the poem was the Zodiac. Six months after the murder of Bates three nearly identical letters were received by the Riverside Press, the Riverside police  and  Cheri Jo Bates father. The letters all contained more postage than was necessary and two of the letters were signed with a symbol which looked like the letter Z next to the number three. The Zodiac letters sent in the 1970s all contained excessive postage, symbol-type signatures and the threat that more murders would follow. The two letters received by the newspaper and the police read: BATES HADTO DIETHERE WILLBE MORE Bates murder was never solved. The Riverside Police Department maintains that a local man was the key suspect, not the Zodiac, although the letters sent may have been written by him. March 17, 1971 A letter was sent to the Los Angeles Times because, as the writer put it,  they dont bury me on the back pages. In the letter, the Zodiac gave the police credit for making the Bates connection, but added that the police were still only finding the  easy ones  and that there were plenty more  out there.  The letter included the score,  SFPD-0 [Zodiac Symbol]-17. This was the only letter ever sent to the Los Angeles Times and the only one postmarked outside of San Francisco. March 22, 1971 Chronicle reporter Paul Avery received a postcard thought to be from the Zodiac in which he took credit for the case of a missing nurse, Donna Lass, from the Sahara Hotel and Casino. Lass was never seen again after treating her last patient at 1:40 a.m. on September 6, 1970. The following day her uniform and shoes, marked with dirt, were discovered in a paper bag in her office. Two calls were made, one to her employer and one to her landlord, by an unidentified caller who said Lass had a family emergency and had left town. The postcard that Avery received included a collage made up of lettering cut from newspapers and magazines and contained a picture of an ad of the condominium complex known as Forest Pines. The words,  Sierra Club, Sought Victim 12, peek through the pines, pass Lake Tahoe areas, round in the snow,  hinted at the location of where Lass body could be found. A search in the area turned up only a pair of sunglasses. Some believe the postcard was a forgery, perhaps the attempt of the real killer to make the authorities believe Lass was a Zodiac victim. However certain similarities such as the misspelling of Paul Averys name (Averly) and the use of a hole-punch had both become traits found in letters known to be from the Zodiac. Although it did not appear that  kidnapping  was a pattern of the Zodiac, but rather spontaneous random murders, if in fact, he was responsible for Johns abduction then possibly Donna Lass could also be a victim of the Zodiac. The  mystery  surrounding the case of Donna Lass was never solved, nor was her body ever located. The Pines postcard was the last communication received from the Zodiac for three years. In 1974 he resurfaced although this time he dropped his opening line,  This is the Zodiac speaking  and the cross-circle symbol signature from the letters. January 29, 1974 The Zodiac sent the Chronicle a letter describing the movie  The Exorcist  as  the best saterical comidy that I have ever seen.  It also included a part of a verse from The Mikado, a hieroglyph-type drawing and a threat that the letter had to be published or he would  do something nasty.  His signature score changed to read  Me-37 SFPD-0. May 8, 1974 The Chronicle received a letter from a concerned citizen complaining about the movie  Badlands  and asking the paper to stop advertising it. Although the Zodiac did not identify himself as the author of the letter, some felt the similarities of the tone and handwriting was unmistakably that of the Zodiac. July 8, 1974 A complaint letter regarding the conservative Chronicle columnist, Marco Spinelli who used the pen name, Count Marco was received at the newspaper and ended the letter with: Since the Count can write anonymously, so can I signed the Red Phantom (red with rage). Some believe the Zodiac sent the letter, others do not. Doubting that the letters were really authored by the Zodiac, police detective David Toschi sent them to the FBI Laboratory who responded that the letters were probably prepared by the writer of the Zodiac letters. No other communication was received from the Zodiac for another four years. April 24, 1978 A letter was sent to the Chronicle and given to reporter Duffy Jennings, Paul Averys replacement after he went to work at the San Francisco Examiner. Duffy contacted Detective David Toschi, who had worked on the Zodiac case since the Stine murder and was the only remaining San Francisco Police Department (SFDP) investigator working the case. Toschi turned the letters over to John Shimoda of the U.S. Postal Service crime laboratory to verify if the letters were authored by the Zodiac instead of giving them to the chief examiner for the Questioned Documents Division of the SFPD. Why he made that decision is unknown, however, Shimoda did verify that the letter was authored by the Zodiac. Four experts three months later declared the letter a hoax. At that time Toschi was in the middle of a political battle and looking at possibly replacing the current chief of police. For all of those who adored Toschi, many just wanted him to go away. When it became known that the letters were a hoax, many pointed the finger at Toschi, believing he had forged the letter. The suspicions about Toschi  forging  the Zodiac letter was based on an earlier incident involving columnist Armistead Maupin, who was writing a series for the Chronicle called,  Tales of the City.  He received a lot of fan mail for the series and in an effort to verify that the letters were legitimate he became suspicious that Toschi had written some of them under fake names. Maupin made the decision to do nothing about it at the time, but when the forged Zodiac letter surfaced, Maupin thought it was possible Toschi was responsible and reported the fake fan letters and his suspicions to Toschis superiors. Toschi eventually admitted to writing the fan letters, but always denied the implications that he forged the Zodiac letter and insisted the rumors were politically motivated. The Toschi incident is just one example of the many bizarre twists the Zodiac investigation has taken over the years. More than 2,500 suspects have been investigated without anyone ever being charged. Detectives continue to receive telephone calls weekly with tips, theories​,  and speculation. The  case  remains open in some jurisdictions, but the San Francisco Police Department has designated it  unsolved  and inactive.

Migration, cultural diversity and integration in contemporary Britain Essay

Migration, cultural diversity and integration in contemporary Britain - Essay Example This integration and acceptance could involve recognizing the others’ practice as right or even adopting some of the practices which are to be found in the other people involved. One of the major contributors of having youths from divergent backgrounds studying in the same universities is as a direct result of migrant labour. In this respect you may find that one’s parents went to a foreign country looking for a job opportunity and since people of many nationalities do emigrate looking for job opportunities, it is only obvious that we are going to have a situations whereby the different youths involved tend to develop multicultural social capital (Arthur,2004). Social capital has been defined as Social capital is a sociological concept, which refers to connections within and between social networks. Harzig and Hoerder discuss the issue of migration in detail and he points out the negative opinions which are cast upon immigrants. They are viewed as â€Å"hands† or â€Å"braceros† instead of hearts and heads. The following dialogue involves two young university student in Paris France. Partner A (Asamoah) has his origins in Ghana while Partner B (Louis) has his origins in Cameroon both countries in West Africa. ASAMOAH: I am Asamoah Gyan, My parents come from Accra Ghana. We came to France when I was five years old. My parents are career diplomats and thus I had to join a French school and upon the end of my parents’ tour of duty they felt it advisable to have me left behind in France so as to complete my university studies. I chose an African because we have a lot to share as we both come from the continent and hence we should have a lot in common. LOUIS: I am Louis Mitchell and my country of origin is Cameroon. My whole family lives in Douarra second largest city in Cameroon. I have always wanted to join a good foreign university and being from a Francophone country I was able to benefit from a Scholarship from the government of France. I thus had my early education back in Cameroun and only came to France for my higher education on a scholarship. I chose a Ghanaian national owing to the close proximity between our two countries and being Africans, we have a lot in common. Questions. ASAMOAH: Louis could you tell me about your social capital in terms of how you find yourself accepting to the races, gender sexuality and religion in Britain? LOUIS: I find it very difficult to interact with the foreign people and I am more comfortable being in the company of my fellow Africans and especially those from French speaking countries. On issues of gender, I find the British more tolerant towards women but I hate the legalization of homosexuality and on the religious issue the French are not religious at all. ASAMOAH: Why do you abhor the legalization of gay unions in Britain? LOUIS: That is unheard of in African culture. In my own country being caught engaging in such an activity attracts a very severe penalty an d furthermore the individuals concerned are ostracized from the society. ASAMOAH: what kind of penalty could that be and why is it considered unAfrican to engage in such activities? LOUIS: In my country, penalty for being day is imprisonment for a term of at least twenty years in prison and in rural areas where traditional justice is dispensed you find that those who are caught engaging in such activities are put in a beehive and rolled off a hill. It is considered unAfrican to engage in homosexual relationships because that is what has been passed from

Gideon v. Wainwright Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Gideon v. Wainwright - Assignment Example This holding was informed by the rationale that it is common sense that lawyers form an integral part in the due process as they ensure that defendants get fair trial, which is not only criminal justice system’s objective but also constitutional requirement. The holding was also informed by the following precedents: Powell v Alabama; Smith v O’Grady, and Grosjean v American Press Co (Perry 46). The 14th Amendment imposes the obligation upon the States to appoint counsel for poor defendants. Since the defendants constitutional rights should be upheld at all times, defendants should have the right to have assistance of counsel for their defense. The 14th Amendment is very categorical that no State shall enforce any law which shall violate the immunities of the United States’ citizens; nor deny any person within their specific jurisdiction the equal protection as required by the law (Perry 11). Therefore, Gideon should have been entitled to defense counsel in the trial

The Fatherhood Movement Essay -- essays research papers

Throughout the United States, more than one-third of children don't live with their biological fathers, and about 17 million of those children don't live with any father at all. Of those, roughly 40 percent haven't seen their fathers in the last year. The over 500 Father's Rights organizations are trying in a variety of ways to change these statistics because they believe that fathers are necessary to the intellectual, psychological and emotional well- being of all children. "Family values" groups encourage long lasting stable, marriages and tough divorce laws to increase the number of two- parent households. Some organizations focus on reasonable child support and visitation, as well as creative joint custody arrangements to combat fatherless ness after divorce. Still other sects within the movement encourage responsible fatherhood through counseling for "Deadbeat" or "Dead-broke" Dads, job training and placement to increase the likelihood of child sup port payments and educational seminars to teach men how to be emotionally supportive fathers. The unique coalition of conservative pro-marriage groups, white middle-class divorcà ©es and low- income fathers is an unusual alliance. But regardless of philosophical and tactical differences, the essential mission is the same- to improve the relationship between our nation's fathers and their children. A Brief History Throughout the 18th and 19th Centuries, wives and children were considered property of the husband. Divorce was very rare, but when it did occur, children would automatically become custody of the father. Even if a father died, his wife was not assured custody of the children unless his will explicitly stated so. In the Early 1900's, courts and state legislatures began to support maternal rights, viewing the mother as the more nurturing parent. The "tender years" doctrine, implemented in many states, encouraged courts to place young children with mothers because mothers were seen as essential to emotional development. The maternal preference continued to increase throughout the 1950's and 60's. With the spread of no-fault divorce laws throughout the late 1970's, and the increase of women's participation in the work force, women were more able to obtain divorces from unhappy marriages. Maternal preference in custody battles gave women a huge advantage, and a vast ... ...hers Manifesto or Dads Against the Divorce Industry, who use feminist bashing, gay bashing and make up outlandish statistics to support their cause. Aside for the fact that they support the repeal of the 19th Amendment, the Father's Manifesto web site includes a non-sensical graph which proves that 0% of 12th grade girls know anything about math and/or physics! Although I understand that many of these men are angry and frustrated, they will achieve nothing by make ludicrous claims and discriminating against women and homosexuals. Groups like this serve as easy targets for people opposing the movement, and reflect badly on educated reformers who see a need for change. I think that in order to be successful as a movement, positive Father's Right's organizations should distance themselves from the fringe groups, and try to make a cohesive movement excluding the reactionary organizations. Overall, I think that this movement focuses on a problem that many policy makers have ignored for two long. Our children do need fathers, and while I don't necessarily agree with the different ways these groups want to achieve their goals, I commend their efforts and think this is an important cause.

Empiricism & human knowledge Essay

Empiricism is a notion that is derived from epistemology studies in philosophy that is centered on nature and limitation of our human knowledge (Kenny 36). The proponents in empiricism school of thought assert that the main source of human knowledge is through our sensational experience. In other words, what a man may claim to know is purely from experience with environment (Kenny 218). However, approaching this argument holistically need to consider some fundamental questions that prove worth informing the argument: What is the nature of propositional knowledge? How can we gain knowledge? And what are the limits of our knowledge? These question though less informative and may not give the full parameters and modality of the argument, it help to move further and creates a well investigative argument. In this regard, the paper central thesis shall be: Does all our knowledge come from experience? If not, where does it come from? And how can we prove that as necessary truth? The question of human knowledge derivation in field of epistemology has been a controversial issue with both rationalists and empiricists pulling toward each others side. However, as the paper shall be concluding it shall be quite evident that no side can stand alone in the proving ground for human knowledge. Since upon exploring each side of the competing explanations, it comes out clearly that human experience is necessary component in attaining knowledge yet at the same time its insufficient condition that can facilitate knowledge gaining. Therefore, this validates the essence that empiricism can not be self explanatory subject content without input and insight from rationalism school of thought (Kenny 41). In regard to Philosophical argument of empiricism, two juxtaposing positions do assist to answer this question. I find it difficult to neither accept nor deny the fact that empiricists assert that our knowledge comes from our experience because we are born as a ‘tabula rasa’. This is the light that some phenomenon experience can not be affirmed by sense experience alone. For instance, when a blue candle is placed on the table and observes with eyes and affirmed that it is a candle since the sense tells and confirm its solid and hard; then when the same candle is placed close to the flame and melts down; using the same sight observation it is difficult to affirm that the liquefied wax is the same blue candle. Basing on this example, it becomes challenging to entrust the experience as a source of understanding that strange phenomenon that challenges our senses to derive knowledge (Bonjour 273). Therefore, in such case rationalist gain a score in the sense that is only through reason that the individual observing the instance can affirm that the liquid was is the same candle in liquid form. Contrary at the same time the knowledge of changing states of wax shall be gained through sight and not reason, though reason facilitate construction and conceptualization of such concept. Evidently the two competing positions have a problem. According to Aune’s (1970) presentation of Plato’s dialogue â€Å"meno† give me an interesting position in his attempt to support rationalism that instead gives insight to validity of empiricism. Plato gave an example aimed at asserting that he met a slave boy who had mathematical knowledge (basic arithmetic); this should be innate. This is because according to him, knowledge from reason is eternal and do not change while that fro experience does. Using that example it is not true that lack of mathematical knowledge to that slave boy validates lack of mathematical experience. This is in the sense that even abstract mathematical concepts are centered on real figures or objects that does exist. For instance, the relationship given by Pythagoras’ theorem is a proposition that expresses a relation between the sides of a right angled triangle. Thus, the knowledge of these kinds of propositions can be discovered purely by thinking but an individual must in his or her earlier stages of learning been exposed or seen the figure of a right angled triangle, which is something that actually exists in the universe. On the contrary, the propositional knowledge about relation of sides of height, base and hypotenuse can be discovered purely by thinking, without the need to attend to anything that actually exists in the universe. This implies that empiricism is the basis on which reason can advance the knowledge gained primary to other higher understanding forms in such arenas as the sciences of geometry, algebra, and arithmetic. On the other hand, matters of fact as a second category object of human reason cannot be established like matters of relations as individuals lack strong grounding to think them as true. Instead, the opposite of every matter of fact is possible since it does not imply a contradiction and is easily conceived by our minds. For example, saying â€Å"the sun will rise tomorrow† is logical and has no more contradictions to saying â€Å"the sun will not rise tomorrow†. Basically, saying that the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less logical a proposition and implies no more contradiction, than the assertion that it will rise. As a result, it will be futile to try and prove its falsehood. If it can be proven false, it would imply a contradiction, and could never be clearly conceived by the mind. Thus, empiricism scores in knowledge that regards maters of fact as opposed to the knowledge of the relational of ideas. Human knowledge acquisition does not need prior reasoning to acquire, but comes from our experience of finding, connecting and inferring that particular objects are constantly associated with one other. For example, if a man is presented with an object that is new to him, no amount of reasoning about its perceptible qualities will enable him to discover it rather than observing, touching and smelling it so that he can conform to already formed knowledge base, or accommodate it as a new object discovered (Hume 173). If next time the same person comes into contact with this object again, thinking can help to connect the object to the past event and claim to know the object. This can be demonstrated by a stranger to fire and moving water; from the light and warmth of fire, one cannot assume that they can be burnt or cannot infer that the fluidity and transparency of water can drown him or her respectively. Thus, such knowledge can only be established if there are incidences that an individual was burnt by fire or drawn fast moving water, which forms the basis of knowledge which is taught. Based on this example, it follows that the qualities of an object that appear to the senses cannot reveal the causes or effect nor can reason, unaided by experience, ever draw any conclusion about real existence which constructs our knowledge. Consequently, it can be seen that experience enables us to know the cause-effect relation which enables us construct the knowledge base. For example, when burnt by fire, one will know its effect and when seeing someone light a fire, one will understand the cause. The reasoning faculty should be seen as the tool that aids in connecting past and present events and facilitate the making of inferences to already existing knowledge derived from experience. From the arguments it is however increased my difficult to neither assert nor deny the thoughts that emanate from empiricism school of thought. Thus, it is evident that experience is necessary to our knowledge acquisition but insufficient mechanism in knowledge gaining and application to different situation. It is in this line of thought that I assert that experience is truly a source of our knowledge for instance language acquisition which a basic foundation of other knowledge acquisition. In conclusion, from various argument discussed and exemplary illustrations the proposition that knowledge discoverable not by reason but by experience is true. Firstly, there are past examples of objects that were once unknown to us and from experience, we now know what would arise from those objects. This is totally in contrast to the objects we have never been in contact with. Secondly, events that are not much like the common course of nature are also known only by experience. For example, without prior knowledge, nobody could guess that magnets attract or gunpowder explodes. Thirdly, when an effect is believed to depend on a secret structure of parts, we tend to attribute all our knowledge of it to experience.Yet, we highly depend on the reason for the connecting, construction, affirming and making inferences. Work cited Aune, B. , Rationalism, Empiricism and Pragmatism: An Introduction, New York: Random House, 1970. Bonjour, L. , In Defense of Pure Reason, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Hume, D. , An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Indianapolis, Bobbs- Merrill, 1955 Kenny, A. , Rationalism, Empiricism and Idealism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Marriage Viewpoints over the World - 1194 Words

Wedding is the celebrating party where a couple decided to be united in marriage. Every country has different tradition, cultures, social classes and religion for wedding. However, the United States has a large population, and it includes many types of people who come from different countries over the world. Therefore, The U.S. has a very diverse cultural and traditional environment, especially in marriage. Based on the number of American couples married in 2010 by â€Å"Marriage Rate in America†, and it shows that the number of marriages in 2010 was less than the previous year, but why did it happen? Are people afraid of marriage? Or what does it really mean? Some people say it is just the way that people live together. After that, are the happy? Marriage is not an easy issue because there are different traditional points of view about it on over the world In India, marriage is a mean that relies on the parents decisions. For example, Marriages in India are arranged marriages, they are forcing two people to get married. Marriages in this country is not a relationship of love for two people, but a connection between two families. Moreover, in this type of arranged marriage, the husband and wife have never met each other, and they have to live as a lifetime term with a partner that they don’t even know before. Indian family said that â€Å"Their kids will love and understand each other when they spend time to live together. Even though the arrangement of marriage in some countriesShow MoreRelatedThe author I have chosen to use to write about is Laura Kipnis and her essay: Love’s Labors. For1700 Words   |  7 PagesThe author I have chosen to use to write about is Laura Kipnis and her essay: Love’s Labors. For this Capstone Essay I have chosen to write about Divorce rates, and how they have been increasing over the years. 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