Noble Lie and Platos Republic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Noble Lie and Platos Republic - Essay Example The noble lie gives a chance to ruled class to mould and shape the belief they want their subjects develop and if the ruler is benevolent, the belief inculcated in the people can result in harmony and after all harmonious life is the final objective of any society. The Platonic opinion regarding problem of discourse is regarding ‘powers and perils’ and noble lie is an aspect that minimizes the perils of the power from the people who question the right doings as well as wrong doings of the ruling elite. The noble lie is good as long as the elite people do not exploit the ruled people from the privilege they gain from the belief of the people in noble lie. Though it can be termed as a tool for thought control of the ruled, it will be good as long as it is related to ‘will to truth’. Hesk Jon (2000) quotes Marcel Detienne who argues about Greek notions of truth. By accepting the noble lie as part of a model republic, the rulers should concentrate only on submis siveness from the people but the activities of rulers should not undermine the rational thought of the ruled in their daily chores. However, benevolent rulers take care that the noble lie aspect does not interfere in the justice delivery system. In the context of delivery of justice, it is possible to ignore noble lie if the rulers are enough discretion regarding it. The same can be interpreted in case of Noble lie and it can be ignored to treat ruled and the rulers equally while delivering justice.

Interior Design Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interior Design - Research Paper Example Each facility will require its own design. Interior design is based on function, purpose and aesthetics. Each design has its own affect on different facilities. Interior Design is the ability to enhance the function, safety, and aesthetics of interior spaces (U.S. Department of Labor 2009). Interior design can add function to an area that would normally be not functional. This can be achieved by adding key elements which allow the space to serve a purpose. A purpose of a space is dependent on the spaces surroundings. Each room has its own needs. Adding functionality to a room is important in Interior Design. Interior Design allows for the ability to transform a space. An empty room in a commercial setting can be transformed into a waiting area with proper use of seating. A living room can also become functional with proper use of seating. Functionality is one of the major reasons a client may decide to choose an Interior Designer. The Interior Designer may be able to offer the client with a space that allows for more functionality then before. An Interior Designer will base ideas based on purpose. Using the appropriate elements allows for purpose. Purpose in Interior Design can be explained as allowing a room to have a purpose and a use. A good interior designer can allow for a space to serve more than one purpose. Serving more than one purpose can make a space more appealing. ... This type of design becomes an eclectic area to show off certain pieces in a way that they all flow together. According to Allen with All About Interior Design2011, It takes an eclectic eye to be able to show off many pieces and make them work with one another. This is true with many different design techniques. Not just anyone can put pieces together and make them work. Interior Design is important for many aesthetic reasons. An area needs to be aesthetically pleasing to the individual in the environment. An appealing environment is important in a design sense. Interior Designers typically design for residential or commercial settings. Many residential settings will require a pleasing and welcoming environment. An interior designer can gather information about the clients likes and create a space that is aesthetically pleasing. Use of objects and colors that are naturally appealing will help the space appeal to more individuals. Neutral tones and fabrics can allow for the use of dif ferent types of elements. In a commercial setting it is important for an Interior Designer to keep the focus on what the purpose is for the commercial setting. Many Interior Designers will need to create spaces that are pleasing to the eye so that businesses keep customers returning. Pleasing aesthetics can be achieved by bringing earthly elements into the space and keeping with a theme. It is important to achieve an attractive interior environment (Basics of interior design 2011). An attractive interior environment can allow for better usage of the area. It is likely that a space that is attractive will likely be used more than other spaces. The effects of interior design can be great on different facilities. Each facility will

Aviation Mechanic Ethical Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Aviation Mechanic Ethical Issues - Essay Example This is unachievable if employees in the organization do not follow strict ethical standards (Hoppe, 2011). Mechanics in the aviation sector are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that aircrafts and any other important machines in the industry are in the best conditions. This can be attributed to the fact that accidents in the sector are very lethal in most instances because survival is limited when an aircraft crash lands. This implies that all mechanics should follow a good set of ethical standards because it plays a critical role in saving lives. It is worth noting that managers, as well subordinate staff in the industry should always strive to ensure that all their duties are performed diligently. Performance of duties should be based on someone’s willingness to deliver to his or her potential at any given time. It is the responsibility of the management to ensure that all workers are playing their role because this goes a long way in saving lives and increasing the performance of an organization. An organization that records a high number of accidents would definitely lose customers because of loss of faith in the organization (Oderman, 2004). On the other hand, organization with a high reputation of ensuring customer safety, would gain in the market because customers need the best services in the market. The increasing competition between organizations in the world means that an organization that aspires to have a competitive edge must strive to deliver to customers’ expectations. In addition, one ought to understand that the performance of each employee determines the overall performance of an organization because a rope is as a strong as its weakest link. Although some organizations might ignore the importance of ensuring that its mechanical sector is performing to its potential, it has to be noted that, this is the bottom line for an aviation organization’s success

Finance Principles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Finance Principles - Essay Example It can be explained as, if one of the asset in the portfolio is giving negative return, then it would not have a significant impact on the overall return of the portfolio because the other assets might be performing well and thus making up for the asset which is not performing well. Diversification helps an investor to have consistent return on its portfolio over a period of time. An investor who is risk-averse in nature would always strive to have a completely diversified portfolio in order to minimize risks associated with it. Quantitative measure of portfolio is possible with the advent of several portfolio selection theories. Using those quantitative measures one can have the benefits of diversification to the maximum amount possible. The diversification strategy proposed by Markowitz is based on the covariance between the returns generated by the assets included in a portfolio. The diversification theory proposed by Markowitz is related to the risks associated with the portfolio as a whole and not the risk associated with any asset in isolation. Markowitz used variance as a measure of risk. Markowitz tried to develop a diversified portfolio by including those assets in the portfolio which are not perfectly positively correlated with each other, so that the variance in return of the portfolio is minimized without affecting much on the return of the portfolio.1 Mean – Variance Diversification Mean – Variance diversification portfolio theory utilizes marginal analysis as a means of achieving optimal level of diversified portfolio. It is based on the fact that diversification should be enhanced until and unless marginal cost is less than the marginal benefit. The advantage of this theory is the minimization of risk. The costs that are considered in this theory are holding costs and transaction costs. The standard deviation of the returns generated through the combination of assets is used as the risk measure in case of this theory of diversificat ion. Marginal benefits associated with diversification of portfolio get increased with decrease in correlation between asset returns. On diversification of the portfolio the expected value of standard deviation goes on decreasing. Optimal diversification depends on the expected correlations between each pair of assets in the portfolio, the buying costs of each of the assets, the holding costs of the assets and expected premium on equity used as asset in the portfolio.2 Risks associated with any portfolio can either be unsystematic risks or systematic risks. As discussed earlier risk gets reduced with diversification. However, diversification reduce risk only to a certain level, beyond which it is not possible to reduce risk because changes in the market conditions as a whole affects in variation of prices of all the assets included in the portfolio and it is not possible to reduce or eliminate this variability beyond a certain level. Hence it is necessary to divide risk into two par ts, namely systematic risk and unsystematic risk. The risk which represents that portion of the variability in asset caused by the market movements are known as systematic risk. This type of risk is unavoidable in nature and is sometimes termed as beta as mentioned in the Capital Asset Pricing

Reach Out and Touch Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reach Out and Touch - Coursework Example She does this in attempts to describe the color of her skin and declares it magical as the child seems never to have seen someone of her color before. In addition, the child’s expectations of the neck to come off by touching it indicate a wonder from the child’s perspective. The difference in skin color between the children and the narrator is what drives the children into reaching out to her out of wonder as it seems as though they have never seen such before. From the narrator’s perspective, it seems her skin color has attracted more attention towards her as she appears to be used to it and even sees it okay for the children to touch her. In respect to age, the children’s reaction to the colored woman is with wonder and innocence while the grown women react differently. The mother’s child disciplines her children by slapping their hands and hushing them off, while the narrator smiles at them and even wishes she was seated next to them to assure them that their reactions were okay. When I was about five years, my family was hosting my aunts and uncles for a Thanks Giving ceremony. One of my uncles, however, didn’t look like the rest, according to my judgment. He looked scary and I did not not want to be anywhere near him. The rest of the family seemed not to be worried and actually behaved as though he was normal. I however came to learn that he had survived third degree burns on his body after arsonists burned down his

The language and structure of poem Essay Example for Free

The language and structure of poem Essay The language and structure of poem two Warning is, as with Old Man, Old Man, fairly simple with only four stanzas all but two of which are different lengths. I expect this is because in stanza one, the longest verse, she says all the things she has planned to do in her future as an older woman these of course are all the things that she wants to do so of course there are lots of them. Stanza two says all the things she could do this is not as long because it would have come under the first verse if it was something that she really wanted to do. Stanza three is also a short one as it is about all the things she has to do now which are all boring and tedious. The last stanza is the shortest as it is, in my opinion, what she is thinking but she has to stop herself in her thoughts as she might have thought it was not appropriate at this time to act like an old woman. There is no rhyme or rhythm as with poem one or any complicated language. I also suspect this is because it is a straightforward subject and needs no complications. The two poems are very similar as they are both very easy to understand, as there is no complicated words or English techniques, like similes. The message and tone of poem one is very grim. It takes a pessimistic view of old age saying how your senses deteriorate and how you almost become incompetent. It basically says, you, as someone who is capable and in control will deteriorate to someone who can not do as much as you want to do as you will not be able to see well, you pretty much will not like it! The message and tone of poem two is almost completely contrary to that of poem one. It takes a very optimistic view of old age saying how you can let go of old barriers in life and be able to do what you want. The story is when you are young you must be responsible and set an example. When you get old you can become irresponsible and careless and be able to do the little things that are silly just for the sake of doing it. My personal response to the poem Old Man, Old Man is that it makes me think about my grandparents who were able and active and now have become retired and have their illnesses, this is why the poem makes me think of them. The old man in the poem was a capable man and has now become very dependant. It also makes me think that family is very important because one day you may end up with a dreadful disease and if you cannot turn to your family who can you turn to? My personal response to poem two is somewhat murky. I do not know how to put it but although it is an optimistic view of old age are the things this women wants to do that much to look forward to? I think we can do most of these things now, even as adults, but we do not because it is not advantageous and some of the things are just silly. For instance spending your pension and say weve no money for butter. Is that logical? This is where Im unclear may be shes saying let go out of logic! This poem also reminds me of the great Indian circle of life. This is where the native Americans believed we went round in a circle in our life. We would start life from the ground or mother, progress through childhood to become an adult then revert to being a child again, then the part to the ground.

Examining The Definition Of Western Orientalism Cultural Studies Essay

Examining The Definition Of Western Orientalism Cultural Studies Essay Orientalism transfigures the study of Middle East. Edward Said defines, Orientalism as the ethnocentric way Europe approaches the Asian regions.  Europeans looked upon the people of the Orient or the East and Arabic states as gullible and devoid of energy and initiative.   The invasion of European nations proved a radical decline in the natural prosperity of every nation they stumbled upon. The matters of the European sense of superiority and interest in control can also be seen in orientalist scholarship. Backward and barbaric, fundamentally incapable of social, political, or technological modernization, these were the descriptions of the non-western societies given to them by the people of west. Orientalism is the term that signifies the existing dislike and discrimination at the bottom of the political, economic, social and cultural discourses that were created to justify the imperialist Wests invasion and domination over the non-West. In other words, Orientalism was brought o ut as a matter of historical judgment. He illustrates Asian and Islamic Cultures during European imperialism and Europes goals of maintaining power and domination of non-Europeans.He argued that Europe used the Orient and imperialism as a symbol of its strength and superiority. Said suggested that Orientalists are treated as others-in this case, Muslims and Asians-and as objects defined not in terms of their own discourses, but solely in terms of standards and definitions imposed on them from outside. Among the influences underlying these definitions was, in Saids view, a long-standing Western concern with presenting Islam as opposed to Christianity. Said divided orientalism into two categories, one is the latent Orientalism which  is the unconscious, untouchable certainty about what the Orient is. Its basic content is static and unanimous. The Orient is seen as separate, eccentric, backward, silently different, sensual, and passive. It has a tendency towards despotism and away from progress. It displays feminine penetrability and supine malleability. Its progress and value are judged in terms of, and in comparison to, the West, so it is always the other, the conquerable, and the inferior whereas manifest Orientalism  is what is spoken and acted upon. It includes information and changes in knowledge about the Orient as well as policy decisions founded in Orientalist thinking. It is the expression in words and actions of Latent Orientalism. Any humanist would see that before the west intervened, each individual culture followed to their habitat, past experiences, and past knowledge.   Even though they were not modernized they still would have survived on their own just as they had been doing it for centuries.  Ã‚   However, a race of people could not be heartless enough to admit their destruction with a clear conscious and no remorse.   They would not pack their bags and leave a deserted crippled country. Orientalism and Western domination of the rest of the world. Understanding Orientalism is useful in the context of South Asia, as it enables us to understand the relationship between political hegemony and knowledge. Said says Orientalism exposes the European will to domination to create an orderly discipline of study a set of institutions, a latent vocabulary a subject matter, and subject races. It represents the power to make philological distinctions and the institutional force to make statements about Oriental mentality, the inscrutable Oriental, the unreliable and degenerate Oriental. The concept of Orientalism is useful in analysing prevailing literature, generalised and essentialised ideas such as Hinduism and Islam. It is also important in understanding womens movements and feminist discourses in South Asia. Many South Asian women used the criticism of Orientalism to criticise literature, imaginations and situations affecting women. Yet, the idea of Orientalism and the Western imagery of the Orient can be used ideologically by extremis t nationalists and fundamentalists who suppress the freedom of thought under the pretence of defending the Orient and fighting with the West. Misunderstanding the project of Orientalism may increase hostility between people and glorify myths such as West and Orient. It is no longer desirable, in our globalised world, to say that only South Asians can talk about South Asia, or only Hindu can talk about Hinduism and explain Indian religious traditions. For example, Tibetan Buddhism was scorned again during the Victorian period, when Buddhist studies were growing into an academic discipline. As depicted by Prof Lopez, The nineteenth-century constructions of Tibetan Buddhism are part of the heritage of Orientalism, described by Edward Said as a European mode for gaining authority over the Orient, a mode whereby Orientals were controlledpolitically and epistemologicallyby scholars in Europe and colonial officials in Asia. An important part of this scholarship was the self-aggrandizing ab ility of European scholars to write histories of Oriental civilizations that identified their origins, their classical periods, and their decline. The last of these (also called the modern period) was marked by decay and impotence. The modern period was also contemporaneous with European colonialism, one of whose products for the West was knowledge about the East. According to the exponents of this new field of knowledge, the facts and artefacts of the classical period were rescued by the emergent Western scholarship from the custody of the Orientals, who failed to recognize them for what they were and hence lost any right to them. The Orientalist would henceforth speak for the Oriental through heredity of scholarship whose task it was to represent the Orient because the Orient was incapable of representing itself. This representation of the East by the West carried with it the valuation of what was true and what was false, what was worthy and what was worthless. Furthermore, accord ing to Edward Saids  Orientalism, the texts produced by European Orientalists had the power to create not only knowledge but also the very reality they appear to define by delimiting the object of knowledge. Said argues that Orientalism also had more directly political effects: its representations of the Orient provided a justification for imperialism and a foundation for colonial policies and institutions. (Prof Donald S. Lopez Jr, 1994) Iraq is the ultimate illustration of how Orientalist conventional wisdom had it wrong.   Arguing that this Orientalism has driven America to contempt and discriminate against the Orient, and eventually to invade Afghanistan and Iraq as well as arousing certain public opinion against North Korea, may be criticized for its ignorance or exaggeration, especially when the world has observed the events of September attack (9/11) and the North Korean nuclear weapon issue.During the past two centuries Europe has ideologically constituted Asia in relation to itself with the purpose of putting its hand in it. In the past decade, Asian music and culture has spread throughout the West like poppies. The problem is that this Orientalism is still present, long after the imperialist invasions. Bushs policies are the evidence for the existence of Orientalism. The Bush administration invaded Iraq claiming that Iraq had Weapon of Mass destruction (WMD) and that Saddam Hussein was an unforgivable dict ator. As the supposed Weapon of mass destruction (WMD) have not yet been found and as Hussein was the representative of Iraq, chosen by its people, it is natural that the Iraqi people pronounce curse against Bush. With the amount of west intervention in Iraq, it was not possible for the US military force to occupy Iraq forever. During the Bush administration, he announced that the US military force will be withdrawn upon the establishment of a democratic government in Iraq, the US will probably still try to dominate Iraq in one way or another as long as they have an oil interest in Iraq. Their dominance, however, will not last for long, and the US army cannot help but leave Iraq. This is just a matter of time. Americans or people in the world felt over 9/11 attack. Nobody can deny that 9/11 was an atrocity that aroused anger around the world. The world, however, is aware that the broad antagonism of the west especially Americans against the Arab world was one of the main causes of 9 /11, and that the terrorist Bin Laden himself was, in the past nurtured by the US to fight against the USSR. In other words, 9/11 was a trap set by the US themselves then. The war in Iraq, perceptions have proven particularly relevant to the conduct of military operations. However, because Western outlook of this critical region, and forming the personal collection of most Westerners, are predetermined by each individuals experience within his/her culture. This experience is mostly shaped by the images, ideas and impressions retained from exposure to popular culture, media and more or less elaborate programmes or readings, and depending on ones educational accomplishments, personal or professional interests. The common characteristic between all these individual experiences, as far as the Middle-East is concerned, is that they are all immersed in a predominant consensus or discourse about the representation of this critical region of the world. Likewise, the launch of the Arabic lan guage Al-Jazeera satellite channel nearly ten years ago, transformed the television landscape in the Middle East. And over the past three years the channel has gained global reputation and became a name which governments and decision-makers across the world can hardly ignore. Even, In  The Lord of the Rings  film trilogy, the costumes of the Haradrims, a human race who allies itself with the enemy, are Middle-Eastern in style. When children are fed this kind of negative bias against the Middle-East, the subliminal cultural consciousness of whole generations is enduringly and profoundly impacted. The normality of such bad depictions clearly illustrates what several Western intellectuals qualify at best as acceptable political in correctness directed against Middle-Easterner The war declared on terrorism after the massacre of 9/11 in New York, with the subsequent military operations in Afghanistan and in Iraq, revives this tradition of improving interventionism by carrying on the old orientalist-related topic. Far from destroying the Great Divide between the West and the Rest, the wars of a new type support and separate the division between civilized and barbaric in the era of globalization. The explanation of ideology of the American, according to which there would no longer be outside or inside, because no country would now be released from terrorism. What now prevails is a sober vision of globalization, that of a fight to the death between two worlds, extending over all continents, between America, and the Islamic terrorism. But this originality goes back to schemes that are as old as the United States itself, insofar as this self-proclaimed exceptional, autonomous and providential imperial republic has an idealistic or ideal component qualified as es sential. Edward Said also refers to the medias ability to control and filter information as an invisible screen, releasing what it wants people to know and blacking out what it does not want them to know. To accomplish his goal Said sets up a methodological argument within which he addresses three main concepts. First, that imperialism is not about a specific moment in history, but rather a continuing interdependent dialogue between subject peoples and the dominant hegemony of the empire. Secondly, through the production of popular western literature authors have maintained a sense of continued supremacy upon subject peoples. This theorization that postcolonial domination has been institutionalized within western literature is a reference to the idea of a continuing interchange of ideas between dominant culture and oppressed peoples. Lastly, Saids comparison of colonialism to racism is integral to his argument about the continuation of oppression in a postcolonial environment. Throughout his analysis of culture, he focuses on the limitations of subjugated peoples within western culture and the reasons for their continued oppression. In Covering Islam (1997), Said postulates that, if knowledge is power, those who control the modern Western media (visual and print) are most powerful because they are able to determine what people like or dislike, what they wear and how they wear it, and what they should know and must not know about themselves. Said claims that untruth and falsehood about Islam and the Muslim world are consistently propagated in the media, in the name of objectivity, liberalism, freedom, democracy and progress Conclusion In this contemporary world, there is at least more than fifty percent intervention of the west towards the rest of the world. Edward Said argues in Orientalism, his landmark 1978 study of the relationship between the production of knowledge and the exercise of imperial power, the attitudes and images created by this tradition compose a closely bound system of created knowledge, of willed human work, about the Eastern other which the imperial powers of Europe and North America have historically used to invite and justify political and economic intervention and imperialism. Critics who have studied Orientalism in Europe, especially in nineteenth-century literature, have pointed out that there is much that can be learned about the Wests image of itself through the way Western writers have depicted the Orient. The influential popular magazine, The National Geographic, established in 1988 used to represent a window on the world for millions of middle class Americans at a time when movies and televisions were either not yet invented or in their infancy. The plain picturesque coverage of the Middle-East, by this magazine, showed the Arabs as exotic Orientals Mass media and movie industry developed throughout the twentieth century to become the main spreader of information, images and attitudes about the region to the public at large. The Arab Muslim progressively became a figure in American popular culture. No one can deny that orientalism has made great contributions to the study of Arab culture and history, and to the religion of Islam. Orientalists were and still are standing as experts in Arab-Islamic culture. They accumulated very rich knowledge and experience in this field of inquiry. In fact they made tremendous contribution to research, translation, and ultimately to the preservation and indexing of Arab-Islamic heritage.