Social Contract Theory of John Locke Essay Example for Free

Social Contract Theory of John Locke Essay Abstract John Locke’s theory of the Social Contract is †merely a reasoned description of sound government but also a history of government from the earliest scatterings of humans, through their association in a social contract, to their rebellion when the terms of that contract are breached. † 1 This theory gives us the reason behind the idea that government only works if the people want to be governed. Any individual in this instance has the expectation that they and what they do are only limited by their own will. So under the social contract theory, the individual gives up some of its right in order to reap the benefits of what a social order can offer. Introduction Locke’s Theory says that before a society is formed men live â€Å"free† in a state of nature. In this society, although there are great things about living free in such a society, it carries the risk of having problems about all kinds of things and without a civil law authority; man was the arbiter of all. Locke’s theory brings to mind the old west. In little town with no law officer, the people or community carried out its own brand of justice. A man protected his home and family by any means necessary. The social contract theory gives them that right. Criminological Theory The theory has basis in today’s criminal justice system in that there are segments of society that believe that the law doesn’t apply to them nor does it protect them. For example, the perception is that the amount of crime in the inner city is rampant. It is widely reported on the news every night. There are always stories on these neighborhoods if and only if it is sensational and /or involves a Caucasian citizen. This argument bears out when newspapers print banner headlines about Caucasian children being missing or kidnapped and the nation is on the lookout for this child. Then, when an African American child goes missing, the first thing we hear about is that a pedophile was seen with him or his parents were drug dealers or someone in his family was convicted of a crime. The residents of the inner city have then learned that there is one set of laws for minorities or residents of the inner city and one set for those in the suburbs. In some instances they believe that there is no need for you to report some things to law enforcement because some how it will be the residents fault. The social contract theory is alive and well in the inner city. In Bill Lawson’s paper â€Å"Crime, Minorities, and the social contract â€Å" he posits that if the citizens of a particular neighborhood or group believe that government hasn’t done their job by adequately protecting them from crime and they take matters into their own hands according to Locke they are well within their rights. This comes from the idea that â€Å"One of the most important benefits of the state provides that of protection. This protection can be from either from outside invaders or unsavory characters within the state, that is, those individuals who want to infringe on property right by stealing, defrauding, or destroying property. †2 In the inner city, this seems more prevalent so if the citizens of that area believe that they are under served they tend to look to other means to protect themselves. Conclusion There are areas in the inner city that don’t expect the police to show up when something happens and when they do show up the people don’t expect them to do much. That expectation brings the social contract back into focus. For so long they believed that the government was protecting them, then after a while they came to believe that they had to protect themselves thereby enforcing the social contract with themselves and not the government.

Peirce, Thirdness and Pedagogy :: Philosophy Education Teaching Learning Papers

Peirce, Thirdness and Pedagogy It is well known that the word pedagogy comes from the Greek paidagogos (teacher, pedagogue) which has the same root as paideia, usually translated "culture." The theme of this congress highlights the hope of many teachers of philosophy, that their teaching and writing has some impact on the culture. In this paper I want to show a connection between a Peircean understanding of persons (as interpreted by Royce) and its implications for how we go about conducting classes in philosophy. This connection is very recent with me, and it has changed my approach to teaching, especially at the "introductory" level. Our line of thought will have three major phases: 1) the Peircean understanding of persons as members of a community of interpretation; 2) its implications for a theory of pedagogy which emphasizes "induction into" more than "introduction to" the subject; and 3) the specific techniques that I have adopted in introductory classes to enact this theory of pedagogy. At the outset I should say that at least half of my teaching is at the introductory level, with classes ranging from 30 to 50 students each. It is these students, most of whom will not take any more philosophy, that I am most concerned about in this paper. How can their one exposure to academic philosophy convince them that it is a vital part of their heritage and a cultural resource that is absolutely necessary to a healthy society? Especially if a course is historically oriented, as ours is by catalogue description, it is easy for students to feel that philosophy is the irrelevant meanderings of dead white males! Good teaching can overcome this in some measure, but I believe that a Peircean understanding of persons can lead us to a theory of pedagogy that directs us towards the kind of classroom practices that will make the experience of philosophy more vital and significant for our students. I. Peirce, Thirdness, and Personhood Every philosophy of education in informed, at least implicitly, by a notion of personhood. Peirce focused more explicitly on epistemological understandings than personhood, but his epistemological writings supplied perspectives which were used by Josiah Royce in his last major work, The Problem of Christianity, to formulate a notion of the self as a member of a "community of interpretation." In his discussion of this concept, Royce was explicit about his debt to Peirce, especially Peirce’s notion of "thirdness.

Arctic Survival Simulation

Arctic Survival – From Success to Failure Contrary to the outcome exhibited by most other groups during the Arctic Survival exercise, our team score (34) was lower than my individual score (64). This is not to suggest that group collaboration is detrimental; in fact, our outcome was unique among the class and of great surprise to uk/the-professor-is-a-dropout/">the professor and entire class section. To be sure, pooling resources, elaboration of material, and support and motivation, while perhaps more time consuming, typically offer improved results.In theory, this model implies that a team’s collective knowledge can maximize utility and ensure the best outcome given the available information and perspectives. In our case, our group dynamics were such that we did not effectively utilize the resources we had, and consequently pooled a very limited amount of information. Rather than minimizing our risk, we increased it. I attribute much of our group’s failure at th is simulation to process loss, which is defined as the problems that arise from lack of effective coordination among group members.A number of factors at play could explain the process loss which led to our counterintuitive results. First and foremost, one must consider the way in which group dynamics impact the overall productivity of group collaboration. Our team consisted of K, R, W, J and myself. K and W were quite opinionated, and in contrast, both R and J were quiet – I did not have a sense of what their true opinions were. K dominated the group by putting forth an idea and adhering to that idea in spite of other opinions. Both K and W were vocal in reiterating what they thought were the most important elements of survival.In our case, we took no measures to counteract the impact of clashing personalities. Subsequently, a lack of civil discussion led to uncoordinated efforts with regards to how we should begin to approach a systematic analysis of the situation. An effec tive manager, however, should be skilled at identifying employee team dynamics and personalities; in order to maximize potential, the manager must have the emotional intelligence (that is, the ability to perceive, decipher, use, and pinpoint emotions accurately) to understand how team members differ with respect to emotions, motivation, perspectives, experience, and intentions.For example, though J was quiet and rarely spoke up or defended her ratings, I knew of J’s work ethic from class and understood that it was not as though she avoided work or pulling her weight. In other words, I recognized that her behavior was not attributed to social loafing, but to some other phenomenon. In this case, our group members seemed to exhibit varying levels of psychological safety, which is the belief that little to no risk exists in a particular group environment, and consequently each member feels free to contribute their true thoughts. I presumed that J and R did not feel psychologicall y safe.Anytime a group member disagreed and pressed them to argue for their position, they wavered and complied, indicating that they felt uncomfortable in taking a risk and voicing dissenting views. Their low psychological safety led to an apparent mode of groupthink, in which R and J preferred unanimity in the group over their perceived accurate valuations of arctic survival tools. Similar to the Asch experiment in which a dissenter purposely responded with the wrong answer regarding which stick length was equal, R and J were often silent even though their scores later revealed that their ranking of the rope was more in line with the ideal.Indeed, both R and J, but particularly J, demonstrated a primary symptom of groupthink by censoring herself and failing to communicate her unique viewpoints. Managing a group of people requires careful consideration of the group dynamics in play, paying close attention to symptoms of groupthink and low psychological safety which might lead to pr ocess loss. A manager must use his or her emotional intelligence and leverage group members’ differing perspectives.In doing so, team members will not fall victim to process loss, but will instead pool resources and elaborate on them, thereby facilitating healthy debate and a better end result than one could achieve on his or her own. In addition to identifying how team members differ with respect to emotions, motivation, perspectives, experience, and intentions, a manager must be cautious about his or her own actions and biases. While being confident and resolute is often positive, it can also blind a manager or group member to other valid viewpoints.Many fall victim to commitment and consistency, which is the tendency for individuals to adhere very strongly to a course of action because they feel pressure to act in line with their original declared commitments. Indeed, K exhibited strong commitment and consistency to certain declarations and did not back down. In particular , he was quite stubborn in his opinion that rope was the second most important asset for survival behind matches. When pressed to explain his case, his justifications were vague; yet, he was very insistent.I mentioned, for example, that rope was not necessary in killing prey for food (in comparison to the hand ax), and challenged him to elaborate on his view. He tried to reason by convincing me that rope was the better choice, but ultimately did a poor job at elaborating. The more we debated, the more steadfast he became – he had committed to a course of action, ranking the rope highly, and felt the pressure to follow through. He couldn’t back down now. Rather than counteracting my challenge that a hand ax was more important, he simply offered that he did not agree without any explanation as to why.What’s more, he did not listen to the ways in which an alternative solution might be better (in this case, the hand ax), but instead disregarded my perspective and st ood firm that the rope was more crucial to survival, thus confirming his previous beliefs. He defended his position and avoided information that potentially proved his theory wrong. Not only does this exemplify commitment and consistency, but also confirmation bias, which is an individual’s tendency to disregard information that would contradict his or her views and instead only focus on those explanations that confirm them.K’s adherence was convincing to W, who soon after agreed with his valuation of the rope. W’s support coupled with the others group members’ lack of any objections whatsoever throughout the simulation led to my almost immediate compliance on the subject matter. I let them have the rope, and they let me have the hand ax to follow. The next point of contention was the canvas. Though they all agreed that the hand ax was important, they did not believe the canvas to be significant. I was the only obstacle who expressed a different opinion.K and W’s mutual agreement coupled with R and J’s silence, seemed to bolster their insistence that the canvas was unnecessary. Eventually, J broke the silence and agreed with K and W. J was more likely to feel as though the canvas was insignificant given K and W’s dominant opinion regarding the matter. Once again, I succumbed and agreed to rank the canvas lower down. Though I certainly did not consider myself a manager in this simulation, it allowed me to reflect on my own dealings within a group context and as a potential manager.I was aware of the group dynamics and recognized the limitations that commitment and consistency, social proofing, confirmation bias, and groupthink provided, but also knew that likeability was a key strategy for influencing others. I prodded R and J to offer more insight, but my efforts often fell short. Rather than taking any methodical approach, K and W would dominate conversation, and I assumed the role of mediator, trying to compro mise between all perspectives. I could not claim to have expert power, but perhaps I could convince the group that we should take a more systematic and methodical approach to analyzing this situation.Unfortunately, my efforts probably provided more harm than good. I used reciprocity by telling K and W that he could have rope, if I could have the hand ax next. We continued to negotiate – W could have navigation guide next if the canvas could follow shortly after. The simulation consisted of many exchanges such as these. Reciprocity, which is the tendency for members to agree to a course of action of an individual who has done them a favor, miserably backfired in our case.Not only did group members (myself included) interrupt each other and fail to exert any sort of coordination, but my attempt to give everyone what they wanted eventually led to a higher valuation of the navigation guide. I should have known that R and J were easily persuaded and would not speak up about this u nwise decision, and yet I went through with it. In an effort to gain support through likeability and reciprocity, I sacrificed an effective decision-making process that would have led to a higher probability of success.Group collaboration is typically expected to prevail in this simulation due to pooling of resources and elaboration of material, and in retrospect, our group did a poor job of doing so; framed this way, it is not surprising that our outcome was the exact opposite of the simulation’s intended effect. Though only a simulation, the Arctic Survival exercise certainly illuminated the various ways in which I could be susceptible to ineffective managing. These models and concepts are not simply applicable to this and other simulations, but also provide insight into my potential downfalls.Perhaps it is necessary to assign a devil’s advocate to the group so that teams are not victimized by groupthink; instead a concerted effort to have varying opinions would insp ire thoughtful debate and ultimately more effective outcomes. Likeability is an important weapon of influence, but should not come at the expense of sound decisions – a manager must always exhibit a healthy balance of likeability and firm consideration of all the options. I must be cognizant of my team members and make sure to harness each individual’s strengths, going to great lengths to avoid the common pitfalls exhibited in this simulation.

Quain Lawn and Garden, Inc. Case Analysis Essay

After a false retirement Bill and Jeanne Quain realized their destined action in the plant and shrub business. The need for a high-quality commercial fertilizer prompted the innovation of a blended fertilizer called â€Å"Quain-Grow†. Working with chemists at Rutgers University, a mixture was constructed from four compounds, C-30, C-92, D-21 and E-11. Specifications (i.e constraints) for the mixture demanded that Chemical E-11 must constitute for at least 15% of the blend, C-92 and C-30 must together constitute at least 45% of the blend, and D-21 and C-92 can together constitute no more than 30% of the blend. Lastly, Quain-Grow is packaged and sold in 50-pound bags. The objective of this analysis is to determine what blend of the four chemicals will allow Quain to minimize the cost of a 50-lb bag of the fertilizer. To do this we have used Linear Programming (LP) – a technique specifically designed to help managers make decisions relative to the allocation of resources. In this case, C-30 = , C-92 = , D-21 = , and E-11 = . The constraints for this case were translated into linear equations (i.e. inequalities) to mathematically express their meaning. The first constraint  that C-11 must constitute for at least 15% of the blend can be expressed as: . The second constraint that C-92 and C-30 must together constitute at least 45% of the blend can be expressed as: . The third constraint that D-21 and C-92 can together constitute no more than 30% of the blend can be expressed as: . Lastly, the fourth constraint is that Quain-Grow is packaged and sold in 50-lb bags can be expressed as: . These equations were obtained and entered into a POM LP a s a minimizing function. The objective function of this case was calculated and expressed as . These results show that we can recommend the following ratios of C-30, C-92, D-21 and E-11 respectively so that the cost of a 50-lb bag of fertilizer is minimized: 7.5 lbs, 15 lbs, 0 lbs and 27.5 lbs. In checking to see if these align with the given restraints we found the following to be true; ; ; and . The actually cost result of this minimization analysis was calculated to be $3.35 per 50 lb bag of fertilizer. The equation for this result is as follows: . Additionally, we performed a sensitivity analysis to project how much our recommendation may change if there are changes in the variables or input data. This type of analysis is also called postoptimality analysis. There are two approaches to determining just how sensitive an optimal solution is to changes: (1) a trial-and-error approach and (2) the analytic postoptimality method. In this case analysis we used the analytic postoptimality method. After we had solved the LP problem, we used the POM software to determine a range of changes in problem parameters that would not affect the optimal solution or change the variables in the solution. While using the information in the sensitivity report, it is pertinent to assume the consideration of a change to only a single input data value at a time. This is because the sensitivity information does not generally apply to simultaneous changes in several input data values. Our main objective when performing this analysis was to obtain a shadow price (or dual value) –  the value of one additional unit of a scarce resource in LP. In any scenario, the shadow price is valid as long as the right-hand side of the constraint stays in a range within which all current corner points continue to exist. The information to compute the upper and lower limits of this range is given by the entries labeled Allowable Increase and Allowable Decrease in the sensitivity report. Our results from the sensitivity analysis were produced in two parts. The first shows the impact of changing the objective function coefficients on the optimal solution and gives the range of values (lower and upper bound) for which the optimal solution remains unchanged. The second part of the report shows the impact of changing the R.H.S of the constraints of the objective function value, with the help of Dual Value (Shadow Price), with the lower and upper bounds for which the shadow price is valid. Lastly, these results explain that the price of C-30 can vary within the range of .09 to Infinity without affecting the optimal solution. Likewise the range for C-92 is between –Infinity and .12, the range for D-21 is between 15 and 42.5, and the range for E-11 is between 30 and Infinity. The second part of this sensitivity analysis show the ranges for which the shadow prices are valid. Constraint 1 has a dual value of 0 and is valid between –Infinity and 27.5. Constraint 2 has a dual value of -.08 and is valid between 15 and 42.5. Constraint 3 has a dual value of .03 and is valid between 0 and 22.5. Finally, Constraint 4 has a dual value of -.04 and is valid between 30 and Infinity.

Sort and Out of Sorts

Sort and Out of Sorts Sort and Out of Sorts Sort and Out of Sorts By Maeve Maddox A reader wonders if the phrase â€Å"out of sorts† might be worth a post. I think it is. The OED has four separate entries for sort as a noun. The first entry, marked â€Å"obsolete,† defines sort as â€Å"the fate or lot of a particular person or persons.† The word was borrowed from French, but it derives from a Latin verb meaning â€Å"to cast lots.† One’s sort was one’s destiny or fate. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the pilgrims draw straws to see who will tell the first tale. The knight wins the draw: â€Å"[whether] by aventure [happenstance], or sort [fate], or cas [accident], the truth is this: the cut fell to the knight.† A related word is sortilege: 1. The practice of casting lots in order to decide something or to forecast the future; divination based on this procedure or performed in some other way; sorcery, magic, witchcraft. 2. An act or instance of divining, choosing, or deciding by the drawing or casting of lots. A second meaning of sort is â€Å"a measure of weight for figs and raisins,† not a use likely to be encountered even by a lover of early English texts. Computing has coined a new use for sort as a noun: â€Å"the action of arranging items of data in a prescribed sequence.† For example, â€Å"We decided to remove the umlauts before performing the sort.† The most usual modern use of the noun sort is in the sense of â€Å"a kind, species, or variety.† The meaning of sort as a noun has evolved from â€Å"what is allotted to one by fate† to such concepts as condition, rank, class, order, category, and variety. The expression â€Å"out of sorts† to mean â€Å"not in normal condition† or â€Å"irritable or peevish† appears frequently in the context of sports and celebrity-watching: The rehearsal went on for nearly seven hours, and the soloists were tired, hungry, and out of sorts. Madonna appears out of sorts as she leaves a Kabbala Centre with daughter Lourdes and sons Rocco and David in New York City on Friday. Beyoncà © looked a little out of sorts on Monday night as she watched the basketball game with husband Jay Z. Rory McIlroy seemed a bit out of sorts in the third round of the Barclays. Harrison Ford has a new movie on the way so hes out on the promotional trail- but it would seem he was a bit out of sorts when he was interviewed by Conan OBrien. As tends to happen with idioms, â€Å"out of sorts† is sometimes misused by writers unfamiliar with its meaning, as in this sentence about the running scene in Forrest Gump from an entertainment site called Cinemablend: Actually considering the CGI  that the film used, and what it must have cost in the mid-1990s, it seems a little out of sorts that the studio would be bent out of shape over the running scene. The writer seems to be using â€Å"out of sorts† to mean unusual. The phrase â€Å"out of sorts† means, â€Å"not in the normal condition of good health,† or â€Å"in a low-spirited, irritable, or peevish state.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How Many Tenses in English?50 Idioms About Roads and PathsUsing Writing Bursts to Generate Ideas and Enthusiasm

Hallstatt Culture - Early European Iron Age Culture

Hallstatt Culture - Early European Iron Age Culture The Hallstatt Culture (~800-450 BC) is what archaeologists call the early Iron Age groups of central Europe. These groups were truly independent of one another, politically, but they were interconnected by a vast, extant trading network such that the material culturetools, kitchenware, housing style, farming techniqueswere similar across the region. Hallstatt Culture Roots At the end of the Urnfield stage of the Late Bronze Age, ca. 800 BC, the central Europeans were mostly farmers (herding and growing crops). The Hallstatt culture included an area between central France to western Hungary and from the Alps to central Poland. The term includes many different unrelated regional groups, who used the same set of material culture because of a strong network of trade and exchange. By 600 BC, iron tools spread into northern Britain and Scandinavia; elites concentrated in western and central Europe. The Hallstatt elites became concentrated within a zone between what is now the Burgundy region of eastern France and southern Germany. These elites were powerful and located in at least 16 hillforts called seats of power or fà ¼rstensitz. Hallstatt Culture and Hillforts Hillforts such as Heuneburg, Hohenasberg, Wurzburg, Breisach, Vix, Hochdorf, Camp de Chassey and Mont Lassois have substantial fortifications in the form of bank-and-ditch defense. At least tenuous connections with the Mediterranean Greek and Etruscan civilizations are in evidence at the hillforts and some non-hillfort settlements. Burials were stratified with a few extremely richly outfitted chamber graves surrounded by up to a hundred or so secondary burials. Two dated to the Hallstatt which contain clear connections with Mediterranean imports are Vix (France), where an elite female burial contained a huge Greek krater; and Hochdorf (Germany), with three gold-mounted drinking horns and a large Greek cauldron for mead. Hallstatt elites clearly had a taste for Mediterranean wines, with numerous amphorae from Massalia (Marseille), bronze vessels and Attic pottery recovered from many fà ¼rstensitze. One distinctive trait of Hallstatt elite sites was vehicle burials. Bodies were placed in a timber-lined pit along with the ceremonial four-wheeled vehicle and the horse gearbut not the horsesthat were used to move the body to the grave. The carts often had elaborate iron wheels with multiple spokes and iron studs. Read more about hillforts Read more about Heuneburg Sources Bujnal J. 1991. Approach to the study of the Late Hallstatt and Early La Tà ¨ne periods in eastern parts of Central Europe: results from ​comparative classification of Knickwandschale. Antiquity 65:368-375. Cunliffe B. 2008. The Three Hundred Years that Changed the World: 800-500 BC. Chapter 9 in Europe Between the Oceans. Themes and Variations: 9000 BC-AD 1000. New Haven: Yale University Press. p, 270-316 Marciniak A. 2008. Europe, Central and Eastern. In: Pearsall DM, editor. Encyclopedia of Archaeology. New York: Academic Press. p 1199-1210. Wells PS. 2008. Europe, Northern and Western: Iron Age. In: Pearsall DM, editor. Encyclopedia of Archaeology. London: Elsevier Inc. p 1230-1240.

Business Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business Marketing - Essay Example Among this two, the marketers mainly use the concept of adaption i.e. changing the product according to needs of the customers belonging to different countries as various major companies have failed due to use of the straight extension policy. One of such examples could be Google Inc. Google entered in the year 2007 and became one of the leading search engines in the Chinese market. However, Google had been using the same marketing mix in China also. The internet content in China was heavily censored by the government and soon the problems in the form of delays lead to customer dissatisfaction and Google started to lose market share. To make things worse for the company, Google started facing competition from local search engine company Baidu. Google tried to censor the contents but it turned out to be a bit too late and Google had to leave the country. This case shows how important the external environmental factors are important in case of international marketing and how neglecting those factors can lead to heavy prices (Czinzota, Ronkainen, Moffett, Marinova & Marinov, 2009, pp. 423-429). Answer-2 Intermediaries are the channel partners that help the marketers to reach out to customers. Intermediaries are mainly middle –men like wholesalers, retailer, etc (Kotler, 2001, p. 25). From the point of view of the marketers intermediaries are of great help when it comes to market expansion and customer reach. Intermediaries help the marketers to reach to different customers within a relatively short period of time. The intermediaries like wholesalers and retailers help the marketers in breaking the bulk and selling the end product to the customers. Without the help of the intermediaries it would be extremely difficult to reach to the customers on their own. Also sometimes intermediaries may actually have better knowledge of a certain section of the market as compared to the marketers. Hence the marketers can actually use the knowledge and expertise of the in termediaries to gain customer insights. Also in some cases the reputations of the intermediaries help the marketers in case of promoting the product. The importances of the intermediaries become even more important in international marketing. In case of international marketing the marketers operate in alien conditions. The brand awareness of the marketers in the international market is very low. Also the marketers have little insight and knowledge about the customers. If the marketers would look to invest directly in the market it could prove to be of great risks due to the facts mentioned above. Hence, most of the times the marketers look for joint ventures or strategic alliance with some local firms. These firms usually have good insights about the local market. This allows the company to use the marketing and sales of the local firm. In this way the intermediaries help the marketers in cost as well as in risk reduction (Henry, 2008, p. 89). One of the major concerns in case of th e use of the intermediaries for the marketers has been the issue off control. On numerous