Circularity and Stability :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Circularity and StabilityWilliam Alston argues that there is no way to show that any of our basic sources of look is authoritative without falling into epistemic circularity, i.e. relying at some point on premises that are themselves derived from the very same source. His appeal to practical rationality is an attempt to measure out our sources of view without relying on beliefs that are based on the sources under scrutiny and thus without just presupposing their reliability. I argue that this attempt fails and that Ernest Sosas appeal to the tackiness theory of justification fails, too, if it is understood as an attempt to stupefy a similar external evaluation of our sources of belief that does not just assume their reliability. I concluded that there is no alternative to taking an internal view to our own reliability and embracing epistemic circularity. Why suppose that any of the bases on which we regularly and unquestionably form beliefs are reliable? Why suppose that sense perception, in particular, is a reliable source of information of the physical purlieu? These are questions that William Alston raises in his recent books Perceiving God (1991) and The Reliability of Sense Perception (1993). He argues that there is no way to show that any of our basic sources of belief is reliable without falling into epistemic circularity. There is no way to show that such a source is reliable without relying at some point or another on premises that are themselves derived from that source. So we cannot have any non-circular reasons for supposing that the sources on which we base our beliefs are reliable.Alston thinks, however, that there is a way of evaluating the reliability of our sources of belief that is independent of the beliefs based on those sources and that does not therefore fall into circularity. I will argue that Alstons attempt to find such an external support for our sources of beliefs fails. I will also consider Ernest Sosas (1994, 1995) most rece nt attempt to deal with the problem and argue that if it is understood as a related attempt to find an external standpoint from which to respect our sources of belief, it fails, too. I will conclude that there is no alternative to a purely internal approach in which we evaluate our sources of beliefs in terms of the beliefs that derive from the very same sources and thus to embracing epistemic circularity.

Act two then presents a quarrelsome Edward, as he refuses to perform :: English Literature

Act two then presents a quarrelsome Edward, as he refuses to perform even much kingly duties. Scotland has captured MortimerWhat techniques does Marlowe use to engage audiences interest in thefirst two acts of the foregather?Marlowe studied the Bible and the Reformation theologians as easy asphilosophy and history at Corpus Christi College Cambridge for sixyears but instead of continuing and taking holy orders, Marlowe wentto London and became a dramatist. He made important friends such asSir Walter Raleigh. Most of his plays were written in blank verse,with Edward II be no exception. It is a historical tragedy playad was Marlowes last play. Later it inspired playwright and directorBertolt Brecht and Lion Feuchtwanger to write Leben Eduards desZweiten von England in 1924.Edward II is an intense and swiftly pathetic account of a kingcontrolled by his basest passions, a weak man who becomes a puppet ofhis homosexual lover, and pays a tragic price for forsaking the judicature of hi s nation. The play is set in early fourteenth-centuryEngland, during a period when England was surrounded by enemies inScotland, Ireland, Denmark, and France. Edward, preoccupied by thebanishment of his lover, Gaveston, barely acknowledges the crises thatthreaten his country he indulges his passions and forgets about hisduties, failing to recognize that his refusal to attend to stateaffairs is eroding his royal authority. He picks his battles,preferring those petty skirmishes over Gavestons fate to those thatwould benefit his incur and enhance the power of the state.Edward II was first performed in 1594, played by the Earl ofPembrokes Men. The next performance indicates 1617, Queen Elizabethsreign. As the country being protestant at this time, parts of the playwould be particularly interesting and entertaining when the play wasperformed, which may not have the same effect nowadays. For practicewhen Gaveston and Edward demonstrate acts of violence towards the kingand banish him to be imprisoned in the tower. Entertaining violencetowards the Catholics would have been in those days.The first scene opens with Gaveston reading a letter from Edward II,newly crowned sovereign of England after the death of Edward I.Gaveston had been banished from court because of his corruptinginfluence on the young prince Edward. Now, with the elder Edward outof the way, Edward II is inviting Gaveston to withdraw and share thekingdom with him. In a few quick lines, Gavestons soliloquy makesclear the homosexual nature of their relationship (take me in thyarms) as well as the theme of power that runs throughout the play.

Comparing the Messages of Animal Dreams and The Bean Trees Essay

Political and Social Messages of Animal Dreams and The Bean Trees Perhaps The Poisonwood Bible is Barbara Kingsolvers best work. It was maculation reading this book (which centers around The congou tea and what the western world has done to this country) that I began to make the connection that all of Kingsolvers books contain a political and affectionate message. She uses her stance as an author to perch her readers to situations and issues that she feels are important. Kingsolvers voice can be heard in Animal Dreams when the main character, Codi talks about what happened to her sister, Hallie in Nicaragua, and how unaware Americans were to what was happening in that country. It make the news in Tucson, at least for a day. You just forgot. Thats the great American disease, we forget. We watch the disasters parade by on TV, and every time we enunciate Forget it. This is someone elses problem (Animal Dreams 316). The Bean Trees touches on the plight of refugees, both in the real keep struggle of a Guatemalan couple living illegally in the US, as well as her main character that in a way is a refugee herself, although plainly from Kentucky. In Animal Dreams, Kingsolver looks at the plenty living in Nicaragua and how the US government was/is involved. While the characters and personal stories are fictionalized, the situation seems taken from real life headlines. Kingsolver also touches on environmental issues in Animal Dreams, through the people of the fictional town of Grace, Arizonas struggle against an all consuming mines attempt to poison their pee and crops. For this paper I decided to digest on Barbara Kingsolvers first two novels, The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams. The first topic that ... ...html>. Duval, Alex. Shafted How Phelps Dodge Strips Miners Of Their Rights. Tucson Weekly 19 march 1998. 25 March 1998 <http//www.weeklywire.com/tw/03-19-98/Curr3.html>. Kingsolver, Barbara. Animal Dreams. unseasoned York HarperCollins, 1990. ___. The Bean Trees. New York HarperCollins, 1988. ___. High Tide in Tucson Essays From Now or Never.New York HarperCollins, 1995. Perry, Donna. Backtalk Women Writers Speak Out. New Brunswick Rutgers University Press, 1993. Schutz, Jorian Polis. The uphold of the Sandinistas on Nicaragua. Jorian Polis Shutz, 1998. <http//www.jorian.com/san.html>. Smiley, Jane. In One teeny-weeny Town, the Weight of the World. New York Times on the Web. 2 September 1990. 18 October 1998. <http//www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/18/specials/kingsolver-animal.html>. comparability the Messages of Animal Dreams and The Bean Trees EssayPolitical and Social Messages of Animal Dreams and The Bean Trees Perhaps The Poisonwood Bible is Barbara Kingsolvers best work. It was while reading this book (which centers around The Congo and what the western world has done to this country) that I began to make the connection that all of Kingsolvers books contai n a political and social message. She uses her stance as an author to illuminate her readers to situations and issues that she feels are important. Kingsolvers voice can be heard in Animal Dreams when the main character, Codi talks about what happened to her sister, Hallie in Nicaragua, and how unaware Americans were to what was happening in that country. It made the news in Tucson, at least for a day. You just forgot. Thats the great American disease, we forget. We watch the disasters parade by on TV, and every time we say Forget it. This is someone elses problem (Animal Dreams 316). The Bean Trees touches on the plight of refugees, both in the real life struggle of a Guatemalan couple living illegally in the US, as well as her main character that in a way is a refugee herself, although only from Kentucky. In Animal Dreams, Kingsolver looks at the people living in Nicaragua and how the US government was/is involved. While the characters and personal stories are fictio nalized, the situation seems taken from real life headlines. Kingsolver also touches on environmental issues in Animal Dreams, through the people of the fictional town of Grace, Arizonas struggle against an all consuming mines attempt to poison their water and crops. For this paper I decided to focus on Barbara Kingsolvers first two novels, The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams. The first topic that ... ...html>. Duval, Alex. Shafted How Phelps Dodge Strips Miners Of Their Rights. Tucson Weekly 19 March 1998. 25 March 1998 <http//www.weeklywire.com/tw/03-19-98/Curr3.html>. Kingsolver, Barbara. Animal Dreams. New York HarperCollins, 1990. ___. The Bean Trees. New York HarperCollins, 1988. ___. High Tide in Tucson Essays From Now or Never.New York HarperCollins, 1995. Perry, Donna. Backtalk Women Writers Speak Out. New Brunswick Rutgers University Press, 1993. Schutz, Jorian Polis. The Impact of the Sandinistas on Nicaragua. Jorian Polis Shutz, 1998. <http//www.j orian.com/san.html>. Smiley, Jane. In One Small Town, the Weight of the World. New York Times on the Web. 2 September 1990. 18 October 1998. <http//www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/18/specials/kingsolver-animal.html>.

Comparing the Messages of Animal Dreams and The Bean Trees Essay

Political and Social Messages of Animal Dreams and The Bean Trees Perhaps The Poisonwood Bible is Barbara Kingsolvers best work. It was go reading this book (which centers around The congou and what the western world has done to this country) that I began to make the connection that all of Kingsolvers books contain a political and amicable message. She uses her stance as an author to effloresce her readers to situations and issues that she feels are important. Kingsolvers voice can be heard in Animal Dreams when the main character, Codi talks about what happened to her sister, Hallie in Nicaragua, and how unaware Americans were to what was happening in that country. It make the news in Tucson, at least for a day. You just forgot. Thats the great American disease, we forget. We watch the disasters parade by on TV, and every time we advance Forget it. This is someone elses problem (Animal Dreams 316). The Bean Trees touches on the plight of refugees, both in the real conduct struggle of a Guatemalan couple living lawlessly in the US, as well as her main character that in a way is a refugee herself, although whole from Kentucky. In Animal Dreams, Kingsolver looks at the population living in Nicaragua and how the US government was/is involved. While the characters and personal stories are fictionalized, the situation seems taken from real life headlines. Kingsolver also touches on environmental issues in Animal Dreams, through the people of the fictional town of Grace, Arizonas struggle against an all consuming mines attempt to poison their water and crops. For this paper I decided to localise on Barbara Kingsolvers first two novels, The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams. The first topic that ... ...html>. Duval, Alex. Shafted How Phelps Dodge Strips Miners Of Their Rights. Tucson Weekly 19 run into 1998. 25 March 1998 <http//www.weeklywire.com/tw/03-19-98/Curr3.html>. Kingsolver, Barbara. Animal Dreams. young York HarperC ollins, 1990. ___. The Bean Trees. New York HarperCollins, 1988. ___. High Tide in Tucson Essays From Now or Never.New York HarperCollins, 1995. Perry, Donna. Backtalk Women Writers Speak Out. New Brunswick Rutgers University Press, 1993. Schutz, Jorian Polis. The move of the Sandinistas on Nicaragua. Jorian Polis Shutz, 1998. <http//www.jorian.com/san.html>. Smiley, Jane. In One dwarfish Town, the Weight of the World. New York Times on the Web. 2 September 1990. 18 October 1998. <http//www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/18/specials/kingsolver-animal.html>. analyse the Messages of Animal Dreams and The Bean Trees EssayPolitical and Social Messages of Animal Dreams and The Bean Trees Perhaps The Poisonwood Bible is Barbara Kingsolvers best work. It was while reading this book (which centers around The Congo and what the western world has done to this country) that I began to make the connection that all of Kingsolvers books contain a political and social message. She uses her stance as an author to illuminate her readers to situations and issues that she feels are important. Kingsolvers voice can be heard in Animal Dreams when the main character, Codi talks about what happened to her sister, Hallie in Nicaragua, and how unaware Americans were to what was happening in that country. It made the news in Tucson, at least for a day. You just forgot. Thats the great American disease, we forget. We watch the disasters parade by on TV, and every time we say Forget it. This is someone elses problem (Animal Dreams 316). The Bean Trees touches on the plight of refugees, both in the real life struggle of a Guatemalan couple living illegally in the US, as well as her main character that in a way is a refugee herself, although only from Kentucky. In Animal Dreams, Kingsolver looks at the people living in Nicaragua and how the US government was/is involved. While the characters and personal stories are fictionalized, the situ ation seems taken from real life headlines. Kingsolver also touches on environmental issues in Animal Dreams, through the people of the fictional town of Grace, Arizonas struggle against an all consuming mines attempt to poison their water and crops. For this paper I decided to focus on Barbara Kingsolvers first two novels, The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams. The first topic that ... ...html>. Duval, Alex. Shafted How Phelps Dodge Strips Miners Of Their Rights. Tucson Weekly 19 March 1998. 25 March 1998 <http//www.weeklywire.com/tw/03-19-98/Curr3.html>. Kingsolver, Barbara. Animal Dreams. New York HarperCollins, 1990. ___. The Bean Trees. New York HarperCollins, 1988. ___. High Tide in Tucson Essays From Now or Never.New York HarperCollins, 1995. Perry, Donna. Backtalk Women Writers Speak Out. New Brunswick Rutgers University Press, 1993. Schutz, Jorian Polis. The Impact of the Sandinistas on Nicaragua. Jorian Polis Shutz, 1998. <http//www.jorian.com/san.htm l>. Smiley, Jane. In One Small Town, the Weight of the World. New York Times on the Web. 2 September 1990. 18 October 1998. <http//www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/18/specials/kingsolver-animal.html>.

Privacy in the Workplace Essay

There are specific laws that protect consumers as well as employees in the workplace. Many of these laws relate to others. Laws, such as, FERPA, SOX, CIPA, and COPPA also feed rights to individuals under the First Amendment.Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects a childs student records from being viewed without parental consent. It gives parents access to their childs direction records, an opportunity to seek to have the records amended, and some control over the disclosure of information from the records. When the child becomes 18 years old, the parents are no longer compel to have rights to access the childs personal records. tykerens Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is also engineered to the protection of children. Children are to be protected physically and mentally while in the care of school professionals. Schools must have policies in place protecting children from accessing harmful or obscene content over the internet. This law requires that K-12 schools and libraries in the United States use Internet filters and implement other measures to protect children from harmful online content as a condition for federal funding.The Child Online Protection Act (COPPA) applies to the online collection of personal information by persons or entities under U.S. jurisdiction from children under 13 years of age. It details what a website operator must include in a covert policy, when and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent or guardian, and what responsibilities an operator has to protect childrens privacy and safety online including restrictions on the marketing to those under 13. While children under 13 can legally give out personal information with their parents permission, many websites blackball underagechildren from using their services altogether due to the amount of cash and work involved in the law compliance.SarbanesOxley (SOX) set new or deepen standards for all U.S. public company boards, management and public accounting fir ms. The sections of the bill cover responsibilities of a public corporations board of directors, adds criminal penalties for indisputable misconduct, and required the Securities and Exchange Commission to create regulations to define how public corporations are to comply with the law.

Structural Functionalism

Structural functionalism Introduction A (Chagua hii) Structural functionalism, or merely functionalism, is a framework for building theory that sees golf club as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. 1 This burn up looks at purchase order through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the affable structures that shape society as a whole, and believes that society has evolved like organisms. 2 This approach looks at both social structure and social functions.Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements namely norms, customs, traditions, and institutions. A common analogy, popularized by Herbert Spencer, presents these parts of society as organs that work toward the proper functioning of the body as a whole. 3 In the most grassroots terms, it simply emphasizes the effort to impute, as rigorously as possible, to each feature, custom, or practice, its effect on the functioning of a supposedly stable, cohesive system.For Talcott Parsons, structural-functionalism came to quarter a particular stage in the methodological development of social science, rather than a specific school of thought. 45 The structural functionalism approach is a macrosociological analysis, with a broad focus on social structures that shape society as a whole. INTRODUCTION B (au chagua hii) Functionalism is a consensus perspective that sees society as base on shared values into which members are socialized. It sees society as like an organism, each part performing functions to maintain the system as a whole.For example, religion, the upbringing system and the family perform socialization functions. The functionalist theory though developed from the ideas of theorists such(prenominal) as Herbert Spencer and Emile Durkheim, can trace its origins as far back as the institution father of sociology, Auguste Comte. Stratification refers to the system where society ranks categories of p eople in a hierarchy of classes (upper, middle and lower class) based on a criterion or a combination such as religion, color, race, age, sex, wealth, occupation, and education.It represents the structured inequality characterized by groups of people with differential access to the rewards of society because of their relative position in the social hierarchy. SRENGHTS AND WEAKNESSES The functionalist theory has much strength as well as weaknesses. One of the strengths of Functionalism is that it asserts that there are purposes for social conditions or facts. For example, under a functionalist point of take up the janitor and the sewer worker all told contribute to the function of the entire unit.Without serving these purposes, the social structure would not function properly. Functionalists are of the assumption that the needs of society are greater than the needs of individuals in order words, the good of society is greater than the good of the individual thus contributing to the maintenance of society. Davis and Moore argue that all societies need some mechanism for insuring effective role allocation and performance. One of the weaknesses of this perspective, however, is that some could arguably assert that poverty serves a function in such a society.You can make this argument, but as Durkheim saw function, he was much more than optimistic and may have argued that poverty was more a product of anomie than actually serving a function. Another, more general criticism of functionalism is the argument that it is somewhat naive in that it assumes that there is consensus that everyone in the structure holds the same norms and values that we all essentially believe in and work for the same thing.Many theorists take issue with this component and argue that Western society is more accurately characterized as groups of people in a society competing for resources, wealth, and power. More importantly, these groups do not all believe the same thing (in fact, umpteen are counter-culture) and are thus in conflict with each other. Many Conflict theorists would take the pessimistic view expressed earlier that poverty serves a function in a society.

The Ethics of Belief

Argumentative see on The Ethics of Belief PHIL 2641 Online Section 001 February 13, 2008 William K. Clifford sets out to show in The Ethics of Belief that it is legal injury always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence In this paper, I will show that his argument lacks key definitions needed in order to found his inference upon and that it begs the interrogative sentence as to what qualifies as insufficient evidence. Furthermore, I will show that the primary issue is not the belief but the results of the belief that is important and that each(prenominal) vox populi and interpretation should be based upon said results.Clifford introduces his argument by using the example of a shipbuilder who allows his ship to be used on a transoceanic voyage despite its age and the supposed need for remunerate. The vessel sinks and Clifford asserts that the ship owner is guilty of the death of the passengers because his belief in the ships seaworthiness was unsupported and ill-founded. However, there are several problems with his conclusion. First, Clifford ignores the ship owners reliance on the vessels past sailing score as being sufficient evidence as to its stable condition.The fact that the vessel had made many a voyage without incident can be viewed as sufficient proof of its ability to set sail safely. This begs the question, How can one finalize what constitutes sufficient evidence? The ship owner by relying on the history of the ship alone could have met his obligation. A second problem with Cliffords argument is that he likely oversimplified the cause of the ships sinking. by chance the ship sank because there was a collision with another ship. Perhaps it sank because it struck an iceberg in the water.It may have sunk because of human error. In all of these scenarios no amount of fortification of the ships structure would have Argumentative Essay on The Ethics of Belief Page 2 of 3 prevented the demise of the voyage. Any one or combination of these causes could have been responsible for the ships fate, yet the ships age and need for repair is identified as the sole cause of the ships sinkage. Finally, Clifford fails to address the source of the ship owners doubt and therefore leaves a spate of unanswered questions.If the question of right or wrong has to do with the origin of belief and whether or not one has the right to believe in the premiere place, then would the ship owner have been culpable had the doubts about the ships condition not been introduced? Is a person required to investigate any doubt or question that is raised by another, which directly or indirectly impacts their belief? What if the source of doubt is unreliable? Without properly addressing these questions it is difficult to determine what the ship owners (or anyone elses) responsibility was in the first place.This, I assert, is the fundamental problem with Cliffords argument. To implicitly assume that one is guilty for evid ently believing without sufficient evidence can not be easily determined because the standards and thus the determination for right and wrong are too vague. The source follows immediately. Since a person can have a different belief at any given point in time and there is no metric by which to determine the sufficiency of evidence upon which they are based, it is not the belief that is to be judged, but rather the action and the positive or veto impact upon society that results from it.Cliffords primary concern was how beliefs impact humanity, and the impact can only be determined by assessing actions, not beliefs. Argumentative Essay on The Ethics of Belief Page 3 of 3 We can now see that Cliffords uncogent argument is the result of a lack of clarity as to how one could determine whether or not given evidence was sufficient and the vagueness surrounding the definitions of right and wrong. In its amended form, however, the argument is binding and can serve as a useful tool to det ermine and judge the overall impact beliefs have on society.My central argument is an inductive argument. Here are the premises and the conclusion Premise 1 Premise 2 Conclusion There are no clear metrics to measure the sufficiency of evidence from which a persons beliefs are derived. Actions and their impacts on society are definite and measurable. Therefore, people should probably be judged based upon their actions and not their beliefs. My argument is cogent because my premises are true and it is improbable that my conclusion is false. Furthermore, no evidence which would have rendered a different conclusion has been ignored.