...In his essay, he gave several examples of how when nations became richer, the people became poorer. The poor had no chance of becoming rich because the odds were stacked against them. The poor were stuck being poor. Porcher assumed that political philosophy favored the rich by urging them to use their advantages. However, this philosophy also urged the poor to use their advantages, which were almost nonexistent. He considered this to be a mockery of the poor. According to Porcher, capitalism caused the conflict between capitalism and labor and therefore, poverty. Laborers had to work for bare means of subsistence because the capitalistic workplaces only had a certain number of jobs. Once this amount was reached, the workers’ pay became less and less. Their hard work was exchanged for little pay. Porcher’s complaints were not new. In Rochester, New York, the greatest rewards went to the masters or businessmen, while the workingmen experienced harsh exploitation. This revealed that it was not just Southerners who experienced the injustice of poverty, but the entire...
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...Political Philosophy Candidate number: 847044 Word count (excluding bibliography): 4913 2. (a) Could poverty be a violation of human rights? Introduction In this essay I argue that poverty could be, and sometimes is, a violation of human rights. But what counts as a ‘violation’? After sorting out terminology (section 1), I distinguish three ways in which impoverishment could be a human rights violation (section 2). When an agent deliberately acts to impoverish someone, the resulting impoverishment, indisputably, is a violation of human rights. In contrast, when an agent merely omits to aid someone who is impoverished, it is deeply implausible that the impoverishment constitutes a violation of human rights. But there is a third, controversial class of cases, at the border of the acts/omissions distinction: where an agent, such as a state, negligently allows people to fall into or remain in poverty. Whether this counts as a violation of human rights is the principal subject of this essay, and requires for its resolution a discussion of the major philosophical conceptions of human rights. I consider the ‘standard’ account (section 3) and the ‘pragmatic’ account (section 4) of human rights. The former interprets human rights as fundamental moral rights; the latter interprets human rights in light of the function of actual human rights practice. I argue that both fail as philosophical accounts of human rights, and thereby fail to justify the human right to freedom...
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...Sample Essay 1 Belief systems and philosophies have greatly affected the people and societies where they are practiced. They give guidelines on how to live their lives and affect every aspect of their cultures. Two such belief systems and philosophies are Hinduism and Confucianism. Hinduism is a religion with no founder. The people who practice this religion believe in moksha and reincarnation. Moksha is the freedom from earthly desires and a complete understanding of the world. Reincarnation is the belief that people are reborn over and over again until achieving moksha. Whether or not they are born into a good life depends on their previous life’s karma (good or bad deeds). In Hinduism, they also have a caste system. It divides people into four social classes and hardly gives any social mobility at all. People are decided which class they belong to at birth. For example, if a child is born into a family of slaves, that child will be a slave for the rest of his life. Confucianism is a philosophy started by Confucius in China. In Confucianism, the people valued education and believed in filial piety, the respect for elders. They also believed in the spirits of ancestors and created the famous quote, “do not do unto others, what you would not want them to do unto you.” Hinduism and Confucianism greatly affected the people and societies they were practiced in. In Hinduism, because of the belief in reincarnation and karma, people avoided doing bad deeds. Those who achieved...
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...POVERTY IN AMERICA Donice Wright Excelsior College Business Ethics for Managers 523 30033567 Dr. Sharlyn Moore 21 May 2015 Introduction and situational analysis Residents of Lakewood, Ohio have seen an upsurge in people living below the poverty line. “Between 1998-99 and 2009-10, the share of Lakewood high students receiving free and reduced price lunches increased dramatically, from 9-46%.” (Shaw, 2013, p. 13). As globalization increases more immigrants and refugees are moving to areas outside of the inner city. Tukwila, Washington has seen much of the same waves of immigration and refugee populations seeking work and affordable housing. Poverty in Tukwila went from 10 percent to over 24 percent during the period 2006-10. Job opportunities are rooted in service jobs such as retail, hotels, construction and other services. P. (38). The inner city used to be the location for jobs and opportunity however, the trend now includes urban job opportunities, affordable housing, and better schools. This migration from the inner city to the outlying areas is called, “the suburbanization of poverty.” P. (38) Understanding poverty calls for understanding the economy. According to Brooking Institute researchers Emily Monea and Isabel Sawhill, “even if the national unemployment rate fell to 5 percent within the next five years, by 2020 the nation’s poverty rate will likely remain above 14 percent. P. (39) Inter-generational poverty needs to be addressed. Inner cities have several...
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...managed to complete ESL classes, which many people doubted. I feel that through my experience of this English course, I have gained the knowledge and confidence it takes to step out into the real world. My writing strength is the ability to use rhetorical strategies in a narrative essay to develop an academic prompt, but I still need to polish on how to demonstrate the facilities like improve my tone, how to persuade my reader, and how to organize...
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...into all of Camus' writings — the novels, the plays, and the essays. They are a part of his lyricism, his symbolism, and his values. The universe, it seems from his early notebook (Noces), was mother, father, and lover for the young Camus, and from the first, Camus was aware of the paradoxical aspects of his natural world. The sensual free pleasure of swimming and hiking was in continuous contrast to the bare stony earth that made living a matter of poverty and destitution. He was early aware of the absurd condition of humanity's being totally alone in a resplendent universe. This concept is Camus' equivalent of "In the beginning . . ." With this truth, all of his writings sound revolt, for he refused to be deceived by social, religious, or individual submissions that ignored or defied the irreducible truth that humanity alone is responsible for itself, its meaning, and its measure. Camus' writings are a testament to a continuing belief in humanity's exiled but noble condition. Lucien Camus, Albert's father, was killed in 1914, during World War I's Battle of the Marne, and the year-old child was reared by his deaf mother. She had little money and was apparently a rather joyless and boring companion for her son. It is little wonder that he spent much of his time with athletics, studies, and necessary part-time employment. When he finished school, a university degree seemed the most important challenge available to a poverty-stricken student. Camus was enthusiastic and ambitious about...
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...capabilities approaches to poverty with monetary approaches. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each? In your view, which is better for understanding poverty? Explain your answer. “What a weary time those years were- to have the desire and the need to live but not the ability” (Bukowski, 1982). Poverty affects billions of people worldwide, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia. Defining poverty is almost as difficult as eradicating it. For the purpose of this essay, I will take poverty to mean the state of being exceptionally poor. Furthermore, poorness will be defined as an extremely low quality of life, which culminates as a result of social, political and economic factors. In order to examine the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, it is necessary to identify who these are strengths and weaknesses for; a strength of an approach may be considered a weakness from a different perspective. Governments and international organisations, with a common goal of lifting poverty from disadvantaged countries, are the main focus of this essay. Leading policy makers around the world have adopted a “uni-dimensional perspective on poverty” (Wong, 2012) which largely focuses on a lack of income. This definition provides the basis for the Monetary Approach to poverty. However, this is an exceptionally constricted view of poverty, disregarding many social and political factors that contribute to the current, bleak situation. The Capabilities Approach to poverty provides a far better...
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...The emergence of social work was necessitated by social strife. Discuss The emergence of social work was necessitated by a couple of factors which include the Elizabthan Poor Laws, American concerns about poverty, industrialisation, the world wars, social ills, economic growth, colonialism, traditional views and philanthropy to mention but a few. It is the purpose of this essay to show that the emergence of social work was necessitated by social strife. The Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1601 according to J.D. Marshal (), cited the laws were enacted to deal with the problem of urban destitution. The Act of Elizabeth 1601 laid down that each parish was to be responsible for the maintenance of its own poor people. The laws were also enacted on the assumption that the poor were entirely responsible for their situation. Poverty, according to Midgley (1984) was seen as a direct consequence of idleness. In 1834, the Poor Laws were amended through the introduction of the principle of less eligibility which sought to limit the number of people on poor relief by making poor relief unattractive. (The laws led to the establishment of work houses where destitute were housed). The underlying governmental motive was that of providing social stability, alleviating discontent, preventing riots, and dissatisfaction and thus the emergence of social work was indeed necessitated by social strife. More so, the poor laws led to the establishment of work houses where destitutes were housed. According...
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...their historical materialist approach but could not bring any formidable solutions to avert social problems. By definition a social problem is an elusive concept to define and it takes forms that are the subjective and objective understanding. Eitzen et al. (2009:8) argue that some social conditions are detrimental in any situation. In this sense, they have an objective character. There are conditions in society such as poverty, racism, sexism that cause material or psycho logical suffering for parts of the population. Those conditions are, therefore, social problems in any social setting. Social problems are those conditions which are universally agreed upon by society to have adverse effects many people and those conditions which causes material and psychic suffering of the body or society such as HIV/AIDS, terrorism, war, poverty, conflict, corruption and crime (Eitzen and Bacca- Zinn, 2009). Thus, social problems have their roots form the social, economic, political, environmental, cultural and geographical contexts, thus they are socially constructed. This essay assesses the Marxist explanation and its applicability to the study of social problems and on the whole what solutions it suggests to address them. The conflict perspective is a structuralist theory which examines social institutions and how power and economic material are distributed in society. The Marxist perspective posits that society is divided into two major classes of those who own the means of production and...
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...AFRICA’S DEVELOPMENT: THE IMPERATIVES OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND VALUES by MARTIN ODEI AJEI submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the subject PHILOSOPHY at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA PROMOTER: PROFESSOR M. B. RAMOSE AUGUST 2007 Contents Declaration Acknowledgement List of Acronyms Key terms Summary vi vii viii x xi INTRODUCTION: DEVELOPMENT AND PHILOSOPHY i. Statement of the Problem ii. Against Economism iii. Critique of Competition iv. Poverty is Unnatural v. Thesis Statement vi. Methodology vii. Structure of Dissertation 1 1 1 5 6 9 10 15 CHAPTER ONE: DIMENSIONS OF DEVELOPMENT AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON AFRICA 1.1. What is Development 1.2. Development and Economic Growth 1.3. Schools of Development Thought and their Influence in Africa 1.3.1. The Modernization School and its Essential Claims 1.3.1.1. Growth Theory under Economic Liberalism 1.3.1.2. Evolutionary Theory 1.3.1.3. Functionalist Theory 1.3.1.4. Common Assumptions and Methodology 1.3.1.5 The Influence of Modernization on Development Practice in Africa 1.3.1.6. Critique of Modernization 1.3.2 Dependency Theory and its Essential Claims 21 21 25 27 27 28 29 30 32 34 36 39 i 1.3.3. The Theoretical Heritage of Dependency Theory 1.3.3.1. Structuralist Economics and the ‘Prebisch Thesis’ 1.3.3.2. Marxism 1.3.4. Common Assumptions of Dependency Theory 1.3.5. Criticisms of Dependency Theory 1.3.6. The Influence of Dependency Theory on African Development Practice...
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...their historical materialist approach but could not bring any formidable solutions to avert social problems. By definition a social problem is an elusive concept to define and it takes forms that are the subjective and objective understanding. Eitzen et al. (2009:8) argue that some social conditions are detrimental in any situation. In this sense, they have an objective character. There are conditions in society such as poverty, racism, sexism that cause material or psychological suffering for parts of the population. Those conditions are, therefore, social problems in any social setting. Social problems are those conditions which are universally agreed upon by society to have adverse effects many people and those conditions which causes material and psychic suffering of the body or society such as HIV/AIDS, terrorism, war, poverty, conflict, corruption and crime (Eitzen and Bacca-Zinn, 2009). Thus, social problems have their roots form the social, economic, political, environmental, cultural and geographical contexts, thus they are socially constructed. This essay assesses the Marxist explanation and its applicability to the study of social problems and on the whole what solutions it suggests to address them. The conflict perspective is a structuralist theory which examines social institutions and how power and economic material are distributed in society. The Marxist perspective posits that society is divided into two major classes of those who own the means of production and...
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...MAJOR BARBARA by George Bernard Shaw THE AUTHOR George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was born into a lower-middle class Protestant family in Dublin, Ireland. His father was an alcoholic failed merchant, while his mother was a professional singer. When Shaw was sixteen, his mother ran off with her voice teacher, leaving him at home to complete school, which he despised. In 1876, he joined his mother in London and took up a career in journalism and writing, beginning with a string of five unsuccessful novels. Meanwhile, he became interested in political causes, especially socialism. This led him to become one of the founders of the Fabian Society, which had as its stated goal to transform Britain into a socialist society by means of education and legislation, while scorning the revolutionary violence of some of the Continental socialists. His first success as a writer came through his works of art, music, and dramatic criticism. It was not until 1891 that he wrote his first play, but once he started, he rarely stopped until his death at the age of 94, eventually producing a total of sixty plays. During his first twelve years as a playwright, he wrote a number of plays that are now highly esteemed (Arms and the Man, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida), but found that London theaters were unwilling to stage them. But in 1904, the Court Theater in Chelsea came under new management, and Shaw’s plays found a home among people interested in experimental drama. Here, he was able to direct his...
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...Samuel Cunningham POL 161 Essay #2 As everyone that has read the “Social Contract” can attest to, Rousseau believed every “man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” (1) In book three of the Social Contract, Rousseau reveals several ways in which these shackles have yet to be released. In the following paragraphs I will consider what these chains are, give my own opinion on the subject, and discuss what it means to be truly free. To begin, in the radical and sometimes confusing political book, Rousseau believes that executive power does not belong to the people because it deals with particular acts and rather that the people should focus on general concerns. The people must have some sort of middle man or “agent” to pursue the general will and to be the messenger between the state and the sovereign. The purpose for this is to “full fill in the political entity the function that is performed in a man by the union of body and soul.” (2) For the government to carry out the general will, it must have its own life and be able to distinguish itself from the sovereign. While reading the “Social Contract,” it appears that Rousseau, while critiquing various forms of government, supports government being separate from the people, almost as if the government should be god-like. Be that as it may, he also says that the corporate will should always be less of a priority than the general will. To him, government should be an “intermediate body set up between subjects and...
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......the day of the philosopher as isolated thinker--the talented amateur with an idiosyncratic message--is effectively gone. | ” | —Nicholas Rescher, "American Philosophy Today," 'Review of Metaphysics' 46 (4 | It is possible to believe at something which could or couldn’t be true. Atheism is an example of this something. Atheists claim that there is no God because the evidence they experience shows that God is not real; however, to have a static claim as strong as atheism is anti-scientific: because the belief itself lacks foundation associated with our ‘natural laws’ and thus, having a set belief that is static is counter scientific spirit which contradicts that base of atheistic claim. Thus, to be an atheist using scientific claims as basis is illogical; however, this doesn’t mean that a person cant be an atheist; but only that person who claims to be an atheist because of scientific reasoning is wrong in his assumptions. atheists say there is no God, but before you can deny something, you must first affirm its existence, as a rule... in saying there is NO God, you actually affirm there is one. Hence I must conclude that the answer to our openeng question is a simple and flat no. No, it is not necessary for a truly contemporary person to be an atheist or to disbelieve in the existence of God. And I find no arguments, no reasons, no evidence or facts, not in Bishop Robinson's writings, nor in Bishop Pike's, nor in the writings of Tillich, Bultmann, and Bonhoeffer, or in...
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...Lane Goar Progressive Essay Chapter twenty-four - Wilson Progressivism at Home and Abroad, 1912- - 1916, in “The American Spirit”, by Kennedy and Bailey, deals with the presidential election of Woodrow Wilson and the changing perspective of government involvement in the US economy and society. Wilson dealt with diplomatic crises around the world and with our neighbor – Mexico. In chapter thirty - The War to End War, 1917 – 1918, in the Kennedy/Bailey book, the US tried to stay neutral as war broke out in Europe. But, our actions spoke louder than our word. We were pro Allies and anti-central powers, which was Germany and Austria-Hungry. We walked a careful path because we did not know which side our immigrant population would land. In this paper I will show you: What elements of conservatism can be found in Roosevelt’s and Wilson’s “progressive” philosophies and in what ways the proposals foreshadowed later US political developments? In order for one to understand the relation, one must first understand the ideas of Progressivism and Conservatism. Progressivism is a term that encompasses a wide spectrum of social movements that include environmentalism, labor, agrarianism, anti-poverty, peace, anti-racism, civil rights, women’s rights, animal rights, social justice and political ideologies such as anarchism, communism, socialism, social democracy, and liberalism. Conservatism as a political and social philosophy promotes the retaining of traditional social institutions in...
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