...Personal or Political? Cleverly penned to literally mean ‘no place,’ Utopia is an ideal discussed by Thomas More in Utopia. With connotations of eternal and universal bliss, the potential of a Utopian society easily strikes a chord in anyone’s heart to continuously pursue. Therefore, isn’t that ultimately what we are all trying to do, reach our Utopia? It is common knowledge that we are all diverse and individual people, so is a true worldly Utopia possible? We each form our own individual Utopian ideals, and while some theories may connect in ways with another’s opinion, a Utopia is more of a personal ideal and less of a societal or political ideal. The foundation of a Utopia is where most commonalities in opinions are found: job or purpose, happiness, belonging, positive environment, insurance of safety and sustenance, and the perfect amount of order. Getting to a more specific level, however, reveals differences in issues of strong government control or complete independence, stationary communities or nomadic, living off the land or to focus on a life with industrialized advancements, etc. In More’s Utopia, the perfect amount of order is similar to the United State’s House of Representatives, in which one person per city is made the voice of the people. The votes are ultimately out of the public’s control and are the Representative’s own personal opinion of what is best for the people. (More) When the time comes to vote on issues like control, as a country we do our...
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...and his skepticism of his society's ideals. Evidence of this motive is apparent in the textual quote on page ninety-five, "My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose." At this point in the story, Equality came to terms with his actions and realized that there is nothing wrong with pursuing one's happiness. At the start of the book, Equality discovered an ancient tunnel that exposed him to technology unknown to his society. This was the beginning of his transition into a rebel in his society. All along, he had felt superior to his peers and thought he should have been a scholar due to his intelligence. As a kid, Equality was always clever and inquisitive. This side of him came out when he was in his tunnel with the freedom and means necessary to pursue his interests. After making several discoveries, his faith in collectivist ideals collapsed. All of his life, he was led to believe that the council of scholars had known exactly what was best for society, yet Equality had made discoveries that the council had known nothing about that would have helped advance their society....
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...This research paper attempts to elucidate how each character in the play A Raisin in the Sun written in 1959 by Lorraine Hansberry wants to achieve a dream which represents certain characteristics in common with the American Dream. Furthermore, this paper seeks to reveal to what extent aspects of the American Dreams, such as the ideal of justice or equality between the races, have been fulfilled by analyzing how these aspects are presented in the play. The Younger family is living in Chicago and is facing financial problems as well as social problems such as discrimination. As Mama’s husband died the family receives 10.000$ insurance money, which gives each family member the opportunity to fulfill their dream. Mama herself wants to buy a new house for the family, her daughter pursues the dream of becoming a doctor and her son Walter wants to open a liquor store. However, the fact that Walter’s wife Ruth is pregnant complicates the situation. Mama eventually decides to buy a new house in a white neighborhood and entrusts Walter with the rest of the money, but he loses all the money through a fraud, although he should have left some money to fund Beneatha’s education. Eventually, at the end of the drama, Mr. Lindner offers money to buy the Youngers out of their new house, but Walter stands up against him and declines the offer....
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...Middle Ages. Under the feudal system, landowners would allow serfs to live on and farm the land (Martin, 2011). The landowners were expected to care for the needs of their serfs. During this era, the church emphasized charity, and individuals felt that poverty was necessary to be charitable as demanded by God (Martin, 2011). After the decline of the feudal system, England introduced the poor laws. The poor laws stated that poverty would be dealt with in the community and changed the perspective of poverty (Martin, 2011). Only those who were determined to be worthy poor were allowed to beg or receive other benefits, and the unworthy were punishable by law. The Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1601 organized the previous poor laws and served as a model for American human service laws (Martin,2011). These laws had three basic principles, greatest responsibility of providing for one’s needs is one’s family, poverty issues are a local matter, and those who cannot support themselves must remain in their hometown (Martin, 2011). The ideals and laws of England’s social welfare system served as a model for American human services. As American human services began to evolve, the ideals of the Protestant reformation and Social Darwinism shaped many of policies. These ideals held...
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...purpose and something that keeps me going. It gives me reasons to love what I do and to pursue excellence in order that I may fulfill my purpose and satisfy my personal needs that goes beyond the salary, needs that seek deeper than what it looks on the outside. It defines mine and the organization’s being linked together. The companies that have been mentioned have long been recognized successful and famous in their own industry and this article explains why they are where they are now. Such motivational stories would be of great help to those organizations who seek improvement and development in their structure as a whole. Keeping up with this dynamic world isn’t easy and every organization needs something to hold on so they won’t lose their balance and just fall off from the cliff where they stand. One wrong move and everything will be messed up. This gives them the core that is unchanging, the core that is permanent and lives within the organization, the people, and everything is geared because of that certain thing. This article stresses the importance of having core ideology and core purpose so people within the organization – not just those in the management, but all of the members including the employees – won’t just do what they do for the shallow purpose of earning money, but rather, they would do it because they want to fulfill something that embodies their ideals, something that is a part of them, something that they would want to do because they love...
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...Ethical decision making is an essential aspect in understanding and demonstrating the values of an organization. The intense pressures of business may not always allow time for reflection, and the high stakes may tempt us to compromise our ideals. Many of us already have well-developed ethical outlooks but by considering various approaches to ethical decision making, we are better equipped to make the right choices when the need arises. Joseph Weiss (2009) identifies fundamental ethical principles that guide decision making: utilitarianism, universalism, rights, justice, and ethical virtue. John Rawls contributes his Theory of Justice as Fairness as another approach for consideration in resolving ethical dilemmas. Utilitarianism The utilitarian view states that an action is considered right or good based on its consequences (2009). The utilitarian approach tries both to increase the good done and to reduce the harm done. An ethical corporate action is the one that produces the greatest good and does the least harm for all who are affected, including customers, employees, shareholders, the community, and the environment. Universalism The universalistic approach holds that moral authority is determined by the extent to which the intention of an act treats all persons with respect (2009). Respect and compassion for all others are a requirement of this reasoning. This approach also calls attention to the common conditions that are important to the welfare of everyone: a system...
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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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...Question 3 Occupational licensure is inconsistent with the basic principles and values of capitalism. The major principle of capitalism is that capitalism promotes free market system in which one’s “freedom of opportunity” is unrestrained. Capitalism requires unrestricted access to or private ownership of the major means of production and distribution, which include the economic assets and productive resources. Besides, Adam Smith’s argument defends capitalisms that people will produce the greatest good for all if they are to pursue their own interests guided by an invisible hand. However, occupational licensure violates the ideal of the free-market. It restricts the entry into the particular field and permits the professional to enjoy monopoly in the provision of services and keep the price high. Therefore, licensure illegitimately restricts individual freedom to pursue their desired career. In doing so, passionate individuals have their freedom taken away by such quotas. Second, it reduces the alternatives available to the public, thus, it reduces the average productivity and quality of services too. Question 5 The idea about which doctors’ high incomes are due more to artificial restrictions on the free market than to the inherent value of their services is not a fair picture of the medical profession. Indeed, the purpose of licensure that contravenes the principles of laissez-faire is to raise the standard of competence and the quality of care. Moreover, the higher salary...
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...Should Death be feared? According to philosopher Epicurus, death should not be feared. Epicurus argued that the ultimate goal of life is to pursue pleasure and minimize pain. In his view, since pleasure and pain only exists in the “living world”, there would be neither pleasure nor pain when an individual is dead. Therefore, the state of death should never get worse in terms of that pursuit of pleasure. Human beings tend to fear for the possibility that a situation might get worse, but when something doesn’t get worse there is nothing to be feared. Being dead is motionless, painless and sensationless. When the physical body is no longer functional, there is no conscious. Since all the neurons are dead, there would be no sensation to be felt. The good and the evil lie in in true sensation. Pleasure and pain are derived from a physical or psychological feeling we are, for better or worse, affected by. If there were no feeling, there would be no pain. Fear initially derives from the feeling of pain or imminent discomfort. The state of death possesses neither of those two evils. In a place where evil doesn’t exist, there is nothing to be feared. Epicurus also mentioned how death as the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, because the existence of our consciousness implies that we are not dead, while the status of being dead indicates that we are senseless. Since they are mutually exclusive, death should not dominate as one of our fears. While it is undeniable that death brings...
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...slavery in the United States of America. As stated in his essay titled Civil Disobedience, he states “If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. “While he wrote about men, this concept applies to women as well as all genders. In the status quo, the world doesn’t treat women and the LGBTQ...
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...Individual Assignment (Question 1) Ideals can be described as some sort of principles, rules or values that we set for ourselves to obey and we live by it in our daily life to make ourselves feel better as an ethical individual. Ideals come in a wide variety, for example honesty, compassion, courage, caring, friendship or loyalty. However, due to the fact that each and every of us places different weight on different aspects of life, therefore that is why different people holds different ideals as the most important one for their daily practice. We should not judge people who pursues a different ideal than ours, we should respect others’ freedom of choice. The greatest ideal that I learned from this subject is caring. Caring can be related to Noddings’ ethics of care, in which it is said that human care should be the determinant in making moral decisions. According to Noddings, there are stages in the caring relationship including engrossment, motivational displacement and reciprocity. Ethics of care is also related to the idea of feminism, this is because it is argued that ethics of care are only for feminists (Rachels, 2007). In fact, I support those who has an opposing view on this which in other words I think men also knows how to care. As I grow older, I start to learn that caring is a very important ideal to be practiced in our lives. This is because we don’t live in this world alone, we carry out our daily life in a society where we need to interact with others and...
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..."Ethical egoism [...] endorses selfishness, but it doesn't endorse foolishness."[2] 4. ------------------------------------------------- Forms of ethical egoism[edit] 5. Ethical egoism can be broadly divided into three categories: individual, personal, and universal. An individual ethical egoistwould hold that all people should do whatever benefits "my" (the individual) self-interest; a personal ethical egoist would hold that he or she should act in his or her self-interest, but would make no claims about what anyone else ought to do; auniversal ethical egoist would argue that everyone should act in ways that are in their self-interest ------------------------------------------------- Justifications[edit] Philosopher James Rachels, in an essay that takes as its title the theory's name, outlines the three arguments most commonly touted in its favor:[10] * "The first argument," writes Rachels, "has several variations, each suggesting the same general point:[11] * "Each of us is intimately familiar with our own individual wants and needs. Moreover, each of us is uniquely placed to pursue those wants and needs effectively. At the same time, we know the desires and needs of others only imperfectly, and we are not well situated to pursue them. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that if we set out to be 'our brother's keeper,' we...
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...The leader of the Peoples Temple, Jim Jones, made efforts to change the lives of individuals and create an ideal society to promote change in America. In 1965, Jones and the members of the Peoples Temple, took the journey to move their church from a small town in Indiana to California for the hopes of expanding the membership (Jonestown). The mission of the Peoples Temple was to provide equality to everyone and to bring an end to poverty. Through these motives to change, the membership was extended to all ethnicities to join their mission. However, the Peoples Temple became a sect, which Sociologist Max Weber defines as “an oppositional movement at odds with both the mainstream religion and the culture in which it finds itself” (Eller)....
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...Philosophies of Ethics Adam Smith’s Theory Adam Smith developed a comprehensive version of moral sentimentalism in his Theory of Moral Sentiments. Smith claims that every man, by nature, always takes care of himself more than of any other person and concerns himself more than any other man. This individual freedom is rooted in self-reliance, the ability of an individual to pursue his self-interest. Yet Smith explains that as social creatures we are endowed with a natural sympathy (pity, compassion) towards others. When we see others distressed or happy, we feel for them and, likewise, others seek our sympathy and feel for us. As we grow from childhood to adulthood, through experience we gradually build up a system of behavioral rules (standards) – morality. So it stems from our social nature. Smith believes that for society to survive there must be rules to present its individual members not to harm each other which they have to obey and these rules are called justice. Also if people go further than obey the rules and do good (beneficence) we welcome it, but cannot demand such actions as we demand justice. Smith ends The Theory of Moral Sentiments by stating that a truly virtuous person is willing to sacrifice all his inferior interests to the greater interest of the universe, great society. By doing that such a person, he suggests, would embody the qualities of justice, beneficence and self-command. Hume’s Moral Philosophy According to Hume, our intentional actions...
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...weighed too much, (page 84 line 28). The way she describes herself on page 84 lines 12-14, shows that it had affected the way she perceives herself. But on page 84 line 25-27, she believes what the booking agency, they confirms her in the way of thinking about herself. She is now struggling of always looking the best that she can, but the image of the booking agencies judging on the way she looks, will always be a permanent injury, as so are the way she pictures herself. After the many rejections, she got help from Elise, her personal trainer. She is surrounded by many people who supports her, especially professional. Life as a model can be hard. Which does not leave much time, than doing anything else but concentrate about reaching the ideal body. Clara has this strong obsession with ice cream at her birthday party, where she is surrounded by models. One of the first models appearing in the short story...
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