...at Harvard University, to offer students in the New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC school systems “cash for grades.” Deirdre McCloskey earlier in her career did stellar work advancing this program in economics — her virtuoso writings recruited me to the study of the history of economies. But having over many years considered the general problem of economic growth, and the specific puzzle of the timing and location of the Industrial Revolution, McCloskey has come to a stunning epiphany. This is that incentives explain very little of the huge gaps in wealth across the world. Growth is a cultural production, a society wide embrace of “bourgeois virtues.” Specifically, she claims, growth came because the activities of marketing, profiting, and innovating have become in our society uniquely respected, admired and praised. The rise of the Bourgeois Virtues has created societies such as those of Northern Europe, so primed for growth that even though the grabbing hand of the state is on every shoulder, people continue to produce and innovate. I fully agree with McCloskey about the surprisingly poor ability of incentives alone to account for growth. In order to hold on to the central idea that the 10,000-year delay in the Industrial Revolution from the first appearance of settled agriculture was created by a lack of incentives, economists have to maintain the collective fiction that all societies before 1800 were run along the lines...
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...Naturally, we as humans are supposed to be good. It gives us the right instead of wrong decisions that we make every day. Choosing the positive side over the negative, we inherit these principles from parents, grandparents, even some great grandparents. It builds our character psychologically and physically and matures our conscience despite how slow it may build. As every day passes, we learn that us ourselves can not be perfect in all aspects. Human nature calls to fulfill our individual characters as we were born to do. Having good morals means to better ourselves by expanding our horizons and nothing less than the full completion. In addition, we learn to protect ourselves from others, and sometimes from yourself. Protecting yourself means protecting your heart and your beliefs. Learn from the mistakes and make something out of what only used to be. As a nurse, professionally, our backbone of the career itself relies on the trust of others. Numerous healthcare situations call for courage. Examples include: breaking bad news regarding a poor prognosis, challenging a colleague who appears to be incompetent, delivering care to an infectious patient, confronting an angry relative, and raising concerns about unethical practice. What is common to all of these situations is the fear that may be experienced as the practitioner considers the cost of the action and the consequences of a particular intervention or of getting it wrong. There may be a fear of an extreme emotional reaction...
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...purpose was to create a connection to ancient Roman republican society as well as the Greeks and their democratic values. It was also meant to create a new American mythos to enshrine values, illustrate manifest destiny, and show that the United States was created by divine providence just as Rome was founded. We can see this in many of our monuments and artwork from the time period, as well as in the way the American story is told and taught to us. The Jefferson Memorials construction began in 1939 when President Franklin Roosevelt laid its cornerstone and was completed in 1943. It is dedicated to Thomas Jefferson our third president and was modeled after the Pantheon in Rome. It was...
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...society. I think trying to understand his repressed view can draw us closer to an even richer median of self. One of the first teaches that Dolmance preaches to Eugenie in her education is the existence of God. He opens by stating that man owes his existence only to Nature’s schemes. He states that we are bound only to reproduce, since reproduction is necessitated by the globe’s existence. Sade criticizes God as a phantom. He even questions then necessity of God. If Nature can create, produce, preserve, maintain, and hold equilibrium, what is the need to seek out a foreign agent? To Sade, God is an illusion and piety to this illusion is foolish. I find that Sade proposing that God is an illusion is a bold step, yet offers a viable alternative in the purpose of man. Many people today are influenced by their belief in God. They credit their existence and live their lives in the ideals of God. This idea of existence bound to Nature rather than God opens a new perspective on the purpose of one’s life. Rather than focus on the piety of pleasing God, one could take to pleasing Nature. Ironically, Nature’s intentions are those of our own, what is natural to us. It reflects our needs and desires. We essentially take focus and purpose...
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...HOW TO DISCERN TRUTH IN THE MIDST OF CULTURAL DISSONANCE & DELUSION Dr. Paul R. Shockley © 30 July 2011 www.prshockley.org One of my overriding rules of conduct, namely, maxims, in my life is to pursue moral and intellectual excellence in my daily life, believing that the “good life” is dynamically related to knowing and practicing that which is true.1 Truth is to shape my character and conduct whereby both desires (inward conformity) and duty (outward obligation) are harmonized into a way of life that not only expresses virtue, but also enables one to both fully live life, free from the entanglements of poor choices, and to discover what others often fail to see. In fact, the ordinary details of life become extraordinary as one looks for truth. Thus, seekers of truth relish not in only in anticipation of a potential future, but also in the present experience as he or she examines, engages, and interacts with expressions, manifestations, and consequences of truth. Naturally, one may ask how I am defining “truth.” Simply put, my definition of truth is that which corresponds to reality, identifies things as they are actually are, can never fail, diminish, change, or be extinguished must be able to be expressed in logical propositions (logical), and is sourced in the God of the Bible who is the Author of all truth. I take it that the truth of a judgment consists in the identity of its content with a fact; it is a “true-truth.” So, when I look at the Grand Canyon, I’m not seeing a...
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...fulfilled. If there were policies related to the organization’s customers, they could be fulfilled at the expense of employees, investors and society. If there were policies related to profit, without other policies being defined, profit is positioned as a boundary condition to all actions and decisions. Clearly this may not direct the organization towards its mission. How is this Demonstrated? To establish means to put in place permanently. A quality policy that is posted in the entrance hall is published, but not established. For a policy to become established, it has to reflect the beliefs of the organization and underpin every conscious thought and action. This will only arise if everyone shares those beliefs. For this to happen, managers need to become the role model so...
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...occupy movement is an international movement driven by individuals. They are organized in over 100 cities in the United States, and they aim to fight back against the system that has allowed the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. “All of us have many different backgrounds and political beliefs but feel that, since we can no longer trust our elected officials to represent anyone other than their wealthiest donors, we need real people to create real change from the bottom up… We no longer want the wealthiest to hold all the power, to write the rules governing an unbalanced and inequitable global economy, and thus foreclosing on our future.” The movement works to achieve their goals by resist, In the spirit and tradition of civil disobedience #occupy takes to the streets to protest corporate greed, abuse of power, and growing economic disparity; Restructure, #occupy empowers individuals to lead others into action by gathering in the commons as engaged citizens to demonstrate a culture based on community and mutual aid. We will be the change we are seeking in the world; and finally, Remix work to make fundamental changes in the system. Now that we know a little...
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...Virtù in The Prince In The Prince, Machiavelli’s concept of virtue is different from the modern connotations of the word, which is indicative of moral excellence. In the text the word in the original translation is virtù from the Latin virtus, which carries broad connotations of valor, excellence, character and worth. The classical concept of ‘civic virtue’ as put forward by philosophers such as Aristotle as a moral code applicable to both rulers and subjects, contrasts with Machiavelli’s concept of virtù, which is applicable to rulers of state. Machiavelli’s virtù is ‘political virtue’, that is virtue defined both within and by politics. Political virtue consists of knowing how to make use of an art or skill to advance in the world. It is this idea that he puts forth, the ability of a ruler to do whatever must be done in order to achieve success, for it is the successful ruler who is the virtuous one. In Chapter VI, Machiavelli extols the virtues of ‘remarkable men’, specifically those of Cyrus, Romulus and Theseus. Men he believes to fully embrace the idea of virtù. Though each man individually faced his own hurdles to overcome, such as Romulus who if not abandoned at birth, would not have wanted to become King of Rome. Despite their luck or fortuna it was their virtù that gave them the ability to overcome and use their adversities, like Cyrus using the ‘Persians discontented under the rule of the Medes’. For as Machiavelli states: “If their deeds and careers are examined...
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...associated in historical reality which we unite into a conceptual whole from the standpoint of their cultural significance." The final concept can only come out at the end of an investigation into its nature. There are many ways to conceptualize the spirit of capitalism. We must work out the best formulation based on what about that spirit interests us; this, however, is not the only possible point of view. To come up with a formulation, Weber presents a long excerpt from the writings of Benjamin Franklin. He says that Franklin's attitudes illustrate capitalism's ethos. Franklin writes that time is money, that credit is money, and that money can beget money. He encourages people to pay all of their debts on time, because it encourages the confidence of others. He also encourages people to present themselves as industrious and trustworthy at all times. Weber says that this "philosophy of avarice" sees increasing capital as an end in itself. It is an ethic, and the individual is seen as having a duty to prosper. This is the spirit of modern capitalism. While capitalism existed in places like China and India, and in the Middle Ages, it did not have this spirit. All of Franklin's moral beliefs relate to their usefulness in promoting profit. They are virtues for this reason, and Franklin does not object to substitutes for these virtues that accomplish the same ends. However, this is not simply egocentrism. The capitalist ethic does not embrace a hedonistic life-style. Earning...
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... The author, Michele Borba, discusses her complete plan for raising good kids using the seven essential virtues that will teach children to do the right thing. Every day there is the worry of general concerns of the health and safety of our youth. Enhancing moral intelligence has become the best hope for getting children on the right path to act as well as think positively. The seven essential virtues consisting of empathy, conscience, self control, respect, kindness, tolerance and fairness are discussed in the chapters on how to navigate children through ethical challenges and pressures during child development years. EMPATHY Empathy is the first essential virtue that describes the ability to identify with and feel another person’s concerns and sensitizes children to different points of view. It increases their awareness of ideas and opinions while enhancing humanness, civility, morality and is an emotion that alerts a child to another person’s plight while stirring the conscience. Children are moved to become too tolerant, compassionate and understanding of others needs and to care enough to help those who are hurt or troubled. This ignites the need to handle anger more adeptly. With children being exposed to a world filled with violence, drugs, cruelty and incivility, empathy may be the antidote to creating tolerance peace. As the virtue of empathy develops it will help to start the foundation for nonviolence in children and to do what is right because it...
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...helps to prioritize the conflicting rights and duties. Under the veil of ignorance, no rational and self-interested employer who could now be at the receiving end of the policy would want to risk having his privacy infringed upon. Hence, this perspective helps to decide which rights cannot be sacrificed for others. Lastly, the Utilitarian perspective here helps to analyze and weigh the consequences of each decision made. The analysis shows that short term benefits of a policy, even to the majority, is not substantial to justify a potential long term harm to the majority, even if not implementing the policy does not in itself result in much pleasure for any stakeholder in the present. Although both virtue ethics and ethics of care are applicable in evaluating this case, we have not focused on them as they do not offer as much direction for deriving practical...
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... the other side of the dilemma is that the Civil War is in its 4th year and the bloodshed and death are plaguing him as well. He could end the war, but doing so prematurely would certainly not end slavery any time soon. Dealing with the idea of sacrificing the life of the soldiers at war to bring about the end of slavery is something that doesn’t necessarily set well with Lincoln, but his strong belief that slavery must end was something he felt so strongly in that he would see this come to pass by any means necessary. Epictetus Epictetus believed that one can only truly find liberty and happiness when they grab ahold to the idea that certain things are well within our control and yet there are some things we have no control over whatsoever. Once one embraces this reality and learns the difference between what can be controlled in life and how they differentiate from the things that cannot be controlled, one can, and most likely will, find inner peace. Taking a mind over matter approach is most certainly one way to rise above the difficult experiences that life can sometimes hand us. Lincoln’s ability to focus on his goals in spite of the tragedy of losing his son was a great example of embracing Epictetus’s philosophy. His wife Mary Todd, who he called Molly, appeared slightly frustrated with the fact that he had in some ways, made peace with their terrible experience of losing a son. Since he couldn’t control what happened to his son he decided to move past it and...
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...Abraham Lincoln said, “Reputation is the shadow. Character is the tree.“ Our character is much more than just our reputation, what we try to display for others to see. It is who we are even when no one is watching. Having a Good Character means doing the right thing just because it is right to do what is right. (Learn More About Abraham Lincoln) The Dictionary Definitions of “Character” One dictionary defines character as “the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.” Another says it is “the complex of mental and ethical traits marking a person.” In still another dictionary, character is said to be “the stable and distinctive qualities built into an individual’s life which determine his or her response regardless of circumstances.” How Character Determines Success In Life Our Character Is What Determines How We Respond to the Situations and Circumstances of Life The dictionary definitions said character is a “complex of mental and ethical traits“, that those traits, or qualities, are “distinctive to an individual” and that they are “built into an individual’s life.” It is those character qualities, those character traits, that determine a person’s response in any given situation. For example, a person in with a strong character quality of truthfulness is much more likely to accurately report the facts in a given situation than a person who tends to be characterized by deceptiveness. Someone who has the character trait of alertness will be more likely to...
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...will want to take Symbolic Avenger with pretty much any weapon exept Scepter. When you are using Scepter you can take Shattered Aegis since that’s pretty much the only time you don’t have any symbols. * In Virtues we take Unscathed Contender – 20% more damage while under Aegis, or Master of Consecrations – Consecrations last longer and their cooldowns are reduced. It depends on whether we are able to keep up the Aegis buff or need to use Consecrations such as Wall of Reflection. If you need to maintain Projectile Defenses for your party then go with Master of Consecrations. In the second slot we can take Supreme Justice or Absolute Resolution depending whether we need Condition Removal or not. Absolute Resolution removes 3 conditions from each ally and yourself when activating VIrtue of Resolve and Supreme Justice will increase Burning duration and decrease the amount of hits needed to trigger burning from 5 to 3. The final choice is not really hard, it’s just what you need at a specific encounter. Permeating Wrath will change the burning Virtue of Justice applies from single target to aoe, Battle Presence will grant Virtue of Resolve effect to your allies which might be helpful to keep up Scholar bonus and Indomitable Courage is a stun breaker upon activation of Virtue of Courage which also grants aoe stability. * In Dragonhunter you should take Piercing Light as long as you are using a trap, if you are not using one, use Soaring Devestation...
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...Tim Livolsi PHI-144 March 21, 2014 Nietzsche’s Superman In one of Friedrich Nietzsche’s most popular pieces of literature, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he illustrates what would turn out to be one of his most notable philosophical ideals – that of the overman. The term “overman” refers to Nietzsche’s perception of a person who has prevailed over himself and human nature. Essentially, an overman is an individual who has surpassed the constraints of the human condition and achieved a point of freedom – limitless and allowing for creativity. This condition can be viewed as the status of a person in his entirety, an individual unfettered by the pressures and societal requirements of civilization and other people. Furthermore, the overman wills his own destiny, creates his own values, and dances with the game of life to the tune of his own spirit. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra¸ Nietzsche writes of three spiritual metamorphoses that must be undergone for the individual to reach the state of the overman. These transformations are somewhat narrow in nature, and thus can be seen as a type of guide to becoming the overman, or liberating one’s spirit. In this paper, I will interpret the three stages in the metamorphosis to becoming the overman, and provide an evaluation of how the concept of an overman can apply to us specifically. The first metamorphosis described by Zarathustra – Nietzsche’s mouthpiece – is that of the camel. He asks: What is difficult? asks the spirit that would bear much...
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