Aristotle Essays (415 words) - Ancient Greek Philosophers, Aristotle

Aristotle Aristotle was one of the most influential thinkers in western culture, and a Greek philosopher, teacher, and scientist. He was probably the most scholarly and learned of the ancient Greek Philosophers. Aristotle mastered the entire development of Greek though before him and employed this knowledge in his writings. He criticized, summarized, and furthered the development of the Greek philosophies. Aristotle, along with his teacher Plato, are the two most important Greek Philosophers. Aristotle was born in Satagira, a small town in Greece. Aristotle's father worked as a personal physician for the grandfather of Alexander The Great. Both of Aristotle's parents died when he was a boy, he was then raised by a guardian. When Aristotle was about eighteen years old, he entered Plato's school in Athens known as the Academy. He trained there for twenty years. Plato dubbed Aristotle as the brightest student in the Academy and called him the "reader". When Plato died in 347 B.C., Aristotle left the Academy to join a group of Plato's followers. While there, Aristotle married a young woman named Pithias. Around 342 B.C., PhilipII, invited Aristotle to supervise the education of his young son Alexander. Alexander later conquered all of Greece, ran one of the most powerful empires, and became known as Alexander The Great. Aristotle was Alexander's sole teacher until the youth succeeded his father's throne in 336 B.C. In 334 B.C., Aristotle founded his own school in Athens called the Lyceum. In 323 B.C., Aristotle was accused of lack of reverence towards the gods by the Athenians. To avoid the death sentence, he fled to the city of Chalcis where he died a year later. After his death, Aristotle's philosophy was continued to be taught at the Lycuem by his successors. Aristotle's philosophy spread to Rome in 155 B.C. giving Romans their first contact with Greek philosophy. Aristotle's philosophy was then lost until its rebirth in the 1100's, where it was introduced to the Christian culture of western Europe. Aristotle philosophy was basically the opposite of his teacher Plato's. Aristotle believed that the artist is a creator, that the artist improves on an original design. Aristotle also believes that Imitation is necessary. Aristotle used Homeopathic Psychology which is to expose the good to the bad to purge the bad. Aristotle did not abandon his mentor's ideas he only improved on them. Aristotle's philosophy influenced a countless number of people since its birth. He was responsible for the tutelage of Alexander The Great, he Influenced much of Europe in its early stages, and he even affected the beginnings of the modern Christian culture. Aristotle was definitely one of the most influential Greek Philosophers of all time.

The Aesthetic Experience Essay Example

The Aesthetic Experience Essay Example The Aesthetic Experience Essay The Aesthetic Experience Essay There is beauty surrounding us in our everyday world from the environment in which we inhabit and the sonic wallpaper of nature we hear everyday to even the body and mind of our human spirit. That is what makes us human, the understanding, desire, and acknowledgment of beauty which sets us apart from the other creatures of the earth. Unlike some creatures, such as birds and their nests and reptiles with their flashy colored bodies, we see beauty in more ways than for the purpose of procreation. Beauty, according to the Christian Science Monitor, is the substance of life, of thought expressed. It also referred as being necessary for functionality, for life and not just for mere adornment. Definitions of beauty differ from person to person and those definitions can be more characterized as aesthetics. Aesthetics is known one way as the outward experience of how something looks, and how pleasing it is. This pleasing feeling of how something may look is the psychological responses to beauty and artistic expressions. A word that can be used as a noun, verb or adjective is a philosophy to some. The philosophical view of aesthetics is to study beauty and its aesthetic values. It also deals with the nature and expression of beauty as in the fine arts and the laws of perception. People apply the term aesthetics to validate what is artistic or beautiful and the way this is applied is determined by the societal influences on people of what is beauty in their culture. Society many times sets this principle, a set of principles, or a view of aesthetics that is manifested by outward appearances and is applied towards taste and artistic sensibility. There is also the aesthetic experience. It is described by Nelson, in his reference to musical aesthetics, that it â€Å"serves not utilitarian purpose but is valued for its enjoyment, satisfaction, and insight. † He relates this also to the human capacity to aspire for more out of life than mere survival. That aspiration is what sets us apart from any other known creature. Nelson goes on to state the aesthetic experience involves feelings, intellect, requires focus, and must be experienced firsthand. One can not receive the experience of beauty by hearing an account of it from another, oh we can imagine what that experience may feel like and the image of beauty which is being described, but as in the case of music and dance, we need to be there and feel it as it happens. This experience results in a richer more meaningful life and that the opposite of aesthetic is anesthetic, which means insensitive, void of feeling, empty. People aspire for more out of life than simple existence. (Nelson) Certain students in our class exhibit some of these certain aesthetic quality of beauty. One couple is Kenny and Becky. There is an essence between them that makes which ever dance that they are doing an aesthetically beautiful dance. Both have good form and timing which is very pleasing to the eye. Another couple, who I believe have very good aesthetic qualities when they dance, is Anna and her brother Anthony. Anna’s precision of her moves, especially with tango, really creates that aesthetic experience when watching her. She is able to be precise and deliberate with her move and yet still look graceful and fluid while dancing. When the women dance as such, it casts a beauty that is feminine and unique. Through the course of this short semester I have developed a greater appreciation of aesthetics of beauty and its experience. I have developed this sense through my willingness to accept the dance and its direction of its flow. I’ve looked and was more aesthetically sensible to others in the class of how they danced and their beauty which they expressed though the dance and that has developed that appreciation in me. I can develop a greater sense of aesthetics in and for myself my continuing to progress through this art form through practice and education of the dances. I can apply this to all aspects of my life in order to be, whether in my dress, demeanor, or through my creativity, more aesthetically pleasing to others and myself. The Aesthetic Experience By J. Country Western Dance Beginning Summer I 12:00pm July 5, 2005 Citations: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000 Christian Science Monitor; 10/1/2001, Vol. 93 Issue 215, p23 Eaton, Marcia Muelder, Instilling Aesthetic Values, Arts Education Policy Review, Nov/Dec 93, Vol. 95, Issue 2, p 30 Encarta Word English Dictionary (North American Edition), Microsoft Corporation, 2005 Nelson, Robert B. , Aesthetics in the Band Room, Musical Editors Journal, Jan94, Vol. 80 Issue 4, p 24

Nationalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Nationalism - Essay Example This can only be successful if conducted in the local vernacular of the country. This thus raised a need for cultural homogenisation and its offshoot- the political doctrine of nationalism, 'which holds that the political and the national unit should be congruent'.4 Nationalism can be characterised as 'the organisation of human groups into large, centrally educated, culturally homogenous units'.5 Gellner put it thus: modernisation brings about nationalism and nationalism establishes nations, and not vice versa. Nationalism may manifest itself as part of state ideology or as a non-state movement and may be expressed along civic, ethnic, cultural, religious or ideological lines. These self-definitions of the nation have been used to classify types of nationalism. These categories are not mutually exclusive and many nationalist movements combine some or all of these elements to varying degrees. Nationalist movements have also beeen classified by other criteria, such as scale and location. With all the disagreements about the true nature of nationalism, most analysts today view it as a hindrance to the development of a liberal democracy.6 Some like Beiner, Habermas and Hobsbawm say that this hindrance has to be superseded altogether; others like Dahrendorf, Kymlicka and Tamir see how democracy and nationalism can be reconciled. Civic and Ethnic Nationalism The liberal defenders of nationalism owe mostly, the original Enlightenment ideal of the nation as an agency of democratic power that was able to challenge the old suppressive order of the 'ancien rgime' (Rousseau). This made French and American nationalisms to be traditionally regarded as the epitome of civic nationalism. They were based on the political ideas of revolutionaries who fought for the 'sovereignty of the people'. The membership of the community was thus defined primarily in political terms; civic virtues were more important for the new republic than ethnicity, common culture, or even common language. This voluntaristic notion of national identity is usually contrasted with ethnic nationalism, which is exclusionary, since the belonging to a nation is in this case defined by birth, blood and ethnicity. While the former conception of a nation is ideally conceived of as a voluntary association, the latter is seen as a community of fate.7 Ethnic nationalism emerged in the la te nineteenth century and is said to be pertinent to the people of Central and Eastern Europe

Good managers and leaders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Good managers and leaders - Essay Example Despite this desirability, the theory faces criticism from C.L. Graeff, who claims that there is conceptual ambiguity that limits the practical application of the theory’s prescriptive model. One such problem is the situational leadership theorist’s argument that a motivated person without ability is less mature than an unmotivated person with ability is, against which a number of logical arguments could be made (Graeff, 1983, p. 287). Situational leadership, which attempts to impose categorical classifications onto people and groups, often fails in empirical support as well. Task-relevant maturity suffers from conceptual ambiguity and thus offers little help in a real-life approach to solving management and leadership problems. Escaping the kinds of theoretical problems with situation leadership, some theorists prefer to discuss a notion of â€Å"transformational leadership.† Transformational, in this case, refers to the idea that leadership should inspire and cause change in individuals as well as institutions. This notion of transformation first arose in 1978 with the writings of James MacGregor Burns, who defined the concept as â€Å"a relationship of mutual stimulation and elevation that converts followers into leaders and may convert leaders into moral agents† (Wren, 1995, p. 102). Defined in another way, transformation means not only instilling a new idea and motivation in one’s followers, but to empower them to become leaders (and proselytizers) themselves. In addition, leaders are turned into â€Å"moral agents,†.

The Perfect Job Concept Essay Example for Free

The Perfect Job Concept Essay ‘The perfect job† is only a fantasy, but one which everyone wishes to have. It is a dream that every man or woman wants to be fulfilled, at each point of their career. Like a self fulfilling prophesy, everyone chases that one shadow. They set high standards for themselves along the line of remuneration, ease of access, prospect of becoming the boss in no time, and other wild dreams that can only cone true in the dreamland. Like blood through their veins, â€Å"the perfect job† runs many thousand miles in the minds of every young graduate, who is willing to carve a niche for themselves in whatever profession they have chosen. Many get college degrees, some, doctorate degrees, while yet, others continue to arm themselves with such kinds of knowledge that are not taught in the books- they see themselves as smart and capable of achieving anything they want in life. They simply think they can get whatever job they want with six-figure salaries and other paraphernalia attached. In visualizing   ‘the perfect job’, individuals often paint rosy pictures of fat salaries. Everyone agrees that there is no other motivation that can replace a good value for whatever service an employee is offering to their employer. Individuals often think that having the appropriate pay for the job is an essential motivation to compensate for all the stress and hard work that one has to go through in order to satisfy the demands of the job. People often fail to recognize that individual capabilities differ and that not everyone can be rated as good as the other g guy. This might lead to dissatisfaction with the job at the end of the day. Money creates a certain kind of security for some people. Also another component of ‘the perfect job’ is the satisfaction which is derived from doing the particular job. Everyone have their various motivating force. For some, it is the passion and commitment with which they do their job. They just love doing it. For people like this, they simply cannot take up other career opportunities aside from the one they are really passionate about. Its either they do it or they are not ready to do other things. These kinds of individuals have long term career goals and once they get to the profession, they continue to strive hard so that they meet up with their long term goals. They are eager to get to the top of the ladder. This is an achievement based motivation and only few people dare to have it.   Many people tend to look at the short term benefits, under which the remuneration will come. Also, an individual’s ability to work with others speaks a lot of the level of satisfaction that they derive from the job. A lot of people derive the pleasure of working closely with other people. They are achievers that always want to bring the best out of their relationship with others. Such individuals derive pleasure from working with other people. These people are strongly motivated to succeed in their careers. This cannot be compared to motivation, only based on money.

American Schools Need Essentialism Essay -- Education Teaching Essays

American Schools Need Essentialism There are five main philosophies that describe education: Essentialism (the back-to-basics approach which strives to teach students the essentials), Progressivism (which stresses individuality), Perennialism (which is the teaching of philosophies that have been around for hundreds of years), Existentialism (which give the students the choice of when to study and when not to), and Behaviorism (which lets teachers use reinforcement to achieve the desired behaviors which need to be used in the class room). Essentialism was the main philosophy used in earlier classrooms, and should be adopted back into the classrooms of today. If essentialism is going to be brought back into the classroom many changes are needed. The students’ curricula of today’s schools have too many classes that stray students away from the basic subjects. Another point of today’s schools is that there is too much acceptance for absences, tardiness, and misbehavior. Students feel like the school is their personal playground and there is nothing the teachers can do about it...

Introductory Awareness of Autistic Spectrum Conditions Essay

Complete write up re Autistic spectrum conditions. Include in this the difficulties that those with these conditions have and the behaviour they may exhibit. How do you support those with Autism, who else may be involved and how do you ensure effective communication with autistic people. Give actual exampls of your support where possible. Introductory awareness of autistic spectrum conditions. Autism is a developmental disability caused by neurological dysfunction. It affects the way a person understands and responds to the world, how they hear, see, feel, sense, perceive and interpret everything around them. This may affect how they eat, sleep, dress, work, spend leisure time etc. They are likely to have repetitive behaviour patterns and restricted repetitive interests. Individuals with an autistic spectrum condition can have difficulties with language and communicating with others and with social interactions and relationships because there is an impairment of 2 way verbal and non verbal communication and impairment of flexible thinking and social imagination. People with autism can often have accompanying learning difficulties but everyone with the condition shares a difficulty in making sense of the world. Inflexibility and restrictiveness in activities and interests can lead to a person on the autistic spectrum having difficulty relating to others and making friends, an inability to engage in imaginary play, it can lead to ritualistic behaviours , obsessions and fears. It is important to identify the person’s strengths and weaknesses, to use their strengths and interest and use positive approaches. It may be helpful to use social stories to facilitate social skills and to be structured, consistent and calm. It is important to recognise that each individual on the autistic spectrum has their own individual abilities, needs, strengths, preferences and interests so that a person centered shared means of communication can be identified. Autism is considered to be a spectrum because individuals differ in the expression and severity of their symptoms although underlying similarities are present such as concrete thinking, difficulty generalising, excessive anxiety and strong impluses and maybe difficulty with motor planning, organisation and sequencing. There is  generally some impairment of social interaction and of imagination. People on the Autistic spectrum can differ hugely in their abilities from being exceptionally intelligent, far above t he norm to having severely impaired intellect, this is why it is called a spectrum. Other conditions which may be association with ASD are Asperger’s Syndrome and Learning Difficulties. Many individuals with an autistic spectrum condition experience sensory difficulties so they may have a heightened sensory awareness so are not able to function in the same way as someone without the condition. Sensory overload is a common complaint of people with ASD and can lead to an inability to function if the noise is too loud or the light is too bright etc. Behavioural characteristics associated with autistic spectrum conditions are inappropriate eye contact, repetitive movement, stiffened motor control and literal interpretation. Individuals may exhibit such behaviours because they feel ‘safe’ when carrying out the repetitive movement and have a lack of social awareness so make inappropriate eye contact and may be very stiff in themselves because they lack a means of expressing themselves comfortably. They may also become highly stressed if routine is disrupted or sense are overloaded. If an individual is highly anxious or stressed it would be good to be able to find the stressor such as the noise being too loud or the light too bright and turn it off, it can help communication to mirror the person’s behaviour so if they are rocking, to do the same as a way of entering into communication with them, this can reduce their stress. Knowing the individual is the best way, using a person centered approach so that the response to calming them down is individual to their needs, I work with people with autism and after a while have noticed their triggers and how to calm them down such as taking them out for a walk and making sure that they have space to be on their own. Sometimes it is difficult to find a trigger for a display of anxiety and communication difficulties mean that the person is unable to say what is upsetting them so it is really important to notice what is going on ar ound and what may have changed in the environment that has upset them. It is also important to have in place structures and routines that match the individual’s wishes and needs as routine is highly important for most people with ASD, they need structure and to know what is happening next. It prevents anxiety and stress. The support network for an individual with ASD includes informal  support such as family and friends and the formal support network including carers, psychologists, ASD specialist, Advocates and Speech and Language therapists. It is important to involve families, parents and carers in supporting the individual in a person-centered way because everybody has different needs, wishes and abilities and just because someone is labelled as being on the autistic spectrum the support they require will differ immensely. Support should be consistent with routines adhered to and person-centered approach being taken. This can be achieved through asking myself continuously, what does this person need and want and how best can I support them to be well and happy. Using this approach and communicating with others about what the person’s stressors are and what they need helps to give the best support possible to the person. In order to contribute towards the learning of an individual with an autistic spectrum condition it is important to let them experience new things but try to avoid stressors as much as possible. Communication is a big part of learning and it helps when I use short direct sentences, simplify the task/ routine and break it down into small steps, talk quietly and calmly being aware of how I use my voice, give clear instructions saying exactly what is required and avoiding overload. It is important to try to gain the person’s attention first. It is important to be aware of the impact of my own verbal and non-verbal communication on an individual with an autistic spectrum condition because they may respond anxiously to certain things such as a loud voice or too much eye contact or standing too close so it is importa nt to notice what is going on both verbally and non verbally. The environment can affect communication for example if there is a lot of noise in the room the person may not be able to filter out that noise so it will be impossible to expect to get their attention or if they cannot concentrate because the light is too bright but they cannot say so. So it is important to try to identify these things in the environment to aid communication. In order to reduce barriers to communication with an individual it is important to notice anything with may be a stressor and to use a person-centered approach that is unique to that individual, it is important to make the person feel as safe and comfortable as possible so communication can be as good as possible. If the person cannot speak shared communication such as imitation or doing something with the person may help as this is a form of  communication too. I worked with an individual with autism and she enjoyed playing the piano and communicated non verbally that she wanted me to play the piano with her. Communicating through a shared interest can be very rewarding for both people. Visual communication aids are also important, they can be used to show the person’s daily routine and can be used by the individual to show whether they like or dislike something and can be used to indicate when an activity if going to change or end. It can relieve a lot of stress to the individual if they know what their routine is and what’s going to happen next. There are many people who could provide advice about effective communication with an individual and these can be both formal and informal supporters such as family and friends, support workers, speech therapists, psychologists and anyone who knows the individual and can provide insight into their likes, dislikes and the way they prefer to communicate.