PEACE Domestic Violence Agency Essay Example for Free

PEACE Domestic Violence Agency Essay The PEACE Domestic Violence agency’s mission is to â€Å"reduce victim trauma, empower survivors, and promote recovery through direct services† (University of Phoenix, 2012, para. 9). Also, according to University of Phoenix Appendix B (2012),PEACE also strives to reducing the occurrence of sexual assault and domestic violence by educating the abused and the community and proposing ways to fight against social norms and beliefs. It will reside in the city of Portland, a large metropolitan city, that has been experiencing a rise in reports of not only domestic, spousal, and child abuse, but also youth violence, assault, and road rage over the last five years. PEACE is looking for funding from the National Foundation’s funding program and by doing so strives promote the well-being of people whose lives have been affected by domestic violence, improve the quality of life of families with a member in prison, provide people who are (or have been) involved with the criminal justice system with a rehabilitation program where they can obtain the skills and support networks needed to lead fulfilled lives. â€Å"The Small Grants Program offers one-time grants of up to $5,000 to registered charities with an annual budget under $500,000 and the Investor Program is an innovative funding program designed to support six organizations under each of the objectives of the Supporting Families program, with up to $150,000 a year for up to 3 years† (University of Phoenix, 2012, para. 11). The program needs not only proper funding but the ability to allocate that funding in ways that will benefit the community in the fastest and most effective way possible. Because of this, PEACE will be looking into alternative funding. The Community Innovation Challenge is one of the most important ways PEACE will try and obtain nontraditional funding. The Community Innovation Challenge is a grant program that gives approved organizations money so they can enact faster and more efficient ways of serving and bettering the community. This kind of funding would benefit PEACE because a domestic violence agency like PEACE is helpful to the community on so many levels children to adults to those looking to be rehabilitated. PEACE would be a prime candidate for this grant because of this reason and the money would be used to assist workers in their education on the matters at hand as well as paying for more workers if the organization gets too large for the current staff amount. PEACE will also be looking into outsourcing and setting up charity booths at frequently visited locations like outside a grocery store or at a shopping center. Sending emails and/or letters to local businesses, companies, and even other organizations looking for financial assistance, ideas, and information is definitely helpful and it also allows smaller businesses to get their name on the map and helping out the organization if they were to become something like a sponsor. Setting up charity booths also allows people from many different walks of life to see my program’s cause and contribute something, anything, if they can. Funding from these two sources can normally be used in many ways but it is also not always a large amount. Access to smaller amounts of funding gives PEACE ways to buy low cost items when they are affordable. Things like more seating, chair cushions, water tanks, even coffee and muffins All these things can help people feel more welcome and safe which is important with organizations like PEACE. Signing up for a few free subscription/database-type sites will give access to funds as well. These websites allow a program to look for nontraditional sources of funding as well as give them updates for when new opportunities come up that apply to the program. This is especially helpful for busy programs that may not have the man power to go out and hunt for funding sources while also working with the program as much as The mission of the PEACE Domestic Violence Agency is to reduce victim trauma, empower survivors, and promote recovery through direct services. Their curriculum is based largely around the need of the community and they set out to provide the best, most varied care they can. Starting with professionally trained staff who are looked over by a small administration PEACE locates those in need of assistance and brings them to a place where those needs can be met on an individual basis as well as on a group basis. The stakeholders for PEACE start with the administration and staff of the agency who put themselves on the line taking care of their clients and looking for sources of funding to make sure things are taken care of. Staff and administration need to have their physical and mental needs taken care of and provided for so they can then provide for the community. This may mean more staff need to be trained and employed to keep everyone at the top of their game or the spaces available for clients needs to be cut so staff do not find themselves over-taxed. Domestic abuse is a very serious thing and it cannot be taken lightly by anyone. One false step – be it a forgotten case notebook, a less-than-attentive staff member, or what have you – can severely endanger the clients. It is imperative that the clients are put into the hands of fully educated, completely able staff. A majority of funding sources are open only to non-profit, 501(c)3 organizations. These organizations must also be in good standing to receive funds and therefore PEACE is eligible to apply for this type of funding. A private foundation is deemed to be any non-profit that supports the work of public charities through the award of grants (2009). In order to receive funds a foundation is required to file a Form 1023 with the IRS. Form 1023 is a 28 page form gives the IRS the information they need to conduct audits of the foundation’s activities. The duty of staff and the administration is to make sure the program meets the requirements of the funders constantly because they would lose funding if they have anything that presents itself as a conflict of interest of it there is anything going on that the funders do not like (2009). Non-profit organizations and their boards are bound to very strict rules and therefore discrimination against an individual or treating a group better than another individual or group can result in the foundation being shut down. Records of a program must be maintained in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), including the filing of an annual Form 990 with the IRS. All members of the staff and management are responsible to the rules for non-profits. Documentation has to be well understood and applied consistently and correctly. The administrators of PEACE have to find evaluators that can ensure the evaluations show an honest picture of the group effort, effectiveness, and c ontribution to the community so granters can rely on the information provided. The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act is an example of such a funding foundation that can create such a picture. Their mission is to decrease the occurrence of domestic abuse as well as to increase well-being and progress in society as a whole. This foundation is federally funded often pulling in quite a few million dollars that are then allocated to them by the government as well as allocated to sister organizations and other funding opportunities. Being federally funded there is a close eye on the limited resources of the foundation so the funders can be sure the money is spent in the most effective manner to benefit the greatest number of people. The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act serves organizations and people all over the United. The foundation has control over where their money is used and they try to concentrate their focus on organizations that will benefit the community around them the most. They, more specifically, tend to fund essential services that sit at the core of ending domestic violence. Emergency shelters, hotlines, and advocacy as well as primary and secondary prevention are all looked at highly. Another stakeholder in the PEACE Domestic Violence Agency is the community itself. Community evaluation will be an active part of the results that affect ongoing funding by attending the program, first of all, and also by giving feedback on the effectiveness of this program and the staff of said program in their community. The input of the community needs to be taken into consideration when looking at progress evaluations and data that has been collected before making decisions to change, mend, or modify the program. Community member have the biggest input on when, where, and how group sessions are bei ng held and, more importantly, when, where, and how private sessions are being held. Children cannot be expected to want to sit through late meetings, parents may not have time during the day because of work†¦ There are so many factors that need to be looked at in order to please the wants and needs of the community. This will be important also keep constant monitoring of to allow individuals and families to have time for different kinds of activities and help, as well as to allow the help they’ve currently received (or have been receiving) to process and sink in. However, the community cannot affect or change the goals of funding institutions. Therefore, they have to work with the funder’s restrictions and requirements so that no single group is held in a higher spot on the list of things that need funding or the list of people that need assistance. Every one of the stakeholders at PEACE Domestic Violence Agency has an effect on the design and implementation of the program. The community, the clients, the staff and finally the administration all s hare a common goal and they all hold the progress and fate of the program in their hands. They all want to see an improvement in the society, they all want to see higher quality of life, and they all want someone (even themselves) to feel safe when they go to sleep at night. This means strong staff, an introduction of life skills, increased community involvement, increased collaboration with funders and the state, a reduction in high risk behaviors, and a decrease in the amount of reported domestic abuse cases. By taking these things into account PEACE Domestic Violence Agency will be a long lasting, effective program. Program planning and evaluation process can provide opportunities for program improvement because they will catch instances of the program not meeting the expectations of the funders, workers, and the community. It is vital for PEACE to carefully create a program plan because, with an organization that is helping a myriad of kinds of victims of domestic abuse, it is easy to give the wrong message to workers and the community. PEACE also provides assistance to people who are looking to be rehabilitated so it would be bad for them if their organization came off as only being there to help the hurt or, in my opinion, even worse: As being there to make sure the people know they did wrong but not actually help them. The evaluation process can keep track of the kinds of clients they get and also what places might need improvement. As the manager of a program anything that improves efficiency and the method for delivery of the service is helpful and those can be found through the evaluation process. As a funder, you would have every right to speak up if you thought your money was not being well spent. This comes into play first in the program planning because if you are looking for a specific kind of program you can gladly put forth an effort to make that happen whether it be with time, money, or both. It also comes into play with the evaluation process. As a funder it would be part of your responsibility to check where funds are going and when and to check if there are more efficient and helpful ways of delivering the funds and how they are spent. Outcome Measure: Reduce the amount of domestic violence report, to assist people and families in dealing with life after abuse, and to help with rehabilitation and reintroduction. * Baseline Data: Portland has experienced increasing reports of domestic and youth violence, spousal and child abuse, assault, and incidents of road rage over the last 5 years. * Evaluation Design: Trained observers, staff * Source of Information/Instrument(s): Police reports, reports from other domestic abuse locations * Who Will Collect the Data: Collection of data will be done by a small team of staff specifically brought together to gather and process data. * Timing of Data Collection: Overall data collection every three months (to look for progress) with an update to data made every forty-five days. * Population or Sample: Population (Applicable men, women and children of Portland) * How Will the Data be Described/Analyzed: Total new/repeat counts of domestic abuse in the form of percentages (increase or decrease) Process Measure: Number of staff trained to handle the abused * Source of Information/Instrument(s): Training sign-in sheets * Who Will Collect the Data: Administration assistant will help participants sign-in * Timing of Data Collection: Before the training session * Population or Sample: Population (all participants) * How Will the Data be Described/Analyzed: Total number of staff properly trained. Process Measure: Number of sessions delivered per group * Source of Information/Instrument(s): Staff session logs * Who Will Collect the Data: Staff * Timing of Data Collection: During and after each session * Population or Sample: Population (all staff will fill out session logs) * How Will the Data be Described/Analyzed: Frequency of sessions per group per staff, as well as an average frequency of sessions across the board. Process Measure: Measures of program fidelity * Source of Information/Instrument(s): Trained observers, staff checklists, client surveys * Who Will Collect the Data: Trained observers, staff, and clients * Timing of Data Collection: Trained observers will attend one session per group each month and staff and clients will fill out biweekly checklists and surveys * Population or Sample: Population (All staff and willing clients as well as observers) * How Will the Data be Described/Analyzed: Qualitative data from observations and data collected from checklists and surveys will be compiled, summarized, and given to administration to show who is being passionate and faithful to the cause as well as what improvements need to be made and where. This evaluation plan will include process evaluation, outcome evaluations, formative evaluations, and summative evaluations. Process evaluations will evaluate all procedures and tasks involved with implementing these programs. Process evaluations will also monitor the program and ensure feedback throughout the length of the program. This is exceptionally beneficial when running a program that is solely need-based and those needs only discovered through dealing with the clients the program is trying to help. Without feedback process cannot be made and goals, no matter how small, cannot be achieved. By performing process evaluations on the effectiveness of the groups as well as the staff themselves and comparing that to data collected by clients the best possible steps can be made towards the goal reducing the effect of domestic violence on Portland. Outcome evaluations will collect quantitative and qualitative data from ongoing programs to document any short-term results that have been achieved as well as open doors to any new short-term goals and changes that have to be made to current ones. Task-focused results such as the number of staff who put their name on the sign-up sheet to be trained, how many clients return, and how many young adults seek help with rehabilitation on their own describe the output of the activity and short-term results, like the percentage of clients that are willing to fill out an end-of-session survey, describe the immediate effects of the program on the community. Information such as an increase in knowledge, changed in attitude, and behavioral shifts are part of a long list of data that can be discovered after an outcome evaluation. Outcome evaluations will come in handy the most when trying to figure out if the community is being reached properly and clients are being treated as best as they can be. It will also be helpful determining what activities are out-of-date or just plain not helpful anymore and what activities can take their place. Formative evaluations, which include pre-testing and competency exams, allow an organization to assess the strengths and weaknesses in their approach to their goals, staff, target audience for their services, and even their advertising campaign! Formative evaluations also help an organization discover if any changes need to be made, if they can be made, or if the program is not going to succeed. By testing messages, products, and services on small groups also helps an organization work out kinks before implementing it on a larger scale. By taking the data gained from a finished formative evaluation an organization can get a better idea of their company, its workers, and its clients and will help them decide if it is better to sink, or hopefully more often, swim. Summative evaluations include any combination of measurements and judgments that allow conclusions about the impact, outcome, and benefits of a program or method. Allowing an organization to stick to such an out of the box, abstract, non-linear form of evaluating it can pick and chose what will get them the most information the fastest. This can be, by far, the most efficient way to help an organization make progress. With an organization that has a lot of different sections, like this one, it can produce the best progress reports because there is not a single mainline format that has to be followed; Just whatever works. I believe I would find pre-post surveys with questions that have people rate things one through five, attendance sheets, and tally sheets to keep record of happenings the most useful. In an organization that has sections that help polar opposite cases (e.g. young adults straight from walking the line of a criminal who wish to find assistance in becoming rehabilitated and young mothers who have been abused and who have children who were abused that are looking for help with learning how to get through their fears and move on with life) there cannot be one set way to document things. Surveys will always be near the top of the data collecting tools list because people can put whatever they want however they want and can truly express themselves if they so chose. An organization cannot necessarily ask two groups, like the two mentioned above, â€Å"How did you feel when the counselor asked you to talk about your personal experiences with being abused,† because the young adult who is looking to be rehabilitated may not have been abused. Attendance sheets are a very important part of an organization as well because it will allow the organization to know how many people they are reaching and if they need to step their game up or not. References Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (2013). http://www.mass.gov/anf/budget-taxes-and- procurement/working-for-you/community-innovation-challenge-grant/. Retrieved from http://www.mass.gov/anf/budget-taxes-and-procurement/working-for-you/community-innovation- challenge-grant/ National Network to End Domestic Violence. (2012). Family Violence Prevention Services Act. Retrieved from http://www.nnedv.org/policy/issues/fvpsa.html United States Interagency Council on Homelessnes. (2011). Family Violence Prevention and Services Act. Retrieved from http://www.usich.gov/funding_programs/programs/family_violence_prevention_and_services_act/ University of Phoenix. (2012). Appendix B. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, HSM270 Program Planning and Grant Proposal Writing in Human Services website. Weill Cornell Medical College. (2013). http://weill.cornell.edu/research/grants_and_contracts/research_development/se

Ethics Of Hans Jonas Philosophy Essay

Ethics Of Hans Jonas Philosophy Essay Science and philosophy though are separate disciplines they co-exist with each other. Hans Jonas a prominent thinker not only has succeeded in bridging the gap of science and philosophy but also has taken science especially the Biology to the realm of philosophy. He has constructed Philosophical Biology. He is also known for his ethics of responsibility. As, one of the most prominent thinkers of 20th century, he has written on diverse topics such as the philosophy of biology, ethics, social philosophy, cosmology, and Jewish theology with a view to understand morality as the root of our moral responsibility to safeguard humanitys future. Jonass greatest work, The Phenomenon of Life sets forth a systematic and comprehensive philosophy of phenomenology and existentialism. In this paper I have tried to adumbrate his thought on life philosophy rather thematically with a special reference to Phenomenon of Life. I have also touched upon his most celebrated ethics of responsibility briefly f ollowed by my own reflections. 1. Life and Biography Hans Jonas was a well-known Jewish thinker, an early and influential biomedical ethicist, and an equally early and influential philosopher of technology. Jonas was born in 1904 in Monchengladbach, studied under Martin Heidegger at the University of Freiburg before Hitler came to power and Heidegger became chancellor of the university. He received his doctorate in 1928 from the University of Marburg. In 1933 he fled Germany and, in 1964, publicly repudiated Heidegger because of his Nazi connections. Jonas taught in Jerusalem and Canada before becoming a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York in 1955, where he was chair of the philosophy department (195763) and Johnson Professor of Philosophy (from 1966 until his retirement in 1976).  [1]  He Died in February, 1993 in New York. Jonass career is generally divided into three periods defined by the three works just mentioned, but in reverse order: studies of Gnosticism, studies of philosophical biology, and ethica l studies.  [2]  Jonass major works in English include:  The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God  and  the Beginnings of Christianity  (1958),  The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology  (1966), and  The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of Ethics for the Technological Age  (1979).  [3]   2. Philosophical Biology in The Phenomenon of Life The Phenomenon of Life is a collection of essays, written over a period of more than fifteen years. The book covers topics ranging from the metabolism of an amoeba to the meaning of immortality. There are discussions of Orphic religion, natural selection, gnosticism, DNA, ancient versus modern mathematics, cybernetics, the relative strengths and weaknesses of seeing, hearing, and tactile-feeling, the being of images, theory versus practice, the images of man and the image of God. In this book he critiques the fundamental assumptions underlying modern philosophy since Descartes, primarily dualism. Jonas is exactly right to argue that life does need a distinct ontological category, and that the neglect of life in the Cartesian dichotomy of matter and mind is an important element in the historical path that leads to modern nihilism.  [4]  The book deals with organic facts of life and self-interpretation of life in human being. The themes dealt are not only of organic world such as m etabolism, sentience, motility, emotion, perception, imagination, mind etc. but also moral and metaphysical themes.  [5]   In the preface of The Phenomenon of Life, Jonas identifies the work as an existential interpretation of the biological facts. This description is significant: Jonas would attempt to carry what was valuable in the existentialist approach forward to interpret an area that philosophers had long neglected: the world of facts about living things; about hunger, about nourishment, about growth and about death. The very proposition that philosophy ought to interpret facts demonstrates Jonass unorthodox orientation. For Jonas, the old division of labor between the natural sciences, on the one hand, which deal in facts about nature, and the humanities, on the other, which concern themselves with values and concepts salient to the mind or spirit-this old division of labor is precisely the problem that must be overcome in order to get nature right. 3. Life, Death and the Body of Being and Philosophical Aspects of Darwinism Jonas says that when human being began to interpret the nature of things he found life everywhere. It means the primitive man found life in everything. Jonas calls for the construction of a philosophy of nature as the Greek philosopher Aristotle did long ago. By this he means that every philosopher must return to fields or to the working land. In this context his questions are: What is the difference between a human being, alive, and a corpse? What is there in man besides chemicals that constitute the human body? Some might be quick to answer, a human being is not just a body; he has a soul. But what is meant by this? Is the soul something to be opposed to the body-a sort of spiritual substance that inhabits a body and lives out its own destiny apart from that body? This was neither Jonass view nor Aristotles before him.  [6]  The position of these philosophers is closer to that which Friedrich Nietzsche expressed with his usual eloquence when he wrote in Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Body am I, and soul so speaks a child.  [7]  And why should one not speak like children? But the awakened and knowing say: body am I entirely, and nothing else; and soul is only a word for something about the body. Nietzsche says that the soul is a word for something about the body, we have an idea what that something is-its mortality, its relationship to death. An easy but significant answer to the question what is a living thing? is this: A living thing is something that can and will die. Unlike non-living matter-including the nonliving matter that makes up living bodies-the whole living body has a provisional sort of being. When death arrives, the extinction of an existing thing occurs. What is clearly gone in death is the bodys organization. Extinction of organism equals loss of organization. When the organism is alive, first, it is not a static thing, like the organization of marble into a statue or of wood and iron into a hammer. It is rather, a never ceasing, ongoing pro cess. Biological science calls this process as metabolism. Jonas describes metabolism philosophically: In this remarkable mode of being, the material parts of which the organism consists at a given instant are to the penetrating observer only temporary, passing contents whose joint material identity does not coincide with the identity of the whole which they enter and leave, and which sustains its own identity by the very act of foreign matter passing through its spatial system, the living form. It is never the same materially and yet persists as its same self, by not remaining the same matter.  [8]  Aristotles thought that all living beings nourish themselves, struck the idea of the mode of being as discovered by Jonas. A living thing does not simply exist-it exists by being constantly active, constantly reaching out into the world to capture those material parts it needs to preserve itself. Out of these captured elements, the organism builds itself anew or generates the energy needed for this building. Plants employ roots and leaves, a nimals employ gills, lungs, teeth, stomach-and also, on the hunt, legs and arms, eyes and ears, attention and memory. As Jonas conceives it, life, from the most simple to the most complex, is active and purposeful.  [9]  Organism and environment together form a system which determines the basic concept of life. Jonas remarks that the triumph which materialism achieved in Darwinism contains the germ of its own overcoming. Though by proving Darwins evolutionism it seems that mans metaphysical status is reduced due to his animal descent, in the realm of life as a whole mans dignity is restored. If man was the relative of animals, then animals were the relatives of man, and in degrees bearers of that inwardness of which man, the most advanced of their kin, is conscious in himself.  [10]  But man remains distinct, because of self-consciousness. 4. Is God a Mathematician? The third essay in The Phenomenon of Life considers the meaning of metabolism using the quote of Sir James Jeans. Jonas notes that a living being is one that is never the same from one moment to the next perpetual self-renewal through process. James remarks, From the intrinsic evidence of his creation, the Great Architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician.  [11]  Two questions can be asked on this statement: What does it mean and is it true? The question regarding the truth gives rise to another question namely, is the great architect of the universe is also the architect of amoeba. He must be both, or he is neither. For the amoeba is part of the universe and must be accountable for by its creative principle. The observation of James is the continuation of the long tradition from Platos Timaeus to Leibniz. Leibniz observes, Thus it is wonderfully made known to us how in the very origination of things a certain Divine mathematics or metaphysical mechanic s is employed and the determination of the greatest quantity takes place.  [12]  When God calculates and employs thought, the world is made.  [13]  Kepler deeply imbued with the Pythagorean faith in the mathematical essence of things and the consequent harmony in the world, said that God, too kind to remain idle, began to play the game of signatures, signing his likeness into the world, with the result that all nature and the graceful sky are symbolized in the art of geometry. Galileo believed that the great book of the universe is written in mathematical language, using symbols such as triangles, circles and other geometrical figures. Philosophy is written in the book of the universe.  [14]  The final answer to the question, Is God a Mathematician? is a distinct No. 5. Animal vs. Plants Jonas considers what differs from animal to plant i.e., motility, perception and emotion. The ability to move using the evidence of perception leads to the idea of freedom. Plants possess immediacy in life between environment and the organism; animals are more separated than this being required to treat the environment as different from them to some degree at least. For the animal the environment is always at a distance, but for plants the adjacent surroundings in one permanent context forms the environment. Motility, perception, and emotion make it possible for animals to have a genuine relation to a genuinely articulated world. These powers are, in fact, all manifestations of a common principle, tied to a common fact about animal life. The common fact is that the mobile animals live at greater distance from their relevant environments; thereforethe common principleanimal life is mediated life, animal life is rooted in the gap between subject and object, which gap is spanned by the distance-disclosing and distance-bridging powers of perception, locomotion, and appetite. Jonas argues, persuasively, that appetite is the heart of animality, prior to the more externally recognizable powers of perception and locomotion. Distance is requisite for desire, but it is desire which drives motion, guided by perception, to turn the over there into here and the not yet into now. It is desire which, while seeking to efface the spatial and temporal gaps, paradoxically, maintains the gaps (and the objects across them) as matters of interest, even as the gaps are spanned under its spur. Jonas concludes: The great secret of animal life lies precisely in the gap which it is able to maintain between immediate concern and mediate satisfaction.  [15]  Wakefulness and effort, want and fear, suffering and enjoyment give depth to the animal soul. 6. Cybernetics and Purpose According to cybernetics, society is communication network for the transmitting, exchanging, and pooling of information. Jonas analyses the ideas of cybernetics and some differences between machines and organisms noting that machines act by feedback mechanisms whereas organism is concerned in existing, this applies also to society where the cybernetic idea of information is empty. He draws out a crucial implication of the passionate nature of animal life. He shows the error in the efforts of cyberneticians and behaviorists to explain away the apparent goal-directed behavior of animals in terms of mechanical inputs and outputs and self-regulating feedback mechanisms. Exploiting the distinction between serving a purpose and having purpose, and using a marvelous example which compares a so-called self-steering torpedo and the same torpedo manned by a human pilot, he shows that all machine models of purposiveness fail because, unlike living things, machines are not creatures of need. It is the concern of life with its own continued existence that qualifies incoming data as messages, and then only if they are relevant to the organisms purpose; it is only such self-concern that energizes the active response as an action fit to the organic purpose. Concern, or, in the higher animals, desire, appetite, and emotion, is more basic than the outward-looking functions of perception and locomotion which it holds together. Animals, no less than man, are teleological beings; animals, no less than man, aim at their own good.  [16]   7. Image-making and the Freedom of Man Hans Jonas sheds light on philosophical anthropology where he shows the specific difference of human being in the animal kingdom. He deliberates on the properties of an object which determines the image. According to him the properties of image include:  [17]   1. The most obvious property is that of likeness. An image is an object that bears a plainly recognizable likeness to another object. 2. The likeness is produced with intent. It is not the natural resemblances like mirror images, shadows, and the like. 3. The likeness is not complete. It is not duplication. The incompleteness of the likeness must be perceptible. 4. The incompleteness of image-likeness includes omission and selection. 5. Incompleteness also involves dissimilarity and alteration of selected features. 6. The object of representation is visual shape. Vision grants the greatest freedom to the mediacy of representation. 7. The image is inactive and at rest, though it may depict movement and action. There is static presence because the represented, the representation, and the vehicle of representation are different strata in the ontological constitution of the image. The properties required in a subject for the making or beholding of images involve the ability to behold something as an image; and to behold something as an image and not merely as an object means also to be able to produce one. The requirement seems to be the ability to perceive the likeness. Animals perceive either sameness or otherness, but not both in one. Human persons have the apprehension of similitude. 8. Gnosticism, Existentialism and Nihilism The similarity and difference between two positions or movements of thought is: one is conceptual, sophisticated and eminently modern i.e., existentialism and another from misty past, mythological, crude i.e., Gnosticism. Jonas wrote on Gnosticism which was a widespread movement in late antiquity in the early era of Christianity. The Gnostics, often understood to be Christian heretics, held the view that the cosmos is a prison for the human soul; that the world is not Gods creation, but the work of lesser deities intent on keeping the soul imprisoned and apart from God; that all attachments between a human being and the world, his appetites, aspirations and conscience, are expressions of ignorance that must be overcome through true knowledge; and that this knowledge only comes as a gift from the savior beyond the world who can show the soul the way out.  [18]   The movement of modern knowledge called science has by a necessary complementarity eroded the foundations from which norms could be derived; it has destroyed the very idea of norm as such. To make his point fully emphatic, Jonas writes: Now we shiver in the nakedness of a nihilism, in which near-omnipotence is paired with near-emptiness, greatest capacity with knowing least for what ends to use it.  [19]   9. Heidegger and Theology This essay deals with how Martin Heidegger understands of Theology as interpreted by Jonas. Originally the Biblical word was equalized with the Greek logos. Philo Judaeus gives a reflection on Christian Theology through the etymology of the Biblical name Israel. It means He who sees God and Jacobs acquiring this name is said to represent the God-seekers progress from the stage of hearing to that of seeing, made possible by the miraculous conversion of ears into eyes. Philos views on knowing God rests on the Platonic supposition the truest relation to being is intuition, beholding. This eminence of sight gazed from the religious perspective enhances ones relation to God and also to the word of God. Philo quoting Exodus, All the people saw the voice (20: 18) comments: Highly significant, for human voice is to be heard, but Gods voice is in truth to be seen. Why? Because that which God speaks is not words but works, which the eye discriminates better than the ear (De Decalogo, 47).  [ 20]  After Philo the Christian Theology underwent a turn from the original hearing to the call of the living in other words the conversion of ears into eyes When we speak of Heidegger there is much secularized Christianity in his thought. The concepts like guilt, care, anxiety, call of conscience, resolution, authenticity-inauthenticity have a purely ontological meaning. Theology is also a primal thinking though it is derived from a revelation. But for Heidegger Revelation is self-unveiling of being. Heidegger adopts many Judeo-Christian vocabularies in his philosophy such as guilt and conscience and call and voice and hearing and response and mission and shepherd and revelation and thanksgiving etc. He says: Only from the truth of being can essence of the holy be thought. Only from the essence of the holy is the essence of deity to be thought. Only in the light in the essence of deity can that be thought and said which the word God should name.  [21]  Heideggers formulation c an be put in this way, philosophical thinking is to being as theological thinking is to the self-revealing God. Hence theology should be primal thinking concerning God.  [22]   10. Jonass Thought on Biology Organisms are, of course, as much a part of the physical universe as atoms and planets and cosmic nebulae. An organism is a whole and not just a collection of simpler parts. Nature is not a place of purposes but rather of bodies filling the void of empty space.  [23]  A living organism including human being-is a being that must always be at-work in order to stay the whole that it is. What Jonas adds to this account is an existentialist philosophers emphasis on the role of death. The existentialists, including Heidegger, think only about the consciousness of death, the anticipation of death that characterizes mankinds existence. But Jonas thought about death as a biological event. Mankind is not the only creature who walks in the valley of the shadow of death. All life is fragile and provisional; all life is wrested moment by moment from the threat of non-being. The key ontological divide is not between human beings and the rest of nature-it is between living nature and that which does not live and, so, cannot die. The essential feature of all life, then, is, first, the primacy of form over matter-the ontological persistence of an individual through material change-and, second, the purposeful action of the living individual to keep itself in being against the threat of non-being. The imputation of purpose to all life processes is perhaps the core of Jonass heresy. It is essential, for Jonas, those categories which modern philosophers and scientists have consistently applied only to mankind-purpose, intention, interest, care-should be seen as present throughout the organic world. To be alive is to exhibit an interest in continuing to be. Jonas formulates this at one point by saying that, through metabolism, life says yes to itself.  [24]  Jonas characterizes the essential property of all living things as a kind of freedom. Living things are free in that they exist independent of, though not apart from, their material.  [25]   11. The Imperative of Responsibility Jonas is best known for his neo-Kantian ethics of responsible caution in the face of the awesome power of modern technology, especially the power of modern biotechnology, including genetic engineering. He offers answer to the question what makes mankind unique?, Man is the only being known to us who can assume responsibility. The fact that he can assume it means that he is liable to it. This capacity for taking responsibility already signifies that human being is subject to its imperative: the ability itself brings moral obligation with it. But the capacity for taking responsibility, an ethical capacity, lies in mans ontological capability to choose knowingly and willingly between alterative actions. Responsibility, therefore, is complimentary to freedom; it is an acting subjects burden of freedom.  [26]  Jonas tells us: Responsibility exists with or without God and, naturally even more so, with or without an earthly court of justice. Responsibility is sown into the fabric of Bei ng. Jonas argues that it does and that we must learn how to think of the planet that sustains our being and the God-like nature that evolution has-wondrously and mysteriously-realized in our species as vulnerable things that must stay our hand and constrain our choices.  [27]  According to Jonas, we must consult our fears and not our hopes when understanding technological ventures that can have a potentially devastating impact on what it means to be human (and therefore ethical). The Imperative of Responsibility centres on social and ethical problems created by technology. Jonas insists that human survival depends on our efforts to care for our planet and its future. He formulated a new and distinctive supreme principle of morality: Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life.  [28]  Francis Bacon states that nature can be commanded only by being obeyed.  [29]   Critical Remarks and Conclusion Hans Jonas, a pupil of Heidegger, departs from his mentors work and reaches out into the depths of the deeply thinking mans way of understanding The Phenomenon of Life . The philosophy of Jonas is more than challenging in this technological era. I found it relevant for many reasons. a. His division of living and non-living beings is a new thinking which goes beyond anthropocentric division of man and rest of nature. This new aspect brings in the terrain of plants and animals to human life. They are nothing less in terms of living beings. Only non-living beings have neither birth nor death. This thinking paves the way for new ethical imperatives, respect for life and deep ecological concerns. b. His application of philosophy to science especially to biology is relevant. He tries to interpret nature in a holistic sense which upholds the meaning to life, proper use of technology etc. He acknowledges that human existence cannot be grasped without acknowledging radically different kinds of relation. c. The philosophy of Hans Jonas found in The Phenomenon of Life is a hard reading and bit complicated to understand in a first attempt. But as one goes or digs deep there are gems of thought and concrete experiences. The life and thought is worth studying for a present student of philosophy. His philosophy is a clarion call to study and do philosophy as well. It places humans as responsible citizens of cosmos to safeguard nature and surroundings. Thanks to his thought.

Essay --

Advantages and Limitations of the Conventional Brick Manufacturing Methods:- The brick making process starts with the preparation of the clay with which the bricks will be made. This clay is then molded into the specified dimensions. There are two types of molding-Slop Molding & Sand Molding. Once dried, these molded bricks are transferred to a fire kiln where the bricks are subjected to a very high temperature to harden them. Now-a-days new manufacturing methods are replacing the conventional ones and some are still in practice. It’s because the conventional methods have some advantages as well as some disadvantages in some or other step. Based upon their disadvantages and advantages either they are being replaced by new methods or are still in practice. The advantages and disadvantages of these steps could be as follows:- Preparation of the Clay:- The right type of clay is extracted from the ground. This clay contains hard lumps in it. To get smooth, soft and moist mixture which contains no hard lump, the clay is treated. The treatment is done in two steps:-Tempering and mixing. In Tempering, water is added in exact proportions based on the clay quality in the tempering process and left for around 1 to 5 days which softens and lumps. Conventionally clay pits are flooded with water for tempering purpose (excess water added). It could seem better way for the digging becomes easier but in terms of the strength of the final brick, with which we can’t play much, it’s a big disadvantageous approach. Instead we should dig the soil first and then mix adequate amount of water to it. This step is followed by Mixing to break big lumps and to homogenize the softened clay mixture. The mixing could be done mechanically, by the use of some ani... ... Types of Conventional Bricks The Building bricks are classified based upon their strength which is directly affected by the baking temperature. So the less baked brick is of poor quality and vice versa. These are termed as A/B grade bricks in Indian countryside. Now-a-days the A grade bricks cost is around INR 3500 per 1000 bricks and around INR 2500 for B grade bricks. There are other types of bricks also like Facing Bricks, Glazed Bricks etc. The price of these bricks is highly varying based upon the properties you want to have like texture, color, heat resistance etc. References:- 1. http://www.gate-international.org/documents/publications/webdocs/pdfs/bas-tb11e.pdf 2. http://forest.mtu.edu/pcforestry/resources/studentprojects/bricks/process.htm 3. ‘Village Level Brick-Making’ by Anne Beamish & Will Donovan. 4. http://www.brickability.co.uk/products/bricks.htm

King Lear - Disruption Of Order In King Lear And The Causes Essay

Shakespeare's King Lear is a play which shows the consequences of one man's decisions. The audience follows the main character, Lear, as he makes decisions that disrupt order in his Kingdom. When Lear surrenders all his power and land to his daughters as a reward for their demonstration of love towards him, the breakdown on order in evident. Lear's first mistake is to divide his Kingdom into three parts. A Kingdom is run best under one ruler as only one decision is made without contradiction. Another indication that order is disrupted is the separation of Lear's family. Lear's inability to control his anger causes him to banish his youngest daughter, Cordelia, and loyal servant, Kent. This foolish act causes Lear to become vulnerable to his other two daughters as they conspire against him. Lastly, the transfer of power from Lear to his eldest and middle daughter, Goneril and Regan, reveals disorder as a result of the division of the Kingdom. A Kingdom without order is a Kingdom in ch aos. When order is disrupted in King Lear, the audience witnesses chaotic events that Lear endures, eventually learning who truly loves him. At the start of the play, Lear decides to divide his Kingdom into three. Give me the map there. Know we have divided In three our Kingdom and ‘tis our fast intent to Shake all cares and business from our age. (I,i,37-39) This is the first indication that order is disrupted. Dividing up a Kingdom politically has many disadvantages that Lear do...

Case Study Analysis: Union Carbide Corporation And Bhopal Essay

The Political, Social, and Legal Environment of Business Case Study Analysis: Union Carbide Corporation and Bhopal A single slip in action may cause lasting sorrow. A slight mistake in operation at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal of India causes a lot of deaths and injuries. What a tragedy it is. Undoubtedly, there must be something wrong with the management of the plant. In addition to the plant, the governments related in India that issued permits and provided incentives for the plant, Bhopal community officials who permitted slum dwellers to move near the plant in illegal settlements, Indian environmental and safety inspectors should also be responsible for this. The governments related in India issued permits because people need jobs, or people would starve to death. This was one reason in my opinion. Soft money from Union Carbide plant may be another reason for issuing permits. It was clearly that the governments in America would not issue a permit to Union Carbide plant under such circumstances, which lacked of severe environmental standards and permitted slum dwellers to live near the plant and so on. Such actions were the fuses leading to more deaths. Before the major gas leakage from the MCI unit on December 3, 1984, some people were killed because of phosgene gas leakage. However, no one took it seriously in spite of the report by media. One of the reasons that people ignore this was because people didn ¡Ã‚ ¦t know the potential danger of the chemical plant. The other reason was that there are not enough environmental inspectors to cover so many plants in India. Besides, those inspectors had a record of loose enforcement. Consequently, danger emerged just as the saying goes  ¡Ã‚ §Nothing comes of nothing. ¡Ã‚ ¨ As for the management of Union Carbide ¡Ã‚ ¦s Bhopal plant, some steps indeed needed to be improved. Let us take a look at the whole process of the gas leak and see what actions can be improved. The first mistake in my opinion was that R. Khan, an operator in the MIC complex, neglected to insert a slip blind above the point of water entry. This omission violated instructions in the MIC processing manual, the technical manual that set forth procedures established by the chemical engineers who set up the plant. Obviously, the plant failed to emphasize the importance of obeying the processing manual and the danger of disobeying ... ...nk he should be responsible for the whole case. In other words, he should resign for the whole incident. Generally speaking, the legal system didn ¡Ã‚ ¦t play a very active role in this case. First of all, the India government could do more on digging the truth of the gas leak out and set a more strict standard to regulate such dangerous plants in case that another crisis. Second, I didn ¡Ã‚ ¦t see any one who worked in the Union Carbide ¡Ã‚ ¦s Bhopal plant should be responsible for that tragedy. Does it mean that all that the India court wanted was money or it just wanted to reduce trial and subsequent appeals because it might have taken more than twenty years? To sum up, Union Carbide handled the crisis cleverly but not well enough because it knew what would the India government and court react to this incident. Union Carbide controlled the whole situation and took lead of the lawsuits itself. The India government and court didn ¡Ã‚ ¦t help those victims as much as they needed instead. The function of government, designed to protect its people, disappeared in this case. BIBLIOGRAPHY  ¡Ã‚ §Union Carbide Corporation And Bhopal, ¡Ã‚ ¨ in Steiner and Steiner, pp.147-161.

Four Horsemen

Jair Hayes Mr. Buckingham Horsemen Essay 1 December 2011 Series of Unfortunate Events The four horsemen of the apocalypse appear in the story â€Å"How Much Land does a Man Need? † because they are all symbolical. The four horsemen are the horse of Conquest (white), War (Red), Black (Famine), and Pale (Death). These four horsemen are all symbolical in some way and all connect in the story in a important way. They help explain the series of events in Pakhom’s journey to his demise. The first horseman is conquest which is a white horse. This is symbolic because Pakhom sets out on a conquest for so much land. He starts off with no land basically then he starts to get land. He next has 15 desyatins, and seems to be contempt with this land. Though, after a while he does set out to get to get more land which he acquires. Pakhom then realizes he can get even more land by going to these Indians to get as much land as he wants. Then he realizes that he has to pay 100 rubies a day to get as much as he wants. Before this though, we get introduced to the next horse which is war. The next being war comes in when Pakhom gets his land. He realizes that people are messing with his land and he doesn’t like it. Though, the irony in that is the fact that he did the same thing when he had little to no land himself. After these events Pakhom took people to court and lost and would try to put peasants on trial. This caused a dispute between Pakhom and most of the commoners, meaning they didn’t get along. People are in a war because naturally they don’t get along. Though, you have to make sacrifices in war which brings in the next horse. The next horseman is famine which is represented by black. This one is more metaphorical I feel then literal. For Pakhom to afford all this land he sold many things. Eventually he sold almost everything he had. He went into a personal need or possession famine. Pakhom also went into a morals famine. He basically left everything behind just for land and nothing else, which in hindsight makes no sense. If you don’t have money to even buy seeds, he why would you need land. He didn’t even have a horse anymore because he sold it. He could have used his horse to plow the fields. Pakhom became very greedy which leads to the final horse. The last horse is the horseman of death which is a pale color. This horse is obviously representing the death of the main character Pakhom. Pakhom became too greedy and unnecessarily needy. When he keeps going on at the end of the story for the land he should have realized he didn’t need that much land to begin with. If you have to walk more than a mile or three to plant or plow crops then you have too much land I personally feel. These are how these four horseman of the apocalypse connect in the story.

Disadvantages of mobile phones Essay

It was the worst morning ever. when Carl woke up ,he realized that he did do his astronomy and chemistry home work .also ,the forecast called for rain and that would affect baseball practice .suddenly ,his mother yelled ,’’take out the garbage right now !’’When Carl returned from taking the garbage outside, he was all wet.’’ What a terrible day,’’he said. He walked up to class .he put his umbrella on the shelf and sat in the third row but the teacher asked why carl‘s umbrella was on the floor he told her not to blame him. But she sent him to the principle out of spite. Next, he took a geography test. Despite studying, Carl didn’t know the answers .he started drawing lightly on his paper Carl drew a huge dinosaur .what if it were real? He saw it in his mind .Carl’s class said he was a genius for having a dinosaur. It could interfere with math class, too! Soon, Carl’s fame speared through school. He thou ght his dinosaur to be very gentle and put it on exhibit. But admission would only be given to those classmates who paid him a fee .his idea was super.’’It’time to turn in your test,’’the teacher said .Carl looked at his paper .as he dreaming in class, he hadn’t finished the test! Our vision Creating an excellent city that provides the essence of success and comfort of sustainable living Our mission Working to plan ,design ,build and manage the municipal infrastructure ,facilities and service through the appropriate investment in our human and other resources maintaining the sustainable development