Mans Search For Meaning Essays (892 words) - English-language Films

Man's Search For Meaning Man's Search For Meaning Survival and Fully Living Viktor Frankl's concept regarding survival and fully living was developed through his observations and experiences in the concentration camps. He used his psychiatric training to discern the meanings of observations and to help himself become a better person. He uses analysis to develop his own concepts and describes them in steps throughout the book. When the prisoners first arrived at the camp most of them thought they would be spared at the last moment. The prisoners believed they had a chance of surviving, but this belief was eventually eliminated and it was at this time when the prisoners began to learn how to survive by using their internal strength. A sense of humor had emerged among the prisoners. This humor helped to get through some difficult situations they faced. Viktor also observed how much a person could really endure and still live. Even though the prisoners could not clean their teeth and were deprived of warmth and vitamins, they still were able to survive. The sores and abrasions on their hands did not suppurate despite the dirt that gathered on them from the hard labor. The challenge of staying alive under these wretched conditions was to have and maintain strong internal strength. During the time he spent in the camps, Viktor learned what was needed to survive and how to keep his internal strength despite his weakening external strength. During the second stage of Viktor's psychological reaction, prisoners lost their sense of feeling and emotion toward events that would be emotional to people outside the camps. This was a result of the violent environment, which consisted of beatings of prisoners and the death of many others. The prisoners could no longer feel any disgust or horror since these emotions where very common. From Viktor's professional point of view, this observation surprised him and also gave him a different point of view of the whole situation. The pain that hurt Viktor the most was the pain he felt when he received punishment for no reason. The punishments were of an insult, and hurt the prisoners on the inside more than on the outside. Viktor also acknowledged the fact that since the prisoners lacked the primary needs, they would dream about them and put all other needs aside. Since there was a lack of food Viktor depended greatly on his inner thoughts to get himself through the suffering. He needed some hope and a reason to live. He thought about his wife and the love that they shared. Every chance, he got he thought about pleasant events from the past to help get through all the hard times. The prisoners had a life of their own in their minds. At one point Viktor gave up on trying to control his life and in sending himself into the path he wanted. He decided to let fate take its course. After a while he found out that he could not allow this to happen, his inner emotions could not stand being helpless. He had to make decisions for himself if he wanted to have some control o ver his life and if he wanted to get out of the camp alive. When the camps were closing Viktor became the emotional leader of the remaining prisoners. He raised their hopes, and by doing this he was looking at the situation from a different point of view. He believed that life expected more from them and that they had to live in order to accomplish the unfinished work they had left behind when they left their home. When Viktor and the prisoners were released everyone except Viktor had no sense of direction. They did not know what was right and what was wrong. They went around and copied the actions of the SS, not knowing that it was wrong. Victor was fortunate and did not end up like the other survivors, since he had more knowledge than they did and was able to see his opportunity to live his life again. Viktor's concept applies to my life during the times when I am feeling bad or when I just don't know what to do. When I am

Feminism in Ireland Essays

Feminism in Ireland Essays Feminism in Ireland Paper Feminism in Ireland Paper It is often said now, that Ireland is a modern European state. Men and women are legally equal; through European equality legislation this must be the case. However, Irelands history has had quite a bleak story to tell about women. In this essay, that history will be traced. The struggle women undertook in order to be allowed to vote, the female war for independence alongside the more publicised male effort and the constitutional frailties that still exist will all be described in the essay. The contemporary womens movement will also be discussed, taking in issues such as contraception, divorce, abortion and working rights, which preoccupied women in post-revolutionary Ireland. These problems, although prominent in all Western countries at the time, had particular relevance for Irish women and in many cases were far harder to overcome. Although the modern state Ireland is now has equality on the face, women still struggle in daily life with issues such as the male domination of many industries, the persistence of sexual stereotyping and the lack of progress on matters such as abortion and child care. This essay attempts to describe the development of the feminist movement in Ireland and discuss the peculiarities of the movement as opposed to those in other states, taking into account the Church, the nationalist movement and the male-dominated governments. Women in early Irish society had many of the rights that feminists have fought for in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. The original patriarchal law evolved and changed, so that women held an equal role to men in many ways. (MacCurtain and i Corri : in 1978; 1) The adoption of Christianity in Ireland had little impact on this Brehon Law, and the two existed side by side. However, on the Norman invasion, the Irish customs became diluted with those of the English, and the subsequent imposition of English law on Ireland in the seventeenth century (ibid; 11), Irish women lost their equal status. As the Church in Rome gained power and became less liberal, Christianity, combined with English law, became the dominant force in Ireland. As a result, according to Donnacha i Corri in in his essay Women in Early Irish Society (ibid), in its attitude to women and their place in society as in its attitude to many other matters modern Ireland enjoys no continuity with its Gaelic past. In the 1800s, the womens movement began in Ireland, as it did all over Western Europe. Irish feminism was naturally associated with British feminism, as both groups were looking for reforms from the same centre Westminster. Before 1900, the feminists focused on issues such as:attaining equal educational rights for girls, legal protection for married women regarding property and children, and a broadening of employment opportunities for single women. Political equality and more particularly, the parliamentary vote for women remained an ideal for most activists. (Cullen Owens 2001; 9) Successes in these areas were brought about in the 1870s and 1880s in acts such as the Intermediate Act, opening higher education to girls (MacCurtain and i Corri in 1978; 47), and a series of Acts between 1970 and 1882 which gave property ownership rights to married women. The middle- and upper-class women who supported the movement at the time seemed to win both educational and legal equality; it was political equality that was yet to be won. (Cullen Owens 2001; 9) In the 1900s, this issue came to the forefront and the womens suffrage movement reached prominence. When it came to this political equality, Irish suffragettes faced some extra problems the British ones did not have to deal with. Only one issue mattered to Irish politicians in the first two decades of the new century: Irelands domination by Britain and whether or not to fight for independence. (Smyth 1993; 20) Women had difficulty in deciding whether they should fight within their party (home rule or unionist) so that votes for women would be included in a subsequent constitution or fight for their party so that they would be repaid with the vote. Women tried both these approaches. More again tried another, refusing to support any particular side, fighting solely for suffrage. (ibid; 22) These women, with the first group, were soundly criticised by nationalists for seeking the vote from an alien government while some Home Rule Supporters were afraid of jeopardising the passage of such a bill. (Cullen Owens 2001; 13)

SHORT written assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

SHORT written assignment - Essay Example stolen and used to commit unauthorized and illegal transactions, with a credit card information theft through hacking of credit card companies’ data banks and servers (Elms, LaPrade & Maurer, 2008). Hacking tools include viruses, worms, bugs that are used as conduits or mediums that facilitate hacking activities. Viruses are specific pieces of software, command sequences and series of data that exploit a glitch, bug or vulnerability to propagate and proliferate in a computer, network or system (Furnell & Warren, 1999). An example of a virus is the ‘exploit’ which causes unanticipated or unintended events to occur in a computer’s operating system or application in the process of propagating itself within a computer’s system (Elms, LaPrade & Maurer, 2008). The exploit virus grants a hacker unlimited access to a computer beyond what can be granted by the system administrator. The ‘exploit’ virus works through a network security vulnerability or hole, thus giving a hacker unlimited access and control over the computer’s system (Cobanoglu & Demicco, 2007). Failure to run diagnostic scans ad installation of anti-virus software exposes a computer system to numerous threats to threats from within and without a system (Mourani, 2002). Tools used in hacking do not only result to software damage, but they also lead to hardware damage over exposure in extended periods of time. The installation of strong and vigilant anti-virus software is the best protection against malware and hacking tools deployed by malicious

Sustainability in Construction and the Integration of Building Essay - 1

Sustainability in Construction and the Integration of Building Services - Essay Example Since a large portion of the total production of electricity comes from thermal power houses, the generation of electricity also adds to the high concentration of harmful gases in the environment. The UK government has set tougher targets for itself regarding the reduction in emissions and for this energy usage reforms must be introduced in buildings because energy use in buildings accounts for half of the overall CO2 emissions in UK. The reforms include promotion of energy efficient buildings and management of energy use in the existing buildings to improve efficiency. Ensuring energy efficiency in buildings starts from the design of buildings. There are numerous techniques which can be employed to make the design of a building energy efficient and the selection of most appropriate techniques is dictated by the climate of the region. The bulk of energy used in a building is consumed in air-conditioning therefore it is imperative to minimize the need of air-conditioning in order to l essen the use of energy in a building. The incorporation of natural ventilation and other passive means of air-conditioning in the design of building can considerably reduce the overall energy consumption; similarly daylight can be utilized to the maximum by proper positioning of windows. Control systems should be installed in buildings to monitor parameters like humidity and temperature and vary the speed of fans and pumps accordingly. Controls systems can also be employed for automatically switching off appliances which are left on unnecessarily. The energy efficiency of existing buildings can be improved by creating awareness among the occupants of the buildings about the various measures they can take to lessen the use of energy in the buildings; an efficient way of doing this is by providing energy efficiency manuals to the occupants as well as the maintenance engineers. Targets should be set up for reduction of energy usage in buildings and energy managers can be appointed to achieve these targets by properly governing the use of energy in large buildings. Energy efficient designs are also financially feasible because of the rapid payback to the initial investment offered by them in the form of lower running costs. The designers should provide energy efficient designs to the clients because in this way they achieve common good for all; the client, the occupants and the environment as well (CIBSE, 2003). The climatic conditions in the 21st century have changed considerably from the past and thus the design considerations for buildings must be changed accordingly. The global climatic change which started with the industrial revolution has resulted in global warming and the climate of various regions of the world today is different from as it was 50 years back and will continue to change in the coming years. The increasing temperature will require more air-conditioning in summer which will increase the concentration of greenhouse gases in the environment re sulting in further increase in temperature and the process will continue to take place leading to the destruction of planet. Therefore decreasing the energy use for air-conditioning is the foremost requirement and this must be considered in the design of all sorts of buildings. Global warming will cause the temperature in winters to increase as well, thereby reducing the heating requirement and thus reducing the use of ene

Distorted picture Essay Example for Free

Distorted picture Essay Some people regard science as the supreme form of knowledge, because science provides facts. People tend to see science as true, justified, reliable, precise and objective. However there is a significant difference between natural and social sciences. Natural sciences use the basic scientific method to find the facts about the world we live in, the natural events and processes that take place in our world. The basic scientific method or nai ve inductivism follows five stages which include observation, information, generalization, theory and explanation and prediction. However though the basic scientific method seems perfectly reliable, there may be some problems which could challenge science as the supreme form of knowledge. Social sciences study human behaviour, relationships and society. These are very subjective and very difficult to measure. The results can be distorted by the scientists because completely objective observation is even more difficult in natural sciences because seeing what you want to see gives a distorted picture. The famous philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) who was a very radical empiricist and sceptic was concerned with limits to knowledge. According to his theories science cannot give us accurate knowledge and thus should not have such a high status. The problems of natural sciences, basic scientific method and Humes theory of causation that challenges science as the supreme form of knowledge is going to be discussed further in this essay. The social sciences study human behaviour and their relationships. There are several fields of social sciences including anthropology, political science, psychology, sociology and economics. However it is important to note that human behaviour is so inconsistent and influenced by so many variables that it is impossible to measure it precisely. The problem lies also in the social scientists themselves because they are humans as well as the subjects of their attention. It is virtually impossible for them to give a completely objective observation. Firstly they are studying things that cant be measured in human behaviour such as concentration or motivation. Secondly there is the problem that if the subject of their study knows he or she is being watched, he or she can consciously or unconsciously behave in a different way than they would otherwise. Also if the person hears the prediction of the results of the experiments, they might deliberately behave in such a way either to fulfil it or not. That means that social scientists prediction can influence human behaviour. Simply being seen by the unhidden scientist distorts what is seen. Another problem of social scientists is that they see what they want to see. They cannot separate their wishes, what they want to see, from what they see in the reality. Therefore social sciences are very imprecise and unreliable. The natural sciences use the basic scientific method which contains five stages that help the scientists to come to a conclusion. Firstly, they observe through their senses a particular set of events, they record the observation that they have made and after that they make certain generalisations which form a theory. The theory helps to form prediction for the future. Natural sciences are regarded as much more reliable than social sciences because their theories can be tested more easily and the tests can be repeated several times under identical conditions. It is not so easy for the natural scientists to distort the results as for the social scientists. However, there are certain problems with this method that make it seem unreliable too. Firstly, it has to be mentioned that observation comes through our senses. Unfortunately, our senses can be quite easily deceived. It is impossible to make our senses completely objective. We often see what we believe we should see or what we want to see or our hearing can be again influenced by our belief or a wish. This means that we cannot trust our senses completely. Secondly, science as an activity that is supposed to be detached from emotional content, however the scientists doing the experiments and the observations are humans an they cannot detach from their nature. Simply they can observe things that they want to observe because of many reasons such as political, financial, practical and also personal motives. And thirdly there is the problem of the observational statement which means that the scientists have to put their observations into words, which can influence the effect that the observation makes on people. Then there is the problem of the way we treat and use our knowledge. The process of inductive reasoning that we use in our everyday life follows this pattern: the experience or the observation comes first and based on it a prediction for the future or a general statement is made. There is a big strength about this way of reasoning. Firstly, science is based on this kind of reasoning and most of the people regard science as the supreme form of knowledge. Secondly it is quite obvious that the human race couldnt function without inductive reasoning because most or even all of our thinking processes follow the rules of inductive reasoning. If inductive reasoning was wrong, then human beings couldnt be classed as rational beings. However, there are weaknesses in this inductive reasoning that really raise doubts about human beings as rational beings. It is important to see that there is no necessary connection between the past and the future and also that the observation made could have been mistaken. The unconnected past and future can be very well expressed in Bertrand Russellstory about an inductivist turkey1. This story explains that we cannot make predictions or statements based on our past experience and observations because they are absolutely independent from what will happen in the future. This flaw of inductive reasoning seriously challenges the knowledge obtained through science because science is based on past observations. But if inductive reasoning is really wrong then science is based on very uncertain grounds. The philosopher David Hume created a theory which challenged the idea of causation. Causation means one event causing another, But can we really say that one event caused another? Usually when we see event A and then event B which followed event A, we tend to say that event B was caused by event A. But actually we observed just event A followed by event B, we didnt observe the cause the link between A and B. So to say that event B happened because of event A is not the same as to say that event A happened and then event B happened. We never experience the cause. An example can be day followed by night. In the past, the day was always followed by night and yet the day is not the cause of night. Day and night are both caused by something else (rotation of the earth on its axis as it goes around the Sun). So the connection between these two things can be invariant without either of them being the cause of the other. If this all is right, then science is again put into a very strange position and it seems to be based on very uncertain foundations and we can never talk about anything with absolute certainty. According to Hume, just the reason that we believe that the sun will rise every morning is based on our past experience and though it may be true that the sun has risen every morning of our lives, this is not enough evidence to guarantee the truth of the thesis that the sun will always rise. In social sciences the major problem is the inconsistency of human behaviour. If people regard social sciences as the supreme form of knowledge, they misunderstand the way social sciences work. It is impossible to rely completely on social sciences because there are too many variables that can influence the results. However if people regard natural sciences as the supreme form of knowledge, they misunderstand knowledge very much because there are so many problems and mistakes in human reasoning and the way they process information and deduce conclusions from information that was processed in a wrong way or was inadequate to support the conclusion. This theory can be very much supported by the theory of David Hume, a famous philosopher, who challenged science very much by his laws of causation. 1The turkey found that, on his first morning at the turkey farm, that he was fed at 9 a. m. Being a good inductivist turkey he did not jump to conclusions. He waited until he collected a large number of observations that he was fed at 9 a. m. and made these observations under a wide range of circumstances, on Wednesdays, on Thursdays, on cold days, on warm days. Each day he added another observation statement to his list. Finally he was satisfied that he had collected a number of observation statements to inductively infer that I am always fed at 9 a. m. However on the morning of Christmas eve he was not fed but instead had his throat cut. http://marr. bsee. swin. edu. au/~dtl/het704/lecture3/logfals/node6. html, 20th September 2004

Field of Dreams - The Innocence in History :: Field of Dreams Essays

Field of Dreams - The Innocence in History [1] Baseball is America’s favorite pastime. When people hear the word "America," they think of apple pie, meat and potatoes, July 4th, and inevitably the everlasting love of this country, baseball. The credit is given to a man named Alexander J. Cartwright, who drew up a set of rules for a game played with a bat, a round ball, and a glove. Along with the rules came a sketching of a diamond-shaped field on which the game was to be played. The rules that Cartwright wrote up in 1845 may have very well changed somewhat, but the game of baseball has remained remarkably constant throughout history into today. [2] Cartwright was a part of a baseball club team called the â€Å"New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club,† and his rules were for use of only this club. Soon after, other clubs started to become interested in these rules, and they adopted them into their own ball clubs and games. â€Å"It is evident that other teams were playing a good brand of ball, for in the first baseball game on record, played in Elysian Fields, Hoboken, N.J., on June 19, 1846, a team called the New Yorks, playing under Cartwright’s rules on a diamond of his specifications, defeated the Knickerbockers 23 to 1 in four innings† (Lieb1). [3] Baseball then expanded itself and moved on to integrating young men of â€Å"means and social positions.† In the 1850’s, baseball had a tremendous power that engaged many people from the East Coast part of the country. It got artisans, tradesmen, and shipwrights to form teams and play against each other. These teams of working men played against other teams that were made up of socialites. Within these club teams, though, there was a lot of disagreement because the people who used to partake in these games were mainly from the New York and Massachusetts areas. There were many discrepancies between the New York rules and the Massachusetts rules. This then led to the founding of the National Association of Baseball Players on March 10, 1858. [4] The new rules that the National Association of Baseball Players had installed then allowed the amateurs and others to play the game as well.

International studies-global childhood Essay

This article written about the number of children who die on daily basis from various reasons is intended to inform the general globe community of the deaths so that appropriate measures can be taken to counter the trend. Anup points out that this is a global issue as it affects everybody in the world in regard to social, political, economical and environmental aspects. According to me, child mortality or the death of children is a global issue which should be ignored but instead should be given a priority by every authority since it affects virtually everyone either directly or directly (Shah, 2010). Just as Anup states in the Article, the number of children who die on daily basis is a matter of international concern. Anup further outlines the importance of understanding the issue of child mortality. He points out that the child mortality rate is significant in that it is a gauge to assess the general wellbeing of children and specifically the child health. To begin with, Anup mentions that it evaluates the end results of the development process of a country rather than the input. It evaluates concepts like the capital calorie accessible or the ratio of medical personnel to the population which are an essential towards achieving positive child welfare (Shah, 2010). Anup notes that child mortality rate is dependent on a number of factors which include nutritional status and the mothers ‘knowledge on health matters, the degree of immunization and the accessibility of maternal and child health services. Other determinants of child mortality rate are availability of food and clean and safe drinking water. The entire safety of the child’s environment also contributes to child mortality rate (Shah, 2010). Child mortality rate is not affected by mathematical computations like average. GNI per capita for instance will be affected by average because the natural scale places the children wealth people at a 1,000 times chance of surviving as although the human-designed scale which does not place them at equal position in regard to income (Shah, 2010). This information including the figure is accurate and reliable since it has been summarized from UNICEF findings. A do agree with Anup that this is enough justification of the significance of understanding child mortality. This is particularly because UNICEF is very elaborate on child issues and usually provides relevant and accurate information concerning children issues (Shah, 2010). The writer compares the figure of the number of children who die on daily basis with well known world disasters in order to create a clear picture of the issue in question. Anup equates the figure to the number of people who succumbed to the 2010 Haiti earthquake if had to occur every 9-10 days and the 2004 Asian tsunami if it were to occur every ten days (Shah, 2010). The writer has further justified his report by quoting the sources of the data that he used for comparison. The figure of the number of the victims who died from the Haiti earthquake was taken from the reliable BBC reports (BBC, 2010). He converts the figure to various ratios in order to bring out a more concrete outline of the seriousness of the issue. For instance he mentions that the 24,000 children dying every minute is equivalent to a single child dying after every 3. 6 seconds or close to 9 million children dying in each year. According to Anup, 79 million children died between the years 2000 and 2007 (Shah, 2010). He has used various simple graphs to illustrate the trend of child mortality rate. The causes of this large number of deaths are poverty, hunger and certain diseases and illness that that can either be cured or prevented (Shah, 2010). The writer is also surprised at the manner in which this disaster is not in the headlines. He mentions that just as the global community responds to other disasters like the disastrous earthquakes, it should respond similarly to the escalating child mortality rates (Shah, 2010). I support the writer in this aspect because little has been documented on child mortality rates. This has further worsened the problem because many authorities, agencies or organizations that could offer significant help to bring this disaster under control have completely ignored the issue or have not taken it with the seriousness it deserves. This is partly because the issue is not found in the headlines (Shah, 2010). Conclusion I support Anup’s report that the issue of child mortality rate has not been taken with the magnitude that it deserves by the world’s authorities, agencies and any relevant organization. This issue should be regarded as a disaster because the number of children dying every day from the various causes is even larger than that resulting from some of the world’s worst tragedies like the Haiti earthquake (BBC, 2010). The issue is rarely placed in the headlines and thus fails to attract the appropriate attention. Child mortality rate is very important in assessing the general wellbeing of children. Child mortality rate further affects political, social, political and environmental issues in the globe either in a direct or an indirect manner (Global issues, 2010).