Effect of video games on Kids Essay Example for Free

Effect of motion picture games on Kids EssayGrowing up, playing out(p)side was what I did for fun. Whether it was riding my bike, playing with friends, or swimming, I was outside for hours at a condemnation every day. Today, kids subscribe to access to things like Xboxes, Playstations, and Nintendo DS. In a study conducted by Gentile, Lynch, Linder Walsh (2004) adolescent girls played pic games for an modal(a) of 5 hours a week, whereas boys averaged 13 hours a week. A survey done by Harris Interactive shows that 23 percent of youth have felt addicted to painting games. Studies have shown that teenagers who play violent film games for extended periods of clip tend to be more aggressive, argon more prone to engage in fights and confrontations, and see a decline in academic success. (Gentile et al) In 2010, Robert Weis and Brittany Cerankosky conducted a study to see how video games affect academic success. They selected a group of boys who didnt own video games and ass igned them to one of both conditions the video games now group got a game system immediately, and the video games later group didnt receive their systems until months later.The researchers tracked the boys academic success at school. They found that the boys who got their game systems immediately worn-out(a) slight time on schoolwork and, 4 months later, they got lower reading and writing scores. This makes sense, since more time spent playing video games means less time studying. Also, the distraction of video games groundwork cause kids to retreat interest in their studies and cause them to fall behind.These results line up with another survey done by Cummings and Vandewater in 2007, which concluded that kids aged 10-19 who played video games spent 30% less time reading and 34% less time doing homework. (Cummings Vandewater) A 2009 Brigham Young University study found that as video game usage increased, the quality of relationships with others, including family, friends, and other peers, decreased. The BYU Study found that daily video game users were in two ways as likely to use drugs. They were three times as likely to use drugs over those who never played games.This doesnt mean that all kids who play video games are going to go out and do drugs, but it certainly doesnt help anything. If a child spends hours at a time playing video games, they will have no time to form relationships and sociableize, not giving them the social skills they may need to succeed in the future. This can set them up for failure in patronage interviews, school, and in building solid relationships that are crucial to every teenagers life. However, there are also many positive elements of video games.According to Chacha Tumbokon, a psychologist at De La Salle University, video games can give kids betters skills in areas such as following directions, problem solving and logic, and hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. a good deal times the player is asked to follow com mands or prompts in a video game in recite to gain rewards or status, which aids with following directions. Also, when there is a challenge in a game, it doesnt get solved easily the player is often forced to work through many riddles or obstacles in order to succeedanother important life lesson for a child to learn.And lastly, video games hire a great deal of hand-eye coordination. Often times games require the player to change viewpoints with one control, work with another control, and do actions (shooting, jumping, etc. ) with another control. This builds up hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, which is a good drill for the brain. Another common aspect of games is resource management. There are often a limited sum of resources (such as lives, power-ups, money, etc. ) that has to be managed in order to succeed in a game. This is another worth(predicate) lesson that many kids should learn in their lifetime.James Paul Gee, professor of education at the University of Wi sconsin-Madison, says that playing a video game is similar to working through a science problem. There is a rush of trial and error involved, which teaches a child inductive reasoning and hypothesis testing, something that can be use in many areas of life. In conclusion, there are many positive and negative effects of video games. Psychologists suggest that parents monitor the games that are being played by their children and make sure the games arent touch the childs behavior.

Poverty in the United States Essay Example for Free

penury in the United States EssayPoverty is a serious issue not only in third public countries but also here(predicate) in the United States. Discussing the nature of poverty in the United States is important beca phthisis through understanding we bequeath find solutions. Gaining insights into the issue of poverty jakes be used to understand the complexity of the subject. Poverty has been delimit as a state of deprivation of goods and services that essential to the maintenance of an adequate standard of lively(a) in a given company. Although the concept of poverty is considered relative, it cannot be denied that it magnifies the line concerning inequality in a particular society (Levitan). The struggle of poverty imp guesss peoples day-to-day life. It is easy to hide more or less things in life but, poverty is not star of them. there atomic number 18 633,782 homeless people in cities throughout the United States (St. Francis). Poor people have no place to live and ar existence exposed to natures elements, bacteria, and harmful illness can cause threat to the health of these individuals. The purlieu is being impacted as well, because there is nowhere to put waste or garbage new(prenominal) than on the ground.This is why it is important to gain insight and understand poverty so that we can suffice these people and the earth. When a person is keep in poverty it is humiliating and weighs on an individuals self-esteem as well as their families and is really difficult to overcome. Poverty is not always a choice, but it is a situation that can be prevented. If people everywhere take something from every book, member or essays that has been written and are willing to recognize and do something about it therefore it is a problem that can be fixed. There is not a accurate plan or a perfect solution to the poverty problem but, the aim is to decrease the number of individuals and families living in poverty drastically. There are many families l iving in poverty and there are an equal amount of thoughts and opinions on why people live in poverty such as drug and alcohol use, domesticated violence and foreclosure solely to name a few. Individuals have a difficult while taking electric charge of themselves can you imagine having to try to provide for a family on next to nothing every day. Without a street address these families do not qualify to get welfare assistance such as food stamps, Medicaid, or housing assistance.Without housing assistance people are forced to stay in shelters and if they dont make to a shelter by a certaintime they go without a warm place to sleep and without food that night. Some people wait in large lines all day for a spot at the shelter only to be turned away(predicate) because there is just not enough space for everyone. A good way to alleviate or even eliminate this problem is to build more shelters or use some of the abandoned buildings in poverty stricken neighborhoods for the misfortun ate people to sleep in. Have stipulations in these shelters that individuals and their families are guaranteed more than one night as long as they abide by guidelines provided, kind of like a contract. So they are not just getting dish they are in a sense back up their selves. Different situations have different solutions, there is a difference between a person living in poverty because youre a war veteran and just having a hard time and living in poverty because you are and addict and everything you have is spent on drugs and alcohol. In these freshly built or refurbished shelters with these stipulations, programs can be offered to help transition into a better way of living. Yes, then there is the issue of money and where will it come from.Nobody has money lying around just to give away so charity events, fundraisers, donations, volunteers and maybe even some help from giving medication agencies would help. The children of these families living in poverty suffer most. Research shows that poverty in the first five years of a childs life changes the life of a child compared to if they were to live in poverty later in life. This is because poverty is associated with poor nutrition poor nutrition leads to subvert intelligence, bad physical development, and poor immune systems. Children deprived of proper nutrition during the most informative years score much lower on tests of vocabulary, reading comprehension, arithmetic, and general knowledge. The more severe the poverty a child faces, the lower his or her nutritional level is likely to be (BrownPollitt). Many children that are labeled bad kids with behavioral problems are really just lacking nutritional value. A child that is hungry is more likely to act out and have greater difficulty focusing than a well fed child.There are government programs that offer assistance with nutrition such as W.I.C and Healthy Schools but the guidelines are very strict and fall short in making sure that every child living i n poverty has adequate nutrition. So, this problem can be solved by changing the guidelines and making it easier for a family living in poverty to feed our future. People might say this is not my problem, Im not living in povertyso what does this have to do with me? Truth be told everyone is affect by poverty. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a large segment of people in that society, who feel they have no stake in it who feel they have nothing to lose. People, who have stake in their society, protect that society, but when they dont have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it (Dr.MartinLutherKingJr.).According to the history of our nation, the safety and equality of the people of our society relies on everyone individually and as a whole nation as one. If thats the way the world is meant to be then why are people living in poverty treated so differently? Upper class doesnt make you better than a person living in p overty, money doesnt make you bad or good and the same goes for poverty. The founders of our nation fought hard for a country where everyone is treated as a person equally but, that is not the case when thousands of people tranquillise live in poverty every day. Anybody that has ever spent a morning at the segment of Motor Vehicles or stood in the line at the Post Office should understand that simply because the government is handling the problem, doesnt mean its being handled properly (St. Francis).The next time you see somebody a little down and out stop to give them a minute and see if you can help them in any way, remember that poverty does not make them any less a human than you. I believe the proposed solutions will work because if its believable than its achievable and our system has proven in other situations to be reliable so let use it for the good of the people of our country that could use a hand up not a hand out. For people to be sick on the street, forced to sleep o n cardboard or dirt, and have to beg other people to help them is not humane or the American way and should not be tolerated any longer.Works CitedBrownPollitt. Malnutrition, Poverty and Intellectual Development. Pollitt, L. Brown E. n.d. Dr.MartinLutherKingJr. Letter From Birmingham Jail. April 1963. Levitan, Sar A. Poverty In the Lexicon Universal Encyclopedia. 1990 pages 478-480 Vol. 15. St. Francis, Nancy. Homelessness in America 2013. 2013.

The Impact of Counsellor Training on Students Essay Example for Free

The Impact of Counsellor Training on Students EssayThe British association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) define counselling, a long with psychotherapy, as being umbrella terms that cover a range of talking therapies (BACP, 2012 1). In addition, counselling is stomachd by practitioners who educate with people over a mindless or long term to assistance them bring about effective change or raise their wellbeing (BACP, 2012 1). Those who practice counselling in a professional manner undergo intensive instruction and someoneal victimisation, the latter of which has been defined in terms of self-awareness and change (Wheeler, 1996 75). These changes, according to Johns, influence the whole person (Johns, 1997). This seek proposal highlights how scholarly person counsellings fundamental relationships freighter be impacted by this intensive learning regime. After discussing the literature on this radical, the aims, objectives and rationale for this research get out be provided.1. Research Aims and Objectives The aim of this broken scale qualitative research is to explore the impact of the individualised nurture element of counsellor educational activity and how this affects the student counsellors significant relationships. The focus will be on, though non solely, student counsellors relationships with partners. However, reference will be made to other types of relationships. This aim will be achieved via semi-structured interviews examining the particularized concepts of personal development, self-awareness, changes in personal relationships, as well as a full comprehensive exploration of student responsibilities in significant relationships. The data will be analysed utilise interpretative phenomenological compendium (IPA) (Smith, 2003), which will provide the lived experiences of participants.2. Rationale The rationale for conducting this research is that personal development and self-awareness are key elements of counsell or dressing programmes designed to promote the trainees personal and professional development. Counsellor upbringing has had both a optimistic and shun impact on m all trainees significant and close relationships and this may be due to the amount of condemnation spent by trainees engaging in self-awareness and personal development sessions. This dissect is designed to explore this go away in more detail using the lived experiences of counselling trainees.3. Research Questions The following research questions are to be explored via semi-structured one-to-one interviews * crap students noticed a change in their own personal development whilst training as a counselor? * Have students noticed any impact, positive or negative, of personal development and self-awareness training on their significant close relationships? * Is the student counsellor aware of any significant changes to these relationships and has help been available from the university? * Is the student counsellor a ware of any help available for students families? * Is the student aware of the extent of their responsibilities to significant relationships?4. Literature Review Using several different electronic databases, research has been conducted to find journal publications that are relevant to the aims and objectives of the proposed research.4.1 Search Strategy A search of the literature was undertaken using Boolean logic, which allowed for a more sensitive search of the title and abstracts of the following databases PsychInfo, Embase, Medline, and The Cochrane Library of systematic reviews. at that place were a number of keywords and phrases utilised to identify literature pertinent to this proposal, including counsellor training OR counselling training student counsellors OR trainee counsellors AND impact of training on significant relationships OR personal development OR personal relationships OR significant relationships. The words counselling and counsellor were also searched with one L in order to address differences in English and American spellings.4.2 Results of Literature Review on that point is a considerable amount of information related to counsellor training and its impact on society (Scholl and Cascone 2010). There is, however, a paucity of research examining the impact of counselor training on student counsellors significant relationships (Macran and Shapiro, 1998). In 2012, the paucity of research in this area is as surprising as reported by Flynn-Piercy (2002) 10-years previously. It has long been established that personal development is a core aspect of counselor training (Wheeler, 2000), and yet the topic remains relatively under-researched, especially in terms of the impact this personal development has on trainees significant relationships.The changes that occur to student counsellors as a result of personal development can be likened to the very(prenominal) changes that occur in talk over clients. Indeed, Flynn-Piercy (2002) state that it is very similar to the therapeutic process, which is supported by observations from trainers (Mearns, 1997) and feedback from students (Harding Davies et al., 2004). such changes are likely to impact significant relationships, as is also the case with clients who receive counselling (Fear, 2004). This was initiatory highlighted by Mearns (1997), with there being a specific emphasis on the problems that might arise mingled with student counsellors and their partners as a result of their training and subsequent personal development. Although this can introduce crisis, it can also, according to Mearns (1997) introduce opportunity. According to the literature, however, it is not clear whether crisis or opportunity is the predominant outcome in such circumstances (Looney et al., 1980 Guy, 1987).The literature suggests that one of the key issues that can impact student counsellors relationships is the anxiety that arises in partners as students develop close attachments to others (Cawkhi ll, 2002). In particular, confidentiality is a big part of these new relationships and can flutter jealousy or feelings of exclusion from partners. As a result, it has been argued that students need to accept responsibility for helping their partners or significant others cope with any changes that will inevitably result from their training (Cawkhill, 2002).Flynn-Piercy (2002) conducted a heuristic training examining the impact of Relate counsellors training on their relationships with their partners. It was found that there was a significant impact on these relationships, which trainees had been unprepared for. The advantages of their training included improved communication, a disadvantage was that partners became personally de-stablised (Flynn-Piercy, 2002 55). disdain the advantages, there was an overall threat to the relationships. This study is, however, not generalisable to all trainee counsellors since it only examined those training as Relate counsellors who specificall y work in the area of relationships.A quantitative study conducted by Wright (2004) supported the findings of Flynn-Piercys (2002) qualitative study as it was found that student counsellors (n=200) did change as a result of their training and this did impact their relationships. Changes occurred in relationships with partners, friends, and family, but most markedly with partners. It was concluded, however, that changes were primarily positive. Again, however, there was a lack of preparation for these changes.As has been demonstrated, counseling training can have both positive and negative outcomes in the trainee counsellors relationships. To expand further on the positive, Crews et al. (2005) conducted a study to examine self-monitoring combined with counselling skills. The purpose of this study was to examine student counsellors who were undergoing training with responses to actual counselling performance. Results indicated that regardless of personal background or traits, counsell ing training improved social- and self-awareness for the participants involved.Despite the paucity of research on the impact of counseling training and, in particular, personal development on student counsellors relationships, the literature clearly shows that an impact is evident. This impact can be positive and negative, but more research is needed to establish details pertaining to the positive and negative impact, as well as the specific components of personal development that appear to have the most impact. This supports the need for the proposed research.5. Methodology 5.1 Sample The sample will be purposive and will comprise four student counsellors who have undergone counsellor training on the BA (Hons) Counselling Studies Final Year Top-up programme. This sample size, although small, is sufficient for the chosen method of analysis, which is interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) (Smith, 2003). In respect of confidentiality, pseudonyms will be used in any written doc uments referring to each student.5.2 Semi-Structured Interviews Semi-structured interviews last 30-45 minutes will be conducted by the researcher and taped for data analysis. If participants would like to speak for extended than 30-45 minutes, this will be allowed in order to gain as much rich data as possible. Potential interview questions, designed to address the research questions in 3, will be tested at heart a small focus group, with all questions being formed on the basis of evidence indoors the literature.Questions will be open-ended and non-leading, in line with best practice. Potential questions include, but are not restricted to * What changes have you noticed in your personal development whilst training as a counsellor? * What changes have you noticed in your self-awareness whilst training as a counsellor? * Have these changes had any positive impact on any of your significant close relationships? * Have they had any negative impact on any of your significant close re lationships? * What, if any, have been the key changes in any significant relationships since you started training? * Have you received any help from the university in terms of preparing for or coping with these changes? * Are you aware of any help available for students families? * What do you feel is the extent of your responsibilities to significant relationships?

The story develops Essay Example for Free

The story develops striveThe author of Frankenstein is bloody shame Shelley. She was born on August 30th 1797 in London. Then later died on February 1st 1851 when she was 53. Her father was William Godwin, he was a radical philosopher and a novelist. Her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, she is still know today as a feminist. Her mother died in September 10th 1797 of a disease called puerperal fever. Mary Shelley was married to Percy Shelley. She eloped with Percy Shelley at the early age of 16, the reason for this is that Percy Shelley was already married. They eloped to France. Percy Shelley was an important figure in his own right because he was a poet and good friends of her parents. Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley had four children, but sadly tho one survived. Shortly after the death of Mary Shelleys first child she had a dream about(predicate) her dead child being held before a fire and then being restored to flavor by someone breathing into her. Mary Shelleys husband Perc y Shelley drowned when he was 29 years old on a boat trip. The book was written because of a ghost contest set by Lord Byron.At the time Mary Shelley was only 19, which made her the youngest in the challenge. There were other people who were set the challenge as well but when Lord Byron saw Mary Shelleys book he was deadly sombre about trying to get it published. Mary Shelleys life is the key thing that influenced her in writing the novel. one and only(a) influence in her life was her mother dying when Mary Shelley was only 10 days old. in any case three of Mary Shelleys children died in infancy. When one of her children died, shortly after she had a dream of breathing life back into the child.This is said to have been influential towards the novel. The time when Mary Shelley wrote the novel, in the early 19th century, was a very exciting time for scientific and industrial development. It was known as the age of endless possibilities, hardly because they thought they could do a nything and nothing could stop them. This is thought of to have been another reason why Mary Shelley wrote about Frankenstein because it would appeal to a lot of people at the time it was written.

American football positions Essay Example for Free

Ameri john football positions EssayFootball, it is non just a sport or some game. It is my whole life. Every year I have wizard refinement and that is to make it to football season. Playing in each of those games gives a special feeling that no one can get enough of. Winter, Spring, and Summer do non even comp be to what Fall is like, not only is it one of the close beautiful times of the year only if the most intense, most raise sport seasons to anyone with a pulse. I prep ar for it all year long, doing different sorts of exercises such as speed, lifting, saltation rope, and anything that I could think of to help me be the best athlete I could possibly be.No motion how hard someone could prepare for football in that respect is only one thing that will real make someone the best they could forever be and that my friend is sum total. If they do not have union they will not make it anywhere, not only in football but in life. With heart and dedication there is nothin g that cannot be accomplished. Some days I just dream astir(predicate) playing football on the next level. The thrill of just suiting up in that island of Jersey means the world to me. Playing underneath those blinding lights, that lights up the whole field like the sun. at that place are so many different ways to win games but there are a basic few that will definitely do the trick. Some offense will really institutionalise points up on the board to show how good the aggroup is. A whole lot of abnegation will win the game it will stop the other team from putting the points up. One of my positron emission tomography quotes Offense sells tickets Defense wins championshipsCoach Paul Bear Bryant Jr. There is forever and a day Special Teams too without it there would be no kickoffs, no field goals, and without it the game would not be complete.Morgan 2 The Offense, I would not say it was my favorite thing but I play it to help put points up on the board. There are so many differen t positions on the offense and over a billion different plays and formations. There is the offensive line, which is one of the most rough and intense places I have ever been. There is punching, kicking, and anything to show superiority, if I did not know any dampen I would think I was fist fighting somewhere in those trenches. There is the running backs and the quarterbacks.They get all of the glory because they are the ones who score the touchdowns. The running backs and the linemen work together to score, one wrong move by one of the linemen and our running back gets tackled. The linemen block the defensive players to stop them from tackling our running back, if we adopt we score. The Defense, my all-time favorite thing, this is where they separate the boys and the men. I love going out and just smashing some pots helmets in.There are a so many different positions like defensive tackles, cornerbacks, safeties, and my favorite line-backers. No matter where the device is going there will be someone there to stop them. Like that quote verbalise defense wins championships and that is 100% true without defense it just be a track meet. This is just me but I would rather sack a quarterback than score a touchdown, but some people they are not like that. The one thing that wins and loses games is the special teams. The field goal is one of the most important things in some cases this can win the game.I have seen it send teams into the winner clan and I have seen it send teams down loser lane. There is also kickoffs where every time the team scores they kick it off to the other team. There is a punt when the team does not succeed to make a first down in the four downs they are giving. Morgan 3 All of these things can make or break the team but, the one team that can do each and everything better than the other team will be victorious. If they do not play the best they can always look forward to next week.

Is obesity a disease Essay Example for Free

Is corpulency a disease EssayIs obesity a disease? Thirty tlve per centum ot people trust that obesity is a disease, alone I reckon that It Is a life choice. The spring I debate that obesity Is a life choice Is because in that location be mevery slipway to subdue obesity getung plenty of exercise, eaung right, and thither are surgeries that can be performed to counter obesity and be healthy. Thirty eight of Americans are obese, due to that percentage, most doctors dont consider being skinny healthy and consider that you should be close to over incubus but not obese. The average weight for a teen lady friend that Is 5, 1 Is coke pounds which is nderweight to doctors they believe that the average teen girl that is 5, 1 should be 125 pounds. In 1979 the average weight for a teen girl that is 5, 1 was 109 pounds and due to the increase of obesity and weight change that now would be considered underweight and you would be considered not healthy. Many people say that obesit y is caused by thyroid problems yet there are many ways to avoid this, there are food for thoughts that cant be avoided that can stop the thyroid problem, There are medicines that will eliminate or control the problem.The thyroid causes the body to ake too many proteins that the body does not need, and this can cause increase body weight and swelling. It also controls metabolism, and can cause you to lose weight too slowly or cause you to lose weight too fast. The thyroid is the number medical cause of weight meet but this can be completely avoided in many ways, the thyroid cannot be blamed for do obesity. obesity Is caused by many things such as poverty and the society In which we live In. any fast food places angle advertising towards kids and show them toys and characters form their favorite hows to get them to eat there. about parents allow them to eat there because It makes then happy and they want to deliberate them what they want because it Is very unprovoked and very a ffordable. The percentage of kids that consent obesity has risen since the kids meals were invented in 1987. Many fast food restraints have taken notice of this and gotten rid of the toy and introduced books in kids meals The places that tried this noticed that kids brought fewer fast foods because there was no toy in their meal.I dont believe that kids meals make kids expand but I believe Its the prices and how easy hey are to get causes not only kids but adults to earn weight and become obese, corpulency is a life choice even if you do have the medical condition hyperthyroidism there is no excuse for being fat because there are so many ways to avoid it. If obesity was a disease then that would mean something that requires medical treatment but that would also but someone doing heroin is a disease when in candor It is a life choice you all control the problem or you dont and obesity is something you can control obesity is just caused by an have habits.Work cited is obesity a disease By Adrivatal Thirty five percent of people believe that obesity is a disease, but I believe that it is a life choice. The reason I believe that obesity is a life choice is because there are many ways to avoid obesity getting plenty of exercise, eating right, and obese. The average weight for a teen girl that is 5, 1 is 100 pounds which is are foods that cant be avoided that can stop the thyroid problem. There are Obesity is caused by many things such as poverty and the society in which we live in. any fast food places hows to get them to eat there. Most parents allow them to eat there because it makes then happy and they want to give them what they want because it is very easy gotten rid of the toy and introduced books in kids meals. The places that tried this dont believe that kids meals make kids fat but I believe its the prices and how easy they are to get causes not only kids but adults to gain weight and become obese. that would also but someone doing heroin is a disea se when in reality it is a life control obesity is Just caused by an eating habits.

Philosophy Paper Essay Example for Free

Philosophy Paper EssayOne of the some heated debates that troubled the church in the Middle Ages was the question of universals. This question goes nates as cold as Platos Forms. It has to do with the race in the midst of the abstract and general concepts that we have in our minds (what is the relationship between Chair with a capitol C and chair with a small c? ). And from this, two revolutionary officepoints emerged, realists and the nominalists. The realists followed Plato in insisting that each universal is an entity in its deliver right, and exists indep overthrowently of the psyche things that happen to get into in it. An extreme form of realism flourished in the church from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. Among its advocates were John Scotus, Erigena, Anselm and William of Champeaux. On the opposite situation were the nominalists and they held that universals were just names, and therefore, have no objective status apart from that which is fabricated in the mind. Nominalists, such as Gabriel Biel and William of Occam (see O section), said that the individual is the solo existing substance. Unfortunately, their treatment of nominalism removed pietism al some entirely from the bea of reason and do it a matter of credit beyond the cognition of reason.1 And here lies the signifi weedce of the French theologian Peter Abelard (1079-1142). Between the two extremes, Peter Abelard proposed a to a greater extent moderate form of nominalism. Though critical of the thinking of the separate existence of universals, he hitherto believed that resemblances among particular things justified the use of universals for establishing knowledge. More specifically, Abelard proposed that we ground the similarities among individual things without reifying their universal features, by predicating general wrong in conformity with concepts abstracted from experience.This resolution (which would later on keep abreast to be known as conceptualism) of the handed- level problem of universals gained wide acceptance for several centuries, until doubts about the objectivity and reality of such mental entities as concepts came under serious question. doubting Thomas doubting Thomas favored a moderate realism which rejected the examine that universals exist apart from individual entities in favor of the view that they do indeed exist, scarcely only in actual entities. 2 Anaximander (Milesian School) Anaximander (610-547/6 B. C.) was peerless of the three key figures that comprised the Milesian School (the three vainglorious figures associated with the Milesian School is Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes). Together, they worked on problems concerning the nature of matter and the nature of change, and they each proposed a different natural as the primary principal. 3 Anaximander seemed to be quite modern in his view of reality. He believed that the merciful being was cylindrical corresponding a drum, and that the earth rested on nonhing. He also invented an undefined non-substance, called the apeiron, a neutral, indistinct stuff that was infinite in amount.Anaximenes (Milesian School) Anaximenes (546 B. C. ), the some other member of the Milesian School, re inverted back to the idea that anything derives from a single substance, solely suggested that substance was air. Though it is likely his cream was motivated by wanting to maintain a oddment between the two views of his predecessors, Anaximenes did provide solid grounds for his choosing first, air, has the advantage of non being restricted to a specific and defined nature as water, and therefore more capable of transforming itself into the great variety of objects virtually us.Second, air is a more likely source of this variety than Anaximanders apeiron which seems too empty and clean a stuff to be capable of giving rise to such a variety and profusion. 4 Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury In (452 A. D. ), twenty-two years after Augustines death , Rome fell, bringing on a well-nigh of conquest and chaos, and degree of order was ultimately realized through the emergence of feudalism. The church, which had managed to survive the social and governmental upheaval, gradually assumed responsibilities that previously had been relegated to the civil government.This involvement in government led in turn to the secularization of the church. Bishops became ministers of the state, and church dignitaries became warriors. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, legion(predicate) a(prenominal) within the church were so compound with the secular ball that a movement led to the emergence of the monastic life as a force within the church. Those who wanted to escape the temptations of the secular universe and pursue holiness were naturally wasted to the monasteries and among those who followed was Anselm (1033-1109), the archbishop of Canterbury. The superior Christian thinker between Augustine and Thomas Aquinas was Anselm (1033-1109) .He was born to a tight family in northern Italy, whom, to their disappointment, left home in (1056) to lavishy dedicate his life to matinee idol. Following a period of travel, he arrived at the Norman Abbey at Bec, where he took his monastic vows in (1060). Within a few years, he became prior of the abbey, abbot in (1078), and then archbishop in (1093), which he held until his death. His writings melt from treatises on logic to an explanation of the bode inner logic of the atonement in Cur deus homo. Anselm stood in the tradition of Augustine and Platonic realism. 5Following the tradition of Augustine, he held that faith precedes and leads to understanding, and, like many other medieval thinkers he drew no sharp distinction between philosophy and theology. In his no immatureorthy ontological argument for the existence of idol, Anselm presents a refutation based on the fact that it is self-contradictory to renounce that there exists a greatest possible being. 6 He claims t hat the more universality, the more reality. And from here it follows that if immortal is the most universal being, he is also the most real if He is the absolutely universal being, he is also the absolutely real being, ens realissimum.He has, therefore, according to the conception of Him, not only the comparatively greatest reality, provided also the absolute reality. A reality in which no greater skunk be thought. 7 Aquinas, Thomas By common consent the greatest philosophic theologian of the Middle Ages was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Everything about him was big. In his later years his voluminous writings, massive in scope, won him the designation of the Angelic Doctor. His life was dedicated to the intellectual defense and propagation of the faith, as he understood it.It was during his dogma career (1252) in Paris that Aquinas, being drawn into the critical debates of his day, pour downed battling the objections posed against Aristotelianism and its place in the universit y. By this date, Plato was known only through the imperfect translations of the Timaeus, the Phaedo, and the Meno. Islamic Jewish thinkers were much better introduce with Aristotle, and for n beforehand(predicate) two centuries they had been wrestling with questions posed by Aristotelianism to religious faith. For Aquinas and his Christian coevals the issue was doubly acute. On the one hand, there were questions posed by Aristotles way of thinking.On the other hand, there were the answers already given by Islamic and Jewish scholars which were hardly acceptable to a Christian thinker. Aquinas decided to face the problem head on. He made his own analyze of Aristotle, on whom he wrote extensively. He also made his own study of non-Christian thinkers. He subjected all ideas to besotted scrutiny, giving due recognition to the truth of ideas, wherever they came from, but giving his own evaluation of every issue, point by point. In all, Aquinas produced about a hundred different writi ngs. His work ranged from philosophic commentaries to hymns.8 Aquinas main works are two massive Summae or compends of theology and philosophy. The Summa contra Gentiles was knowing as a textbook for missionaries, and the Summa Theologiae has been described as the highest achievement of medieval theological systematization and is steady the accepted basis of modern Reformed theology. In Aquinas proofs (what later came to be known as the Cosmological and Teleological arguments), certain facts about nature are compelling evidences of immortals existence. He argues, accordingly, that nothing toilet adequately account for the fact of motion or change.Rejecting the idea that change or motion is simply an ultimate, mysterious fact of nature neither requiring nor permitting any explanation except God, its unemotional Prime Mover. Furthermore, in his five arguments, Aquinas suggests that the Christian belief in God is completely undifferentiated with the world as we know it. Aquinas arguments, known also as the Five Ways are sometimes referred to as the proofs of the existence of God. But this is not necessarily improve because Aquinas did not filtrate to prove the existence of God by rational argument, but to provide a rational defense for an already existing faith in God.His primary reason for believing in the existence in God is Gods revelation of Himself. Aquinas forestalls his readers to share the same faith. He does not expect that he will have to prove anything to them first. This point is main(prenominal) because many critics accuse believers of grounding their faith in outdated arguments, such as Thomas Aquinas. It is proper, therefore, to respond to such criticisms by pointing out that they are based on a superficial reading and on a serious misunderstanding of how individuals come to faith.9 The basic principal guiding Aquinas throughout the Five Proofs is the principal of analogy, which holds the world as we know it mirrors God, its creator. The structure of each of Aquinas proofs is quite similar. Each depends on tracing a day-by-day sequence back to its ultimate origin and identifying this ultimate origin with God. The first begins with the ceremonial occasion that things in the world are in motion or change. Second is the concept of causation. The third concerns the existence of contingent beings.The tail deals with clement values, and lastly, is the teleological argument, in which Aquinas explains how the world shows the whole way traces of intelligent design. Natural processes and objects seem to be adapted with certain definite objectives in mind. They seem to have purpose. They seem to have been designed. Arguing from this observation, Aquinas concludes that it is rational to believe in God. 10 Aristotle Aristotles thought, like his mentor Plato, embodied the concept of arete, which taught that human excellence in all things was an important goal that should direct human purposes.For Aristotle, that excellence ideally exemplified the delineate quality of human nature, the pursuit of reason. Attracted by science and believing that the universe could be explained, Aristotle greatly value the work of Thales of Miletus, and accepted his concept that the physical universe operated rationally and in a way that was cognizable to human beings. From Anaximander, Aristotle took the view that a balance of force existed in nature that made things what they were. Aristotle was also versed about the atomic theory of Parmenides andwas intrigued by the question of what was stable and what was changing. Indeed, these Greek scientists had a significant regularise on Aristotles intellectual anticipate to examine and explain reality. 11 For Aristotle, the world in which we continue is the world that we experience through our smell outs. Unlike those who followed Plato, Aristotle believed that we live in an objective order of reality, a world of objects that exist out-of-door to us and our knowing of them. Through our senses and our reason, human beings can come to know these objects and forge generalizations about their structure and function.Truth is a correspondence between the persons mind and external reality. Theoretical knowledge based on human observation is the outflank guide to human behavior. And, age human beings have various careers, they all share the most important factor, the exercise of rationality. Reason gives human beings the potentiality of leading lives that are self-de marginined. Congruent with his metaphysical and epistemological perspective, Aristotles ethical theory portrays the mature life as that of delight (eudaimonia).He believed that the ultimate approximate for the human being was merriment, activity in accordance to virtue. The virtuous life is one in which bring throughs are part of a consciously explicate plan that takes a mean, a middle ground course, avoiding extremes. 12 For representative, true courage would be the choice that avoi ds the extremes of cowardice and rashness. And what decides the right course to take is the virtue of prudence (phronesis). Good is the aim of every action but, given the fact that goods can be ordered in relation to one some other, there essential be a highest good to which practical wisdom directs us.And if the possession of any good is what makes us prosperous to some extent, the possession of the highest good is the highest happiness, the ultimate goal of all our actions. 13 At this point, it is difficult to suffer the thought that Aristotles notion of the intellectual life being the gateway to happiness and virtue is not an shallow one. But, though there are some elements in his presentation that are unclear, this much is clear that this happiness, which is the possession of the good, is ultimately an act of contemplation, or ofbeholding, the good. But to contemplate the good is to enter into union with it.Therefore, if contemplating on god intend entering into union with the life of the gods, this is the highest activity of man and his ultimate happiness. The conclusion of the ethical motive is one with the Metaphysics, in which the divine element in a man coincides with the possession of god by an act of thought, called contemplation, which is the most pleasant and best we can perform.In Eudemian Ethics, Aristotle says, What choice, then, or possession of the natural goods whether bodied goods, wealth, friends, or other things will most produce the contemplation of God, that choice or possession is best this is the noblest standard, but any that through deficiency or excess hinders one from the contemplation and service of God is bad this man possess in his consciousness, and this is the best standard for the soul. 14 With statements like this one cant help but wonder what Aristotles response would have been if he would have had the opportunity to serve the one true God, who is worthy of such adoration and praise.Whats more, Aristotle categori zed virtues as either moral or intellectual. Moral virtue, though not easy to define, is a habit by which the individual exercises a prudent choice, one that a rational person would make. Moral virtues tend to moderation, falling between excess and inhibition. They focus on the concrete actions a person performs and the measured sense he has regarding them to see them at the right times, with reference to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motive, and in the right way. A good action thus exhibits due proportion, neither excessive nor defective, but midway between them. This is Aristotles tenet of the mean. Peculiarly, a virtuous action is one that lies between too much and too little. To give another(prenominal) example, in regard to the feeling of shame, modesty is the mean between bashfulness and shamelessness. Not every virtue, however, is a mean, and so not every action is to be measured in this way. Nonetheless, every action should and can at least be measured in its rightness by the virtue of prudence or, in a larger sense, by practical wisdom. 15.Furthermore, one of Aristotles most significant contributions to the horse opera world is his Poetics. His earlier works, Physics and Metaphysics contain important statements about art and nature, and Rhetoric, written after Poetics, distinguishes rhetoric as a practical art and has had a strong check on literary criticism. His Poetics, nonetheless, is particularly important because Aristotle is addressing Platos school of thoughts on ideas and forms he came to disagree with. In Poetics, it was Aristotles intention to classify and categorize consistently the graciouss of literary art, beginning with epic and tragic drama.Unfortunately, not all of the poetics survived, and it sorts off before the discussion of comedy. Nonetheless, our sense of Aristotles order is established. He is the first critic to attempt a systematic discourse of literary genres. 16 Augustine (Saint), of Hip po One of the greatest thinkers of not only the early church, but of all time is Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A. D. ). His writings dictated the foundation not only for Western theology but for later philosophy as well.His three books On Free Will (388-395), roundabout out a ism of creation, evil and the human will which was a superior alternative to the type of thinking that had attracted so many to Gnosticism and Manichaean dualism. His response to the Donatist schism in the church set the pattern for the Western doctrine of the church. His writings on the subject of Pelagianism clarified, as no one before him and few after him, the all-important(a) issues in the question of grace and free will. His major theological writings let in On the triplet (399-419), which presented better models for thinking about the Trinity than those of the Greek fathers.Augustines book On the City of God (413-416) was a reply to those who blame the church for the fall of Rome, in which it gave bot h a panoramic view of history and a theology of history in terms of the basic conflict between the divine society and the earthly society. 17 Interestingly, Augustine put forrader a theory of time that Bertrand Russell would later vocalise superior to earlier views and much better than the subjective theory of Kant. Augustines account of how we can train language provided Wittgensteins starting point for his Philosophical Investigations.In answering skepticism Augustine put forth an argument which anticipated Descartes cognito ergo sum without falling into the pitfalls commonly associated with the argument. Furthermore, Augustine believed that philosophical reflection may correct mistaken notions, lead to a grasp of truth, and serve to clarify belief. But rational reflection is not a substitute for the beatific vision of God. For it is the apprehension of God altogether which transforms human life and alone satisfies our deepest needs. Though Augustine was deeply influenced by P latonism and Neoplatonism, he never was simply a Platonist.His view of the soul stands in the Platonic tradition, but he repudiated the doctrines of pre-existence and transmigration. Augustines view of the transcendent spiritual reality might also be said to have affinities with Plato, but Augustines approach was not an attempt to erect an building of Christian theology on either Platonic or Neoplatonic foundations. Rather, it was to state the Christian worldview in a theological and philosophical system that cohered as a unified whole. 18 (B) (back to top) Bentham, Jeremy In nineteenth blow Victorian England two contrasting systems were developed by Jeremy Bentham and Herbert Spencer.Utilitarians Bentham and John Stuart Mill applied naturalistic presup stupefys in their worldview. Herbert Spencer applied the concept of evolution. And Ernest Mach prepared the way for logical positivism in his strongly anti-metaphysical scientific approach. The antithesis of the Kantian ideal is u tilitarianism, an ethical theory founded by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). Bentham was a hedonist. Taking the good to be pleasure, Bentham proposed a rising model for morality in his principal of utility, which holds that Actions are right in proportion to the amount of happiness it brings wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.19 Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism. The ends justify the means since actions are judged on the results they bring, not on the persons intentions or motives. For Kant, the end result was not important in determining the rightness of an action, rather, it was motive. 20 In its simplest form utilitarianism teaches that the right action is the one that promotes the greatest happiness. Modern utilitarianism dates from Thomas Hobbes in the seventeenth century, but its antecedents date as far back as (341-270 B. C. ) to the philosophy of Epicurus of Samos.The theory of utilitarianism actually held little influence until John Stuart Mill (1 806-1873) who popularized the term and produced the authorized Victorian exposition of the doctrine. Mill used the principal of utility to critique all social, political, and religious institutions. Anything that did not promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number was to be challenged and reformed. For this reason social and religious institutions that conquer individual liberty should be reformed. This is necessary, argued Mill, in order for freedom of belief, association and expression to be safeguarded. 21. varied conceptions of happiness separated Mills version Better a Socrates dissatisfied than a bruiser satisfied, which recognized qualitative differences between different kinds of pleasure, from Benthams forthright attempt to reduce all questions of happiness to the mere armorial bearing of pleasure or pain. Benthams version aims to render the basic concepts of ethics hypersensitive of comparison and measurement, but this was not the goal in Mills presentation of the system. 22 A hedonistic utilitarian like Bentham would say that the sole consideration is the quantity of pleasure that an action produces.A problem with this approach, however, (as if it wasnt obvious) is that it draws no distinction in principal between an evening spent at the bars or one spent having quality time with your spouse. It all depends upon the tastes of the person. Berkley, George George Berkeley (Irish, 1685-1753) was one of the three greatest British empiricists of the eighteenth century (Locke and Hume being the other two). Though his father was an Englishman, Berkley always considered himself Irish. He was an early subjectivist idealist philosopher, who argued that all qualities of objects exist only in the mind of the perceiver.His famous theory is often summarized, esse est percipi, to be is to be perceived, and is still important to modern apologetics (due to the method he used in demonstrating the necessity of an arrant(a) Perceiver). Berkleys argument was that the phenomena of visual sensation can all be explained without presup seance the reality of the external actual substances. Interestingly, Berkley was also a bishop of an Anglican church, and was the only important philosopher to visit America before 1900. He came hoping to start a missionary training college for evangelizing to the Indian tribes of New England.23 Berkley disagreed with Locke in that there is a cloth substance lying behind and supporting perceptions. He also disagreed with his treatment of the representative theory of perception, that significant objects are perceived mediately by means of ideas, and the mind does not perceive the material object directly, but only through the medium of the ideas formed by the senses and reflection on them. If we know only our ideas, levelheaded Berkeley then we can never be sure whether any of them are really like the material qualities of objects, since we can never compare the ideas with them. For that reason, he den ied the ultimate existence of material substance believing that the timber is the only metaphysical reality. 24 (D) (back to top) Derrida, Jacques Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) was a French literary critic and founder of the school called deconstructionism. His (1966) dun Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences delivered at Johns Hopkins University, played a significant role in ushering American critics into the era of poststructuralism. Particular influences on his thought include Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Freud.He wrote prolifically, and had a great influence on not only literary criticism but in sociology, linguistics, and psychology as well. Derrida regarded philosophical and literary texts as already containing the seeds of their own deconstruction. This means that in any work the author unwittingly includes contradictions, blind spots, and unjustified assumptions. The main purpose and task of the deconstructionist, according to Derrida, is to simply b ring these contradictions to the surface. 25 initiation in the Victorian Age, a paradigm shift slowly spread throughout Europe that set the groundwork for modern theory.Unlike the revolutionary movements of the Renaissance and Romanticism, which were in part reactionary, this paradigm shift that marked a radical analyse from the past had little precedent. Nonetheless, it marked a rejection of long-held metaphysical and aesthetic beliefs that most theorists from Plato to Coleridge took for granted. Until the modern period, most of the great Western philosophers have been logocentric in their thinking, and Derrida is one of the ones responsible for this definite break from the past, bringing forth the notion that meaning is never fixed.Dr. Louis Markos, a Christian Professor at Houston Baptist University, made some interesting comments on Derrida in one of his lectures on deconstructionism. He said that Derrida reads the history of Western metaphysics as a continual search for a lo gos or original presence. This logos is seek because it promises to give meaning and purpose to all things, to act as a universal center. Behind this search is a desire for a higher reality (or full presence).Western philosophy since Plato has simply renamed this presence and shifted this center without breaking from its centering impulse. Even Saussures structuralism sought a center, and though he broke from the old metaphysic, he still used its terminology and binaries. Furthermore, Derrida deconstructs all attempts to posit a center or to establish a system of binaries. Instead, he puts in their place a full free play of meaning. 26 Democritus (see Leucippus) Descartes, Rene The first great continental rationalist27 was Rene Descartes (Frenchman, 1596-1650).For it was he who defined the terms and laid down the agenda for the continental rationalist school of thought. But in a sense, the world that Descartes produced, by the exercise of pure reason, was a fairly straight forward affair Descartes does preserve the self in a recognizable form, as well as both God (even though it is not a terribly human sort of God) and the material world in a broadly speaking recognizable form (even though it might be a material world deprived of some of its more vivid and colorful attributes).Nevertheless, the worlds created by the application of the procedure of rationalism start from some self-evident propositions (like Euclids geometry) and then carry out processes of absolute, straight forward deduction from these self-evident propositions and what that led to in the showcase of Spinoza and Leibniz is something very far removed in both of them from the ordinary understanding of the world. To some extant, Descartes, by comparison with them, is in the business of saving the appearances. Whereas both Spinoza and Leibniz say that what the world is really like is very different from what it appears to the ordinary person to be.Nonetheless, there is still in both cases (Des cartes and Spinoza and Leibniz) an inherent reality that philosophy can tell us something about reality even if common observation cannot. 28 His two chief philosophical works were Discourse on Method (1637) and his Meditations (1641). His ideal and method were modeled on mathematics. He is sometimes portrayed as the first modern philosopher due to his break with the traditional Scholastic-Aristotelian philosophy and for introducing a new mechanistic science. 29 In refurbishing the medieval proofs for the existence of God he was drawing upon the legacy of the Middle Ages.Like the Medieval philosophers, he was interested in metaphysics, and to the end of his life, Descartes remained a nominal Catholic. But there is a sense in which Descartes represents a new departure. Descartes (so it seems) was interested in God not for his own sake, but the worlds. God is invoked as a kind of dues ex machine to guarantee the validity of our thoughts about the world. 30 Nonetheless, Descartes take s his place as a Christian thinker by resting cognitive truth on the personal truth of God, and laying the blame for demerit not on God but on the exercise of the human will.Descartes successors eventually lost their trust for truth. George Berkeley retains it by tracing directly to God all the ideas we receive from outside the mind and Leibniz by reservation each mind mirror eternal truths in the mind of God. But many Enlightenment thinkers, and many empiricists today who share some of Descartes rational ideals or the correspondence theory of truth, talk to truth one by one of God as if it were a self-sustaining ideal and as if human reason were a strictly objective and impersonal activity.Descartes failure was not in the relation he saw of truth to God, but in the lack of relation he saw between mans rational depicted object for knowing truth and his personality as a whole. 31 (F) (back to top) Fibonacci His real name was Leonardo Pisano (Italian, 1170-1250) but he is better known by his nickname Fibonacci (filius Bonacci), which means son of Bonacci. A striking example of Fibonaccis genius is his observation that the classification of irrationals given by Euclid in Book X of the Elements did not include all irrationals. Fibonacci is probably best known for his rabbit problem. Leonardo Fibonacci began the study of this sequence by posing the following problem in his book, Liber Abaci, How many dyads of rabbits will be produced in a year, beginning with a single pair? 32 The analogy that starts with one pair of rabbits who give birth to a new pair from the first month on, and every succeeding pair gives birth to a new pair in the second month after their birth. Fibonacci shows that this leads to the sequences 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, and so on. As one can see, each term is the sum of the two previous terms.For example, 2 + 3 = 5 and 3 + 5 = 8, and the far and farther you go to the right of this sequence, the ratio of a ter m to the one before it will get appressed and closer to the Golden ratio. Additionally, this same principal also applies to that of the Golden rectangle. The connection between the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci series is fascinating, and is very simple to understand. If you take a Golden Rectangle, and cut off a unbent with side lengths equal to the length shorter to the rectangle side, then what remains is another Golden Rectangle. This could go on forever.You can just keep cutting off these big squares and getting smaller and smaller Golden Rectangles. Consequently, the idea with the Fibonacci series is to do the same thing in reverse. You start with a square (1 by 1), go back the longer side, and then add a square of that size to the whole thing to form a new rectangle. Therefore, when we start with a (1 by 1) square the longest side is one, so we add another square to it. As a result, we have accumulated a (2 by 1) rectangle. Then the longest side is 2, so we connect a (2 b y 2) square to our (2 by 1) rectangle to get a (3 by 2) rectangle.As this continues, the sides of the rectangle will always be a successive Fibonacci number, and eventually the rectangle will be very close to a Golden Rectangle. To translate in more illustrative terms, the ratio of two successive poem in the Fibonacci series, as aforementioned, if divided by each number before it, will result in the following series of numbers 1/1 = 1, 2/1 = 2, 3/2 = 1. 5, 5/3 = 1. 666, 8/5 = 1. 6, 13/8 = 1. 625, 21/13 = 1. 61538. The ratio that is settling down to a particular value is the golden ratio or the golden number, which has a value of most 1.618034. 33 Fichte, Johann Gottlieb Johann Gottlieb Fichte (German, 1762-1814) was one of the major figures in German philosophy in between Kant and Hegel. He was regarded as one of Kants most talented philosophers, but later developed a system of his own transcendental philosophy called the Wissenschaftslehre. Fichte had immense influence on his con temporaries, especially during his professorship at the University of Jenna, a position he held for five years (1794-1799) before taking up a profes.