Jobs on Human Resource and Criminal Justice Essay Example for Free

Jobs on Human Resource and Criminal Justice Essay There are a lot of jobs in Human Resource field. A job website shows fifty human resource jobs in New York, forty one in Atlanta, thirty nine in Houston, thirty five in Dallas, thirty one in Chicago, twenty two in Los Angeles, twenty in San Jose, twenty in Austin, and other around one hundred and twenty nine in other areas. There are different positions which are in demand and few of these are HR Administrative and HR Administrative Assistant in Le Parker Meridien, Human Resource Administrator in Bloomingdale’s, Human Resource Generalist in Advertising in Towne Search, Corporate Employee Benefits Specialist in Riddick Group-Executive, Business Office Manager, Human Resource Generalist in Impact Personnel,Inc, Payroll Administrator and HR Associate, HR Business partner, Human Resource Development, Time Attendance Administrator, Compensation and HRIS, Director Human Resource, Talent Representative, Attorney Recruiting Project Assistant, Global HR and Tech, International Compensation Manager, Employment Standards Relationship Manager, Benefits Coordinator, HR Operations Manager, Senior Implementation Manager, HRIS Analyst, Recruitment and Retention Coordinator, Director of Fun, HR is one of the most important functions in an organization and it needs to perform very carefully so that every decision taken is fair and transparent. The responsibility of HR is to make the employees comfortable and the work place an ideal one for them. The greater the efficiency of the human resources department, the better the workplace environment and the employee motivation to work in the organization (Robbins Judge, 2004). Criminal Justice Job vacancies are also in the market but relatively less in number than HR jobs. There are approximately fifty one jobs available in UK, five in Wales, one in Scotland, forty two in England, four in Yorkshire and Humberside, two in East Midlands, twenty five in Greater London, two in East of England and five in South East. There is City Attorney position in, Madison Alabama, victim or witness coordinator in Hudson Wisconsin, Assistant County Attorney in Los Alamos New Mexico, and Police Officer in Madison Wisconsin. Other vacant position include Communications Officer paid approximately ? 15 to 16 per hour, Social Worker for a youth offending team paid ? 19 to 23 per hour, Probation Officer paid approximately ? 25 per hour, Secretary General in International Commission of Jurists, Counter Fraud Specialist, Probation Prosecutor, Domestic Violence trainer, Senior Consultants and many more. But the popular one and one with most number of vacancies is Youth Offending Team. Apart from YOT a lot of Social Workers are required in the market to intervene and prevent crime.

Sammy Case Essay Example for Free

Sammy Case Essay Assignment Question: Base on what you have learned in this course, your textbook and any reference books that you may have read, what are the problems that the main character has? What possible solutions would you suggest (with theoretical support) to solve the problems? In referring to your own life, what have you learned from this scenario and how can you apply these into your life? 1. Introduction According to the case study of assignment, it seems to me that Sammy encountered great difficulties in a couple of problems on intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies, which keep weakening her family relationship as well as her way of living. In the following, there will be three sections for the above discussion. First, based on what I have learned in my course, I will attempt to illustrate out the most important problems that suffered by Sammy. The second part, some possible recommendations will be provided so as to help her building up a positive relationship with her parents as well as her siblings, peer fellow or elsewhere. At last, I would like to conclude with my personal sharing which is completely learned from this scenario. 2.Three General Character’s Problems 2.1Lost Of Self Obviously, Sammy is getting lost in herself. She mess up with her unexamined life and confused by the question of â€Å"Who am I?† from the inside out. She doesn’t realize herself clearly as she even doesn’t know what she likes or dislikes. It determines that Sammy was incapable of knowing herself and seems have unclear goal in future. This would be the major reason drive her getting an unsatisfactory result in public examination. She has attempted to make choice just fulfilling what her parents want her to do; however, once situation getting worse, she have lost her own decision to determine what should do soon. She has no idea about her totality of thoughts and feelings with reference to herself as an object. (Rosenberg, 1979) 2.2Low Self-Esteem Besides, Sammy often keeps comparing herself with others by physical appearance, talent, popularity, etc. However, she harbored negative feelings about all her surrounding people. These comparisons could only diminish her uniqueness and further result to make her losing of confidence. It revealed that the value she placed on herself is quiet low. It seems to me that the four sources of self-esteem, (1) social interaction, (2) social information, (3) social comparison, and (4) self-observation (Baron, 1990) have been damaged and unplugged in her case. 2.3Communication Problem Last but not lease, there is a clear communication problem within Sammy’s family. She seldom talks peacefully and sincerely with her parents. Having quarreled once, Sammy chose to avoid communicating with them which only weaken much more on their family relationships. 3.Three Possible Recommendations Here are 3 possible solutions for Sammy: 3.1Exploring Developmental Areas Firstly, Sammy ought to recognize more about herself. Human development researchers pay attention to four developmental areas of self, which are physical self, mental self, emotional self and social self (Hanna, Suggett, Radtke, 2007). And in which the mental self indicates the learning abilities, thought-processing patterns, as well as attitude and motivation are facets of this important area of the self. So, Sammy needs to be strengthened on her mental self mostly, which can help her to establish her thought-processing patterns, beliefs etc. Reading books is a favorite way to improve mentally (Hanna, Suggett, Radtke, 2007). By developing her sense of mental self, Sammy could acquire critical and creative thinking which could encourage her to think matter deeply, dig out multi-level ideas, challenge assumptions, and examine the logic of differing points; hence, she can explore herself more specific and capable of differentiating between her ideal self, actual self, and ought self (Edward Tory Higgins, 1987). Having developed a creative thinking, Sammy could think about ideas in different ways and generate variety of possible solutions to any problems. These two kind of thinking ability will create more curiosity which turn to activate Sammy think much and examine others’ opinion rather just followed to do so. 3.2Discovering Self-Concept And Self Valuing Corresponding to the 2.2 problem of Sammy, i.e. low self-esteem, she ought to discover her self-concept indeed. The self-concept is the totality of her thoughts and feelings with reference to herself and is the foundation on which almost all her actions are based (Rosenberg, 1979), consisting (1) self-descriptions, (2) ideal self, and (3) self-esteem or self-worth. We can observed Sammy was keeping compared herself with others, which reflects her unsatisfactory on her actual self; nevertheless, maybe her ideal self is quite close to perfect, that makes her never accept her actual self and lower her self-esteem, and one of the areas which mostly affects is academic achievement. Studies have found a significant positive correlation between self-esteem and Grade Point Average (Baker, Beer, Beer, 1991, cited in Hanna, Suggett, Radtke, 2007). So, thoughts changing should be adopted. Sammy should think more positive instead of keeping meaningless comparsion and pursuing the ideal self. Sh e should be encouraged to reveal her interest, or participate more social gathering rather than staying at home for aimless surfing. 3.3Disclosing Self On Criticism Actually, Sammy’s parent has their own responsibilities, in which even delivering small quantities of criticism would be appreciated in a non-hurtful ways. However, my focus is on Sammy only; and so, I would suggest Sammy finding a positive way of communication. She needs to learn how to face criticism. Positive responses to criticism are important as it moves relationships in a positive direction. â€Å"The effective way to respond to criticism is to use an assertive style. It does not attack, surrender to, or sabotage the critic. It disarms the critic.† (McKay and Fanning, 2000) It is no use to response criticism emotionally. Sammy is encouraged to learn keeping a peaceful mind to receive any criticism. Rather than Shut herself up or lock the door, Sammy may try to express her different opinion to her parent but in calm. This self-disclosure helps knowing each others. Social penetration theory (Altman and Taylor, 1973) explains that close relationships develop in terms of increasing self-disclosure. Constructive criticism points out possibilities for improvement (Ginott, 1965). 4.Self Reflection In this case, I am found out the importance of self-knowing and self-valuing, and realize that an effective communication is really essential to build positive relationship. Not only communicate well on normal situation, but also we have to communicate healthy on criticism. In my case, my father is a kind of criticism-favor man, who loves to blame on everything since his 65 years old. Every time he shouted to us, just like Sammy, I quarreled with him first and shut up soon, or left his house, just let him alone . I though this is a smartest way to avoid meaningless argument with the old man. But the fact is he never stop quarrelling with me once I came back. Having studied this case, I started to ask my actual self: â€Å"Do I love my father?† The answer is â€Å"absolutely!† So, which drive me to think how to build a better relationship between us. Having known more about positive communication on criticism, one times, I didn’t run away, but listened to him peacefully. My old man shouted about half an hour, and finally stopped. Maybe he felt tired, and as I really listen carefully what he said, I tried to â€Å"communicate† my opinion with him peacefully and pointed out some my opinion about his arguments. Anyway, from that day on, we have less arguing, instead we talk more about the British Premier League.

Facilitating Change In Health And Social Care Social Work Essay

Facilitating Change In Health And Social Care Social Work Essay Change is a process of transitioning  from a current situation to a desired future condition. Whether we like change or not, we are all caught up in a never-ending cycle of change in our organizations. Some people welcome change and enjoy the uncertainty it often brings, thinking that it offers a new challenges and opportunities at work. Others are cautious about change, fearing that something valued will be altered or lost or that risk brings unnecessary stress. In care, health and social care services are essentially about people, both those who need to use services and those who provide services. People are sensitive to the impact of change and as a manager I have a particular responsibility to take care over how changes in services that are intended to deliver care within the organization. One of the reasons why change seems to be constant is that there are many potential stimuli for change and there are several factors driving change. The stimulus for change may come from inside an organization but it is more usual for it to come from outside. Change initiated within the organization is often a response to a force outside the organization that triggered the change. For example, factors that have a significant impact on health and social care services include government legislations and policies. Many aspects of health and social care are subject to legislation. New legal requirements emerge constantly as government seek to improve health and social care, often through introduction of systems to set standards and to control or modify service provision. Like the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, this was enacted because of increasing numbers of accidents and incidents that happened in the past related to work. Its main purpose is to protect and minimize people from ha rm. It places a general duty on employers to ensure health, safety and welfare of all employees as far as is reasonably practicable. This legislation situates an impact not only on health care industry but all kinds of work. That is why until now it was expanded its scope, clarified responsibilities and responded to new circumstances as they have arisen without changing the overall principles of the original Act. Legislation also affects service provision though legislation relating to employment, health and safety, use of public funding and through related services including education and housing. Recently, the government commence key modification which affects the eligibility of all non-EU workers who wants to work in the UK. Those individuals must earn a minimum number of points. The new rules state the less points will be given for employees earning lower salaries in UK and no points to those who are paid less  £20,000 per annum compare to the old rules that give a minimum points for those workers having  £17,000 salary per year. It means the employer will have to pay new workers at least  £20,000. In addition, the care providers were enormously concerned about the present government removing the senior carers from shortage status because it might cause damage on the quality of care and in the business. Moreover, new technology is also a reason that is why change arises in health care setting. One great example is the development of internet. It change the way of sending information to the multi-disciplinary team through e-mail. Making it easier for senior staff to send and receive relevant information from GPs and other professionals and vice versa regarding service users condition while promoting privacy and confidentiality. It also change our ways of using records and libraries. Staffs in health and care services have access to an increasing range of information that is available to practitioners in health and social care. Service users expect us to make use of evidence in making decisions and database of best practice models are increasingly available. In my workplace, the management use the internet to provide trainings for staff which is more suitable and can be done in our own convenient time. For residence and relatives, its a fact that most of the relatives of our service u sers are far away from each other. However with the utilization of the internet, distance is not a big deal anymore. For relatives and services user who have personal computers or laptops can make conversation and see each other with the use of webcam and chat rooms through the internet. Service delivery is also influence by use of new developments in equipments. Like the new equipment acquired by Barts and The London NHS Trust the two state-of-the-art Lifeport organ transporters. It endow with a valuable sustenance for patients needing a kidney transplant. It stores healthy kidneys after they are removed from the donor before being transplanted into the recipient. This is a critical period for ensuring that the organ does not deteriorate and become unusable. Unlike before that they rely on ice to conserve the kidney, the new equipment maintains the organ in a fluid rich in nutrients and oxygen, which significantly extends the storage period. For the new equipments, it does change the old method to a new way that allows hope for more patients to have successful kidney transplants. In care home settings, the acquisition of new equipments like the air pressure mattress is indispensable equipment for anyone at high risk of developing pressure ulcers or who have existing pressure ulcers. The alternating pressure of the mattress depends on the weight of the service user allowing relieved on a regular basis and trim down the number of times a person needs to be turned, greatly enhancing the comfort of the very poorly or terminally ill. In addition, economic factors also drive change. These factors include the general prosperity of the country and its neighbourhood, the rate of unemployment, areas of poverty, the level of inflation and exchange rates in relationships involving other countries and currencies. The state of the economy affects the level of demand for goods and services, the prosperity of communities and the availability and cost of raw materials and labours. The economy tends to move in cycles, but these are not easy to predict. All services, whether public services, private services or charity provision, are affected by changes in the economy. At present, there were lots of changes in the health and social care sector due to the recent financial crisis that affects the economy of United Kingdom. As a result, the coalition government have wasted no time to save money in reshaping parts of the health services. According to the health secretary, the popular NHS direct services will be substitute with cheaper alternative. Under the governments plans, some strategic health authorities and hundreds of primary care trust are to be abolished affecting thousands of employees and service users. Examples of recent cost-cutting measures cited by professionals are hospital bed closures, pressure to give patients cheaper, slower-acting drugs, cuts to occupational health support, and reductions in community health services. Furthermore, according to a study, it make known that for the most part of job losses it involved frontline staff as patient services are withdrawn. Along with mounting numbers of patients are being deprived of treatm ent for conditions such as loss of sight, arthritis and infertility as the  NHS  increasingly rations healthcare in order to save money. But, the spending cuts done by the government does not only affect the health and social care sector but the life of Britons as a whole. It affects the sick, the disabled and Britains poorest families. Among the biggest cuts are only allowing claimants to have the replacement for Incapacity Benefit, the Employment and Support Allowance for one year, Cutting Disability Allowance for those people in care. Cutting Council Tax benefit by 10%. Reductions in the help given for childcare to working families, and slashing housing benefit for the under-35s by paying them the shared room rate instead of enough to live on their own etc., To be able to facilitate change in health and social care, as a manager I need to be able to understand the principles of change management. According to John Kotter, an authority of leadership and change, change has both an emotional and situational components and methods for managing each are expressed in his 8 step model. To value his model, as a managers there must be an understanding about the suppression and to cause employees emotion. During any period of change, a manager must deal with feelings of complacency, anger, false pride, arrogance, panic, exhaustion and anxiety among staffs. These are all emotions that can challenge and undermine attempts at promoting change. As managers I need to be able to turn these negative feelings into positive and proactive feelings such as faith, trusts urgency, hope, passion and enthusiasm which are emotions that promote change. On the first phase the model explained the phase of creating a climate for change. As a manager, there is need to develop a sense of urgency to staff. That action is needed regarding a foreseen difficulty. This can be done during meetings by explaining the situation through showing related videos and sharing stories. As the urgency grows among the staffs, as a manager, there is necessity to develop a guiding team that guide the change throughout the remaining steps. Members of the guiding team could be unit managers, senior carers or persons who have a relevant knowledge about the changes that occur in the organization, the ability to establish credibility and trusts to peers, the formal authority associated with managerial skill and the leadership. With the manager, alongside with the guiding team, must develop a vision expressed in a clear, concise statement about the direction in which the organization is headed. Engaging and enabling the whole organization is the second phase of Kotters model. Here, anxiety, anger, panic, among staff will rise because the manager or guiding team announces the impending change. Whenever, change is about to take place, people begin to wonder. That is why the guiding team needs to communicate to the individual or groups that are to be affected by change. And need to address these feelings and help staff to think and act in accordance with the new direction. An effective way to communicate the vision is to develop an engaging story that catches the attention of the change initiates. If there is a resistance to the staff at certain point, a dialogue between the guiding team and staff initiates a question and answer session. Staffs displays understanding when they realized the advantage, rewards and perquisites that they will gain once the change is completed. As the pathways to change are cleared, staffs must need to carefully choose and complete tasks that clear ly show that the change is succeeding. Tasks completed provide further urgency and momentum among the organization and lessen the impact of negative comments. At the final phase, the action plan is implemented fully allowing staff not to let up of the change. Collaboration occurs when staffs are willing to endorse or stand behind the change and displays commitment. As managers, at this phase, should sustain the change. It is done when a new way of operating has been shown to staff to succeed over the some minimum period of time Staffs at this point, displays advocacy that maintains the attitudes and behaviours supporting the change.. To relate this in my work, in my care home, there are recent changes that were implemented due staffs failing to do proper documentation. Firsts, the home manager scheduled a meeting and consultation to all the unit managers. At the meeting, to develop a sense of urgency among staff, she used a video based scenario regarding right documentation. The video shows the positive and negative effect of proper documentation to staffs, residents and management. In the meeting, everyone was asked about the ways to improve the situation. Then, decided that every staff should be knowledgeable and competent enough to do appropriate documentation at work through trainings and observations to make sure that they have the awareness, understanding and collaboration about the agenda of the meeting. On the other hand, the unit managers are to be the guiding team to lead, direct and show the proper way of documentation to unit staffs. Before the meeting ends, she makes sure that everyone understands ab out the directions in which the organization is headed and there would be recognition as the best unit that could implement the change. Finally, now every staff is confident regarding answering the forms in the care plans of every resident and certain to do the right documentation. The as proposed the guiding team use appraisal and supervision to measure the change. Plus the home manager monitored the change by evaluating the care plans of the residents with the help of a unit manager every end of the month for this change to become a culture in the care home.

The Holocaust :: Holocaust Essays, The Nazis

When I visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, I was sickened to learn of horrifying Nazi activities intended to improve the Aryan race and to learn about the human body.ï ¿ ½ While many people are aware that the Nazis had these goals, most are uninformed of the means used to reach them.ï ¿ ½ I was also ignorant of the extent of their attempts to establish themselves as ideal specimens of the human race.ï ¿ ½ They used many unforgivable methods to accomplish these aims, some of which were revealed to me during my visit to the museum. The Nazis attempted to create a master race through both vicious and less cruel means.ï ¿ ½ Before my visit to the museum, I was unaware that the Nazis had a program for forced sterilization for those who had genetic disorders or any traits that were undesirable to be passed down hereditarily (Holocaust Museum).ï ¿ ½ These included the mentally ill, the blind, the deaf, those with severe physical abnormalities, serious alcoholics, and Germans that were half-African (Holocaust Museum).ï ¿ ½ The sterilization of these people was legalized by the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring, which took effect in 1933 (ï ¿ ½Deadly Medicineï ¿ ½).ï ¿ ½ Cases were heard by courts, but the vast majority of cases ended in the order to sterilize (ï ¿ ½Deadly Medicineï ¿ ½).ï ¿ ½ It is estimated that 300,000 Germans were forcibly sterilized by Nazi demand (Holocaust Museum).ï ¿ ½ Similar programs were in effect elsewhere in the world, including the United States (ï ¿ ½De adly Medicineï ¿ ½).ï ¿ ½ A law was implemented in Virginia allowing forced sterilization of ï ¿ ½feeblemindedï ¿ ½ people, and it was judged legal by the Supreme Court (ï ¿ ½Deadly Medicineï ¿ ½).ï ¿ ½ Euthanasia was also used by the Nazis to eliminate these people, even children (ï ¿ ½Deadly Medicineï ¿ ½).ï ¿ ½ Parents of the euthanized children were told that they had died from other causes, even though the children were murdered in hospitals (ï ¿ ½Deadly Medicineï ¿ ½).ï ¿ ½ Less severe methods of creating a perfect race included the Nuremberg Laws, which outlawed marriages between Jews and Germans, and the encouragement of large Aryan families with the ï ¿ ½Honor Cross of German Motherhood,ï ¿ ½ where mothers of four or more were given medals (ï ¿ ½Deadly Medicineï ¿ ½).ï ¿ ½ I was stunned to learn the extent of the Nazisï ¿ ½ actions that were intended to create a perfect race, and I was sickened to think that the Nazis might have committed further crimes s uch as these that are still unknown to the public. The Nazis also performed cruel medical experiments on Jewish prisoners, both living and dead.

The Sense of Scents, the Sense of Self :: Biology Essays Research Papers

The Sense of Scents, the Sense of Self For this paper, I'd like to revisit some of the questions left unanswered in my last paper regarding the sense of smell. In that paper, I outlined some of what is now understood about how smells are identified and the initial levels of how that information is coded in the brain; for this paper I would like to trace that path (as much as possible) through to my experience of smell and then to see if my experience matches the proposed models. From this perspective, I'd like to take a last look at the "brain = behavior" equation and the notion of the "I - function" and see if I can't make some final sense of it all in a way which is not utterly dissonant with my own experiences. Let's look at smell again, then. My last paper left off with the following conclusions regarding the olfactory system. There are between 500 and 1000 unique protein receptor genes which are expressed only in the olfactory epithelium. These receptors each respond to a unique odorant or to a unique feature on an odorant molecule (epitopes). It is suggested that there is a one - to - one relationship between a specific odorant, its protein receptor, and the sensory neuron: that is, any given sensory neuron expresses only one type of receptor and is therefore responsive to only one kind of odorant. Each type of neuron is randomly distributed across one of four zones within the olfactory epithelium. The information from this population coding is then reorganized, as these axons leave the epithelium and travel to the olfactory bulb, into a very specific, spatially organized map of activity across the several hundred kinds of receptors. The span between the 1000 types of receptor neurons, a nd discrimination amongst 10,000 odors, is bridged in the interpretation of the ratios and relationships of activity level across the population. The olfactory bulb was compared to an operators switchboard, and the process of odor identification was likened to determining which switchboard lights were flashing. The obvious question then becomes, what parts of the brain watch over the olfactory bulb, monitor its activity and interpret that activity? What parts of the brain assign meaning and identity to each pattern of stimulation, and then choose an appropriate response? Some of these questions have been addressed by Walter Freeman in his investigations, and he has several useful insights into the process of preattentive perception, or the almost instantaneous recognition of the familiar. The Sense of Scents, the Sense of Self :: Biology Essays Research Papers The Sense of Scents, the Sense of Self For this paper, I'd like to revisit some of the questions left unanswered in my last paper regarding the sense of smell. In that paper, I outlined some of what is now understood about how smells are identified and the initial levels of how that information is coded in the brain; for this paper I would like to trace that path (as much as possible) through to my experience of smell and then to see if my experience matches the proposed models. From this perspective, I'd like to take a last look at the "brain = behavior" equation and the notion of the "I - function" and see if I can't make some final sense of it all in a way which is not utterly dissonant with my own experiences. Let's look at smell again, then. My last paper left off with the following conclusions regarding the olfactory system. There are between 500 and 1000 unique protein receptor genes which are expressed only in the olfactory epithelium. These receptors each respond to a unique odorant or to a unique feature on an odorant molecule (epitopes). It is suggested that there is a one - to - one relationship between a specific odorant, its protein receptor, and the sensory neuron: that is, any given sensory neuron expresses only one type of receptor and is therefore responsive to only one kind of odorant. Each type of neuron is randomly distributed across one of four zones within the olfactory epithelium. The information from this population coding is then reorganized, as these axons leave the epithelium and travel to the olfactory bulb, into a very specific, spatially organized map of activity across the several hundred kinds of receptors. The span between the 1000 types of receptor neurons, a nd discrimination amongst 10,000 odors, is bridged in the interpretation of the ratios and relationships of activity level across the population. The olfactory bulb was compared to an operators switchboard, and the process of odor identification was likened to determining which switchboard lights were flashing. The obvious question then becomes, what parts of the brain watch over the olfactory bulb, monitor its activity and interpret that activity? What parts of the brain assign meaning and identity to each pattern of stimulation, and then choose an appropriate response? Some of these questions have been addressed by Walter Freeman in his investigations, and he has several useful insights into the process of preattentive perception, or the almost instantaneous recognition of the familiar.

to build a fire Essay -- essays research papers

In the short story, â€Å"To Build a Fire† by Jack London shows how man vs. nature and how inexperienced traveler in the Yukon tries to travel alone with his dog, even though it’s advised not to. Yet he is stubborn and thinks he is right, and sets off for Henderson Creek to meet his friends. He faces many different conflicts of man verses man, and man verses nature. The traveler is advised not to make this trip with the lack of his inexperience in the Yukon due to the weather, the incoming storm, and its advisories. With the subzero freezing cold temperatures that came with the storm. â€Å"Fifty degrees below zero stood for a bite of frost that hurt and that must be guarded against by the use of mittens, ear flaps, warm moccasins, and thick socks.†(561) He is book smart, lacking street smart, and nature humbled him during his travel to reach his friends. He was doomed from the beginning, by him being inexperienced in the sub-zero temperatures of the region. He was although able to surpass some of the things that nature threw at him because of his observation of things due to his determination. But, he ignored the old man and his words that came back to haunt him in the end. The power of nature will most always prevail when you are in its playing field. This can be seen when London says, â€Å"Fifty degrees below zero stood for a bite of frost that hurt and that must be guarded against by the use of mittens, ear flaps, warm moccasins, and thick socks† (Page 561). â€Å"The trail was faint. A fo...

German Philosophers Essay

My paper is about Kant’s ideas of progression which shall focus on a study of his works such as â€Å"Idea for a Universal History† and his most famous work â€Å"What is Enlightenment? † as basis for analysis. This paper also explains the opposing views of Mendelssohn from Kant’s ideas of progression. It will compare Mendelssohn’s idea of enlightenment from that of Kant. His contribution to the emancipation of Jews will be discussed too. I will include also some ideas from other philosophers like Nietzsche on The Genealogy of Morality and Hegel on the philosophy of history. The opposing views of Mendelssohn on progression are also discussed pointing his views on secularization and enlightenment in relation to Kant’s views. A little will be discussed on Kant’s Perpetual Peace essay pointing it on a philosophical manner. Other philosopher such as Nietzsche’s views on morality using his work On the Genealogy of Morality shall be discussed in relation with Kant’s two ways of distinguishing judgments (ethical and aesthetic theory). Introduction The primary objective of this paper is to discuss Kant’s historical theory of progression. The first approach in understanding his ideas is to touch in his historical philosophy. Since the system used for reconstructing Kant’s philosophical history is critical it results to unsatisfactory remarks thus the use of a horizontal approach is necessary. A more general issue of philosophical matters will usually submerge using the historical philosophy approach. This approach is helpful in understanding the dialogue between contemporaries because it particular criticizes the idea of progression. The Kant’s theory of progression involves a strong case of particular criticism addressing these objections: (i) the rejection of the idea of progression due to religion’s being secularized; (ii) that his ideas on progression are chronologically unfair because this try to mean that the earlier generation gets a raw deal; (iii) that progression delivers the species into endless unsatisfaction; (iv) that progression adds to a harmful homogenization which may eliminate traditional values and practices (McCloughan 2003). The ways of judgment as distinguished by Kant such as the priori judgment and the posteriori judgment; the former judgment explains that something is known a priori if it is neither derived from nor testable by sense experience while the latter judgments is derived from or is testable by experience. These judgment means that we have no certain knowledge about experience, and according to Kant, he believed that we had such knowledge thus we ask the question: â€Å"How are synthetic a priori judgment? † On the other hand, in Mendelssohn’s mind, aesthetics in relationship to Kant’s theory of aesthetic is closely interrelated with psychology (Kant 1983). I. What is progress? â€Å"Progress† is a broad term that is believed to be an act of rejection throughout history by human communities of their attitude. However, an increasing number of intellectuals believe that the methods and spirit of science must be applied to all fields. Because of this belief, the idea of progress came to include a concept of social and moral progress. It was stated that the cumulative improvement in human knowledge and power that had been brought about in the physical sciences could also be brought about in the organization of human society and its character if only these barriers against the employment of rational methods in morals, religion, and politics could be eradicated (McCloughan 2003). In pre-modern Western culture, the idea of progress challenged the thought that the golden age of humankind devised in the past and that the aging of the Earth involves decay for it and analogous to the aging of individual living organisms. Moreover, the idea of progress implies a trend to history and time that contrasts sharply with the cyclical conceptions of time and of history that is dominant in ancient history. Finally, the idea of progress implies an activist role for humans in defining their well-being and in causing it, in the present and for the future (McCloughan 2003). II. Kant’s idea of progression and his ways of judgment According to Kant, humanity, as whole, was gradually progressing towards enlightenment that there is a progression that expresses the idea of the history of humankind. Moreover, it is directing towards a goal, which led to the development of shifting interpretations of this abstract notion. Kant stresses the unplanned character of the development of history, which is more likely to go after on its way to a cosmopolitan world order. ‘Progress’ toward the commencement of perpetual peace will be unpredictable and painful because while the process is undergoing, progress will adopt a more regular pace. Progress would also take the form of a more balanced development of human capacities. Both at the national and international levels, spontaneous antagonism will not only holds up the process of development, but also ensures that such development as has taken place has failed to put attention to the all-important moral dimension (Kant 1983). Progression would be the universal history of all humanity and it is very comprehensive that often takes the case with traditional universal histories, the future as well as the past. Nevertheless, progression is more than just a collection of all facts falling under the intersection of the concepts ‘human’ and ‘history’. According to Kant, this would amount to what he calls an ‘aggregate’, a mere ‘distributive unity’, and would fail to satisfy reason’s demand for ‘systematic’ or ‘collective unity’ (Kant 1983). When human beings emerge from his self-incurred minority, it is called Enlightenment that is, on a public level, the application of one’s own understanding, improvement without the help of another individual. Kant asserted that it is the freedom of thought and all individuals can attain this freedom indiscriminately. While I agree that enlightenment transcends economic class and race, freedom of thought but it cannot practically be extended to everyone (Kant 1983). Furthermore, in Kant’s words, progress may be associated with human reason and talks about how things are presented to us. Human understanding is only concerned of how it works but it not concern with the foundations. In Kant’s mind, however, neither sciences nor philosophy must answer to those questions, since this separate their innate capacities. Nevertheless, this does not mean that it is less worthwhile to answer questions on one side because he said that we could not construct any serious progress in physics, for example, while we argue over the issue of whether it is logically consistent to talk about laws of nature. However, it does mean that whatever we are doing we are in an important respect, stopping to do philosophy. If this is correct, then there is no chance of achieving progress in philosophy by adopting a paradigm that helps achieve progress, but only by making it cease to be philosophy (Kant 1983). Kant saw the problem of knowledge was on the issue of how to connect the† is† of sense experience with the â€Å"must† of necessary and universal truth. First, we distinguish analytic from synthetic judgments. An analytic judgment can be ascertained by looking on the truth of such judgment which can be know by an analysis of the subject while a synthetic judgment can be ascertained by looking at the truth of such a statement which cannot be known through an analysis of the subject (McCloughan 2003). Philosophers before Kant stated that an analytic judgment was known a priori while the synthetic judgment was known a posteriori. The former were always and necessarily true but true only about the meaning and relation of words not about the world while the latter judgment was about the world but they could only be contingent or probable truths. Kant believed that we have no certain knowledge about experience and we had such knowledge. As a solution, he further adds that experience provides the content and the mind provides the structures that determine the way in which the content will be organized and understood (McCloughan 2003). III. Kant on the issue of morality Kant says in a moral sphere that he has denied knowledge to make room for faith because he believe that moral law cannot be justified by reason it can only be obeyed on its own sake. According to Kant’s ethical theory, which rests on the concept of duty, a good person acts out of duty not because he fears punishment but because it his duty. The categorical imperative states that a person should act in such a way that it are possible for one to will that the maxim of ones action should become a universal law (Kant 1983). On the other hand, according to Kant’s aesthetic theory, which holds that judgment, give beauty to something, although they rest on feeling, but have valid claims although these are mere statements of taste or of opinion. This concept involves a judgment, which are on purpose for example, when a person judges something to be beautiful there is harmony of the experienced object with mental structure (Kant 1983). IV. Mendelssohn’s Views Mendelssohn believed that destiny should be divided into two separate categories. The first is the personal, private, and intellectual destiny of man; and the second was the destiny as a citizen of a state or a public, duty-oriented destiny. In an enlightened society according to him, the need for culture is ideally eliminated and substituted by the virtues of Enlightenment (Mendelssohn 1983). Moreover, another important truth about the Enlightenment thinking is the possession of knowledge through experience and observation, education, and self-probing on an intellectual and spiritual level. Moreover, by fulfilling these quests shall lead you to the path of Enlightenment. The idea of Mendelssohn on Enlightenment has distinguished the destiny of man through his roles as both a citizen of a state and between the role of a human to morality, religion, and personal philosophy. He discovers that this distinction is necessary because he believes that the personal interests of man as a human can do conflict with the interests of public man. According to him, the ideals of Enlightenment should be limited in their availability to man when it is in the best interest of the state and they should not meddle with work ethics or motivations, as they are necessary to the functioning of society (Mendelssohn 1983). V. Mendelssohn’s contribution to Jewish thought and secularization Mendelssohn’s principal contribution to Jewish thought concerns a declaration of inconsistency while he supports the abolition of excommunication while remaining loyal to biblical law, and is willing to overlook such coercion. In Mendelssohn’s reply, â€Å"Jerusalem Or On Religious Power and Judaism† which was one of the first works in German to plead for freedom of conscience in religious matters, separates church and state, and the civil rights for the Jews. According to him, both states and church have as their final goals the promotion of human happiness. The state is permitted to enforce specific actions, whereas the church’s task is to convince its followers of their religious and ethical duties through persuasion alone (Mendelssohn 1983). Mendelssohn replied to the question of the continued authority of Jewish law, and said that the ceremonial law originating from the Hebrew Bible is binding solely on the Jewish people and Judaism is a religion of revealed legislation but not of revealed beliefs. He further said that the existence and unity of God, the reality of divine providence, and the immortality of the soul should be declared on the grounds of natural reason, not miracles or supernatural revelation. Mendelssohn was concerned with freedom inside one religion as well as freedom of religion for minority communities but he is still confirming the continued authority of Jewish law. He argued that by identifying the church and state in biblical Israel should end with the destruction of the ancient association of states and laws that preserve the universal principles of Jewish faith against errors into idolatry and polytheism. Until God arranges another indubitable supernatural revelation to the Jewish people, these laws will not lose their force to replace that of Mount Sinai. However, loyalty to the Jewish law does not prevent the Jews from expecting the legitimate duties of citizenship in an enlightened society (Mendelssohn 1983). Mendelssohn was seen as a forebear of the conflicting trends of German Jewry but Kant as well as Hegel viewed his synthesis of philosophical theism and traditional religious observance as outdated. Nevertheless, he was revered by the Enlighteners for having moved from the ghetto to modern society without abandoning the Jewish tradition or the Jewish people. However, Mendelssohn was criticized for having paved the way to the loss of Jewish distinctiveness and, therefore, to assimilation. In retrospect, his thought and life can be seen to have posed some of the fundamental issues of Jewish religious survival in secular, liberal society (Mendelssohn 1983).