...Daniel Garcia Western intellectual Self-preservation Hobbes believed that self-preservation was everyone's fundamental natural instinct. He believed it was essential to ground political philosophy on this basic principle. “Among so many dangers therefore, as the natural lusts of men do daily threaten each other a, to have a care of oneself is not a matter so scornfully to be looked upon, as if so be there had not been a power and will left in one to have done otherwise. For every man is wishful of what is good for him, and despise what is evil, but chiefly the prime of natural evils, which is death; and this he doth, by a certain impulsion of nature, no less than that whereby a stone moves downward. It is therefore neither absurd, nor reprehensible; neither against the dictates of true reason for a man to use all his endeavors to preserve and defend his body, and the members thereof from death and sorrows; but that which is not contrary to right reason, that all men account to be done justly, and with right. Neither by the word Right is anything else signified, than that liberty which every man hath to make use of his natural faculties according to right reason. Therefore the first foundation of natural Right is this, that every man as much as in him lies endeavor to protect his life and members” But because it is in vain for a man to have a right to the end, if the right to the necessary means denied him; it follows, that since every man has a right to preserve himself...
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...government in which the ruler has complete authority over the government and lives of the people he or she governs. Natural rights are rights that belong to all humans from birth, such as life, liberty, and property. Communism is a classless society in which all wealth and property would be owned by the community as a whole. Social democracy is a political ideology in which there is a gradual...
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...In these three chapters of George Orwells’ Homage to Catalonia, we are able to see the different stages of his experience in the militia. The Barcelona he experiences at the beginning of his time is drastically different than the one he ends in. With this we are able to see the instability of the revolution. His first impression of Barcelona was not what he expected. Coming with the intention of becoming a newspaper writer, Orwell realised the potential and promise these people held. He almost instantly joined the militia, without realising the harsh reality of this movement. Behind the emotion and optimism, there is a lack of experience and organization. These people had come together from all backgrounds for their cause, but once gathered...
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...CRITICISM 1. Moral / Philosophical Approach - Critics believe that the larger purpose of literature is to teach morality and to probe philosophical issues. - Many poets have strong ethical or religious convictions, but the moralist critic usually has a broader interest. Literature has a humanizing or civilizing mission, and the critic values work which furthers that end: promotes tolerance, social justice, sensitivity to individual wishes and talents, etc. 2. Topical/Historical/Biographical - Critics see works as the reflection of an author's life and times (or of the characters' life and times). They believe it is necessary to know about the author and the political, economical, and sociological context of his times in order to truly understand his works. - Poems are placed in their historical context — to explain not only their allusions and particular use of words, but the conventions and expectations of the times. The approach may be evaluative (i.e. the critic may suggest ways of responding to the poem once the perspective is corrected), or may simply use it as historical data. - a poem may be used to illuminate the writer's psychology, or as biographic data. No less than the correspondence, remembered conversations, choice of reading matter, the poem is analyzed for relevance to its author. 3. New Critical Formalist - A formalistic approach to literature, once called New Criticism, involves a close reading of the text. Formalistic critics believe that all...
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...Religion is one of the oldest institutions on Earth, and is therefore of key cultural and historical importance to a large group of people. However the real question is whether religion serves to benefit both the individual and society in this ever evolving postmodern world. One perspective that suggests that religion does serve to benefit both the individual and society as a whole is Functionalism, which believes that religion maintains value consensus by creating social solidarity and keeping social order in place. Marxism however believes religion creates class division in society, by acting as an “opium of the people” and a “spiritual gin”, which in turn creates the false class consciousness and illusory happiness, which leads to people being subordinate and not challenging their place in society, as religion helps to explain their place and maintains social order. A core argument from the Functionalist perspective, put forward by Durkheim, was society’s distinction between the “sacred” (things set apart,special,inspire feelings of awe and wonder) and the “profane” (things that have no special significance,ordinary or mundane). Durkheim argued that the reason why scared symbols or festivals in religion evoke such powerful feelings in individuals is because they represent a greater power, this in Durkheim’s opinion could only be society itself. Therefore in Durkheim's view when members of society are worshipping sacred symbols, they’re merely worshipping society and all...
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...Prejudice was one of the main factors that led to the holocaust. Resisting these forms of oppression, for some, was survival. Considering how dehumanizing the Nazis made the Jews feel, people managed to take whatever strength and courage they had to get them through this awful period of time. Even though now prejudice is mostly just name calling, during the holocaust it could have meant death. Whether a person is resisting the Nazis or justing resisting prejudice in general, one must never give up what they truly believe and...
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...Are you a communist? No, a citizen of the United States of America can’t be a communist. But Karl Marx was a communist, or at least he founded some of the main principles of communism, and Karl Marx firmly believed in some of the things that make this country what it is, like equality. But, Karl Marx was still a great political philosopher of his time, and a humanitarian. To really understand the principles of Marx’s teachings one would have to study him, or at least read an essay that describes Marx’s life. There are three key elements to understanding Marx they are his childhood and education, the people that had the greatest influence on him, and his writings. At 2:00 A.M. of May 5, 1818, the life of the greatest political philosopher began. He was born in the Rhine province of Prussia, and was born to Henriette and Hirschel Marx (Payne 17). Hirschel Marx was a rich lawyer, and he was also a Jew (World Book Encyclopedia 236M). On August 26, 1824 Karl and his whole family were baptized, so his family turned away from its traditional Jewish teachings to Protestant Christianity (Payne 21). At the age of twelve Karl entered the Friedrich Wilhiem Gymnasium. He stayed there for five years excelling in foreign languages, but not really caring about mathematics and history (Payne 23). Karl’s father decided that Karl would attend the University of Bonn to study law (World Book Encyclopedia 236M). Karl became an active member of “poetry clubs,” while studying at the University...
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...Market System Imagine a life in which every single action that we made was basically owned and operated by the government. Now, imagine the opposite. Imagine that you are free to make the choices that you want without having to give your rights up to the government. I know, at times, we feel that America is truly run from the government and we have no choice; but, compared to other countries, America has a lot of freedom when it comes to the rights of the individuals. The economic system that the United States uses is capitalism. Capitalism is the economic system that is also known as the free market system, and is based off on private ownership, economic freedom, and fair competition. Other countries, however, use socialism as their economic system. Socialism is based on the principle that the government should operate some of the key enterprises that affect the welfare of the public. Finally, some countries choose to use communism as their economic system. Communism is based off of the principle that the government should operate and direct almost all enterprises. Clearly, these three economic systems are very different in the way that they operate. In this paper, I am going to compare and contrast the three types of economic systems: capitalism, socialism, and communism. Capitalism, also known as the free market system, is the economic system used by the United States. Because of capitalism, we have what are called fundamental rights. Fundamental rights are rights that...
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...what humans do like drinking and wearing clothes, sleeping in houses and not murdering animals. 6. What broke up the meeting? (p33-34) Mr. Jones shot his gun in the barn because he thought there was a fox 7. What is “Beasts of England?” What do humans sing that is similar? (p32) Anthem of Animal Farm. Humans sing National anthems. Name: Date: R&R Block ____ Animal Farm, Chapter 2 Short Answer Questions Please answer all questions in your own words in complete sentences. If you need to copy from the book, make sure you use quotation marks and page numbers. 1. Who are the three main pigs? (p35-36) Napoleon, Squealer, Snowball 2. The pigs formulate the teachings of Old Major into a system of thought. What is it called? (p36) ANIMALISM! ANIMAL FARM GO! GO! GO! BEAST OF ENGLAND! BEAST OF IRELAND! 3. The animals encounter a couple of problems as they begin to discuss the coming rebellion. Name one of them. (p36-37) They are afraid of not having food 4. What two leaders emerge after the rebellion? (p41) Snowball and Napoleon 5. What is done with the farmhouse? (p42) They made it into a museum...
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...Class issues and the rise of the superstructure in The Giver and The City of Ember Since the start of agriculture, man's evolution has gone from a hunter-gatherer to modern day capitalistic societies. Using a lot of energy in order to hunt was no longer necessary. By leveraging the division of labor, grains could be stored for human consumption. Consequently, population grew which meant that some people had to, for example, harvest the food, whereas others could be “thinkers” and create a better world in terms of science and effective infrastructures. Over time resources have been used and exploited in to order to sustain societies and the ever increasing population: It has become a scarcity. (Harris 12) Philosophers such as Karl Marx wrote about this scarcity and how it creates classes in societies, as in Das Kapital, the Critique of Political Economy: In social productions of their life, men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society.... With the change of the economic foundation the entire immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed. In considering such transformations a distinction should always be made between the material transformation of the economic conditions of| production...(Marx 143) What is...
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...shaped community development. In this essay I will also discuss how Marxist theory has identified that the working class are to be exploited by the bourgeoisie and the only way to improve society is to dismantle the capitalist society and install a socialist society. Marxist theory is based on Karl Marx’s theory of the struggle of the working class people selling their labour to the bourgeoisie – the capitalists – and their oppression by the welfare system. Marx believed that the rich bourgeoisie exploited the working class and the only way to stop this exploitation was to overthrow the capitalist system with socialism. The only real difference between capitalism and socialism is that private property rights and voluntary exchange define capitalism, whereas socialism is based around collective ownership of the means of production, which is owned by the state (Butgereit and Carden 2011, p41). Marx took this theory further, with the hope that once the capitalist system was overthrown, the socialist society would be based on a classless, stateless, moneyless society heading into low-level communism. Community development is the development and utilisation of a set of ongoing structures that allow the community to meet its own needs (McArdle 1993, p2). It is about empowering...
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...Introduction In this era when individuals are questioning the legitimacy and wisdom of unregulated free markets, issues are raised about the most efficient form of economic activity and the best role for government in an economy. These issues have been discussed at many points in the past, and different societies have come to different conclusions regarding political and economic systems. In the United States, and many developed nations around the world, the view has often been that democracy accompanied by capitalism, offers the best, most efficient use of resources and governments guided by those principles assure the best outcomes for their populations. Other countries have adopted very different governing principles. Communist doctrine, as adopted by some nations, endorses the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership of the means of production and property (Communism: The failure of an utopian system, 2008). The civilization is governed by an individual, or individuals, whose function is to ensure the efficiency of the society as a whole. As an ideal, the communist doctrine defines a just city as one that eliminates the need for its citizens to wish to exploit each other. History appears to indicate that in practice, however, the communist vision cannot be fulfilled since “absolute power (which is given to the leader) corrupts absolutely” (Martin, 2009). Human nature does not appear to manage total supremacy well. 49 When...
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...“The nobility of man shines upon us from their work hardened bodies.” (Manuscripts, 100)[1]. And according to Karl Marx, that is the bottom line. In Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and Manifesto of the Communist Party[2], two of his most profound works, Marx outlines both his harsh critique of capitalism and his prophetic theory of impending communist revolution. Although these texts are extremely complex—Manuscripts is described often as the hardest sixty pages of modern philosophy—their main points can be summed up concisely. For Marx, a worker’s labor, and therefore product, is an extension of himself, and any practice that separates the two, most obviously capitalism’s private property, essentially tears the man apart. A system such as this is beyond repair, and the only feasible solution is a forceful and complete communist revolution ending in the destruction of private property and the reunion of mankind with his labor. The complex philosophizing behind these two doctrines will be revealed shortly, but now the question arises, are they consistent? More specifically, do the circumstances that exist under capitalism, as described in his critique, put the world in a realistic position to undergo his desired revolution? Taking his opinions of the world under capitalism as fact, the answer is yes: the desperation of alienation will drive the growing majority of men to unite and revolt. That said, a thorough examination of both his critique of capitalism and his planned...
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...which also known as rapid urbanization. Changes in the farming methods and increasing demand for workers in the industries led to massive movement of people from the farms to cities. Small towns around the coal and iron mines had been mushroomed into cities. Conversely, the dramatic growth of cities and towns produced a miserable living condition for many of the inhabitants. This is because the towns had been overcrowded yet without wholly adequate sanitation and water supplies, periodic epidemics, endless row houses of the industrial workers and few public services intensified the problems of rapid urbanization and made the poor living conditions to be more apparent. In fact, hose who lived in the row houses were the fortunate one, for the truly unfortunate, they were forced to live in the cellars. There was a report mentioned that: “There were 63 families where there were at least five persons to one bed; and there were some in which even six were packed in one bed, lying at the top and bottom-children and adults.” Hence, the deterioration of urban life resulted in the number of deaths outnumbered births in those large cities in the first half of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, the rise of industrial capitalism resulted in the emergence of new social classes. This was clearly stated in The Communist Manifesto 1848: “Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other-bourgeoisie and proletariat...
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...Communism: A Review of an Ideology Raymond Castaneda English 228: Fall Session 2012 The purpose of this essay is to explain how unsuccessful Communism is ideologically in part due to its’ economic shortcomings. For ages, mankind has been in search of a perfect society, a utopia; a society, in which no suffering exists, and everyone is happy. In writing, they are common, from the City of Atlantis to the Garden of Eden. However, there are no utopias, none for which anyone can provide proof of. For better or worse, there have been men who have attempted to bring about these utopias in the form of egalitarian societies. Some of these societies have aimed at removing the differences in social class and material wealth between people in an attempt to establish a utopian society. For example communism which was based on a Marxist utopian ideology, has proven to be ultimately a flawed principle and regime. In recent times, so called utopian societies were identified as either socialist, or communist. True communist societies have aimed to be egalitarian, and perhaps even utopian. While the effects of communist and socialist regimes are not confined to one single aspect of human life, this essay focuses on the economic effects of communism. Unfortunately, they have not succeeded in either; instead these societies have resulted in poverty, violence, and overall failure . Modern communism cannot be explained without first defining it, as there have been many historical and contemporary...
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