...with the aggregate happiness of all beings capable of experiencing pleasure or pain including nonhuman animals. They consider the principle of utility to be the act, which produces the greatest balance of good over evil. Utilitarians consider both the happiness-producing and unhappiness-producing consequences of several alternative actions before deciding on one. A nineteenth century philosopher Jeremy Bentham created a checklist called the hedonic calculus. Bentham designed what he termed the hedonic calculus to enable people to measure the overall happiness- or pleasure-producing consequences of actions in terms of their duration, intensity, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and extent. This tool would not work in today’s society because happiness or pleasure as we know it would be difficult to measure on a numeric scale. There are two forms of utilitarians. Act utilitarians directly apply the principle of utility to each case as it arises. Rule utilitarians apply the principle of utility to general rules of action rather than to particular actions. Act and rule utilitarianism contain numerous flaws. They cannot predict the future. They can use life experiences to attempt to predict outcomes but there is no certainty that these predictions will come true. Utilitarianism is not always concerned with justice, beneficence or autonomy for an individual. In some instances it will be necessary to...
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...6301/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2009.12.005 68 percent of the families of Grameen Bank borrowers have crossed the poverty line. Motivation towards repayment is high, with rates currently running at 98.4 percent, and the bank has been profitable in every year of its existence except 1983, 1991 and 1992. The socially-oriented organizations in the Grameen Group now range from the country’s largest phone company to one supplying affordable healthcare. The Group’s on-going experience (over almost 30 years) of building firms whose purpose is to alleviate poverty has led to the emergence of the concept of ‘social business’, which can be viewed as still being under construction. Established multinational companies (MNC) have recently shown some interest in the Grameen experience and in its fight against poverty as part of a more general emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR). However shareholder value maximization remains the rule in the capitalist system, and e clearly e the reconciliation of this with social objectives is often problematic. Thus, although advocates of CSR like to propose that companies should be measured by a ‘triple bottom line’ of financial, social and environmental benefits, ultimately only one bottom line usually matters: financial profit. However, research has shown that, if managed strategically, CSR projects can indeed pay off, both socially and financially.1 In the midst of the...
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...MIGUEL, Karl Ann D. INTSOCI C33 Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner Introduction: The Hidden Side of Everything There are several things required to understand the world through economics: first, knowing the incentives of all parties; second, realizing that conventional wisdom is usually wrong; third, understanding that most effects have subtle and distant causes and the most obvious is often the wrong one; fourth, specialists like salesman and lawyers use obscure knowledge to achieve their own ends and the internet helps to erode this advantage by making knowledge more freely available to people; lastly, data is invaluable to understanding the world. Chapter 1: What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common? People all learn to respond to incentives, whether positive or negative from the outset of life. An incentive is simply a means of urging people to do more of a good thing and less of a bad thing. There are three basic flavors of incentive: economic, social and moral. Economic incentive is something material or tangible; moral is based of self-judgments; social is terribly powerful as it depicts what other people think of you resulting from your own actions or choices. Any incentive is inherently a trade-off; whatever the incentive, whatever the situation, dishonest people will try to gain an advantage by whatever means necessary. Cheating is a natural act getting more for less. The government required the High-Stakes Testing as part of...
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...Moral Development and the Justice System As law enforcement officials, we need to understand the moral development of not only those we come in contact with in our job, but also of ourselves. Why? The answer is, as police officers; we may be confronted with hundreds of issues about moral reasoning each day. These may range from the decision a suspect makes about whether to resist arrest to whether or not we issue a speeding ticket to a friend. Every day, citizens, as well as officers, make hundreds of decisions that involve moral reasoning. It is imperative as officers of the law that we understand and recognize the reasons behind the decisions of other as well as ourselves. To change our behavior and appreciate others behavior we must be aware of why we as humans make the decisions we make. A psychologist named Lawrence Kohlberg identified three levels of moral development or reasoning. The first level is pre-conventional morality, and it contains two stages. At the pre-conventional level, one does not have a personal code of morality. Instead, our moral code is formed by the standards of adults in our environment and the consequences of adhering to or breaking their rules. This stage is prevalent in children, but can be seen even in older youth and in some cases, adults. The two stages in Level one are: Obedience and Punishment Orientation and Individualism and Exchange. In the first stage an individual is good to avoid being punished. In the second stage, the person recognizes...
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...Long Range Planning 43 (2010) 308e325 http://www.elsevier.com/locate/lrp Building Social Business Models: Lessons from the Grameen Experience Muhammad Yunus, Bertrand Moingeon and Laurence Lehmann-Ortega Grameen bank, founded in 1976, has both pioneered the development of micro-finance, and created nearly 30 businesses designed to alleviate poverty. The article traces the gradual development of Grameen’s expertise in formulating social business models, which require new value propositions, value constellations and profit equations, and as such, resembles business model innovation. The article presents five lessons learned from this experience: three are similar to those of conventional business model innovation e challenging conventional thinking, finding complementary partners and undertaking continuous experimentation; two are specific to social business models: recruiting social-profit-oriented shareholders, and specifying social profit objectives clearly and early. We suggest these new business models e where stakeholders replace shareholders as the focus of value maximization e could empower capitalism to address overwhelming global concerns. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction The Grameen Group is a network of nearly 30 sister organizations linked to the Bangladeshi Grameen Bank, the microcredit pioneer and (together with its founder, Muhammad Yunus, one of this article’s co-authors) 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner. This group was established in...
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...publications and has published several books that link to public administration and civic engagement. Some of those books published include the one noted above and The American Statehouse, Public Administration Illuminated and Inspired by the Arts, The Social Meaning of Civic Space, Planning a council Chamber, The Public and Encounter, and others. The most successful publication has been The Case for Bureaucracy as he makes his case that American Bureaucracy is in fact effective and good. He challenges the perception that public administration is not effective and is just wasteful and out of touch and makes a validated defense against those that think the contrary. His work has inspired hope as this piece is different from the norm. It is a great inspiring book that gives a fresh face to public administration and its servants and provides justice by challenging the myths that gave become known as acceptable truths in the public sector. In this book “The Case for Bureaucracy” Goodsell speaks from the heart as he is inspired to make his case that bureaucracy is good through his personal experiences and studies. In his own words,...
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...North Korea in Japanese is written as 朝鮮民主主義人民共和国. Japanese people generally use this name all the time we call North Korea, but this name is really controversial because of the meaning of the Chinese characteristics “民主主義 (min-shu-shu-gi)”. “民主主義” means democracy in Japanese. Is North Korea a democratic country like North Korea is described with democracy in Japanese? To begin with, what does North Korea go in for? It is suspicious that North Korea applies to just one thing from many options such as socialism, democracy, capitalism, communism, or liberalism. Everyday Life in The North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950 by Suzy Kim, North Korea Markets and Military Rule by Hazel Smith, and other articles demonstrate if it is true or not. By looking...
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...dream, it did spark in me an extremely strong desire for knowledge and wisdom of pure science, which has evolved into an even greater desire to understand the fundamental properties of this universe. It’s ironic really, because, according to Philosophy: The Power of Ideas, Western philosophy began when Thales of Greece considered the possibility that there must be some “fundamental kind of stuff” everything in the universe is made of. (Moore 22) While Thales was on the right track, he was wrong to suggest that thing was water, but his reasoning was based on logic. Despite being incorrect, Thales assumptions led to the beginning of metaphysics, the study of a simpler underlying reality, and that is what physics is today. In fact, theoretical physicists of today do just about anything they can to make their equations simpler. For example, we believe there are four fundamental forces of the universe: gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Each one of these forces alone is represented by ugly, chaotic equations. In an attempt to “splice” all four equations together, each equation was revised to include a component that allowed the forces to operate in 10 dimensions instead of the four we are familiar with. Low and behold, after the adjustment, the equations magically fit together like puzzle pieces in a theory called heterotic string theory, also known as M-theory. Not only does the equation appear simpler but it also predicts that there is indeed...
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...Week 1 Strategic Management Escape Fire The movie Escape Fire clearly states the facts that currently affect the healthcare system in the U.S. and proposes solutions that are at our reach as individuals, as a community and as a country. We are a country that sets the tone for almost everything that is popular in the world and something as necessary to our livelihood as healthcare is, we certainly are not on top of how to set that tone in that aspect that should be as popular as the air we breathe. We have the ability to change the game as it is suggested in the movie, and persuade the behavior changes necessary for all Americans to make in order to control the management of diseases culture that we are currently in and turn it into a more preventive culture. The amount of money spent every year in the U.S. on healthcare is a number that is almost three times of what other industrialized countries spend per capita, and yet, our life expectancy is at number fifty in the world. Clearly, our outcomes are not commensurate with the money that is being spent. Preventive medicine is the model that we need to follow and we currently follow the disease management way of healthcare. 30% of the money spent per year is spent in vain, for, it does not improve the health of those treated. As suggested in the movie, we need to have more Primary Care Physicians that have the opportunity to educate, treat, prevent and follow up without the burden of productivity that is driving the healthcare...
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...CAUTIONARY FABLE Once upon a time, Western opinion leaders found themselves both impressed and frightened by the extraordinary growth rates achieved by a set of Eastern economies. Although those economies were still substantially poorer and smaller than those of the West, the speed with which they had transformed themselves from peasant societies into industrial powerhouses, their continuing ability to achieve growth rates several times higher than the advanced nations, and their increasing ability to challenge or even surpass American and European technology in certain areas seemed to call into question the dominance not only of Western power but of Western ideology. The leaders of those nations did not share our faith in free markets or unlimited civil liberties. They asserted with increasing self-confidence that their system was superior: societies that accepted strong, even authoritarian governments and were willing to limit individual liberties in the interest of the common good, take charge of their economies, and sacrifice short-run consumer interests for the sake of long-run growth would eventually outperform the increasingly chaotic societies of the West. And a growing minority of Western intellectuals agreed. The gap between Western and Eastern economic performance eventually became a political issue. The Democrats recaptured the White House under the leadership of a young, energetic new president who pledged to "get the country moving again--a pledge that, to him and his...
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...other students who did not apply the proper approach to learning economics. In many courses, simple memorization is enough. In economics, we would argue, this is not the case.While you need to understand the meaning of basic terms and concepts, you also need to be able to apply economic concepts in specific situations. In other words, you need to develop the ability to think like an economist.The authors of Freakonomics certainly show the reader how to do just that.The material presented here is intended to make the job a little easier. Organization of the Student’s Guide We organized the material in this guide to help you identify the key points in each chapter and check to ensure that you have a firm grasp of the key concepts presented in the book.The first section of each chapter in this guide consists of an overview that highlights the major topics and points presented in the book.The overview is designed to alert you to the major topics and is not intended to serve, in any way, as a substitute for the material in the text. The second section of each chapter...
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...In the ocean exists an ancient god Cthulhu, sleeping in his stone house in R’yleh under the sea. He sleeps and telepathically invades our dreams, turning them into nightmares. There is a cult that follows the ancient god, and they relate the details of this ancient being and his intentions: The HP Lovecraft Wiki 2014 [“Cthulhu,” at http://lovecraft.wikia.com/wiki/Cthulhu] The most detailed descriptions of Cthulhu in "The Tale of Cthulhu" are based on statues of the creature. One, constructed by an artist after a series of baleful dreams, is said to have "yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature [...] A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings."[6] Another, recovered by police from a raid on a murderous cult, "represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind."[7] When the creature finally appears, the story says that the "thing cannot be described," but it is called "the green, sticky spawn of the stars", with "flabby claws" and an "awful squid-head with writhing feelers." Johansen's phrase "a mountain walked or stumbled" gives a sense of the creature's scale[8] (this is corroborated by Wilcox's dreams, which "touched wildly on a gigantic thing 'miles high' which walked or lumbered about"). Cthulhu is depicted as having a worldwide...
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...But in contrast, Islamic world-view comprises religious values, cultural values, and universal values which can be accepted and respected universally and can visualize a consumer oriented marketing culture which can ensure a balanced synthesis of both the material and the spiritual dimensions of life which emphasize to maximize the welfare of the world and the world hereafter and can establish fraternity and socio economic justice. This descriptive study will attempt to provide a brief review of conventional marketing literature at the same time it will formulate and develop a definition of Islamic Marketing and its framework based on The Holy Quran, ×adÊth and Islamic Literature. Field of Research: Marketing Keywords: Islam, Falah, Marketing, Hikmah, Need, Mutual Consent, Tayyibat etc. 1. Introduction A proper historical account of ‗Marketing‘ began with early capitalism and sociological theories of the growth of consumerist culture. Although capitalistic society comprises three forms of capitalism—commercial capitalism, financial capitalism, and industrial capitalism the latest one is...
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...that when there are more people, there is going to be more criminal activity. While this is obviously true, it is not even coming close to touching on the big picture. There are many societal factors that can influence a person to commit crime, from the hardened street thug to the typical law-abiding citizen. As for what they are doing differently in other western industrialized nations that is resulting in less crime than the United States, it is very hard to come up with a concrete idea as to why. Regardless of the country, the recession (which may be an indicator of criminal behavior) is being felt globally. The mistrust and harsh feelings toward police is just as strong, if not stronger, in other western industrialized nations. The make-up of towns and cities are pretty similar. There are ghettos in every country. There are violent street gangs in every country. Rioting against authority is far more prevalent in other countries, namely England, and they have been known to get quite hostile and violent at times, with deaths occurring in extreme cases. Laws may vary, but the main ideas remain the same in other western industrialized nations. In fact, certain laws and rights afforded to police officers during investigation are actually more repressive than they are in the United States. As we have learned in class, harsh penalties are not a predictor of less crime. So why is the crime rate so high in the U.S.? Using the five main theories from the sociological school of...
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...justice within the individual and what makes a person ‘just’. By comparing his sense of what is just at a political level and what is just at a psychological level he suggests three virtues of the individual which will make that particular person just. The virtues of wisdom, courage and moderation are common to both a just and the fictional just city of Kallipolis. This artificial city has the pre-determined virtue of being just – he does this in order to understand what justice is for the individual because Plato thinks that ‘a just man won’t differ at all from a just city in respect to the form of justice; rather he’ll be like the city.’ (Republic 435b) In the just city Plato creates three classes: the producers, the guardians and the rulers. Each of these three classes has a certain virtue it has to display to fulfill the ‘just city’ pre-requisite that Plato has placed upon Kallipolis. The rulers are required to exhibit wisdom so that ‘a whole city established according to nature would be wise because of the smallest class and part in it, namely the governing or ruling one. And to this class, belongs a share of the knowledge that alone among all the other kinds of knowledge is to be called wisdom.’ (428e-429a) The wisdom enjoyed by the rulers would be used to ensure that the city has ‘good judgement and [be] really wise.’ (428d) The guardians (soldiers) of Kallipolis would be educated in order to absorb the laws in the finest possible way (430a) – ‘so that their belief about...
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