...SENSORY PERCEPTIONS PHILOSOPHY 21O: CRITICAL THINKING Instructor: Dr. Keith Langner Strayer University By Rayshawn J. 7/13/2013 Can we really trust our senses and the interpretation of sensory data to give us an accurate view of the world? It’s a topic that remains open for debate. In order to come up with an answer I will need to take a closer look into the accuracy and weaknesses of the human senses as they pertain to thinking in general and to my own thinking in particular. There are several reasons for believing in the accuracy of sensory information, which I will disclose with you. Also, I shall identify and describe at least three factors that contribute to the accuracy of sensory data. It will also be important to discuss the roles of nature and nurture in regards to the interpretation and evaluation of sensory data. Accomplishing all of this will offer a more definitive view about our human senses, and if our interpretation of sensory data really allows a true view of the world. One of the main reasons for believing in the accuracy of our sensory information is because of how powerful our senses are. “Our senses act like lenses, amplifiers, particle detectors, and pressure and heat gauges” (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007). Through our sense of sight, we have the ability to detect light as far as twenty miles away. We’re also able to distinguish a specific color out of millions of other colors. Our sense of smell is very acute as well. It’s...
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...Shakespeare creates an uncomfortable feeling to the story. Furthermore, he foreshadows the conflicts to come later in the plot. One of the conflicts is Iago becoming the archetypal evil villain who ruins Othello and Desdemona’s relationship. Iago manipulates Othello’s weakness his jealousy; Iago hates and does not respect women which is one of the main reason of his plan for revenge against Othello. Firstly, Iago knows how to observe people and uses human psychology to manipulate people’s minds. Iago manipulates Othello’s weaknesses which make Othello feels insecure. For example, after Cassio looks for help with Desdemona, Iago gets a golden chance to talk to Othello in private. Iago starts to plant the seed of jealousy in Othello concerning Desdemona and Cassio. Iago tells Othello to “beware …of jealousy” (III/III/l.195) which makes Othello nervous and start to suspect that Desdemona is cheating on him. Moreover, Iago warns Othello to “observe her well with Cassio.” (III/III/l.228) which causes Othello believes from the bottom of his heart that Desdemona is being unfaithful to him. Furthermore, he tricks Othello into believing that Desdemona is having a love affair with Cassio by putting Desdemona’s handkerchief in Cassio’s room, which makes his evil plan more powerful and reliable. In addition, Iago wants to achieve his ambition to be a lieutenant. He wants to do away with Cassio by betraying him. He stands by Othello's side, and...
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...A good scientist should possess the following qualities: 1. A scientist must be curious about the world Example: Galileo Galileo's curiosity about the heavenly bodies made him the first person to use a telescope to study the moon, the sun, the planets and the stars. 2. A scientist is logical and systematic Example: Among the reasons why Gregor Mendel discovered the principles of heredity when others have failed was his logical experimental methods and his careful and accurate record keeping. 3. A scientist is open-minded and free of bias Example: An open-minded person is one who can modify plans or discard hypotheses if necessary. One such person was Johannes Kepler who was hired to develop evidence that planets moved along perfect circles. 4. A scientist is intellectually honest Example: Isaac Newton built his laws of motion on the previous work of Galileo and others. 5. A scientist works hard and is persistent Example: Marie Curie was the first person ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize twice. It was not surprising considering how hard she worked. 6. A scientist does not jump to conclusions Example: John Dalton's atomic theory was backed by experimental evidence. He was not the first to propose that the atom was the smallest particle of matter, but he was the first to use experimental evidence to support his theory. 7. A scientist is a creative and critical thinker Example: Albert Einstein was able to derive his theory of relativity because he went beyond what...
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...and their relative strengths and weaknesses as these people are? Feedback I wish to stress my points in the following manner: Strengths This statement made by the author ‘…the Bible is a supernatural book’ leads me not just to agree that the Bible is a spiritual document, it is a book written by those ancient authors who were anointed and chosen by God to write. With this in mind, I would have the full confidence to say that that there is no error made in the text and that God’s truth is displayed truly in front of me. Thus, I believe that the Holy Spirit will guide me to interpret the text as accurately as possible. Weaknesses Would I have my own agenda when I do my interpretation? The author says : People interpret the Bible for a reason and with some agenda. I am an Asian and live in a modern situation; sometimes, I may argue and translate according to my own understanding and culture...
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...It seems absurd that someone would confess to a crime that they didn't do, and subject themselves to undeserved punishment, but it happens more often than it should. In fact, one out of four people who were exonerated with DNA evidence after a wrong conviction had given a false confession or incriminating statement that led to their arrest. There are many reasons as to why one may give a false confession; there needs to be reforms within the justice system to assure these confessions do not lead to false convictions. The issues revolving around false confessions have been explored in literature many times, even in literary works dating back to early nineteenth century Britain. In Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel Frankenstein, a secondary...
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...Zeus Asset Management Inc Executive Summary Zeus Asset Management Inc is an asset management firm with more than $1.7 billion in asset under management. Zeus is well known for relationship-oriented that served both individual and institutional investors with the investment philosophy of believing that they could get a superior return over the long run using a conservative, risk-averse and quality-oriented approach. Zeus have been measuring it’s return in an absolute basis however Abbott demanded for it to be in risk adjusted basis to be better determine if Zeus outperform the relevant indices. The main problem with the current measure is that it did not take risk into consideration. The main aim in this case study is to determine if the current performance evaluation is sufficient or a better risk adjusted measure could be form. Other than that, we would also take into consideration of the difference between Zeus with its main competitors and how different type of investors would have different investment strategy due to their different risk preference. Problem with current measure As the current fund performance measurement consist mainly of holding period and benchmark return, these return have weaknesses that does not allow it to be a sufficient measurement. As a HPR generally calculated based on determining what the total return is earned from holding the investment for a specific period of time. The advantage of it is that it is easy to calculate and understand by...
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...commitments of the investigator. Planning for and controlling the events surrounding both interviews and interrogations are important but are generally viewed as more critical to the success of an interrogation. The success of the interviewer or interrogator and of the interview or interrogation is often determined by the time and dedication committed to preparing for the conversation. The interviewer must become familiar with the facts of the case under investigation and with the victim. The interrogator must learn as much as possible about the offense, the victim(s) and the suspect through the process of collecting, assessing, and analyzing data and theorizing about the motivations and thought processes of the suspect. These are some reasons that planning for an interview or interrogation are important and in many ways similar. In planning for an interview or interrogation, one must determine what questions will be asked to ensure they are good questions that will lead the interviewer or interrogator to the conclusions they are trying to reach. There are some instances where only moderate planning or preparation is necessary for an interview while extensive planning and preparation is needed to conduct an interrogation. The most common type of interview is an on-the-scene interview where extensive planning is not always a possibility. An examples of this is on-the-scene interviews such as routine traffic accidents. It is also important to determine where the interview or...
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...How Can We Know the Bible Is the Word of God? A Religion Profile from International Students, Inc. The Question Posed Christians claim the Bible is God’s Word. That means that they believe the Bible is a verbal revelation from God that makes it unique from every other book. But how can such a claim be verified? First, we would expect certain things to be true about a book from God. Such characteristics might also be true about humanly-authored books, but we would expect that, at the very least, they would be true about God’s book. Such characteristics would include the following: • It would claim to be God’s Word. • It would be historically accurate when it speaks on historical matters. • Its authors would be trustworthy. • It would be thematically unified and without contradictions. • We would have received accurate copies of the original manuscripts. Second, because God is unique, His book would bear characteristics that could be true of it alone. Such characteristics would distinguish God’s book from all other books in such a way that it could not be counterfeited. These characteristics would include the following: • It would make statements that would reveal knowledge about the way things work beyond the knowledge of its day. • It would make predictions about the future that could not be known through natural means. • The message would be unique. • The messengers would be confirmed by miracles. • The words would have a transforming power. Now let’s look at the characteristics...
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...The True Science in Politics Benjamin Bishin's subconstituency theory of representation is supported with the empirical evidence that Larry Bartels provides from his book, of which Bartels evaluates social equality and its relationship with the American government, to Bishin's observations. Ideas, such as hidden minority rule, activism, visibility's true impact on the average voter, and ideological and social groups, that Bishin describes are supported by Bartels' findings; these findings being senators responsiveness to income groups, citizen's knowledge, and voting actions and more. Bishin's book, Tyranny of the Minority, develops the Subconstituency theory of representation that counteracts the leading theory of representation, the Demand Model. Bishin's synopsis of his theory is, “...subconstituency politics merely articulates a phenomenon long described by politicians and observed by journalists...,” (Bishin 13). The phenomenon being that minority held opinion can triumph over a majority held public opinion. However, Bishin shows this phenomenon to hold a deeper dogma in that constituents, for the purpose of reelection, appeal to groups. Bartels' book, Unequal Democracy, attempts to answer a question by Robert Dahl of, “...who actually governs?” (Bartels 1). Bartels' book argues, with a statistical emphasis, that our classed based society is becoming more polarized and unequal by politicians and cyclically exacerbated by voter apathy and actions. These examples...
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...low threat of new entrants mainly due to high barriers of entry and economies of scale. For example, there are substantial capital requirements in construction of fixed facilities in strategic locations in order to distribute DVDs; there are also unrecoverable expenditures in up-front R&D and advertising costs, both of which are emphasized in order to differentiate service and build brand equity. There are also government policies to reinforce the barrier. For example, in addition to its red envelops, Netflix has patents to protect essential characteristics of its business model such as its “Max Out” and “Max Turns” approaches. This creates cost disadvantages through a greater learning curve for new entrants, especially when competing against algorithmic programs such as Netflix’s CineMatch, which becomes more effective at recommending movies as more subscribers provide feedback. Another governmental restriction is seen specifically with Amazon.com, whereby distribution channels are choked out in the US unless Amazon sacrifices its competitive advantage of avoiding sales tax. The second force of competition, the bargaining power of the supplier, is assessed as moderate to high. The movie studios and independent movie distributors provide the rights to distribute unique movie products, and can bargain for the prices as buyers want to diversify their movie library to satisfy consumer demand. In addition, studios have tried to integrate forward into the video rental industry though...
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...assumptions, which leads to the prejudgments of others. Whatever the case, prejudices can be formed against another person because of race, weight, gender, language, religion, or virtually any difference. Prejudices lead to discrimination and stereotypes. For example, Wrenee, a French-American, was a victim of racial prejudice as a child. As she grew up, she searched for a place where people would not prejudge her based on her racial background. She became a doctor in a town in Southern Alabama, where her physical appearance...
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...Do we have the right to choose whether a person lives or dies? Does it make it the right thing to do if a diagnosis of a fetal abnormality is introduced? These are choices that many couples face on a daily basis after getting their baby tested for deformities. In this paper, a woman’s struggle with the diagnosis of her baby having Down’s syndrome will be examined; both her option of abortion and exploring other possibilities besides abortion. Ethical Dilemma Susan is a woman of integrity. She has a successful career and decides to incorporate a family into her plan. After trying for several years, she finally gets pregnant. This is a life event which should be exciting for most women, but after testing hers came with news that her baby has Down’s syndrome. Knowing her desire to keep a healthy balance between work and family, the doctors urge Susan to get an abortion, but she is uncomfortable with the suggestion. Susan seeks out advice from Richard, a professor of evolutionary biology, who spent his career trying to minimize human suffering. When the final question came up, should Susan abort her baby, Richards’s response was yes. His defense was that human beings should increase happiness and decrease suffering. In Richard’s explanation, there will be lifelong suffering for both Susan, as the baby’s caretaker, and her child with Down’s syndrome. He believes it to be immoral and should not be allowed to take place. Richard emphasizes that it is ultimately Susan’s...
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...delusion of his wife and that man going against the school they work at by embezzling money. He was a danger to others by getting very angry and aggressive when he heard his wedding song because that was playing when he caught his wife cheating, or if he sees someone he loves get hurt. We learned in his first therapy session after being released that he was being defiant for not taking his medication because it made him feel worse about himself physically and mentally. When anything in life was seen negatively, Pat experienced significant distress and was unable to comprehend the reason to it. For example, after finishing a novel by Ernest Hemmingway that had a death at the end, he became enraged and threw the book out the window and woke up his parents in the middle of the night continuously talking about how upset he was. When Pat experienced his manic stage, he was unable to cope like someone without a mental illness. The moment he couldn’t find the video tape from his wedding, he began to panic and frantically looking all over the house while yelling in the middle of the night causing him to wake up his neighbors, and led to him accidentally hitting his mom in the face and getting into a fight with his dad afterwards. 2. Diagnosis and symptoms Diagnosis: Bipolar Disorder 1 Symptoms: He shows more than one week of abnormal symptoms from the time he called the police, telling them that his wife and the history teacher was plotting against him by embezzling money from the local...
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...Suicide Bombers What makes a suicide bomber? Is it religions upbringing with promises of paradise in reward for acts of martyrdom? Is it the parental support he or she receives for his convictions? Is it society with no means of fighting back against oppression and humiliation? (http://www.israelinsider.com/channels/security/articles/sec0049.htm). In this paper I will discuss the characteristics of a suicide bomber, their mission, as well as discuss suicide attacks. Suicide Bombers Suicide bombers are said to believe that God sends them on their missions, and by the time they are ready to be stopped with explosives, they had reached a hypnotic state. (http://www.israelinsider.com/channels/security/articles/sec0049.htm) As one can see, religion is a powerful factor. Though the Koran teaches against taking one's own life, the suicide bombers are seen as martyrs and are said to be living in the heavens. (http://www.cnn.com/2001/world/hanna.focus) However, it is stated that suicide is forbidden in Islam. However, fighting oppression is commendable, harming innocent bystanders, even in times of war, was forbidden by the prophet Muhammad. (www.israelinsider.com/channels/security/articles/sec0049.htm) Suicide bombers are very complex. They are never justified in their actions. According to Yediot Aharonot, this is the profile of a typical suicide bomber: 1. 97% of the suicide bombers have an academic education and an additional 28% have at least a high school ...
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...Cybercrime: The Real Deal Reginald McInnis SEC 402 Information Warfare and Homeland Security Strayer University Spring 2012 Instructor: Professor Scott McCrea In our society there are many different way of communication around the world. With the rapid usage of the Internet and the access of personal computers, we must be aware of the global threats that await the consumer and business it we are not prepared and educated. One of the fastest crime in the United States and all over the world is cybercrime. What is exactly cybercrime? According to the book Scene of the Cybercrime author Michael Cross defines it as a broad and generic term that refers to crimes committed using computers and the Internet, and can generally be defined as a subcategory of computer crime. It can be also said that cybercrime can lead to criminal offenses committed using the internet or another computer network as a tool of the crime (Cross, 2008). According to the Computer Security Institute's Computer Crime and Security Survey for 2007, 494 computer security professionals in the United States corporations, government agencies, universities, and financial medical institutions reported that computer fraud was the greatest source of financial losses, with losses resulting from virus attacks falling into second place for the first time in seven years. In addition to this, 29 percent of the organizations suffered a computer intrusion that they reported to law enforcement (www.gocsi...
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