How Free is the will of the individual within Society Research Paper

How Free is the will of the individual within Society - Research Paper Example At the beginning, she did not comprehend what was happening; however, she now understands all the gifts and outings were crucial in the grooming process. Mallet now 20, filed a civil suit in U.S. District Court claiming the school authorities failed to ensure that she was safe from the predator; thus, the suit was as a result of her ordeal with the assistant principal. Her lawsuit alleges that school officials and teachers understood or were ware about the abuse but did nothing to end it or keep her safe. Mallett consents that she kept quiet because she was afraid no person would believe her; besides, she wanted to reveal her ordeal but did not know whom she would trust; thus, she felt trapped. However, she managed to overcome her fear and embraced the philosophy that promotes embracing what is correct even if it means standing alone; therefore, her past hugely influenced her will to reveal the secret and consequently the lawsuit she filed. She eventually revealed the secret to the s chool chaplain who in return informed the authorities. All through the affair, she considered it wrong; however, the assistant principal would defend the affair by saying that he loved her and she trusted him. She got into this trusting relationship since the predator was good at comprehending what worked for the victim; thus, it was difficult for the victim to see clearly the big picture when sex began. Choice could be free will or determined and has implications on moral conscientiousness Stace argued that free will indicates the absence immediate causal agents like being forced at gunpoint. Therefore, this soft determinism viewpoint never denies internalization of past experiences cognition and emotions that consequently form the basis for a choice. Mallet makes the choice of revealing the secret to the school chaplain through her experience, cognition and morality, as it is certain that â€Å"without free will there would be no morality† (Stace 924) since morality regards what individuals ought to or not do. However, if a person lacks the freedom of choice, it would be meaningless to correct the individual’s act in addition there would a big challenge to punish the individual for what he or she could not help doing. Stace greatly opposes â€Å"hard determinism† pointing out that if free will did not exist, attaining high levels of morality would be impossible. For instance, if an action taken by an individual does not make the individual morally responsible then, encouraging people to embrace moral choices would also be outside the picture. Stace goes a long way to illustrate free acts and unfree acts; for instance, free choices are not compelled by circumstances external to the individual; however, unfree acts are compelled by external forces (928). An example of a free act is an individual starving himself in protest and in this case, Mallet decides to get over her fear and let the secret out despite the way the society may perceive her. Morality drove her to this choice therefore the scenario shows a compatibility take of free will and determinism. Stace state that soft determinism is the absence of coercive external agents that enables an individual to take a certain action freely. Therefore, from this viewpoint, a person’s behavior may be a result of internal psychological states that have causes but the absence of immediate pressing agents that influence behavior ensures that the individual makes a free will (Stace 929). Mallett’

CSR & Ethical Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

CSR & Ethical Practice - Essay Example One advantage of business ethics is that it helps an organisation to achieve competitive advantage (Shaw, Barry, & Panagiotou, 2010). A company that engages in ethically sound business practices improves customer loyalty and trust. In this case, the consumers become loyal to the brand even if the company is facing difficult financial times. Therefore, companies will always set their ethical standards depending on organizational values. In the long run, consumer confidence increases with ethical responsibility. According to Carroll (2013), the underlying assumption is that business ethics benefits the society since it is the main basis for social responsibility among organisations. On the other hand, business ethics leads to more accountability and integrity in the organisation. The implication is that sound business ethics obligate company employees to become more responsible in certain operations like financial reporting (Choi, & Pae, 2011). Another remarkable strength of business ethics is that it makes organisations realise that their success is more than profitability (Carroll, 2013). Some of the models of business reporting like the triple bottom line approach came up as a result of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. In this case, companies focus their reporting on people, planet, and profit (Slaper, & Hall, 2011). Therefore, ethically companies have the obligation to report their financial performance, environmental as well as social performance. The triple bottom line approach recommends that company survival depends on their ability to make profits, encourage sustainable and ethical business conducts (Henriques, & Richardson, 2013). The underlying assumption is that business ethics is a prerequisite for sustaining an investment. Consumers have confidence on the company that protect environment and contribute to the well-being of the society (Choi, & Pae, 2011). On the contrary, business ethics has a negative effect

Le Corbusiers Villa Savoye: Five Points of New Architecture

Le Corbusiers Villa Savoye: Five Points of New Architecture During the 1920s, Le Corbusier was developing his Five Points of New Architecture. The domestic building I am focusing on is Villa Savoye which exemplifies these five points. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3c/VillaSavoye.jpg He believed that these architectural rules should be applied to the design of all domestic buildings. I will relate the architectural innovations of Le Corbusiers Villa Savoye to the ideas of De Stijl Bauhaus. Le Corbusier was a Swiss Architect and a member of the French Avante Garde movement who worked mainly in France. His work from the 1920s and 30s established a language of architecture that has been copied by architects ever since. In his work he explored new industrial materials such as concrete, steel and glass. He was influenced by Auguste Perrets development as well as architectural use of reinforced concrete and worked for him between 1908 and 1909 that was where he learnt the principles of reinforced concrete construction. Other aspects of Le Corbusiers work consisted of town planning and social housing. His architecture reflected the clean cut aesthetic of the machine age which he lived in. As well as this, he was also concerned with the needs and potential of industrial society and with the harmonization of architecture with nature. His architecture in the 20s and 30s established a vocabulary of design which would be much imitated. The Villa Savoye is a private weekend home built in the 1928 (completed in 1931) for the Savoye family located on the summit of a small hill surrounded by trees just outside Paris. It is a building of complex geometry and undecorated white surfaces, which exemplifies the international style as well as Le Corbusiers ideas of purism. It is one of the most recognizable architectural presentations of the modernist movement, which began in the 1880s but came to flourish in the early 20th century. The exterior of the building is of a simple box shaped composition raised on stilts (pilotis). This is so that all of the main rooms are on the first floor allowing a roof terrace above these floors to provide views of the landscape. It is conceived almost like a 1:1 model with no front or back. Beneath the Pilotis is a curved wall allowing cars to drive right up to the building which signifies the influences from the machine age, On three sides the ground floor almost disappears, but on the entrance side, the arrival and departure of cars is celebrated in a T-shape which is an effective sign of welcome. (Benton, 1987:196). http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/france/poissy/savoye/0126.jpg He saw the fore coming importance of the car and this led to design of the free faà §ade: the structure is set back from the faà §ade which becomes simply a light membrane of insulating wall or window freely disposed according to the demands of the interior. Inside there is a masterly handling of natural light through the use of ribbon windows. Natural light played an important role in the development of the Villa, Le Corbusier deployed the four sides of the house in response to the view and the orientation of the sun. The salle faced North West occupying the whole faà §ade. The terrace faced the sun with a sheltered portion at the south east end. (Benton, 1987:195). The free plan of the building frees both walls and windows which can admit daylight into continuous bands without structural obstructions. Interior space flows into exterior: the terrace is on two levels and on one side of the faà §ade the ribbon windows are replaced by unglazed frames that look into the open terrace area. In order to move around the building, a ramp ascending from the ground floor was placed in the structure, as Le Corbusier believed that while a staircase separates one level from another, a ramp links them together. The ramp and floor planes interact with the spiral staircases and curved wall at ground level. Although the structure is rather boxy in appearance, energy and movement is suggested by the handrails and edgings which lead the visitor on. Le Corbusier called this an architectural promenade: this is a flow of space where one room leads through to another creating a sense of continuity, further facilitated through the use of the ramp. Natural light is used to draw the occupant up the ramp and onto the roof garden. This is one of Le Corbusiers five points which is created through the use of a flat reinforced concrete slab. The terrace featured a solarium; the wall of the solarium has a window cut in the middle of it which frames the outside view. Le Corbusier wanted to harmonize the building and its landscape. The idea was to unite the building and its surrounding landscape and make greenery a vital part of the architecture language. Seen from the outside it looks more like the funnel of an ocean liner. (Chami, 2007). The influences for this building are grounded in the modernist movement with Adolf Loos beliefs as foundations for the movement. In his book Ornament and Crime he explained his ideas on the use of ornamentation and the immorality that ties with it. He called for simple, pure, geometrical and unadorned design which stays true to the materials and finish of the structures built (notions of Brutalism). Le Corbusier designed the fixtures such as door handles and built in furniture. Painted interior walls added colour, as did elements like the blue tiled chaise longue that separates the main bedroom from its bathroom. Despite the formal beauty of the Villa Savoye, its flat roof construction was not well suited to the climate and leaked badly. The owners were displeased and soon abandoned it. The French Avante Garde consisted of the three architects Le Corbusier, Auguste Perret and Tony Garnier all of which contributed to the development of modernist architecture. Perret was one of the main figures of the development and architectural use of reinforced or ferro concrete, a material which transformed the language of architecture in the works of Le Corbusier as seen in the Villa Savoye. Due to its tensile strength it enabled architects to build strong structures without the need for load bearing walls, it allowed for architectural flexibility which Le Corbusier took full advantage of as seen in the free flowing faà §ade. The De Stijl and Bauhaus movements in Holland and Germany were both important for the development of the modernist style, rejecting ornaments and historical references and were in favor of clean pure light filled rectilinear architecture which included interior spaces constructed with new industrial materials, all of these aspects are featured in Le Corbusiers designs and in particular the Villa Savoye. A key example of De Stijl architecture is the Schroder house by Gerrit Rietveld. Similar to the Villa Savoye, it featured a flat concrete slab roof, a dynamic rectilinear faà §ade and a free flowing interior which was sectioned off with screens. Much like in De Stijl style paintings, its architecture is reminiscent of painted abstract environment, in which pure colour, free of all figurative associations, was merged with modern architecture to form an encompassing, total work of art. (Troy 1983:3). The Bauhaus building was designed by Walter Gropius and was the base for the Bauhaus school of Art Design. The building exemplified Gropius mastery in building with steel and glass to produce light filled functional structures: The clarity of the design idea finds expression above all in the large area of glass frontage (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) The clear, practical arrangement of the windows and balconies gives the building its own special appearance. (Fiedler Feierbend, 2006:195).   Much like Le Corbusier, Gropius built with practicality and rationality in mind. His commitment to the machine age in which he was working was summed up in his belief that new times demand their own expression. However there was much deliberation on the origins of the design concept for the Bauhaus building: The accusation of formalism was also heard, and there were malicious references to a design concept virtually borrowed from Le Corbusier. (Fiedler Feierbend, 2006:198). This can best be seen through aerial photographs of the Bauhaus building where the interlinking of various functional areas can be easily seen. This particular aspect is what Le Corbusier named the Architectural Promenade, a continuity of space. The Villa Savoye is a key structure which exemplified the International Style. Its features were imitated by several architects in different styles. It is easy see the similarities in the buildings of the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements, features like a flat concrete slab roof, interlinking spaces and rectilinear faà §ade appear in all styles but are most strongly represented in the Villa Savoye. The use of white on walls is another significant aspect of the modernist style also seen in a range of different examples from this period of time. The Villa is full of rich ideas which have and will continue to be imitated in the future. It might now stand as an artifact or museum, but it will still inspire Architects worldwide and will continue to do so in the future.

Midevial Cooking :: essays research papers fc

Cooking in the medieval times was performed on very big scale, and food was cheap and plentiful. Foreign goods had to be bought at the nearest large town. Food trade was a primary business. It was also a way of determining class. The nobles would eat meat, white bread, pastries, and drink wine. This sort of diet caused many health problems, such as skin troubles, digestive disorders, infections from decomposed proteins, scurvy, and tooth decay. A peasant would eat porridge, turnips, dark bread, and in the north they would drink beer or ale. Women were the expert cooks, and they seasoned their food heavily with pepper, cloves, garlic, cinnamon, vinegar, and wine. They paid close attention to the appearance of their meal. For instance, they might spread the feathers of a peacock that they are serving. Also, if a the eggs of a batter didn’t make it yellow enough, they would add saffron (saffron is orange of yellow powder obtained from the stigmas of the saffron flower). Meat was expensive, so it was considered a luxury. This made butchers prosperous. The most common and least expensive was sheep. They would also eat birds: gulls, herons, storks, swans, cranes, cormorants, and vultures, just to name a few. Animals were cut up immediately after killing and salted to be preserved. Most meat was boiled because it the animals were wild, and the meat was sure to be tough. Also, almonds were often cooked with the meat for flavor. Fish was also popular. Part of this was because the church required that you eat fish on Fridays. Fish was often cooked in ale. People spent more on bread and grain then anything else, even though England had a national bread tax, which fixed the price of bread. Pastries were expensive because sugar was an import. Because medical opinion advised that fruit shouldn’t be eaten raw, it was preserved in honey and cooked into pastries. Almonds were often cooked into pastries as well. Fruit was more wild back then than it is today, so it may have been more flavorful. Most people grew their own vegetables. Also, many people owned their own cow and made cheese with its milk. They would sell most of the cheese at the local market. Only gentleman had wine, which was often diluted with water or mixed with honey, ginger, or cinnamon to sweeten it. The only hot drink that they had in those days was mulled wine, and that was served only at festivities.

Governmental and Non Profit Essay

1. Certain core services are provided by most general purpose governments – those related to the protection of life and property, public works, parks and recreation facilities, and cultural and social services. Governments must also incur costs for general administrative support of its service departments. Core governmental services, together with general administrative support, comprise the major part of what GASB refers to as governmental activities. The measurement focus and basis of accounting for these activities is on the flow of current financial resources on the modified accrual basis in the governmental funds and on the flow of economic resources on the accrual basis in the Governmental Activities column of the government-wide financial statements. 2. The business-type activities of a government include public utilities, transportation systems, toll road and bridges, hospitals, parking garages and lots, liquor stores, golf courses, airports, and swimming pools, among other activities. Many of thses activities are intended to be self-supporting by charging users for the services they receive. Focusing financial reporting on economic resources recognized on the accrual basis of accounting allows the government to determine whether charges for services are sufficient to cover the full cost of the activity. This measurement focus and basis of accounting allows the government to determine whether charges for services are sufficient to cover the full cost of the activity. This measurement focus and basis of accounting is the same used for reporting governmental activities in the government-wide financial statements, but quite different from the current financial resources measurement focus and modified accrual basis of accounting use d in the governmental funds. 3. Fiduciary activities of a government involve the government’s discharge of its fiduciary responsibilities, either as an agent or trustee, for parties outside the government. For example, a government may serve as agent for other governments in the administering and collecting of taxes. Fiduciary activities are accounted for in agency funds, investment trust funds, pension trust funds, and private-purpose trust funds. Fiduciary activities are reported only in the fund financial statements and not in the government-wide financial statements because these resources belong to external parties, not the government. Fiduciary funds use accrual accounting and focus on economic resources, as do business-type activities. However, reporting for fiduciary activities differs from that for governmental funds since the latter funds focus primarily on the budget and current financial resources. 4. The three categories of funds are governmental, proprietary, and fiduciary. The fund types included in each category are the following: Governmental (general fund, special revenue funds, debt service funds, capital projects funds, and permanent funds), Proprietary (enterprise funds and internal service funds) and Fiduciary (agency funds, investment trust funds, pension trust funds, and private-purpose trust funds.) These categories correspond the three activity categories with the exception that financial information for internal service funds is generally reported in the governmental activities column of the government-wide financial statements. However, if an internal service fund predominantly serves an enterprise fund, its financial information is reported in the Business-type Activities column. 5. As a fiscal entity, a fund has its own resources and can incur liabilities to be repair from the fund resources. As an accounting entity, the fund has its own self-balancing set of accounts. 6. Governmental funds focus on the flow of current financial resources. Consequently, these funds use the modified accrual basis of accounting. Under modified accrual revenues are recognized if the inflow is measurable and available to pay current period obligations. Expenditures are recognized as incurred if they will be paid from available resources.

Project Life cycle

Project management plays an important role in achieving a successful project as it manage the project according the schedule and budget. According to Schwalbe (201 1), project life cycle defined as a collection of project phases, development, implementation and close-out. There are five important steps in developing project life cycle namely defining project goal, planning project, executing project, closing project and lastly, evaluating the project (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix). Firstly, project manager define the project goal.Project goal is the first step as it set the objectives and purposes of the project. The goal focus on provide business value to the organisation. The goal should give a clear focus and drives the other phases for the project team. Moreover, in this phase, project manager identify the business problem and define a solution regarding it. According to Westland (2006), business case includes a detailed description of the problem, the availability of alternativ es solutions, analysis of business benefits, costs, risks and issues, a preferred solution and an implementation's summarized plan.Then, a feasibility study is run to assess each alternative solution option and its benefits, also reasonable forecast cost, risks nd identified issues are discussed. After approval of previous task, term of references are created and established. It define the vision, objectives, scope, and deliverables of the project and identify any risks, issues, assumptions and constraints. Then the project team is decided. This task is important as a successful project rely on the project team.Project manager plays role by creates a detailed Job description and choose project team based on their skills and knowledge. From the project goal, a project can be determined its success based on given time, money and resources invested. After defining the project goal, project manager plan the project. Project planning is crucial as the performance throughout the project i s based on it. First, a project plan is created based on work breakdown structure (WBS). In WBS, the resources are allocated, provide detailed project scheduled and sequence the activities and tasks.After the project team has been decided, the team discuss the project based on things to do, how to make the project runs smoothly, cost assumption, type of resources need and time taken to complete the project. After that, deliverables, tasks resources, and time of completion of each tasks for each hase are defined. During planning phase, project team must agree upon the list of scope, schedule and budget. The team then create a resource plan to identify the labour, equipment, materials, software and hardware use in the project.To achieve a successful project, financial plan is important as it need to be within the budget given and enables the project manager measures the forecast spend of the project. At this point, potential risks and actions need to be taken in risk plan to avoid any error and solve a problem later in the next phase. Furthermore, the project must meet user requirements to gain user acceptance. To inform the stakeholders progress of the project, team member need to decide communication in communication plan and for each of the team member to distribute information.Lastly, a contract with suppliers is a need for having a clear idea of suppliers' role and delivery expectation. The third stage in developing project is to execute the project plan. During this stage, work out the project in accord to the gran ed t task and activities in earlier stage. According to Schwalbe (201 1), the output of project such as product or services are produced and presented to the customer for sign off and the xecution phase is typically the longest phase in the project as it consumes the most effort and most resources.A good project is aimed at achieving the project aims and need, on time and within budget. Thus, aspects such as scope, schedule, budget and resources are properly handled throughout the phase. In the interim of plan execution, the project manager need to carry out a range of management processes such as identified the change management, risks management and issues management, assured the deliverable quality and measuring all the deliverable produced against the listed criteria (Westland, 2006). Subsequently, established the comparison of the product and baseline plan in earlier stage.After that, document the information and handed the report to the project manager through the regular team meetings. With these steps finished, a phase review is undertaken where the reported information are analysed carefully by the project manager. This is a checkpoint to make sure the product and services has achieved the goals and customer need before proceeds to next stage. The fourth step in developing project is to close the project. This stage includes a formally documentation and implementation of a project close report. Before the project closure, project checking is carry out as an extra insured.Westland (2006) stated that the, project close out is include ensuring all the project completion criteria have met and identified any outstanding project activities, task, risks or issues. Next, present the products to the sponsor and obtains formally acknowledge of acceptance on the delivered product or services. Finally, the project checking is completed. Based on the report, the project manager need to create the project closure report which consist of specifically document on all undertaken activities and delivered to the clients for approval Schwalbe, 2011).Once, the activities stated in the report are approved, the granted activities are execute. The project closure report is ended only when all the propose activities are fully implemented. Finally, the project closure stage ended when the project manager hand over the project documentation to the business, cancelling all suppliers' contracts, releasing staff, equipme nt and resources, and lastly inform the closure of the project to all stakeholders and interested parties.In the final stage, the project is evaluated. After the project has been close, post-mortem is conducted to evaluate the overall project. The projects are evaluated in two categories: project team evaluation and project evaluation. The project team evaluation is performed by passing a team and peer evaluation form to the team member and each of them are required to Judge the other team member. The rate are based on the overall attitude and contribution of the member in the project.The evaluation result will be used as a revised is used as a revised of payroll. On the contrary, Schwalbe (2011) stated that the project is evaluated based on how well the product or services performed against the stated objectives and conformed to the management processes outlined in the lanning phase. Lastly, Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development (2005) suggested that a review of on the pr oject should be conduct to reflect the mistake and identify impact and lessons learnt for future projects.

Firearms in America essays

Firearms in America essays Firearms in America: An Invitation to Murder Every 2 years since 1988, more Americans are slayed due to gunshot on their own soil than the entire number of American casualties during the Vietnam War. The time has come that we realize the fact that firearms are unnecessary to civilians and should be forbidden. While many pro-gun activists allege that firearm issues need not be dealt with at this time, that everything is fine, they are gravely mistaken. With an estimated two hundred fifty million firearms currently circulating in America, attributed to over thirty-six million deaths per year, it is our obligation as citizens of humanity to put an end to the needless deaths, while we have the chance. These pro-gun activists, such as the NRA (National Rifle Association), are convinced the right to bear arms is inalienable and an important part of the American culture, and should not change. They will also argue that having many guns in a country acts as a deterrent to crime; having iron bars on a window and car alarms can be likened to guns, all being means of protection. In a last attempt to win their argument, one may plead that the simple fact is not that the firearm is bad, but rather the media, which glorifies and ennobilizes the use of firearms against each other. Controversely, any human being possessing a faith in the mental stability of our race would take time out to think and realize that these activists make sense only to the ill-minded. The Amendments to the United States Constitution were written in 1791, and the lifestyles of Americans have made day to night changes in the past two hundred years. In this day and age, when nearly all people live in urbanized areas, the chance of attack by an animal is nearly non-existent. Furthermore, prior to the day when guns became an everyday item, bank robberies did not exist. The minute guns were invented, murder became all the more easy, gi...