Death is not the truth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Death is not the truth - Essay Example Tolstoy saw life as something that ought to be avoided, rather than sought or wished for. But a critical analysis of Tolstoy’s view on life shows that his view on life is flawed and untrue. Tolstoy’s view of life is false, first and foremost, on logical grounds. To lay bare the logical weaknesses of Tolstoy’s anti-life argument, it is necessary to first analyze his argument logically, and then point out its weaknesses. Tolstoy’s nihilistic attitude to life was informed by his experiences in life which made him to conclude that life is utterly meaningless. Tolstoy was brought up in a Christian Orthodoxy family and he was taught catechism, but later in life, he lost his faith and stopped going to church. Prior to developing this anti-life attitude, Tolstoy had attempted many things in life in an effort to become wealthy and famous. He had committed all sorts of evils to achieve this goal (Tolstoy, 18). Tolstoy, also, tried very hard to be perfect in whatever he did, so as to become a respected and a famous person. Eventually, Tolstoy’s efforts paid off and he achieved his objectives of becoming wealthy and famous; Tolstoy had stable family, his businesses were doing well, and he was a respected and a well known person. But despite these achievements, Tolstoy wasn’t a happy person; he became deeply distressed in life. At one point he contemplated committing suicide (Tolstoy, 29). Amidst this emotional torture, it dawned on Tolstoy that despite all his achievements in life, death was the inevitable eventuality awaiting him. Tolstoy realized that soon or later, he would die, decompose, and all his efforts and achievements in life would be all in vain. Tolstoy, therefore, conceived life as one big evil that ought to be avoided. He saw the whole of life as being useless since no matter how much we struggle to be successful, we will ultimately die and leave everything that we have worked for.Tolstoy’s argument of life as being meaningless can be logically expressed as follows: First premise, it is meaningless to live and eventually die Second Premise, in human life death is inevitable Conclusion, human life, is therefore, meaningless A critical and logical analysis of this argument shows that the argument is indeed valid, for the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises, but the argument is, however, unsound. While the second premise is true, that death is an inevitable eventuality to all human beings, the first premise, however, is false because the meaning of life doesn’t lie in whether or not human life is mortal or immortal. A critical analysis of this proposition that, it is meaningless to live and die, shows that Tolstoy is wrong in this claim. The main reason that Tolstoy would use to counter my thesis and to support his claim that it is meaningless to live and eventually die, is that after death, we will not be able to enjoy the fruits of our labour and all our fame and our k nowledge/learning in life will become of no more use to us. So on this basis, Tolstoy concludes that life is meaningless. Tolstoy was influenced to make this conclusion by the fact that, even while we are alive, despite our outstanding achievements in life, life is full of misery and, therefore, there is no point of living in perpetual struggle and misery, and eventually we die. Tolstoy, therefo

Examine consulting processes and techniques Assignment - 1

Examine consulting processes and techniques - Assignment Example Answering the above mentioned questions will help the management to step forward to the proper direction. Pilot project generally means a test or trial project which is undertaken prior to undertaking the main project. Thus, the failure of the pilot project provides the management a chance to make the necessary changes in the technique and in the processes of the project. In this regard, to respond to the above mentioned questions, there is a requirement of intense evaluation. The client had implemented SAP in his organizational operations related activities for the better integration and flexibility but instead of generating solutions to the identified problems, the client faced various issues. Firstly, the implementation failed because of the wrong approaches and investment of a lot of capital which had been largely wasted. Various consulting and managerial roles were not present in the client’s approach in the process of implement of the project successfully. These managerial and consulting roles include planning, organizing, staffing, directing, controlling, the leader, the liaison, the disseminator, the monitor, the entrepreneur, spokesperson and the disturbance handler. In this regard, various implementation strategies also were needed to be built such as location and pricing strategies (Wickham & Wickham, 2008). A consulting project aimed at creating specific outcome could be used to address and solve the problem in a much appropriate way. As the client wants to handle his departments such as financial performance management, supply chain management (SCM), manufacturing processes and sales thus job specific consulting project could be appropriate to provide attention in each single department. SAP ERP mainly delivers a comprehensive asset of business benefits that includes risk reduction, better financial management and corporate governance. As the firm was facing a problem related to the financial management

Confederates in the Attic Book Analysis Term Paper

Confederates in the Attic Book Analysis - Term Paper Example He recalls his efforts for research, some bitter-sweet memories, the threat of physical violence and camaraderie he experienced, all for the sake of writing a good book with accurate historical details. Recollection of the past events is not always sweet, even when the present states of affairs are sound. For an individual, for an institution, for a race, for a language group and for the Nation as a whole, the original questions will always remain as the original questions with slight modifications here and there! During his extensive travel, Horwitz realized how sharply the viewpoints of the people were divided, over the fundamental issues, though taking into consideration the provisions of the Constitution, every citizen of America, was granted equal rights and continues to enjoy them. Tony Horwitz points out how a small initiative, even if it well-intentioned, has the potentiality of ending up in major conflagration and the pet up feelings of different sections of the people have chances of snowballing into a conflagration. He (1999, p.6) cites the example, â€Å"the Walt Disney Company unveiled plans for a Civil War theme park beside the Manassas battlefield. This provoked howls of protest that Disney would vulgarize history and sully the nation’s â€Å"hallowed ground.†It seemed as though the black-and-white photographs I’d studied as a child has blurred together, forming a Rorschach blot in which Americans now saw all sorts of unresolved strife; over race, sovereignty, the sanctity of historic landscapes, and who should interpret the past.† His interactions with the actors (people) in the re-enacting circles revealed their mind-sets and thinking processes and some humorous situations. About his impression of a bloated corpse Horwitz writes, ''His belly swelled grotesquely, his hands curled, his cheeks puffed out, his mouth contorted in a rectus of pain and astonishment. It was a flawless counterfeit of the bloated corpses photo graphed at Antietam and Gettysburg that I'd so often stared at as a child.'' (p.7) What he wondered and took note off was the seriousness with which each actor acted, not with the sense of professional integrity alone, but to give vent to their feelings of personal loyalties and convictions. In the course of his trek, Horwitz comes across highly interesting personalities, which one cannot imagine even in the fictional dreams and it provides rare insights into the minds of the personalities. Besides such encounters and experiences are invaluable addition from the perspectives of sociology and human psychology. My impressions about the text: This is an invaluable book that provides insight into the working of the minds of common individuals as for the issues confronting the Nation today. By passing laws on equality and by securing the freedom of individuals through legislations, nothing tangible will be achieved. No legislation can change the color of the skin, and this is the issue, that boggles those who have concern for the welfare of the Nation, nay the ultimate good the humankind. The most dismaying trend Horwitz finds is the resurgence of anti-Federal hostility and racial separatism and I agree with the author one hundred percent about his genuine concern. This is a historical issue for which extraordinary efforts are needed at all levels like politics, economics, sociology and even religious and spiritual values of the Nation. The politicians of different parties have so far

Explore how a particular type of deviance is defined, conceptualised, Essay

Explore how a particular type of deviance is defined, conceptualised, interpreted, apprehended and evaluated in 1 or 2 different sports - Essay Example This implies certain transformations on the notions of pain and injury, and ultimately on the notion of deviance. This paper is an exploration on the said transformations as effected by factors such as the agonistic nature of society and the subjection of mixed martial arts to the disciplinary mechanisms of society. Pain and injury stemming from violent behavior in sport is often seen from a negative perspective, that is, physical violence and sport are often seen as exclusive from one another. Boxing is one such sport that has received criticisms for supposedly being unnecessarily violent (Poliakoff, 1987, pp 89-90). It might be argued of course that a degree of violence will always be present in sport because of its competitive nature. However, it can be argued still that the infliction of pain and injury to the opponent is behavior that borders on deviance, in the sense that society in general does not approve of harming one’s competitor, whether it be in business or other, just to promote oneself to a more advantageous position. An excessively violent or aggressive response to conflict is generally disapproved, and hence seen as somewhat deviant. More so in the sporting arena is aggression that inflicts physical and perhaps even mental pain or injury, perceived as disagreeable behavi or. Sport, as conceived in relation to the concepts of play and games, is a social activity that presumably promotes certain ideals. When the Olympic Games were revived in 1896 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, it was with the vision of instilling positive virtues in young men, such as camaraderie, sportsmanship, and excellence. To this day, the idea of Olympism, the view that sports is used to promote values that are held in high regard by society, appears to be dominant, albeit with evident difficulties itself. This is perhaps one of the reasons as well, why violent behavior in sport is often understood as

Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Education - Essay Example A child going to a wealthy, comparatively safe suburban school will receive an infinitely better education than one unlucky enough to be attending a poor inner-city school. The best and most experienced teachers tend to graduate towards the best schools, while inner city schools often have the most inexperienced educators. Together with the lack of resources and often poor teaching skills in low-income schools, there are also discipline problems. While violent incidents at suburban schools such as Columbine High School make headlines, there is a constant stream of violence occurring at many inner-city schools. The appearance of metal detectors, armed police officers patrolling the corridors and a general siege mentality is not conducive to a sound education. If a child is worried about her safety at school it is unlikely for her to learn very much. A cycle of poverty continues as many students in low-income school become parents and those children in turn continue with within the same system. In advanced Western countries, most notably the United States, adolescence is an ill-defined period between the freedoms of childhood and the responsibilities of adulthood. There is a slow development from dependency to independence, and from accepting the views of adults to establishing a personal point of view. (Lindsay, 1983). It must be noted that in the United States adolescence appears to be an invention of the last century. (Raphael, 1988) In most non-Western countries cultures use "puberty rites", which may be loosely termed initiation ceremonies, to formally mark and symbolize the transition from childhood to adulthood. But in Western countries, as they transformed from being agricultural based economies in which children had an important economic function within the family to industrial societies in which education far beyond puberty was necessary, the "adolescent" was born. Simply defined, an adolescent is a person who is going/has gone through puberty, but who has yet to take on the responsibilities of the adult world. An adolescent is, in the eyes of the world, a child trapped inside an adult's body. It is the contradiction between these two roles - adult and child - that has caused many scholars to characterize adolescence as a time of "storm and stress". The psychologist Erik Erikson, whose Childhood and Society (1950) has become something of a standard work on human development, identifies "Eight Stages of Development", of which 'Adolescence' is the sixth stage. Erikson argued that identity versus role confusion is the psychosocial crisis faced by the person at this time, and that the predominant social settings are peer groups and out-groups. The favorable outcome of this crisis and setting is that "the individual develops an ego identity - a coherent sense of self." (Erikson, 1950) This is a very useful model for the teacher to understand, as it covers the main problems and strengths of this age-group. Too much stress on the gloom of the former over the brightness of the latter leads many educators to see the pedagogy of this age-range as merely a matter of avoiding crisis rather than engendering positive development. During adolescence human beings are motivated strongly by the desire to initiate and maintain relationships on a group level. (Juvonen,

Book Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6

Book Review - Essay Example One such example is of Texas which is under the territory of United States of America. It is analyzed that around 3.8 million people living in Texas were below the poverty line specified by the government in 2006. And if the previous records are analyzed it can be said that the rate of poverty is going to increase further in the recent years. The book that this essay would analyze is Poverty and Discrimination by Kevin Lang an economist. Poverty and discrimination are two broad topics which are usually not portrayed correct and are not supported enough by the evidence given. However in the book Poverty and Discrimination by Kevin Lang he explains using the broad points on both poverty and discrimination. The books gives many researches and analysis which help the readers to understand what the topics of discrimination and poverty are to this world. He further examines the level of poverty prevailing in this world with the help of his methods and tells how these two subjects are being handled by different governments of this world. Poverty in this world is created by several reasons and in this book Kevin Lang puts out several of these reasons which cause poverty. The determinants of poverty particularly in the United States are emphasized with reference to the discrimination taking place in the States. He particularly points out discrimination amongst black taking place in the United States of America and how it cau ses poverty amongst the different races. He also provides an overview about labor market and how the labor market discriminates between these different races. Here he particularly points out at the education level that the black receive and the level which the whites receive. The vast difference in both these classes causes discrimination to occur. The book gives out policies which have been implemented all over the world regarding poverty and discrimination. And he further analyzes these policies in regard to

The Obstacles and Hardships while Building the Transcontinental Term Paper

The Obstacles and Hardships while Building the Transcontinental Railroad - Term Paper Example This railway line was referred to as Overland Route (Burger 126). The China immigrant, Celestials, constructed the Central Pacific line. They were perceived weak to work in this line, but they proved that they could work perfectly in the railroad construction. They were employed to work in the construction of the Central Pacific line. Most of the Chinese were miners, or worked in kitchens and did laundries in service industries; others were imported in large numbers from China. The Chinese laborers went on strike because the three dollars a day wage was too little compared to the work that was being done on the railway (Uschan 241). The Irish laborers and the veterans of the Confederate armies and Unions built the Union pacific line. Brigham Young who was the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Saints yearned that the railway to be completed so that it could promote immigration and promote the growth of population in Salt Lake City, Utah and Ogden. Brigham and the Union Pacific made a labor contact that saw the Mormons have the sole responsibility of building the Union Pacific rail in Utah. They were also allowed to blast and tunnel across the canyon in Weber River (Cooper). The construction work of the transcontinental railway was manually done using black powder, used as explosives, horses, wheelbarrows that were used to ferry materials for construction, shovels, axes and mules. The construction work involved operations like tunneling, building bridges, engineering, masonry, surveying, blacksmithing, track laying, telegraphing and cooking. After completing the work, some Chinese went back to China; others settled in Western nations and got occupations as laundrymen, miners and restaurateurs. The Chinese that opted to settle in the States got land and settled along the Pacific Coast and San Francisco Bay (Cooper). The transcontinental railroad was completed in