The Theme of Sense and Sensibility

Introduction The most outstanding quality derived from the novel, Sense and Sensibility, is the author’s deep penetrating character analysis. Jane Austen, the author, articulates all aspects of human characters in each chapter of the book – strengths, weaknesses, desires, and limitations.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on The Theme of Sense and Sensibility specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More She often makes larger points about society through the descriptions of her characters. The novel, as most evident in its title, also intends to show comparison between the major characters (who are sisters) personalities. Elinor, the eldest sister, underscores the sense and sensibility of the title, while her younger sister, Marianne, personifies the lack of sense and sensibility in her utter lack of emotional control. Through them, the author brings out the theme of sense and sensibility by differentiati ng their traits in their relation to the rest of the characters. This paper explores the theme of sense and sensibility, and the lack of it, in details and shows how each of the characters stands out in relation to the theme. The author uses sense and sensibility to navigate through the characters and bring out their main attributes. The Theme-Sense and Sensibility The theme of sense and sensibility comes out as the difference of character between the two sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Their personalities and interactions with their neighbors draw attention to the reader, as they differ immensely right from the onset of the story .In some instances, the author exposes them to similar situations intentionally; to show the reader how each of them would react and whether they would be sensible or let their emotions determine their decision making ability. Character Difference Austen uses Elinor to play the sensible role in the novel. Austen’s opinion of the rest of her characters nearly co-occurs with that of Elinor (Poplawski 17). She is socially responsible, self-disciplined, and reasonable. Moreover, she possesses understanding and the coolness of judgment, qualities that draw admiration from Edward Ferrars. By choosing, not to tell her sister the whole truth about Willoughby’s confession, Elinor exemplifies sense. At a tender age of nineteen, she is surprisingly mature for her age; she even offers counsel to her mother (Allbery Para.4) . She is concerned about her sister’s lack of sense and even suspects Willoughby’s intentions with her. She defends Colonel Brandon to her sister, Marianne, and Willoughby when they begin to prejudice and mock him. She is distressed when Willoughby remarks that the Colonel strikes him as boring and unremarkable, when to her, he is sensible and well informed. She points out that, â€Å"My protà ©gà ©, as you call him, is a sensible man; and sense will always have attractions for me† (Austen 50 ).Advertising Looking for critical writing on british literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More By this statement, she openly shows how much she values and admires sense. Moreover, Elinor appreciates Colonel Brandon’s nobility and reserve, qualities that Willoughby is not able to see due to his dislike for him. Willoughby openly shows his hatred towards the colonel by telling Elinor that, she cannot deny him the privilege of disliking him (Austen 51). This shows how Austen characterizes Willoughby as excessively sensible. Marianne on the contrary, is excessively emotional and openly pessimistic; she has neither sense nor sensibility. She is selfish, unrealistic, and emotionally weak. She even confesses to her mother that she does not see herself finding a man whom she can really love (Austen 4). Marianne confides to her mother that she does not understand why Edward has not come to visit them of late; she even, in her lack of sense, notes that she is sure that Edward is not well. Marianne’s own preference for Willoughby over the colonel and its disastrous consequences reveal how excessive sensibility and appearance could cloud a person’s judgment of human character. She shows her emotional weakness, which underscores her lack of sense and sensibility, when she cannot eat or sleep after Willoughby leaves (Morland 63). She is very disturbed and even falls ill when Willoughby chooses to marry another woman, actions that make her, and those around her, as miserable as possible. Therefore, through Marianne’s inability to use common sense when situations demand so, Austen manages to highlight the theme of lack of sense and sensibility in this masterpiece. Austen illustrates her view of the superiority of rationality, sensibility, and self-control over emotions. Though Marianne has fallen for John Willoughby, she grows to love the Colonel, a sensible man. Elinor refrains from judgi ng other characters based on appearances alone and constantly seems to be the one that has utmost reasoning and understanding in character judgment. The book serves to inform the reader the importance of getting to know a person before being prejudicial or judgmental. The fact that Elinor is portrayed as strong, does not necessarily mean that she did not have any feelings, but goes to show how much self control she had by not allowing them to get the best of her (Austen 54). The author shows her value for sense over sensibility by choosing to give Elinor the happy conclusion she deserves when she eventually marries Edward. On the other hand, Marianne whines throughout the story (even though she changes towards the end) to show how lack of sense and sensibility can affect an otherwise a reasonable person.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on The Theme of Sense and Sensibility specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Tone and Satire Austen has used satire in the book to capture the reader’s attention and provide a different form of humor. Her satiric voice and her understanding of human nature are evident, particularly when she comments on the role of Lady Middleton’s son. She sees him as a center of attention between the Dashwoods and the Middletons and brings him along so that, incase they run out of things to say, they would admire his beauty and enquire of his name and age, questions which his mother would answer for him. The tone in the novel is sad. The death of Mr. Dashwood’s sister leaves him distraught and forces him to invite Henry and his family to stay with him. Marianne ends up being heart broken by Willoughby’s marriage to Miss Sophia Grey, while Mrs. Ferrars decides to disinherit her eldest son, Edward, leaving him in serious financial difficulties (Morland 87). Miss Ferrars disowns her son for his intention to marry Lucy Steele whom she considers of low social and financial standing. Elinor learns that she has been misinformed and duped all along about Edward’s persuasions after Lucy Steele admits that she is betrothed to Edward. Elinor becomes extremely heart broken on the publication of Lucy’s engagement and becomes wounded when she mistakenly believes that Edward has wed. Conclusion In conclusion, Austen uses the story, Sense and Sensibility, to highlight the importance of the same virtues. Elinor’s good sense makes Marianne change her life and become reasonable. Marianne uses emotions and misplaced passions to make decisions and that is why she spends a long time complaining about everything around her. Austen, therefore, uses Marianne and Elinor to explore the theme of sense and sensibility and the lack of it thereof. She also uses satire to spice up the story even though she adopts a sad note by including death, hurt, and heartbreak in the story. As the story concludes, it is evident that, sense and s ensibility outweigh the lack of the same. Works Cited Allbery, Russ. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen book Review, 2010. Web.. https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-14-010649-9a.html Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. Sothampton: Penguin Books, 2003.Advertising Looking for critical writing on british literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Morland, Perkins. Reshaping the Sexes in Sense and Sensibility. Virginia: Union Press of Virginia, 1998. Poplawski, Paul. A Jane Austen Encyclopedia. Conneticut: Greenwood Press, 1998. This critical writing on The Theme of Sense and Sensibility was written and submitted by user River Talley to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Definition and Examples of Grawlixes in Comics

Definition and Examples of Grawlixes in Comics The term grawlix refers to the series of typographical symbols (such as #$%!) used in cartoons and comic strips to represent swear words. Plural: grawlixes.   Also known as jarns,  nittles, and obscenicons, grawlixes usually appear in maledicta balloons alongside the comic characters who are uttering the oaths. The term grawlix was introduced by American comic artist Mort Walker (creator of Beetle Bailey) in the article Lets Get Down to Grawlixes (1964) and revisited in his book The Lexicon of Comicana (1980). Examples and Observations Mort Walker It started out as a joke for the National Cartoonists Society magazine. I spoofed the tricks cartoonists use, like dust clouds when characters are running or lightbulbs over their heads when they get an idea. My son Brian thought I should expand the idea and make a book of it. I spent many hours at the museum going over old cartoons and recording their language. I created pseudoscientific names for each cartoon clichà ©, like the sweat marks cartoon characters radiate. I called them plewds, after the god of rain, Joe Pluvius. I considered it a humor book. When it came out, I looked for it in the humor section of a bookstore and finally found it in Art Instruction. I inquired and they said, Whats funny about it? I said, The names. They said, We didnt know what those things were called. I said, They werent called anything till I called them that. It was another case of satire falling flat. I gave up and am selling it now as an instruction book.–Mort Walkers Private Scrapbook. Andrews McMeel, 2000 Bill Schmalz The symbols that work best [for grawlixes]  are those that fill up space: , #, $, %, and .  Hyphens, plus signs, asterisks, and carets (^) leave too much white space within the body of the  grawlix  for it to look like a single word. Wiktionary recommends #$% as the standard grawlix. This uses the five beefiest symbols in the order they appear on an American keyboard. (If you curse with a British accent, try # £%.)... Because it represents words spoken in anger or excitement, the  grawlix  should always end with an exclamation mark,  even if its an interrogative grawlix:  #$%?! Finally, as a word of caution, you should reserve your use of grawlixes for emails to close friends. Grawlixes are highly inappropriate for professional writing.–The Architects Guide to Writing: For Design and Construction Professionals.  Images, 2014 Shirrel Rhoades Cartoonist Mort Drucker [sic] invented an entire lexicon to describe such symbols.Emanata are lines drawn around the head to indicate shock or surprise. Grawlixes are those typographical symbols that stand for profanities. Agitrons are wiggly lines around a character to indicate shaking. Plewds are sweat drops that convey worry. Squeans are tiny starbursts or circles that represent intoxication or dizziness. Solrads are lines that radiate from a light bulb or the sun to indicate luminosity. And so on. A language all its own.–Comic Books: How the Industry Works. Peter Lang, 2008 Alexander Humez, Nicholas Humez, and Rob Flynn ï » ¿Other symbols reveal the mental or physical state of a character, such as squeans (the centerless asterisk-like burst marks in the air around the head of a drunk), spurls (the corkscrew line above a character who is passing out), crottles (the crosses on the eyes of someone out cold), or plewds (the teardrop-shaped indicators of sweat and/or stress)these last classified by Mort Walker, creator of the long-running Beetle Bailey comic strip, as a subcategory of what he calls emanata, along with the waftarom (the doubled curved line emanating from savory food) and the solrads and indotherms (wavy lines indicating that the sun or other object is radiating heat... ).–Short Cuts: A Guide to Oaths, Ring Tones, Ransom Notes, Famous Last Words, Other Forms of Minimalist Communication. Oxford Univ. Press, 2010

Assignment 1; NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE NEWS Essay

Assignment 1; NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE NEWS - Essay Example sentially engages in describing the activities undertaken by varied volunteers who form and contribute to the Threatened Birds Network (TBN) which is a community based program of the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust and Birds Australia. Issue at hand is the efforts taken up across continental Australia to identify and conserve the various species of birds that are threatened with extinction due to various imprudent measures impinging on the eco-environment in which such birds thrived. The article however, identifies clearing of forest areas as the major cause for removing sheltering and nesting areas of several birds and thus driving them to the brink of extinction. The article identifies primarily land as the locational context of the issue. The issue, as far as the article is concerned, has the locale in rural Australia and in particular in the forest area-either cleared or facing clearing in or around such rural areas. However the article also identifies beach areas of Australia as the location peculiar to specific birds facing extinction. This implies that the focus of the article is birds found on land and facing extinction. Due to limited references to beach areas and birds found therein the article can also be considered as having the main emphasis of threatened birds in woodlands of rural hinterland of Australia. As already stated above the Australian government is the major actor playing an important role in resolving the issue through its National Heritage Trust and Birds Australia. Its instrumentality is the community based program Threatened Birds Network (TBN).From the tenor of the article it appears that the TBN involves the participation of both the professionals and community based volunteers .The former category are classed as regular recovery teams in the article. The volunteer category primarily comprises of private land owners or local land holders. Moreover the latter category has also been identified mostly as comprised of

My Developing Role as a Mental Health Nurse with my Schizophrenic Essay

My Developing Role as a Mental Health Nurse with my Schizophrenic Patient - Essay Example My client, Greg, had all of these in varying degrees at different times. According to Javitt & Coyle (2004), "Scientists have long viewed schizophrenia as arising out of a disturbance in which brain cells communicate using a signalling chemical, or neurotransmitter, called dopamine" Schizophrenia is fundamentally a physical disease of the brain like Alzheimer's. With schizophrenia, people experience a slow continuing deterioration as they get older, like Alzheimer's, but it is more commonly thought of as a neuro-developmental illness, present at birth, affecting neurological development, and becoming manifest in late adolescence (Javitt & Coyle, 2004). For many individuals, schizophrenia is a severe and enduring illness. While nurses need to understand the symptoms of the illness in order to provide specific care and treatment, it also is important to find out how people with schizophrenia embody the illness. Capturing this knowledge will help nurses to provide more appropriate care to these individuals. Assessment. Greg is the son of a wealthy businessman well-known in the community. He has two sisters but many half-brothers and half-sisters. The problem of Greg is that he is not on the legitimate side of the family. His mother happened to be the former housemaid of the Don. When Greg was young, he had heard all the stories about his father, but everything is hazy now. He had tasted of the good life that some fortune was able to bring just after the Don died. He now has no father but just his mother and two sisters who briefly had enjoyed all the money could bring. Still, their mother would take some trips to the wealthy side of the family and ask for help, but there is a time giving had to stop. While the first family was kind to them, the differences in not being legitimate made early marks in the mind of Greg and his sisters. But it was Greg who tried to work hard to be acceptable as the Don's son. Skinny and sickly as he was, he did everything worthy to be counted. He learned music, did much reading, engaged in philanthropic pursuits, and did some advanced schooling. Greg had worked his way to college and was able to have his name engraved in the school's board for having topped the national teacher's board exam for the year. One of his sisters found her own way through life by holding on to odd jobs, just as the mother did. The other sister became stricken with chronic lapses of schizophrenia much earlier than Greg, and clearly refused to make her own way through life. To her, she is the Don's daughter who needed never to work very hard. After taking his bachelor's degree, Greg had enrolled in a masters' program, then finally to a doctorate degree. There was no stopping with his climbing socially to improve himself. However, he was not able to finish this last degree. It was when he could not anymore stay sane with all the responsibilities. He was stricken hard with schizophrenia - one that came and went but never away. It seemed that he had it all the time, while trying to go to school. Meanwhile, her schizophrenic sister had died. Nursing Diagnosis. One critical fact of schizophrenia to realize is that it interferes with self

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Essay Example for Free

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Essay a. Round 1 = In this round I removed lichens from the ecosystems. This would have a huge effect on the ecosystem because they play a role in the creation of soil where plants obtain nutrients. If they are taken out it can affect trees and flowers which affect bees, because they depend on them. This also effect humans that depend on the bees for honey and the fruit that the bees help pollinate. b. Round 2 = In this round humans was removed. By removing humans there was a little effect on the ecosystem. We are the top of the food chain and, but our actions do more damage then good for the environment. c. Round 3 = In this round bees was removed. This is a huge problem in today’s environment and effects the pollination of plants. Because of the removal of bees it really affects the ability of plants to produce fruits, which allow humans food. d. Round 4 = In this round flowers was removed. This was an affects to the ecosystem because flowers deliver food for bees. Bees provide honey and pollinate plants. Because of the removal of flowers it eventually removes bees which effect humans and the food chain. 2. Provide one action we as humans engage in that leads to the extinction of each of these components. Action affecting Lichens = Humans affect lichens with air pollution, industrialization and the introduction of sulphur dioxide can kill lichens. (Air Quality and Lichens, 2014) Action affecting Trees = Humans cut down trees to use for lumber, and to expand. This deforestation is the largest way for humans to affect trees. Action affecting Flowers = The way humans are affecting the flowers is by over population and polluting the air with automobiles that can produce acid rain. Action affecting Bees = The actions that humans take to affect bees is by destroying habitats, 3. Provide three specific actions that humans can take to minimize our impact on the ecosystem and ensure the survival of lichens, trees, flowers, and bees. Action 1 = Humans can reduce the amount of pollution that produced by using more efficient automobiles and public transportation. Action 2 = Humans can reduce the amount of pollutants the produce by using more efficient automobiles and public transportation. Action 3 = The other action they can do to minimize the impact on the ecosystem is to recycle this will save the need to destroy habitats for more resources. Experiment 1: Diversity of Plants Table 2: Number of Each Plant Species Present in Pot 1 and Pot 2 Species Observed Number in Pot 1(sunlight) Number in Pot 2(shade) Zinnia 2 1 Marigold 2 2 Morning Glory 3 1 Cosmos 8 4 Ryegrass 3 2 Total Number of Species in Pot: 18 10 POST LAB QUESTIONS 1. Develop a hypothesis on which pot you believe will contain the highest biodiversity. Hypothesis = I believe that the plants that are in the sun will develop the highest biodiversity. 2. Based on the results of your experiment, would you reject or accept the hypothesis that you produced in question 1? Explain how you determined this. Accept/Reject = I accept my hypothesis because the flowers that I grew in the planter that I placed in the sun made the most flowers and different types. 3. If each pot was a sample you found in a group of wildflowers, would you determine based on the diversity of flowers that the ecosystem is healthy? Why or why not. Answer = I was so impressed with the amount of flowers that grew in both environments. In my determination based on the diversity of flowers that the ecosystem is healthy. There was actually a lot of plants in both of the environment but of course the ones in the sunlight had a healthier ecosystem. 4. How does biodiversity contribute to the overall health of an ecosystem? Provide specific examples and utilize at least one scholarly resource to back your answer. Answer = Biodiversity is very important to the health of an ecosystem. The greater species diversity is it ensures natural sustainability for all life forms. It provides natural services such as soil protection, water resources, pollution breakdown, food, medical resources, and future resources, according to Shah (2014). She states â€Å"Each species depends on the services provided by other species to ensure survival. It is a type of cooperation based on mutual survival and is often what a â€Å"balanced ecosystem† refers to†(2014). Crops are used to feed cattle, then the cattle waste nourishes the crops. Crops, as well as yielding grain also yield straw , the straw provides organic matter and fodder, crops are therefore food sources for humans and animals then the soil and organisms such as bacteria and algae serve as nitrogen fixers. Rodents, then aerate the soil and improve its water-holding capacity Spiders, centipedes and insects grind organic matter from the surface soil and leave behind enriched droppings. This large biodiversity is accentual to maintaining health crops and animals for the food supply.

Auditory Localization Essay -- Hearing Sound Perception Essays

Auditory Localization Auditory localization is the ability to recognize the location from which a sound is emanating (Goldstine, 2002). There are many practical reasons for studying auditory localization. For example, previous research states that visual cues are necessary in locating a particular sound (Culling, 2000). However, blind people do not have the luxury of sight to help them locate a sound. Therefore, the ability to locate sound based only on auditory ability is important. It is also important to study different auditory processes. For example, when studying a way for a blind person to maneuver through an environment, it is helpful to know that people can most accurately locate sounds that happen directly in front of them; sounds that are far off, to the side, or behind the head are the least likely to be properly located (Goldstein, 2002). Three coordinate systems are utilized when attempting to locate a specific sound. The azimuth coordinate determines if a sound is located to the left or the right of a listener. The elevation coordinate differentiates between sounds that are up or down relative to the listener. Finally, the distance coordinate determines how far away a sound is from the receiver (Goldstine, 2002). Different aspects of the coordinate systems are also essential to sound localization. For example, when identifying the azimuth in a sound, three acoustic cues are used: spectral cues, interaural time differences (ITD), and interaural level differences (ILD) (Lorenzi, Gatehouse, & Lever, 1999). When dealing with sound localizaton, spectral cues are teh distribution of frequencies reaching teh ear. Brungart and Durlach (1999) (as seen in Shinn-Cunning, Santarelli, & Kopco, 1999) believed that as the ... ...Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26 (6), 760-1769. Goldstein, E. (2002). Sensation and perception (Rev. ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Wadsworth-Thomsom Learning. Lorenzi, C., Gatehouse, S., & Lever, C. (1999). Sound localization in noise in hearing impaired listeners. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 105 (6), 3454-3463. Lorenzi, C., Gatehouse, S., & Lever, C. (1999). Sound localization in noise in normal hearing listeners. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 105 (3), 1810-1820. McDonald, J., Teder-Salejarvi, W, & Hillyard, S. (2000). Involuntary orienting to sound improves visual perception. Nature, 407, 906-907. Shinn-Cunningham, B., Santarelli, S., & Kopco, N. (1999). Tori of Confusion: Binaural localization cues for sources within reach of the listener. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107 (3), 1627-1636.

Metaphysics: Philosophy and Idealism Essay

Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy that focuses on the nature of reality, including abstract concepts such as being and knowing. The term literally means ‘beyond the physical. ’ It attempts to find unity across the domains of experience and thought. There are five broad philosophical schools of thought that apply to education today and these general frameworks provide the base from which the various educational philosophies are derived. Idealism is the view that ideas or thoughts make up fundamental reality. Idealism is a label which covers a number of philosophical positions with quite different implications and tendencies, including: 1. Objective idealism asserts that the reality of experiencing combines and transcends the reality of the object experienced and that of the mind of the observer. 2 Objective idealists accept common sense realism but reject naturalism. In other words, objective idealists accept the view that material objects exist but reject the concept that the mind and spiritual values have emerged from material things. * Proponents include Thomas Hill Green, Josiah Royce, and Benedetto Croce. 2. Subjective Idealism describes a relationship between experience and the world in which objects are no more than collections or â€Å"bundles† of sense data in the perceiver. 2 Subjective idealists assert both metaphysical and epistemological idealism while denying that material objects exist independently of human perception and thus are opposed to both realism and naturalism. * Proponents include Berkeley, the Bishop of Cloyne. 3. Transcendental idealism is a doctrine that maintains that the mind shapes the world we perceive into the form of space-and-time. 2 Transcendental idealists are strong skeptics of a mind-independent world, asserting epistemological and not metaphysical idealism. * Proponents include founder, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Schelling. 4. Absolute idealism is the view that in order for human reason to be able to know the world at all, there must be, in some sense, an identity of thought and being; otherwise, we would never have any means of access to the world, and we would have no certainty about any of our knowledge. 6 * Proponents include founder, G. W. F. Hegel. As well as several more minor variants or related concepts, including: 5. Epistemological Idealism asserts that minds perceive only their own ideas, and not external objects; therefore we cannot directly know things in themselves or things as they really are. The only thing we can ever have knowledge about is the world of phenomenal human experience which leaves no reason to suspect that reality mirrors our perceptions and thoughts. 6. Actual Idealism is a form of idealism that contrasted Transcendental Idealism and Absolute Idealism. This system saw thought as all-embracing, and claimed that no-one could actually leave their sphere of thinking, or exceed their own thought. 6 * Proponents include Giovanni Gentile. 7. Buddhist Idealism is the concept in that all existence is nothing but consciousness, and therefore there is nothing that lies outside of the mind. 8. Panpsychism holds that that all parts of matter involve mind or that the whole universe is an organism that possesses a mind. Therefore all objects of experience are also subjects. * Proponents include Gottfried Leibniz. 9. Practical Idealism is a political philosophy which holds it to be an ethical imperative to implement ideals of virtue or good. * Proponents include Mahatma Gandhi. Realism is the view that entities of a certain type have a reality that is completely ontologically independent of our conceptual schemes, linguistic practices, beliefs, etc. There are many different types and degrees of Realism, including: 1. Platonic Realism is the view that universals exist. A universal is a property of an object, which can exist in more than one place at the same time. * Proponents include founder Plato, who formed a solution to the problem of universals. 2. Moderate Realism is the view that there is no separate realm where universals exist, but that they are located in space and time wherever they happen to be manifest. * Conceptualism, initiated by Peter Abelard, is the doctrine that universals exist only within the mind and have no external or substantial reality. * Modern Conceptualism, as represented by Immanuel Kant, holds that universals have no connection with external things because they are exclusively produced by our a priori mental structures and functions. 7 * Proponents include Aristotle St. Thomas Aquinas, Jacques Maritain and Etienne Gilson. 3. Modal Realism is the view that possible worlds are just as real as the actual world we live in, and not just abstract possibilities. * Propounded by David Lewis. 4. Moral Realism is the meta-ethical view that there are objective moral values which are independent of our perception of them or our stance towards them. Therefore, moral judgments describe moral facts. 7 * Proponents include Plato and Immanuel Kant. There are many others disciplines which are related to Realism, including: 1. Transcendental Realism is the theory that implies individuals have a perfect understanding of the limitations of their own minds. 2. Organic Realism is the metaphysical philosophy in which subjective forms complement Plato’s Forms. The theory holds that change in not illusory or purely accidental to the substance, but rather the very cornerstone of reality or Being. * Propounded by Alfred North Whitehead. Ontology is traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, while being the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence, or reality, as well as their relations. Ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how these entities can be grouped and subdivided according to similarities and differences. G. W. F. Hegel Wikipedia. com Wikipedia. com Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher as well as a major figure in German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism. 19 Without eliminating either pole or reducing one to the other, he developed the concept that mind manifested itself in a set of contradictions and oppositions that it ultimately integrated and united. Hegel attempted to elaborate a comprehensive and systematic ontology from a logical starting point throughout his published writings, as well as in his lectures. In 1801 Hegel moved to Jena to join Schelling at the University of Jena, where Fichte had studied previously; although at that time, the prime of Jena idealism was over. In this same year, Hegel published his first philosophical work, The Difference between Fichte’s and Schelling’s System of Philosophy. He worked with Schelling closely and together they edited the Critical Journal of Philosophy. He wanted to develop a system of science in which he displayed in his writings. Phenomenology of Spirit was considered his project and one of his main works where he speaks of his thoughts on the evolution of consciousness from sense perception to absolute knowledge. He also believed that human cognition changes from one generation to the next; as well as the idea that our experiences are what make us who we are and we make our experiences ours. His thinking can be understood as a constructive development within the general tradition that includes Plato and Kant, as well as Plotinus and Gottfried Leibniz. A common trait that these thinkers share is that they regard freedom or self-determination both as real and as having important ontological implications, for soul or mind or divinity. His concern with Kantian topics such as morality and freedom, including their ontological implications, is omnipresent. He aimed to incorporate it within ‘true infinity’, ‘spirit’ and ‘ethical life’, rather than simply reject his dualism of freedom versus nature. He incorporated it in such as way he rendered Kantian’s duality as intelligible. He saw a relational unity as well as a metaphysical unity between Jesus and God the Father. Jesus is both divine and human, according to Hegel. He further attested that God not only died, but that a reversal had taken place, that is to say that God maintained himself in the process and the latter is only the death of death. He claimed God rose again to life and thus things are reversed. 19 Karl Marx Wikipedia. com Wikipedia. com Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, journalist, historian and revolutionary socialist. His ideas had a significant influence in the development of social science and the socialist movement. He wrote and published many works but the most important of all was the Communist Manifesto. Being born into a wealthy middle class family, he studied at the University of Bonn as well as the University of Berlin, where he became interested in the Young Hegelians philosophical ideas. After writing for a couple radical newspapers and being exiled to Brussels, he became a leading figure of the Communist League. Once he returned to Cologne, he founded his own newspaper. Even experiencing poverty, he continued writing and formulating his theories about the nature of society and how he believed that it could be improved. His theories about society, politics and economics are known as Marxism and these theories hold that all societies progress through a conflict between ownership class which controls production and a lower class which produces the labor for goods. His view of history, which came to be called historical materialism, certainly shows the influence of Hegel’s claim that one should view reality as well as history dialectically. However, Hegel had thought in idealist terms, putting ideas in the forefront, whereas Marx sought to rewrite dialectics in materialist terms, arguing for the primacy of matter over idea. Where Hegel saw the â€Å"spirit† as driving history, Marx saw this as an unnecessary mystification, obscuring the reality of humanity and its physical actions shaping the world. He wrote that Hegelianism stood the movement of reality on its head, and that one needed to set it upon its feet. 21 He believed that only large scale change in the economic system could bring about real change; he criticized utopian socialists by arguing that their favored small scale socialistic communities would be bound to marginalization and poverty. Engel’s book, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, led Marx to conceive the modern working class as the most progressive force for revolution. In opposition to traditional theology, he believed that human beings had created God in their own image and that worshipping God diverted human beings from enjoying their own human powers. He explains that religion is a response to alienation in material life and that it can’t be removed until human material life is set free, resulting in the deterioration of religion. Epistemology is branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and limitations of knowledge. It addresses mainly the following questions: * What is knowledge? * How is knowledge acquired? * To what extent is it possible for a given subject or entity to be known? 13 Rene Descartes Wikipedia. com Wikipedia. com Dubbed the ‘Father of Modern Philosophy’, Rene Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He is known for having made an important connection between geometry and algebra, thus allowing a solution for geometrical problems by way of algebraic equations. He is perhaps best known for the philosophical statement â€Å"Cogito ergo sum†, meaning I think, therefore I am. From 1604-1612 he attended Jesuit school, where he learned the standard scholastic, Aristotelian philosophy. In 1619 he embarked on his life’s work of rebuilding the whole universe because he believed everything he had learned was wrong. To do this he used what is known as his method of doubt. He meditated on various possible skeptical scenarios to help him doubt even things that seemed possibly true. First he considered that, when asleep and dreaming, everything seemed just as real and true as when he was awake. This led him to think that perhaps he is dreaming at that very moment, in which case he may not be really sitting in a chair but dreaming that he is sitting in a chair. Descartes, to make his doubting even more radical, considered the possibility that God is evil and has the aim of deceiving him as much as possible by placing fictitious sensory inputs directly into his conscious mind. This resulted in his famous statement: I think, therefore I am. His argument for the existence of God begins with the belief that ‘I have a concept of God, as perfect and infinite. This concept is clear and distinct; therefore an idea must have a cause-even an idea cannot appear from nowhere. A greater object can cause a lesser one but the reverse is impossible. Thus, my idea of God, which is supremely great, can only have been caused by just such a being. Thus God, as I conceive him, must exist. ’16 With his belief in the reliability of his senses restored, he was then able to acquire common-sense beliefs about material objects. He went on to build an elaborate system of mechanics, a theory of planetary motions, among many others. David Hume Oregon State. edu Oregon State. edu The most important philosopher ever to write in English and one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment was David Hume. He was also well-known in his own time as a philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist. Among the interesting features of Hume’s empiricist philosophy are a revolutionary view of causality, the problem of induction, and the distinction between fact and value. Hume advocates various forms of moderate or mitigated skepticism. He was a relentless critic of metaphysics and religion. 10 Hume was born in Edinburgh on April 26, 1711 and spent his childhood at Ninewells, the family’s modest estate near Berwickshire. His family thought he was suited for a career in the law, but he preferred reading classical authors and pursuing the goal of becoming a scholar and philosopher. He followed a rigorous program of reading and reflection for three years while pursuing this goal. Hume’s Problem of Causation has remained unsolved for two-hundred fifty years and this uncertainty has greatly prejudiced our belief in the possibility of metaphysics and the certainty of science, and has ultimately led to postmodernism. Hume explains that until we know what exists and the ‘necessary connections’ between these things that exist, it is impossible for humanity to have certainty of knowledge. This in return leads to the Problem of Induction, for if we do not know the a priori cause of events then we have no principles from which to logically deduce our conclusions. Then we are simply left observing that one event follows another and somehow they seem connected, yet we don’t know why or how; therefore we must depend upon induction to determine the laws of nature. This problem of induction can be demonstrated using his simple example of dropping a stone such that when I let go of the stone it falls to earth. And despite the amount of times this experiment is repeated does this inductively infer that the stone must fall the next time I let it go. He argued that it doesn’t, that it is simply a habit of thinking that it does and that it is quite possible that at some point in the future the stone will not fall. Hume stated, ‘The supposition that the future resembles the past, is not founded on arguments of any kind, but is derived entirely from habit. ’11 He believed that a priori ideas did not exist and that they are not innate but derived from experience of perceptions. He believed these perceptions could be divided into impressions and ideas. He believed that humans learned through impressions and if there are no impressions then there is no idea. He also believed that every person’s perceptions were his alone and different from other peoples. 17 For the argument for the existence of God, Hume began by laying down the principle that we can ascribe capacities to a God only if they are evident in the world. He believed humans have no reason to infer an almighty God from the world because the world is manifestly finite and imperfect and any argument from such is unwarranted. He claimed that the hypothesis of a God is useless; that there is no practical gain in positing such a being. 1. Oregon State. â€Å"Section III – Philosophical Perspectives in Education† Web. October 16, 2012. 2. Wikipedia. â€Å"Idealism† October 13, 2012. Web. October 16, 2012. 3. Wikipedia. â€Å"Objective Idealism† May 5, 2012. Web. October 16, 2012. 4. Wikipedia. â€Å"Transcendental Idealism† September 30, 2012. Web. October 16, 2012. 5. Wikipedia. â€Å"Neo-Platonism† October 6, 2012. Web. October 16, 2012. 6. The Basics of Philosophy. â€Å"Idealism† Web. October 16, 2012. 7. The Basics of Philosophy. â€Å"Realism† Web. October 16, 2012. 8. Wikipedia. â€Å"David Hume† October 12, 2012. Web. October 16, 2012. 9. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. â€Å"David Hume† May 15, 2009. Web. October 16, 2012. 10. Oregon State. â€Å"David Hume† Web. October 16, 2012. 11. On Truth & Reality. â€Å"Meta-physics: David Hume† Web. October 16, 2012. 12. Wikipedia. â€Å"Ontology† October 29, 2012. Web. October 30, 2012. 13. Wikipedia. â€Å"Epistemology† October 30, 2012. Web. October 30, 2012.