BeckerKevinE2Phil100F2014 Essay Example for Free

BeckerKevinE2Phil100F2014 Essay Empiricism, or the belief that knowledge is achieved through the senses, was a popular belief amongst some of the greatest modern philosophers. Perhaps the most prominent Empiricists were John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume, all of whom are regarded as some of the most influential philosophers of the last 500 years. Each of those philosophers can be considered Empiricists due to the importance of experience throughout their philosophical principles. More specifically, Lockes empirical views can be seen in his idea of the primary and secondary qualities of an object. Berkeleys empiricism is evident in his critique of Lockes concept of abstract ideas. Lastly, Hume can be considered as the most consistent empiricist of the group as he did not waver from experience being the source of knowledge and at the root of reasoning. His views are evident in his concept of humans having perceptions and impressions and his idea of â€Å"self†. John Lockes empirical views are evident throughout his philosophical principles. Locke believed that there were no such things as innate thoughts and that the only way a person could obtain  knowledge about something is through directly experiencing it. This is especially evident in his explanation of objects having primary and secondary qualities. Locke suggests that all things posses two qualities about them: primary qualities and secondary qualities. Primary qualities consist of traits that are completely within the object such as the shape of a ball. This primary quality about the ball will not change even when viewed from a different perspective because that is the physical structure of the ball. On the contrary, a secondary quality is a trait that requires perception by an observer. Secondary qualities are relative to the observer and change depending on the observers perspective or the physical differences between observers. For example, the color of the ball can change depending on the lighting in the room or due to an observer being color blind. In his 4th book of his Essay, Locke writes,â€Å"We cannot demonstrate the certain equality of any two degrees of whiteness; because we have no certain standard to measure them by, nor means to distinguish every the least real difference, the only help we have being from our senses, which in this point fail us. † (Locke, Book 4, Chp 2, #13). In other words, he is saying that the secondary quality of the color white cannot be scientifically quantified because each individuals perception of the color is different which prevents us from being able to determine the true â€Å"whiteness† of the given object. Locke makes this distinction between primary and secondary qualities in a response to the idea of innate thoughts, or thoughts that are naturally ingrained in our minds without having to experience them. Further, Locke is suggesting that innate thoughts are simply  common experiences. Locke also believed that the primary qualities of an object were things that could quantified and measured by the Newtonian science of the time. Lastly, Lockes concept of primary and secondary qualities indicates that he is an Empiricist because they show that he believes that we need past experiences in order to have an idea about different objects. Without experiencing the color red previously, we wouldnt have an idea of how red a ball is. George Berkeleys philosophical methodologies and principles reflect empiricist ideas as well. This is evident in his critique of John Lockes concept of abstract ideas. According to Locke, we can come up with an abstract view of, say a cat, by taking our experiences of many different cats and extracting from them common properties that all cats have. This abstract idea therefore applies to all cats despite their size, breed, or coat color. Berkeley argued that these abstract ideas cannot be thought about in our mind without creating an image of a particular cat in our minds. One cannot imagine a cat that is neither big or little, of no specific breed, or colorless. Berkeley addresses this idea in his book A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, saying, â€Å"Whether others have this wonderful faculty of ABSTRACTING THEIR IDEAS, they best can tell: for myself, I find indeed I have a faculty of imagining, or representing to myself, the ideas of those particular things I have perceived. † (Berkeley, 10). In other words, Berkeley is saying that unlike others who claim to be able to come up with abstract ideas, he is only capable of imagining these â€Å"abstract ideas† with previous particulars that he already experienced at some point. The author of our textbook, William Lawhead summarized Berkeleys critique quite nicely, saying â€Å"We can think of, speak about, and imagine only particular things. † (pg 322). Furthermore, George Berkeleys critique of abstract ideas reflects his empiricist views because they show how important experience is to his concept of ideas. To Berkeley, one cannot come up with abstract ideas because we always draw on previous experiences to give us an idea of what were thinking about. This is a more strict version of Empiricism compared to Lockes. David Humes concept of perceptions are simply the contents of our consciousness, similar to what Locke would call an idea (Lawhead, 336). Hume further breaks down perceptions into two categories: impressions and ideas. To Hume, all original experiences are considered impressions. These impressions remain as â€Å"copies† in our mind and we draw upon them when we have a similar experience later on in life. These â€Å"copies† of the original impression are what Hume calls an idea. In his work, Treatise of Human Nature, Hume says â€Å"When we search for the characteristic, which  distinguishes the memory from the imagination, we must immediately perceive, that it cannot lie in the simple ideas it presents to us; since both these faculties borrow their simple ideas from the impressions, and can never go beyond these original perceptions. † (Hume, Section 5). In other words, Hume is saying that when one is trying to think about a characteristic of an object we always revert back to the original impression that we previously had in our mind from a past experience. Further, Hume is saying that even simple ideas about an object are faint memories of our previous experiences. David Hume can be considered the most consistent Empiricist especially when considering his idea on a persons perception of self (or lack thereof in this case). Lawhead described this simply by saying â€Å"Hume maintains that when we introspect we only find some particular perception of one sort another. If you focus on your experience right now you find puzzlement, tiredness, heat, anger.. What you dont find is a self. † (pg 340). This is an extremely empirical way of looking at ones self. Hume is such a consistent. Empiricist that he goes so far to say that we cannot have an idea of our self, because our minds always revert back to previous experiences of other perceptions. In addition to this, Hume suggests that we cannot even be certain about things such as the sun rising tomorrow. To Hume, the only reason that we know the sun will rise tomorrow is because of all of the past experiences and perceptions that weve had of the sun rising each morning. Therefore, we can only be certain of things that we have experienced. These two beliefs by Hume are evidence that he was the most strict Empiricist of the  group mentioned above. John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume can all be considered Empiricists due to the prevalence of experience in their philosophical principles.Lockes experience oriented principles can be observed in his idea of primary and secondary qualities of an object. Berkeleys can be seen in his critique of Lockes abstract ideas, which Berkeley suggests do not exist. Lastly, David Hume, who can be considered the most strict Empiricist, demonstrates his empirical views in his concepts of impressions and idea and his lack of self perception.

Edgar Allan Poe :: essays research papers

Edgar Allan Poe Poe, Edgar Allan, known as a poet and critic but most famous as the first master of the short-story form, especially tales of the mysterious and macabre. The literary merits of Poe's writings have been debated since his death, but his works have remained popular and many major American and European writers have professed their artistic debt to him. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Poe was orphaned in his early childhood and was raised by John Allan, a successful businessman of Richmond, Virginia. Taken by the Allan family to England at the age of six, Poe was placed in a private school. Upon returning to the United States in 1820, he continued to study in private schools. He attended the University of Virginia for a year, but in 1827 his foster father, displeased by the young man's drinking and gambling, refused to pay his debts and forced him to work as a clerk. Poe, disliking his new duties intensely, quit the job, thus estranging Allan, and went to Boston. There his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), was published anonymously. Shortly afterward Poe enlisted in the U.S. Army and served a two-year term. In 1829 his second volume of verse, Al Aaraaf, was published, and he effected a reconciliation with Allan, who secured him an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy. After only a few months at the academy Poe was dismissed for neglect of duty, and his foster father disowned him permanently. Poe's third book, Poems, appeared in 1831, and the following year he moved to Baltimore, where he lived with his aunt and her 11-year-old daughter, Virginia Clemm. The following year his tale â€Å"A MS. Found in a Bottle† won a contest sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. From 1835 to 1837 Poe

Case Study on School Safety

Case Study on School Safety Melissa Rookard EDD 520 January 24, 2010 Leslie Faught It is evident that schools' policies, programs, practices, physical structure, and teachers are factors internal to the school that determine school safety. These are the only factors that are internal to the school and within fairly complete control of schools. It is these factors that can be reformed and adapted to meet the end result of school safety. School safety is also determined to a very large extent by students, their criminal and other behaviors. Students in turn wear the dual hat of external and internal factors. They are external factors because they are part of the community and are internal factors because they are part of the school and can be disciplined to a certain extent through school policies. There was an incident at Horribly Heard Middle School in Dayton, Georgia. A young man names, Bruce, brought a gun to school and was taken into custody by the Dayton Police Department along with the help of the Department Juvenile Justice. There were many key players in locating the student to insure the school safety. A student was shown the gun and reported to his teacher, Mrs. Daisy. Mrs. Daisy in turn contacted her administrator and asked if he could come to the classroom. Mrs. Daisy, team leader, instructed her team to take the students to the library to check out books. Shortly after, they left an announcement came over the intercom that all students and teachers remain in class until told to dismiss. Teachers were instructed to read their e-mail immediately and follow the instructions laid out in the e-mail. All teachers had to take roll and report any missing children to the front office staff. Mrs. Daisy and her team stayed in the library and check their e-mail in the library. Administrator Bob, Principal Hope, and Resource Officer Life, came to the classroom to search Bruce and taken him into custody if the weapon was indeed on him. Two additional administrators stayed in front of the classroom to ensure no one came down the hall. Office Life took Bruce into custody and he was charged with weapons on school grounds. Once Bruce was taken off school grounds school ran as normally as possible. After school and the students were gone, the staff has an emergency faculty meeting. Principal Hope informed the faculty of the incident today and the student would not return back to school. Student was taken into Juvenile Justice Custody and no one was hurt. The student that told the teacher was also spoke to along with his parents in regards to the incident. They asked that he did not repeat was has happen to ensure students safety and parents concern. Students bring weapons to school more times than we are made aware. At HHMS, faculty and administration communicates well as was able to ensure school safety. Having students stay in the classroom or stopping all movements in the hallways is one way to keep order and asking faculty to take roll immediately and report any missing students via e-mail to front office staff is vital. I believe HHMS handle the situation to the best of their ability. School security is the most common type of activity that administrators should specifically set up to prevent disorder in the school. The most prevalent security strategy used throughout HHMS is various ways to monitor student and non-student movement within the school. The staff and administrators were primarily responsible for this task. To avoid a situation other types of security strategies could be used. Examples, are hiring special security personnel, use of metal detectors, and random searches. Schools should have two basic approaches to rules and procedures. The first approach are teachers tend to deal with all but the most serious discipline problems, including setting punishment and calling parents (if necessary). The second approach tends to deal with small infractions within the classroom and then refer students to an administrator for repeated or more serious infractions. The administrator was responsible for assigning punishment and contacting parents. Regardless of the approach, consistency of rule enforcement emerged as an important issue, especially among students. It is the role of the principal in setting the overall tone in a school when it came to discipline and enforcement of rules. School staff expressed more satisfaction if the principal set clear expectations, communicated regularly with staff, and gave them a voice in school issues.

President Hoover, A Brilliant Man - 1450 Words

erbert Hoover, America’s 31st president, was unlucky enough to be president during the beginning and early years of the Great Depression. He was a brilliant man, but his ideas and beliefs would hurt his reputation and make him an inevitable one-term president. Firstly, Hoover passed many controversial bills during his time in office. An examples of this is the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. This law greatly increased a number of tariffs on a variety of imported goods. President Hoover signed the law because he thought it would reduce competition from foreign products. But other nations soon reacted by raising tariffs on imported goods, which increased the hurt put on the U.S. economy. Hoover believed that business, if left alone without government interference, would correct the economic conditions. He vetoed several bills aimed at relieving the Depression because he felt they gave the federal government too much power. This caused many people in the nation to dislike him a lot. People that lost their jobs and could not afford a home moved to a shabby section of town and built shacks from flattened tin cans and old crates. Groups of these shacks were called â€Å"Hoovervilles†, a name that reflected the people s anger and disappointment at President Herbert Hoover s failure to end the Depression (Mitchener). From here, things never got better for his presidency. One event that occurred happened because Germany, and other countries, could not pay the 1931 installment on itsShow MoreRelated President Herbert Hoover Essay1384 Words   |  6 PagesPresident Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st president of the United States. During his first year in office the Wall Street crash of 1929 occurred. He was blamed for the resulting collapse of the economy, and his unpopular policies brought an end to a brilliant career in public office. 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