Philosophies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle Essay Example for Free

Philosophies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle Essay The philosophies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle had different points of-view but they were also similar in some ways. For example, all three philosophers had their own thoughts on the subject of justice and government. Socrates belief on this matter was that democracy was an unwise form of government. He thought that the electing of the people was unfair justice. Plato had some of the same beliefs. He believed that government should only have rulers who had the intelligence and education appropriate for the matter. His thoughts were that a job should be done only by those who are best suited for it. To him aristocracy was a perfect form of government. The point of Socrates philosophies were to make people think about the questions he would often ask. The reason for these questions being asked were to have people to their own thoughts and opinions toward life. He did not think a person with the right mind should follow the steps of their ancestors. Instead of going around asking questions, Plato, another philosopher, would write his own conversations with imaginerary people. These conversations would cover much of the same topics that Socrates had tried to cover earlier. These topics mostly dealt with life such as government, opinions toward justice and how people really viewed education. Aristotle also had his own theories towards his belief of the right government. He wanted his results to show happiness among the people. Hed mainly collect information from studying living creatures and observing their living habits. He would do this so that he could see what brought them happiness. His opinion toward life was that all people should live a fair and happy life. After many attempts of forming the perfect government , his facts allowed him to believe that a perfect government could be formed only by those who have a middle class. The middle class would consist of those who were not rich yet not poor. Both Aristotle and Plato had different thoughts on the division of the government. Aristotle claimed to believe that a government should consist  of many classes for the protection of the people and the state. While Plato disagreed and thought that dividing of power was unfair and cruel. In his mind, he felt that those in the lower class could never have the chance to get any higher in life. Though all three philosophers felt that the government should be based on the equalness of all the people, they all had different views on what equality really meant. These philosophers all had their own way of gathering information and passing it through the minds of others.

Rebuilding the Virginia Department of Transportation Essay -- Leadersh

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is among the largest of state agencies and holds a national reputation as a leader in road safety and innovation dating back to the early 1920's. VDOT also has a history of being judged as the most professional state agency that is - until the 1990's, when buyouts and politics shook the department's composition and threatened its public reputation. The agency lost thousands of veteran employees who would prove to be irreplaceable assets and they began to see a decline in revenues. With the inability to deliver the quality construction and maintenance program they were once known for, it was clear that new leadership and a complete restructuring was needed. In 2002, Phillip Shucet was appointed commissioner of VDOT, bringing his private-sector business experience along for the ride. His task proved to be a difficult one and he was faced with many challenges including: management and organizational behavior, general and specific environm ental factors, and motivational problems. ("Virginia Department of Transportation: Trying to Keep Virginia Moving.") Part 1 The primary problem of VDOT is that supervisors lack the ability to complete road projects on time. Overall, VDOT suffers from a deprivation of "foresight, command, control, coordination and organization (Oke, 2011)." The classical approach of administrative principles will provide a line of unrestricted communication between VDOT field workers and executive management. The administrative principles approach will also direct leaders to deploy their resources through command principle; by giving orders to people from one source (Oke, 2011). Thereby, centralizing similar activities and tasks under one supervisor; increasing synch... ...partment of Transportation: Trying to Keep Virginia Moving." 2011. Retrieved from http://dm.darden.virginia.edu/vdot/studentWeb/content/videoList.htm 6 Steps to Insanely Successful Business Goals for 2013 http://www.forbes.com/sites/alanhall/2012/12/08/6-steps-to-insanely-successful-business-goals-for-2013/ http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=22466052&site=ehost-live&scope=site © 2013. State University. All Rights Reserved. Oke, R. (Ed.). (2011). Organizational behavior and management. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Custom Learning Solutions. Custom (abridged) text ISBN-13: 9780470942710 Sternberg, B., & Weitzel, S. R. (2001). Key Point Summary. Setting Your Development Goals: Start With Your Values, 29-30. Yemen. G and Clawson. J (2005), Virginia Department of Transportation: Trying To Keep Virginia Moving

Literature As A Revolutionary Tool For American

In tandem with literacy, literature has become one of the leading vehicles for social criticism in American history. It amplifies the author's voice, reverberating it throughout the nation, molding the history of America by changing the opinions of the people on certain issues. It can induce cries of hope and merriment, like John Winthrop's sermon A Model of Christian Charity, which speaks about the optimistic prospect of America as the â€Å"City upon a Hill† (Winthrop, 84). But it can also elicit the noticeable cries viciously pointing out the ignored flaws embedded in this â€Å"more perfect union† (U.S. Const. Preamble)†the existence of slavery, racism, ethnocentrism and the absence of gender equality. While reading this textbook, it is important to keep in mind the question of intention†why a certain piece of literature was written and why during that particular time period and not another. In any case, major movements in American literature leading up to the 19th Century are not arbitrary or random; they are all interrelated by a cause and effect, wherein one movement inspires the critical response of another.The arrival of the Puritans in the sixteenth century brought religious literature into the New World, more specifically ermons such as John Winthrop's A Model of Christian Charity, which grounded the principles required for this infant colony to become the â€Å"City Upon A Hill† (Winthrop, 84). Winthrop's sermon was an implicated work of criticism towards the European structure of society, where social class and bloodline would inherently determine a person's fate in life.Winthrop modeled prospective America according to everything the Old World was not†it would be a country where the â€Å"riche and mighty should not eate up the poore, nor the poore,† (81) where the people â€Å"must love one another with a pure hearte fervently†¦ eare one another burthens†¦ [and] not looke only on [their] ow ne things, but also on the things of [their] brethren† (83). This model appealed to the serfs and peasants of Europe because it promoted equality, a concept not unfamiliar but unattainable to the people belonging to the Old World.Although inequality established by the Old World caste system would later be abolished in the New World, gender inequality still remained to be a prevalent form of inequality amongst the people†notice that Winthrop calls out for equality among the â€Å"brethren† (83) and not â€Å"sistren,† which is the female equivalent of it. Over two centuries later, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter would be published in 1850, criticizing the gender inequality within the glorified Puritan â€Å"Model of Christian Charity. Hawthorne points out this flaw by having Hester Prynne, the woman, repent for her sins by public shame and ostracization whereas Dimmesdale, the man, can successfully conceal his sins, albeit it at a great cost in the end. This disparity between the experiences of the opposite sex point out the imperfections within Puritan society as well as society in the 19th century. On the topic of inequality, ccompanied by women were black slaves who received the shortest end of the stick of equality.Following the American Independence in 1774, early 19th century American literature mainly comprised of political documents such as The Declaration ot Independence ot 1776, which was written witn the intention to â€Å"petition tor redress† (US, 1776), which in this case would be independence from the British Crown. The document itself is a social critique on the monarchial system of the British Empire. By listing the â€Å"history of repeated injuries and usurpation† (US, 1776)) inflicted upon the American Colonies, the drafters of The Declaration ofIndependence are explicitly condemning the tyrannical Imperial System that dominated Europe and the Kingdom of Great Britain throughout history. Almo st a century later, the emergence of abolitionist sponsored slave narratives in the 19th century allowed for the direct critique of America's hypocritical claim that the British Crown†the â€Å"Tyrant†Ã¢â‚¬ was unfit to be the ruler of the â€Å"free people† which†later emphasized†excluded the black community.While the fourth of July is often associated with the Joyful celebration of independence, in the perspective of prominent African-American abolitionist Fredrick Douglass, the fourth of July is eferred to as the particular day â€Å"that reveals to [the Negro]†¦ the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim [of]† (Douglass, The Fourth of July). The â€Å"Fourth of July is yours [the white citizens], not mine [the blacks]† Douglass said in his 1852 speech â€Å"The Meaning of July Fourth to the Negro. His statement summarizes the fact that the basic rights the whites were born with were not considered as ri ghts or even privileges for the blacks†free or enslaved. Fast-forward to post civil war in 1983; Mark Twain publishes Pudd'nhead Wilson, a tragic comedy criticizing the lack of ights given to slaves. In the conclusion, the creditors of the Driscoll estate claim fake Tom as their â€Å"lawful property' (Twain, 122). This reference to â€Å"property' can be viewed as criticism towards the Supreme Court Case Dred Scott v.Stanford in 1857, where Judge Taney ruled Scott, the slave, as property and therefore cannot be freed, despite setting foot on a free state, because it would be depriving a person of property without due process or Just compensation which violates the 5th Amendment. The comic tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, then, serves as a critical pprobrium directed upon the inequitable ways in which the slaves were treated. The philosophical movement known as transcendentalism began its short, but impactful lifespan during the 1820s and 1830s.Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Dav id Thoreau are among the renowned icons of the transcendentalist movement. The transcendentalist movement began as criticism towards society and its institutions†particularly organized religion and political parties. Influenced by Romanticism, the transcendentalists respected the individual spirit and the natural world, believing that divinity was present in nature and each person. In his essay Self-Reliance, Emerson compares an institution to the â€Å"lengthened shadow of one man† (Emerson, 26).Self-Reliance circles itself around the idea of Individualism where â€Å"imitation is suicide† (20), so this comparison suggests that organizations teach principles based on the ideas of a single person, forcing everyone else to conform to the ideas of a man other than themselves†a concept condemned by transcendentalists. Transcendentalism also included the core belief that all men were inherently good†a belief that would later breed a completely different g eneration of writers. Herman Melville was among the writers who advocated ealism, the antithesis of all things romantic or transcendental.His novella Bartleby tells the story of a scrivener named Bartleby. Like Thoreau, Bartleby is a passive resistor. However, while Thoreau argues that his act ot passive resistance trees him, Bartlebys passivity provokes the narrator to confront him, and ultimately, his refusal to accept authority results in his self-inflicted death. Furthermore, although Thoreau considers solitude as his most â€Å"companionable† (Thoreau, 88) companion, Bartlebys loneness was the cause for his boss' comment on his â€Å"incurably forlorn† (Melville, 9) ppearance.The key difference between transcendentalism and realism isn't very far fetched†one is optimistic while the other is realistically grim†while Thoreau's passive resistance liberates him and allows him to fully express himself, Bartleby's passive resistance only affirms the authorit y and control that society has over him. Although the motives for social criticism may vary over the decades, the overall purpose of literature is to act as a vessel for social criticism in order to spark movements†for better or worse† in an otherwise monotonous society.

The Definition of BRIC and BRICS

BRIC is an acronym that refers to the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, which are seen as major developing economies in the world. According to Forbes, The general consensus is that the term was first prominently used in a Goldman Sachs report from 2003, which speculated that by 2050 these four economies would be wealthier than most of the current major economic powers. In March 2012, South Africa appeared to join BRIC, which thus became BRICS. At that time, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa met in India to discuss the formation of a development bank to pool resources. At that point, the BRIC countries were responsible for about 18% of the worlds Gross Domestic Product and were home to 40% of the earths population. It would appear that Mexico (part of BRIMC) and South Korea (part of BRICK) was not included in the discussion. Pronunciation: Brick Also Known As: BRIMC - Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico, and China. The BRICS countries include more than 40% of the worlds population and occupy over a quarter of the worlds land area. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa together are a powerful economic force.