Essay about Morality Comparing Hobbes and Machiavelli

One of the main premises of Leviathan and The Prince is morality. Where morality comes from, how it affects people under a political structure and how human nature contributes or doesn’t to morality. Hobbes and Machiavelli differ widely on each subject. Machiavelli’s views on morality, based upon a literal interpretation of the satire The Prince, is very much a practical and realistic approach to the nature of morality and human nature. Hobbes’ views, based in Leviathan, are of a more idealistic nature, and my views are a little in between the two. One of the major connections between the two works is the relationship between morality and the state. Both differ widely on where morality comes from and whether the state’s origin is from†¦show more content†¦If it pleases the people that you rely on, it can be considered good. In Hobbes Leviathan, the conclusion on the nature between morality and the state is that the Leviathan, i.e. the state, is re sponsible for the creation of morality and that without the state, man is without morality and is, in fact, a savage. Hobbes claims that the state originates morality by way of discussing human nature. He says: So that in the nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel. First, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory...Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men lie without common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war...Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of war, where every manis enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other scrutiny, than what their own strengthm and their own invention shall furnish withal. (Leviathan 592) What Hobbes is saying here, is that man, in a state of nature, is not moral.These three things (competition, diffidence, glory), are all that savage man has without government or without common power as Hobbes puts it. Therefore, the state remove s the state of savagery from the nature of man and puts in morality. There is a connection between the ideas ofShow MoreRelatedMachiavelli and Hobbes1493 Words   |  6 PagesMachiavelli and Hobbes To be successful, one must have the appearance of virtuousness, but not necessarily be virtuous. At least, this appears to be true according to Niccolo Machiavellis works. Machiavellis idea of the virtuous republican citizen may be compared to Hobbes idea of a person who properly understands the nature and basis of sovereign political power. Hobbes ideas seem to suggest that most anyone can claim rightful authority as there is a belief in God, and one can under HobbesRead MoreIn Nature Of Politics, We Have Read And Gone Over Many1743 Words   |  7 Pagesthough rapidly shifting, image of politics and therefore can easily recognize similarities between the ideologies that is provided in these texts. For example, in Dostoevsky s writing, the Grand Inquisitor’s thinking is very similar to that of Machiavelli in the manner that crushing the â€Å"free will† and gaining control over the masses is extremely vital. When going into detail about the idea of â€Å"miracle, mystery, and authority,† the Grand Inquisitor’s rationality parallels the core ideology of Machiavelli’sRead MoreKey Differences Between Realism and Neo Realism2781 Words   |  12 Pagesconcepts. Realism is the oldest and probably most commonly adopted theory of international relations, highly valued among scholars and students. The author of this essay will analytically discuss the key differences between realism and neo-realism, by comparing and contrasting the two. Classical Realism â€Å"Realism is a term that is used in a variety of ways in many different disciplines. In philosophy, it is an ontological theory opposed to idealism and nominalism. ‘Scientific realism’ is a philosophy ofRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesthings are going as they should, management must monitor the organization’s performance and compare it with previously set goals. If there are any significant deviations, it is management’s job to get the organization back on track. This monitoring, comparing, and potential correcting is the controlling function. So, using the functional approach, the answer to the question â€Å"What do managers do?† is that they plan, organize, lead, and control. Management Roles In the late 1960s, Henry Mintzberg, then

College Is A Waste Of Time And Money - 2333 Words

General Education It is likely that anyone doing research on the value of a general education (GE) would run across one of the many Caroline Bird articles. In a 1975 article titled â€Å"College is a Waste of Time and Money† Bird makes a logical argument against the benefits of education for the masses. Despite arguing against a college education, Bird, on the other hand, held a master’s degree and taught at Vassar College in New York, the same school she graduated. According to U.S. News World Report (2015), â€Å"Vassar College s ranking in the 2015 edition of Best Colleges is National Liberal Arts Colleges, 11. Its tuition and fees are $49,570 (2014-15),† and â€Å"Classes with fewer than 20 students [is] (63.7%).† This indicates to me that Vassar is a prestigious college. All in all, I cannot help wonder, is Bird as an elitist? First, she champions for the masses to be content with careers as being domestic servants (1964, p. 6-8). Second, Bird claims more people could be employed if American society were to reclassify a domestic position as one of equality with the employer. I am not sure how daft she thinks her readers to be, but I do not know anyone who perceives someone who scrubs a toilet to be of equal stature (less it is our own family member). How many CEOs or school principals feel equally at home with their head in a commode or the janitor in their building or school to be of equal stature? In Bird’s case she writes, people should aim lower â€Å"to meet the socialShow MoreRelatedCollege is a waste of time and money1196 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Sorayah Vuningoma Professor Scott English 101 Rough Draft College is a waste of time and money In Caroline Bird, â€Å"College is a waste of time and money,† Bird discusses why college is not necessary for everyone. She states that many college students are in college not because they want to but because they have to. Bird came to realize that college students don’t feel needed. They are led to believe that getting a college degree is important because it’s a way of getting higher chance ofRead MoreCollege Is A Waste Of Time And Money991 Words   |  4 Pages(Campbell). Some people believe that this statement holds much truth about what happens after high school, while others have confidence in their decision that college is the route to go. In the essay, â€Å"College is a Waste of Time and Money,† Caroline Bird conveys the notion that perhaps parents and students should reconsider the idea of college. She attempts to execute this idea by using several rhetorical strategies such as empirical and anecdotal evidence. However, this approach is flaw ed, and throughoutRead MoreCollege Is A Waste Of Time And Money900 Words   |  4 Pagesto go to college. Students are told that college is the only way you’ll ever get a good job. But, according to Caroline Bird, that is not the case. In Caroline Bird’s essay, â€Å"College is a Waste of Time and Money†,she argues that a college education may not be the best choice for all high school graduates. She thinks that students should not be forced into college if they do not what to. College should only be for people who truly want to learn. I agree with Bird’s claim about how college educationRead MoreCollege Is A Waste Of Time And Money853 Words   |  4 PagesHigh School in Valley Steam, New York, interviewed 300 college students at random and 200 of them didn’t think that the education they were getting was worth the effort.† (Bird 220). The idea of continuing education after graduating high school can be very questionable for some students. Many students side with Caroline Bird and her theory that education serves very little purpose in the job market in her essay â€Å"College Is a Waste of Time and Money†. But inevitably, students believe that post-secondaryRead MoreCollege Is A Waste Of Time And Money1261 Words   |  6 Pagesrecent years, college has been the place almost every student is expected to go. With it’s temptation of earning a higher education, and the segway into living an independent life, it’s simply a dream for students with big dreams. In the article I will be picking apart, Caroline Bird questions if it’s really worth it in the end. In the essay College is a Waste of Time and Money, the author argues about how much a college degree is truly worth anymore. â€Å"After interviewing 300 college students at randomRead MoreCollege Is A Waste Of Time And Money1096 Words   |  5 Pages The amount of money spent on one year alone of college can break someone’s heart. For most people college gets them to where they want to be, but with hard work and dedication going to work right after high school can take you a long way. Getting out of high school and starting a career early might be what some people want, but college is always an option with all the help they have today. College is a waste of time and money for a couple reasons. The fact that you spend 13 years in school justRead MoreCollege Is A Waste Of Time And Money1138 Words   |  5 Pages The amount of money spent in one year of college can break someone’s heart. For most people college gets them to where they want to be in life, but with hard work and dedication going to work right after high school can take you a long way. Getting out of high school and starting a career early might be what some people want, but college is always an option with all the help we have today. With whatever decision people take in life, I believe they need to love their job. At that point in theirRead MoreCollege Is The Waste Of Time And Money1502 Words   |  7 PagesIn â€Å"College is the Waste of Time and Money†, author Caroline Bird argues that college is not better suited for those who are looking to be financially successful. This is based on the facts of a low turnover ratio of students in colleges and universities and calculation that money spent on college would have yield higher returns from other businesses such as new venture and start-up companies. Bird urge s us not to spend time and money on colleges and universities. It is true that colleges and universitiesRead MoreCollege Is a Waste of Time and Money Essays777 Words   |  4 PagesCaroline Bird’s essay â€Å"College is a Waste of Time and Money† explains her beliefs on why, for some people, going to college is an ineffective and inefficient use of their time. She states that many students do not belong in college because they are there for the wrong reasons and they are not happy learning. She also gives evidence to suggest that going to college and getting a degree does not actually allows a person to make more money in their life time. Her final claim is that college does not prepareRead MoreCollege Is A Waste Of Time And Money By Caroline Bird1287 Words   |  6 PagesRhetorical Strategies in Bird’s â€Å"College is a Waste of Time and Money† The decision to obtain a higher education beyond high school is no longer a question of if, but when. This is the question that author Caroline Bird discusses in her article, â€Å"College is a Waste of Time and Money,† written in 1975. This text strives to convince students, parents, and advisors that obtaining a degree might not be in the best interest for those involved. Circling around the idea that college is requirement and no longer

Why Does It Matter Free Essays

On May 21, 2011 many people around the world â€Å"prepared† themselves for what was sure going to be their last day on earth. According to a man by the name of Harold Camping, by 6 pm on May 21st, the world was supposed to have experienced a grand earthquake thus preceding â€Å"The Rapture,† and it seems as though people around the world spend their â€Å"last days on earth† doing many different things. This alone shows what values we respect and how we view them. We will write a custom essay sample on Why Does It Matter? or any similar topic only for you Order Now Harold Camping had concocted some heinous math equation that led him to publicize his fourth prediction. Although the amount of thought and research he put behind his Christian instinct was impressive; all he managed to do was create a moment of desperation for those of us who lead a â€Å"sinful† life, and a false ray of hope for those who cling to the prophetic words of people like, Harold Camping. As one can imagine, the last few days have been driven by the predicted â€Å"end of the world,† and through outlets such as Twitter, Live Journal, and Facebook, stories of how people spent their last days have surfaced. Some people thought it would be a great idea to spend their life savings or their children’s college funds, some people spent the day fulfilling their goals and dream, others just spent the past few days locked in and repenting, and the rest either didn’t care or forgot. All these crazy fear-based decisions lead to a small list of much greater and loaded questions: Is it worth it? Does it matter? and Why does it matter? Of course these are questions that fall under the category of â€Å"The Meaning of Life,† and are virtually impossible to reply to, but everyone should be entitled to possess their own educated opinion, right? In Thomas Nagel’s essay â€Å"The Absurd† he raises some interesting, but conflicting arguments toward life’s â€Å"absurdity†. In his very complicated essay of rationalizations, he basically presents us with the 3 main reasons why life could be considered absurd: 1) Whatever we do now will not affect the world in the future, so why does it matter? 2) We are forever considered small when compared with the universe, and our lives considered short, so why do we matter? 3) Our actions have no purposeful end, so why do they matter? Nagel tries to justify his statements, but in the end his statements contradict his points, and this could even be summarized in one simple explanation. If you will not be around in the next 1 million years, how could you or anybody else judge peoples actions to determine if whether or not they infinitely matter or not matter. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, â€Å"Existentialism† is considered a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will (Oxford). Within this reasoning is what Nagel based his essay on, but as black and white as this may seem, many other factors should be calculated when trying to determine whether or not existentialism is rational. Without delving too far into the topic of religion, the question about the morality of certain issues still lies on the table. When trying to find a religiously ambiguous debate against existentialism one of the most important questions to consider would be: In a world in which we act on impulse without the fear of repercussion, how would our feelings as human beings factor into our decisions? As long as there has been the existence of humans on this earth, it would probably safe to assume that there has also been the â€Å"existence† of feelings among the people. Feelings are probably the one impulse that humans find the most difficult to quell in their everyday lives, and from personal experience, one of the most pleasantly intrusive aspects of human life. Although this might be debatable, the statement previous to the latter is not. In her 1970’s book Never in Anger: Portrait of an Eskimo Family, Professor Jean L. Briggs studied the Utkuhikhalingmiut (â€Å"Utku†) Eskimos of the Canadian Northwest Territories. In this tribe she found that anger and aggression was extremely rare. â€Å"Briggs suggests that even in circumstances that we would find intolerably frustrating or offensive, the Utku do not get angry. Where we would be resentful or even furious, the Utku are merely resigned. Anger is an unreasonable response† (qtd. By Solomon). Even in instances such as these, the Eskimo are in a way â€Å"brainwashed† from a young age in order to lead this â€Å"harmonious† life, and even then they lose their cool. As reported by a fellow anthropologist ,by the name of Catherine Lutz, â€Å"among the Ifaluk of Micronesia, the most serious incident of aggression last year, was when one man touched another’s shoulder. He was subjected to a severe fine, a reasonable penalty for extremely unreasonable behavior† No matter what one tries to do feeling will always resurface and affect our judgment whether we mean to or not. It’s simply just part of the way we were made and will always remain that way. To argue that someone could easily â€Å"discard† their feeling and act purely on impulse would be an ignorant statement. When talking about the rationality as opposed to the morality of a situation it then becomes a little bit more tricky because as Robert Rorty makes a wonderful job in pointing out, who can define rationality? In accordance with his characteristic nominalism, that â€Å"rationality is not a thing,† to be Socratically defined or characterized in any singular way. I would say that it is one of those â€Å"essentially contested concepts† of philosophy (like â€Å"freedom,† â€Å"truth,† and â€Å"justice†) which plays a primarily polemical as well as a normative role in our conversations, despite the â€Å"descriptive† characterizations that are readily available in behavioral theory and the social sciences. The question is how the term is being used in any particular context and what distinctions are being made –for often the real message is political and not merely conceptual and conveyed only by implication. (qtd. By Solomon) With arguments such as this one it brings us back to the original debate. Who is to decide what is rational? For one person might think something is a great idea when in reality it might not be, but at the same time still remain it remains a decisions in which it will not tip the scale in either moral direction. As we probably could assume from the beginning, these questions are probably best if left unanswered. They complexity of trying to find the â€Å"true meaning† of life is far too great a task for someone of our caliber to judge. The best thing that we can do as a society is stick together and apply our best traits to create a harmonious place for us to develop and live in. The one thing that is irrefutable would have to be the undeniable fact that if we live our lives in the best way we can while making the best decisions within society’s judgment, we can’t really go wrong, and if Nagel had one thing right, it was that our time on this earth is short, so we might as well take advantage of the things we’ve been blessed with and live life to the fullest. 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Sex, Stress and Memory free essay sample

A paper which questions whether stress affects the memory of both genders equally. The paper describes the chemical process of the brain whereby memory is affected by stress. It discusses several experiments which were carried out to determine whether stress effects the brains of men and women differently. The paper explains that the results showed that the effect was purely chemical and not psychological and therefore it did not differentiate between the sexes. It is important to note that stress is not age-restrictive. Young children are as susceptible to stress as adults. Some of the things that have been known to cause stress in young children are changing schools, problems with peers, injuries or severe illness, recent move to a new home, loss of anything valuable to the child, parents divorce, separation or marital conflict, inadequate physical resources-food, clothing, shelter, etc., recent death of a loved one-parent, grandparent, sibling, friend, constant fatigue brought about by inadequate rest, sleep or recreation, regular conflict between your child and another family member, close friend or school teacher. We will write a custom essay sample on Sex, Stress and Memory or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page