Knights and Samurais essays

Knights and Samurais essays Many people often see little similarity between the country of Japan and Europe. However, there are actually several similarities between these two countries. In fact, Reischauer and Jansen note that Feudal Japan had departed so far from East Asian norms that it was more similar to medieval Europe than it was to China. Thus, the knight of Europe and the samurai of Japan despite a lack of contact with one another shared several common elements. This was a result of many similarities social and cultural influences experienced by the two distant countries. Japan has a history that dates back thousands of years. Researchers believe the Japanese people descended from many groups that migrated to the islands from other parts of Asia, including China and Korea. As early as 4500 B.C., the Japanese islands were inhabited by fishermen, hunters and farmers. The early culture was known as "Jomon," named after the "cord pattern" pottery crafted by the people at the time. Major Japanese cultural changes occurred about 200 B.C. The people were known as "Yayoi." The Yayoi were mostly farmers. It is believed that the present-day Japanese closely resemble the Yayoi in appearance and language. Ancient Yayoi warriors developed weapons, armor and a code during the ensuing centuries that became the centerpiece for the Japanese samurai. War played a central part in the history of Japan. Warring clans controlled much of the country. A chief headed each clan; made up of related families. The chiefs were the ancestors of Japan's imperial family. The wars were usually about land useful for the production of rice. In fact, only 20% of the land was fit for farming. The struggle for control of that land eventually gave rise to the Samurai. One of the important dates in the history of the Japanese warring class is 660 B.C. That's when, according to legend, Emperor Jimmu became head of a confederation of warlike clans. Emperor Jimmu was known as "The Divin...

A Study Guide for Act 3 of Hamlet

A Study Guide for Act 3 of 'Hamlet' If youve never read Shakespeare, reading Hamlet, the bards longest play, may be a daunting task, but this breakdown of all the scenes in Act 3 can help. Use this study guide to familiarize yourself with the themes and plot points of this pivotal part of the tragedy. Doing so can help you know what to look for as you read Hamlet in class or on your own at home.  If youve already read  the drama, use the guide to review any developments that you need to better understand or overlooked the first time around. If youre preparing to take a test or write a paper about Hamlet, be mindful of what your teacher has said about the play in class. Highlight any theme or plot development you think you can use to support a thesis statement or expound upon in a persuasive essay. Act 3, Scene 1 Polonius and Claudius arrange to secretly watch a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia. When they meet, Hamlet denies any affection for her which further confuses Polonius and Claudius. They decide that either Gertrude can get to the root of Hamlet’s â€Å"madness† or he will be sent to England. Act 3, Scene 2 Hamlet directs the actors in a play to depict his father’s murder, as he hopes to study Claudius’ reaction to this. Claudius and Gertrude leave during the performance. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern inform Hamlet that Gertrude wants to speak to him. Act 3, Scene 3 Polonius arranges to secretly listen to the conversation between Hamlet and Gertrude. When alone, Claudius speaks of his conscience and guilt. Hamlet enters from behind and draws his sword to kill Claudius but decides that it would be wrong to kill a man while praying. Act 3, Scene 4 Hamlet is about to  reveal Claudius’ villainy to Gertrude when he hears someone behind the curtain. Hamlet thinks it is Claudius and thrusts his sword through the arras – he has killed Polonius. Hamlet reveals all and speaks to the ghost. Gertrude, who cannot see the apparition, is now convinced of Hamlet’s madness. Wrapping Up Now that youve read the guide, review the plot points. What did you learn about the characters? What are Hamlets intentions? Did his plan for Claudius work? What does Gertrude now think of Hamlet? Is she right or wrong to have these views? Why does Hamlets relationship with Ophelia appear to be so complicated? As you answer these questions and inevitably think of your own, jot them down. This will help you remember how the scenes of Act 3 unfolded and help you categorize the information in a way that may make it easier for you to come up with an outline for an essay or similar assignment on Hamlet. Take the same approach with the other acts in the play, and you will have organized the plot developments into a very handy study guide.

Hobbes and Locke - Philosophy Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hobbes and Locke - Philosophy Paper - Essay Example The "nature of state" is that this desire can only be kept under control by the supreme power of the sovereign. In Chapter X Hobbes describes that "the nature of state" cannot be applied to all situation of human behavior. Although Hobbes thought "the nature of state" could be limited in time or scope, when people authorize a sovereign to order, they make him their unlimited representative. Whatever the sovereign does is authorized and binds them; consequently every effective government represents. Thomas Hobbes described life in a state of nature as "solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short." (Hobbes), but certainty could be created artificially, if men agreed not to exercise their rights in the cases where it was uncontentiously obvious that they were already under attack, and to hand over the power of defending themselves to a sovereign, who would make the appropriate judgment about difficult cases. Hobbes sees people naturally impelled into the war of all against all. Each will be an enemy to all the rest, not because people are 'sinful' by nature - Hobbes insists that people are not - but because people are both timid and competitive. Fear impels people to strike down their competitors before they can strike humans. (2) Hobbes sees the emergence of "civil society" as a dramatic improvement, because it brings law and authority to people. "Civil society" is contrasted with paternal authority and the state of nature. These changes afforded comfort and decency to civilized and intelligent persons, and a law-abiding political order comprised a satisfactory and progressive state of human affairs. Government was necessary because people were often too short-sighted to realize that their interests were best served by adhering to the rules of justice. It arose less by deliberate decision than through people coming to see that it was to their advantage to support any authority that enforced the rules effectively. The limitation of "civil society" is inability to keep humans genuinely moral. Under morals Hobbes, meant: "mankind that concern their living together in peace and unity" (Hobbes, Chapter XI). It shows the people necessity for strong power, and the lengths at which a person will go to save his life. (3) In the "Letter Concerning Toleration", Lock's principle argument is the claim that religious belief, because it requires consistencies assent, cannot be subjected to effective external coercion; also, the contention that the proper function of the state was to maintain public order and security and that therefore religious toleration was justified only when necessary to achieve that end. Lock created a concept of a "church-society" explaining that all people are born free, but, on the other hand, they starts to share religious believes and values. The move from the state of nature to political society is seen as a response to problems of covetousness, conflict, and ethical uncertainty caused by the development of money and the growth of inequality. Though Locke presents a gradualist account of the actual development of political institutions, the process is described abstractly in terms of state-church relations.

Write the difintion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Write the difintion - Essay Example It involves a close participation of diverse stakeholders who works as a team, hence simplification of the complex task. The team may encompass teachers, students, specialists from different subjects and syllabus coordinators. The team contributes to improvement of technical expertise and know how to achieve the curriculum goals and objectives. Primarily, it is a coherent and sustainable method of curriculum development. Formative evaluation takes place during the delivery of a certain course content. Teachers carry out a formative evaluation in order to determine how much students know and be able to modify the instructional methods. Formative evaluation highlights the aspects that need emphasis, as well as the weaknesses and the strengths of students. Furthermore, the curriculum formative evaluation does monitor and evaluate the deficiencies present in any current curriculum for the sake of future improvement. Summative evaluation occurs at the end of a course. Teachers use summative assessment in determining whether the course objectives have been achieved. They focus on the learning outcomes exhibited by students. Summative evaluation may be in the form of the final project or end of semester exams. The approach is also useful in curriculum development, via use of questionnaires, testing or observations to test the usefulness of the

Plato on reality and the soul Essay Example for Free

Plato on reality and the soul Essay Socrates believed that the soul is pure and the body is corrupted, where wisdom is accounted for the soul and needs, thus the materialistic and carnal desires are to the body. Plato’s Phaedo discussed in the world of forms. Any entity or object has a quality or feature or multiple properties. And these properties are prior conditioned to the soul. Plato’s metaphysics can be drawn primarily from the influence of his teachers Paramenides, Heraclitus, and of course Socrates. First, the concept from Parmenides’ belief that there could be only one being, and this is a never changing entity. It has a static quality. This is where Plato derived his concept of the world of forms. It is a different concept in the material world wherein it is an always changing world. Change can be accounted as the only thing common and the only thing consistent as Heraclitus described the notion of â€Å"flux†. Academicians account that most of Plato’s thinking was influenced by Socrates. Socrates however was not at all articulate in conveying a Metaphysical or Epistemological discussion; rather, he conveyed more ethical notions. For Socrates, The idea is for one to take care of the soul so one can be happy, or attain the truth. This is especially true and evident in the Phaedo where Plato accounts the last hours before Socrates separated his soul from the body. Plato’s Metaphysics can be analyzed as a completion of that of Socrates’. The notion of the world of forms or the world of ideas is an eternal and immovable form. In contrast to this world is Chaos or the world of objects which receives the form. For example, an artist created a vase; the material form of this object is only a receiver or only partakes into the idea of the vase. The object is thus not a perfect representation of the real idea of the vase. The two worlds are joined together which infuses the soul and makes possible to Heraclitus’ idea of the visible world. The world of forms can be stated as perfect and the world of objects as an approximation of it. This meant that men strive to achieve it but fall short of achieving such perfection because the body is corrupted. Forms are independent and the world of objects is dependent to forms because they seek to compare to the perfect image. But because the senses are blurred they can never be perfect. It is also evident this pattern of ideas based on Socrates. Plato points out that a man seeks for the truth and in this speculative journey makes a man better and in turn achieve good. Another evident notion of this is in discussing perfect equality. When you look at perfect equality, you notice that it is not perfectly equal. There and then we can suppose that the idea of this equality had been existent to the soul prior to the unison of it with the body. This intensifies the ideas that the soul existed before the body. However, once the soul was united with the body, the soul’s knowledge of ideas falls into the subconscious. During sleep, man reminisces and recognizes the world of Ideas and thus there is realization. The soul from the moment it unites with the body recognizes an irrational soul that is derived from the corruption of the material world, dissatisfaction and the seeking of pleasure. This soul is situated in the heart. The soul that comes from the world of Forms is situated in the head, on top of the irrational soul, controlling its impulses and conditions the body to live within the confines of reason. Plato in his writings in the Republic described that the end result of an individual in the Good. In his society (or the republic), he stated that this is the final goal of everyone and it is not just a reward. A just man, one of Plato’s virtues, is rewarded not only in this lifetime but until one is reincarnated. This eminent idea that the soul preexisted before the body in the world of forms and its separation of the soul to reach the world of forms represents how the soul is immortal. For Plato, there is a division between the world of forms and the world of objects. In his analogy of the sun, he contrasted the two as those that are merely visible and those of intellectual value. He further explains this through the analogy of the line. Plato described four forms of knowledge. One is of the idea of pure images, dreams and imaginations. In account to the concept of the soul, as discussed earlier, the soul in the preexistence of the body originally comes from the world of Forms. Once the soul infuses with the body, all its knowledge of the world of forms becomes part of the subconscious. Through dreams and the imagination, which is a process of the head, the seat of the rational soul, it recounts and reminisces the truths in the world of forms. The next is the perception of sensible objects that gives attribute and judgment to visible materials. We imply that a certain item has such an attribute but it can change in another similar form. Another one is of mathematical knowledge which is not a perfect knowledge and one of philosophical knowledge that explains more the ideas as eternal and absolute realities. The four types of knowledge can be condensed into two more specific forms. The first two can be accounted as opinions for the things in which we perceive through sensing may look like such in one way and different in another. Another one is called understanding, in which the realities of these objects can or cannot be. It is a more logical, scientific knowledge. The idea of the soul reaching the world of forms is from an inferior to a superior level and its main goal is to reach that state where happiness exists. In the world of objects, there is always dissatisfaction. He further illustrates his ideas through the cave. He stated that the world the secludes us is an illusion to what is the truth, once we step out of the cave we get blinded by the light but as we refocus and look not into the reflections and shadows, but the real perfect forms,we see the truth and the real objects. This process of release from the cave to the outside world represents enlightenment, which in the case of Socrates’ beliefs is the separation of the soul to the body, to attain the truth. In Phaedo, Socrates sums up these arguments and philosophical intertwines by pursuing death himself. According to Socrates, the only way for one to attain the truth from all the imitations and corruptions of the material world is through death. One should never be afraid of something that would give enlightenment. Man should even welcome it when the time arrives. The world of objects prohibits a man to philosophize, thus he has a hard time attaining this virtue of justice and good. There are various distractions that hinder man to the truth. Death for Socrates is the liberation of the soul. Death is also not merely a separation of the soul and body. It is a process and an end state that progresses to achieve the truth. Dissatisfactions, pleasures, emotions inhibit the call of reason and wisdom thus inhibiting philosophy. This separation is an ultimate embrace to the truth until the time comes when the soul unites with a body as an incarnate. Plato ultimately bridges the connection between the soul and the world of forms. As is reiterated, the ultimate goal of man is good, happiness and wisdom. These ideas or forms are not of existence in the world of objects. The world of objects, are perceived representations of man through various forms of knowledge, (of opinions and of logical knowledge). The objects man builds are imitations, thus they are not perfect. Man has a perception of what is perfect because the rational soul is of prior existence in the world of forms. The world of objects cannot be perfect and man cannot be happy because the human body is predisposed to various entanglements with pleasures, emotions, diseases, and imperfections. Philosophers are to accept death for it liberates man from the soul. The soul has its ultimate goal in essence is to go back to the world of forms. In that way he would be able to attain good.

Norman Schwarzkopf :: essays research papers

Norman Schwarzkopf Norman Schwarzkopf and I are alike in many ways. He and I both have family in Germany. His father lives in Germany and my great grandparents live in Germany. He served in Vietnam and so did my grandfather. Norman and I also have many differences. His family has a popular military background and my family does not. He lived his whole life through the military and I am not going to do that. Norman also followed in his father’s footsteps that I am also not going to do. Now you see how many ways Norman and I are alike and different. Norman has accomplished many tasks in his lifetime, which I have not gotten a chance to yet. Norman Schwarzkopf got an education at West Point Military School and at Valley Forge Military Academy in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Valley Forge is a historic place known for its forces in the American Revolution. Almost all of Norman's family joined the military. His dad was in the military all of his life just as Norman was. The Schwarzkopfs are very well known in the military. Norman Schwarzkopf made many life choices in his military career. First, he chose to join the military following his father’s footsteps. Second, he chose to go to Valley Forge because the school he was attending, West Point, only taught students up to the tenth grade. One of his most important choices was in Vietnam. One of his fellow soldiers was shot and he carried him to safety when Norman already had four gun shot wounds in him. He was awarded three silver stars and controlled the air, ground, and water forces. I think anyone interested in joining the military, is currently in the military, or is just interested in these kinds of books, should read this biography by Libby Hughes. Others should think that Norman is a hero and that he should be widely known.

Positive relationships with children Essay

Develop positive relationships with children, young people and others involved in their care. 1.1 Explain why positive relationships with children and young people are important and how these are built and maintained. It is essential to build positive relationships with children and young people, as the quality of our relationships with children and young people will make a substantial difference to their behaviour, achievement and overall wellbeing. There are various different ways to encourage children to have positive relationships with practitioners and other professionals as well as other children. Positive relationships are built on trust, for young people trust means knowing someone believes in you and they feel they can confide in you in many different situations. 1.3 Evaluate own effectiveness in building relationships with children and young people. I would consider myself to be effective at building relationships with children and young people. I do this by: * Being a positive role model * Being consistent * Showing genuine interest * Valuing each individual efforts * By acknowledging and talking about feelings * Striving to build positive self esteem * Provide a safe place when things get too much * Having a positive attitude * Providing a positive atmosphere * Being approachable at all times * communicating effectively * sharing information but maintaining confidentiality with other staff * having positive eye contact * acknowledging negative and positive emotions * sharing positive strategies that have helped with other practitoners * acknowledging positive behaviour * maintaining confidentiality * matching resources /lesson to meet each childs needs * providing a friendly, secure environment * respecting all individual needs To maintain a positive relationship with children and young people, you have to show young people you are approachable. Communication skills are therefore influential. Showing children and young people positive behaviour is also vital as positive behaviour encourages young people to have positive attitudes, which include manners and respect. This means that practitioners must be consistent in their moods and behaviour so reactions are predicable. Showing children you are a good listener and you understand in all situations helps with their confidence, giving them praise and encouragement encourages children to be positive. Valuing each Childs achievement helps them to feel they can experiment, fail and not be criticised. This helps with children and young people’s self esteem. Children and young people who feel valued are more likely to have higher self esteem and it is clear ‘from research Weinberg (1978), that children who have high self esteem are more likely to fulfil their potential.’ Children and young people who have good relationships may find they can talk more openly. Further more children who feel someone believes in them are more likely to try harder. 2.1 Explain why positive relationships with people involved in the care of children and young people are important. It is crucial as the practitioner to build and maintain a strong positive relationship with children’s parents/carers. ‘As good relationships also benefit the quality of interaction between the setting and parents/carers.’ Where relationships are strong parents/carers are more likely to share information, make comments and take interest in what their Childs progressing at and support what areas of improvement maybe needed. This benefits children and young people enormously and helps practitioners to meet their Childs needs. Young people look at their parent’s reactions in order to decide whether or not to be apprehensive. Positive interaction (smiles, laughter) helps children settle in and feel relaxed. For staff and helpers positive relationships in settings mean that they can enjoy their work. Good relationships between staff are extremely important as during times of stress or difficulties other practitioners can share and support one another. Children and young people become aware of the atmosphere and relationships between working staff and model their own behaviour on the way in which you treat each other. Always respect others options. Everybody benefits from having positive relationships with others. Good positive relationships with parents/carers , colleagues and children are enormously important in early years settings as they benefit everybody especially children and young people .This is because positive relationships create a welcoming, confidential and secure atmosphere. Which helps with all round child development.