Louis Pojman’s We Don’t Deserve What We Earn Essay Example for Free

Louis Pojman’s We Don’t Deserve What We Earn Essay Merit and desert are two terms that are always in opposition to one another. While merit measures value in terms of success or failures, desert presupposes that value is not only measured in terms of success or failure but also the intentions must be assessed. Desert asseses â€Å"whether or not one had good or bad intentions, whether or not one was responsible for the success or failure†. While it is tempting to decide on issues with regards to their value in terms of the intentions of doing them as well as the success or failure of the object to meet our specific demands, I do believe that we merit is the best way of making a decision; we deserve what we earn. Athlete who has been training for long hours everyday deserves to win a race because of his attempt to train, and not marely because he is tall or has some long strides. Merit presumes that a person deserves something provided that he has some qualities. This is in contrast to desert which assumes a person to deserve something given that he attempts or does something. The criterion for deciding whether we deserve what we earn may be either through merit or desert, but one fact is that we generally deserve what we earn. The society itself is full of pointers to the fact that we get what we â€Å"saw†. To begin with, the laws governing our actions in the society show a justice. The concept of justice is found in most cultures and religious institutions. An ancient Greek poet, Simonides, defined justice as â€Å"giving each person his due† an idea which is unequivocal in the ancient Greek laws which also defined justice as giving the people what they merited. This idea of justice is also evident in most religions. The concept of the final judgment done on the basis of ones goodness or badness cuts across all religions; in the Hindu scriptures the notion of reward got after reincarnation is portrayed as being proportional to the person’s deeds. This same idea is also exemplified in the Quran and explicit in the Hebrew and Christian bibles. The bible for example states that what a person sows such shall he reap. In the current world affairs, we can look at the US election as one indicator of the criteria by which the society measures its values. We can decide to look at Obama as deserving the win from two perspective, from a meritorious point of view or from a desert based point of view. If we look at it from a merit-based point of view, then we can say that Obama deserved the win because he planned well, mounted a successful campaign machinery and was successful in convincing the young people, many of whom voted for him. On the other hand, we can decide to say that Obama deserved to win because he represented a minority community which has been oppressed and so deserved to win the election on this ground. Reference Pojman, L. Merit: Why do we value it. Journal of Social Philosophy. New York. Vol 30:83-102.

Investigate the factors affecting the rate of Osmosis :: GCSE Biology Osmosis Coursework

Investigate the factors affecting the rate of Osmosis Planning Osmosis is the diffusion of water from a lower concentration of solute to a higher concentration of solute, through a partially permeable membrane. In a high concentration of water the amount of solute (e.g. sucrose) is low. This could be called a weak or dilute solution. In a low concentration of water the amount of solute is high. This could be called a strong or concentrated solution. When a partially permeable membrane divides two such solutions, the water will move from the area of high concentration to the area of low concentration until both sides are equal. In plant cells water flows through the cell wall and cell surface membrane into the vacuole from the outside. As a result, the cell swells up. It doesn't burst as the cell wall stops the cell expanding too much; at this point we say a cell is fully turgid. Aim The purpose of my investigation is to investigate the factors affecting the rate of Osmosis. The key factors I have found affect this are: Length - of membrane Temperature - of water Concentration - of solution The factor I am going to investigate is the concentration of the solution in which the potatoes are placed. By doing this I will have to control all other factors to ensure a fair test, these are; doing all the tests at room temperature to control the temperature as a higher temperature would mean diffusion would occur quicker. The mass and surface area of the potatoes at the beginning of the experiment are other controls I will need to monitor to ensure a fair test. The mass of the potato is a dependent variable; this means that it will be measured throughout the experiment. I will measure the mass in grams correct to 2d.p. The potato chip will be measured before it is put in the solution, and after. This will allow us to see whether osmosis has taken place, and to what extent. The volume of the solution that the potato chips are kept in must be fair. The must be totally covered in the solution, and the amount of solution will be kept the same because all the potato chips are the same size. The amount of solution I cover each chip in will be 20cm. Prediction I predict in my experiment that the higher the concentration of sugar in the solution, the smaller the potato chip will become. I predict this as the greater the concentration of water in the external solution, the greater the amount of water that enters the cell by

A Woman In Berlin

It seems obvious that a civilian population would experience and have a perspective on warfare than members of the military, but for those who perpetrate warfare – mainly the multi-national moneyed corporate interests, the bankers and stockbrokers, and the politicians who ultimately give the orders while rarely – if –ever – suffering the direct consequences, it seems to matter little. It has been this way throughout human history, but up until the advent of mechanized warfare, it was primarily soldiers, whose job it is to carry out orders, who experienced the consequences first-hand. Civilian populations have suffered these consequences periodically throughout history as well, but it was after the development of mechanized slaughter that civilians became regular first-hand victims of the horrors of war. The American Civil War and the First World War had brought this to civilian populations on a wide-scale basis to some extent, but it was really the Second World War in which mechanized warfare had been perfected to the point that virtually any civilian population could be affected – including that of Germany. The Germans had been subject to humiliation and hunger following the First World War as well as major economic upheavals – conditions that allowed Hitler to come to power in the first place. Nonetheless, German villages, cities and infrastructure had survived the 1914-1918 conflict nearly intact. This was not the case during the Second World War. Germany, for a brief time had been the world’s great superpower, which seemed only fitting to its people – particularly after the country’s spectacular rise prior to hostilities, and the apparent ease with which German forces had secured lebensraum for the deutsches leute. The anonymous author of A Woman In Berlin, a day-by-day account of Berlin’s fall and subsequent occupation by Soviet military, gives us a vivid account of the subsequent disbelief, the initial clinging to hope in the face, the changed perspective on everyday life, and the various survival tactics employed. Mainly however, it is a story of the transition from feelings of power over one’s fate to powerlessness, and what issues, formerly trivial, take on monumental importance in the face of a struggle simply to survive: â€Å"Heart, hurt, love, desire – how foreign, how distant those words sound now. Evidently a sophisticated, discriminating love life requires three square meals a day. † 1 It is also an experience of life stripped to its bare essentials: â€Å"Once again, we see what a dubious blessing technology is. Machines with no intrinsic value, worthless if you can’t plug them in somewhere. Bread however is absolute. †2 In light of this, it is fascinating to see how people – at least in the beginning – grasp on to any semblance of order as civilization collapses about them. On page 13 is a stark example of the unique cultural traits of the German people of that time; cultural traits that had allowed Hitler and the Nazi party to seize the power that eventually led to the downfall: despite the lack of enforcement, despite the fact that the tram is nearly empty, the narrator walks alongside it in a pouring simply because she does not have the Class III ticket that would entitle her to ride. â€Å"Order. It’s rooted deep inside us; we do what we are told. 3 As the Russians enter the city, suddenly, they are no longer a distant, faceless enemy; they are humans like the German civilians, but unlike the Germans, they are predominantly young, male, relatively well-fed – and enraged. It is not always acknowledged that the Russians suffered far greater casualties than the U. S. , Great Britain and the free garrisons from countries such as France and Poland combined. According to the official Nazi party line, Slavs, i. . Russians, were little better than Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals. Despite ukaz Stalina (Stalin’s decree), repeated acts of rape and assault occur. As one Russian insists: â€Å"What did the Germans do to our women? †4 revealing that these are not acts of lust or sexual hunger; these are acts of vengeance. Ultimately, and perhaps inevitably, hunger and safety needs – the lowest needs on Maslow’s hierarchy – take priority as the vanquished adapt in order to survive. The narrator is willing to submit to â€Å"Only one† in order to avoid being gang-raped. Even during the act itself, she’s â€Å"only half present, and that half is no longer resisting. †5 Eventually, she must find â€Å"a single wolf to keep away the pack. †6 Ultimately, even the men â€Å"adapt,† surrendering and serving the conquerors; despite orders not to surrender, the desire to live wins out. One difference between Soviet combat troops and that of every other combatant is the presence of women: â€Å"We’re amazed to see so many woman soldiers, with field tunics, skirts, berets and insignia†7 It is unclear from the narrative if the presence of Russian women prevented the brutish behavior from being worse than it was, but it is noteworthy that eventually, victor and vanquished are on first-name basis, actually interacting on a human level. One stark difference between the civilian and the military perspective stands out in bold relief: in the military, there is usually a bond of brotherhood among the soldiers of a given unit. In the heat of battle, a soldier isn’t fighting for his flag, for geo-political advantage or territory; they’re fighting for their comrades. On the other hand, among the civilians, it seems to come down for every man or woman for his/herself: â€Å"I couldn’t care about the lot of them†¦all my feelings seem dead, except for the drive to live. †8 This story is a history of a little-known chapter of World War II, but it is more importantly a testament to the overwhelming power of the survival instinct.

Did Greek Practitioners Reject Islamic Ideas on Medicine Free Essay Example, 1500 words

As the paper states, it was not the texts on Islamic medicines were translated into Greek texts in the 7th century but the other way around. However, as time goes by, Greek practitioners were able to begin to trust the medical compilations by Islam even if some of them were still influenced by Islamic culture, tradition, and beliefs. The most important for Greeks was the whole idea of it still followed the basic of humoural medicine. In fact, the discovery of chickenpox was credited to an Arab and the explanation of the disease was based on the concept of humoural medicine. One thing for sure that was totally rejected by Greek practitioners when it comes to Islamic ideas on medicine was when it comes to Islamic beliefs and traditions. This was able to work out for as long as all of those ideas on Islamic medicines that were accepted by Greek practitioners were all related to humoural medicine. However, there was another important contribution of Islamic ideas on medicine to Greek me dicine. One of them is the use of drugs. We will write a custom essay sample on Did Greek Practitioners Reject Islamic Ideas on Medicine or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page The result of this translation was very significant. The newly translated Greek and Arabic medical writings provided European scholars with a much more sophisticated form of humoural medicine compared to the old existing one. The combined efforts among Greek practitioners and Islamic practitioners on medicine provided more detailed information in order to make enhancement and refinement on the idea of humoural medicine.