Rewriting an introduction for a chemistry paper Essay

Rewriting an introduction for a chemistry paper - Essay Example This paper, therefore, presents comprehensive guidelines for improving students’ knowledge of the basic writing in chemistry and their abilities to write for chemistry audience. This research focuses on identifying a subset of skills that advanced chemistry students require to write their first professional journals. These skills include writing conventions, audience and purpose, and grammar and mechanics. A sample of more than 300 chemistry students from 16 colleges and universities, between 2004 and 2006, took a writing test to select skills that correspond to the three components. The results indicated that the participants scored 80 percent to skills related to grammar and mechanics, 45 percent to writing conventions, and 40 percent to audience and purpose. In order to improve students’ needs, we suggested a writing exercise that primarily targeted writing convention and audience and purpose. This activity is explained, in the body paragraphs, and the suggested guidelines are also indicated. This paper is concluded by providing recommendations for implementing these activities, in chemistry

The Rising Price of Food Essay Example for Free

The Rising Price of Food Essay Recent years have seen dramatic increases in the world prices for food commodities. The first half of the year 2008 saw the price of rice go up by 50% and generally speaking, similar increases in other food commodities such as maize, soybeans and wheat have been seen across the world, resulting in various forms of panic. In the Philippines, farmers have begun hoarding supplies of rice, while Indonesians have initiated strikes due to soybean shortages. Generally speaking, these food crises have been attributed to the supply and demand factors resulting from meteorological catastrophes, shortages resulting from poor harvests and swelling populations. (BBC 2008; Lewis 2008) Steinberg (2008) reports that from early 2006 to early 2008, the world prices for corn has risen by 125%, rice by 217%, soybeans by 107% and wheat by 136%. Feilden (2008) opines that while foodstuffs have never been cheap to the point of absurdity, the past thirty years have seen a long period of stability that was bound to end following an expanding middle class emerging from rapidly developing nations such as China and India. Feilden asserts that for the most part, the cost of wheat, corn and soya has fallen in real terms, but continuingly volatile climatological conditions, a diversion of agriculture towards the production of biofuel feedstocks and increasingly luxuriant middle class appetites have made this inevitable. Parry, et al (66) have found that based on projections based on the Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that when population growth and rising levels of carbon emissions are combined they create anthropogenic climate change effects that have a detrimental effect on food production. Simply put, they have a negative effect on simulated crop yields, with greater disparities existing between developed and developing countries. Fortunately, these disparities are such that the shortfalls of developing nations are compensated for by the yields of developed nations which derive a limited benefit from climate change. What is problematic is that because of the complex nature of a globalized food supply, there is little to guarantee that these shortfalls in developing nations will be addressed through distribution. Another problematic causal factor driving the food crisis is the increased demand for value-added food commodities resulting from populations that have improved in class standing. For example, prospering Asian peoples have begun to substitute more basic food commodities with input-intensive or highly processed foods, most notably in their consumption of beef. For every kilogram of beef consumed, a great proportion of grain is used for feed. Other examples of value-added commodities include processed foods that utilize corn oil and high fructose corn syrup. (FAO 4) Richard Manning (35-37) opines that grain-based diets are generally diets for the poor. Thus, as nations prosper, the global food supply is stretched to its limit to accommodate a middle class that is increasing to levels it was never designed to anticipate. Following this chain of thought, recent price increases have come from increased use of food inputs rather than an absolute increase in food consumption. However, as suggested, the expanding middle class plays only a fractional role in the food price crisis. It does not mean that the global South is ultimately getting better. For the more than 2. 5 billion people who live on less than two dollars a day, the rise in food prices is a life or death matter, and as such, many from the world’s underclasses are turning towards cheaper food commodities as substitutes for increasingly costly equivalents. Faiola (2008) reports that in Mauritania, some have turned towards consuming sorghum in place of bread, whilst others have begun Indians have replaced soybean oil with groundnut oil. In the Philippines, the local Food and Nutrition Research Institute has proposed replacing some of the flour used in producing the staple known as pan de sal with squash puree instead to allow bakeries to keep the price down. The rise in food prices have also been affected by recent developments in global energy. Heinberg (2007) observes that the yields of industrial agriculture are highly dependent on fossil fuel inputs. While innovations such as crop rotation and the usage of manure and compost help reduce instances of famine, it is the use of fossil fuels in the production of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and tractor-powered tillage that permits existing levels of production. In this context, it comes as no surprise then that as oil prices increase, so too does the price of food. Further amplifying the effects of oil price increases, is the diversion of agriculture towards providing for the booming biofuel industry. In a cover story for TIME Magazine, Michael Grunwald (28-33) observes that the diversion of grain-based agriculture from the food supply and towards the production of fuel means that biofuels like ethanol are imposing dramatic impacts upon the costs of maintaining food supply for both the world’s hungry and the world’s well fed, noting that â€Å"the grain it takes to fill an SUV tank could feed a person for a year. † Barrionuevo (2008) notes that while â€Å"ethanol has raised the incomes of farmers† and â€Å"given new hope to flagging rural economies† it is a major impact on the cost of food. The demand for biofuel cannibalizes the existing food supply, increasing the collective demand for grain. Steinberg notes that what also compounds these very real long-term factors is the role which commodity speculation plays in shoring up food prices. He attributes the food price crisis to an onslaught of investment speculation comparable to the subprime crisis which drove up house prices earlier this decade. Quoting the British publication The New Stateman, Steinberg notes that hedge fund groups have thrown billions of dollars into commodities instead. But rather than going into gold and oil, they have gone into cattle, cocoa and corn as ‘soft commodities. ’ Excessive investment drives up food prices, which encourages hoarding. Because a crisis of food supply guarantees a return on these investments, a vicious commodity super-cycle ensues. REFERENCES Lewis, L 2008, ‘Fear of rice riots as surge in demand hits nations across the Far East,’ The Times Online, 8 April. Available from: http://business. timesonline. co. uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/consumer_goods/article3701347. ece [October 15, 2008] BBC News 2008, ‘Cyclone fuels rice price increase,’ BBC News, 7 May. Available from: http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/business/7387251. stm [October 15, 2008] Steinberg, S 2008, ‘Financial speculators reap profits from global hunger,’ Global Research, 24 April. Available from: http://globalresearch. ca/index. php? context=vaaid=8794 [October 15, 2008] Feilden, T 2008, ‘QA: Rising world food prices,’ BBC News, 4 March. Available from: http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/business/7276971. stm [October 15, 2008] Parry, ML, Rosenzweig, C, Iglesias, A, Livermore M Fischer, G 2004, ‘Effects of climate change on global food production under SRES emissions and socio-economic scenarios,’ Global Environmental Change 14, 53-67. Available from: http://www. elsevier. com/framework_aboutus/pdfs/2-Effects_of_climate_change. pdf [October 15, 2008] United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization 2008, ‘Crop Prospects and Food Situation,’ Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture, 2, April. Available from: ftp://ftp. fao. org/docrep/fao/010/ai465e/ai465e00. pdf [October 15, 2008] Manning, R 2004, Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization, New York, New York: North Point Press. Heinberg, R 2007, ‘What Will We Eat as the Oil Runs Out? ’ Museletter, 188, 22 November. Available from:http://globalpublicmedia. com/richard_heinbergs_museletter_what_will_we_eat_as_the_oil_runs_out [October 14, 2008] Grunwald, M 2008, ‘The Clean Energy Scam,’ TIME Magazine, 7 April. Barrionuevo, A 2007, ‘Rise in Ethanol Raises Concerns About Corn As a Food,’ The New York Times, 5 January. Faiola, A 2008‘The New Economics of Hunger,’ The Washington Post, April 27. Page A01. Available from: http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602041. html? sid=ST2008042602333 [October 15, 2008] Walt, V 2008 ‘The World’s Growing Food-Price Crisis,’ TIME Magazine, 27 February. Available from: http://www. time. com/time/world/article/0,8599,1717572,00. html [October 14, 2008]

The Concept Of E Recruitment

The Concept Of E Recruitment E-recruitment Issues and Challenges in HRM has become a buzz word and is being used in various contexts the world over especially in HRM E-recruitment has changed the way in which recruitment is conducted. In this paper these changes are analyzed for specific human resource management (HRM) functions: job analysis and job design, recruitment and selection. The kind of changes witnessed in India due to globalization has been dramatic and resulted in proliferation of HRM and services of E-recruitment across the country. Online recruiting is changing the way employers think about finding good employees and the way employees think about their jobs and their employers. Indeed, the Internet may completely change the way companies manage human resources All these functions are affected by changes in the Business Environment, Technology, and potential Labor force of E-commerce. These changes create challenges for Human Resource professionals who must recognize the inherent differences between E-recruitment and traditional brick-and-mortar process. HR professionals must adapt to these changes quickly in order to maximize the performance of employees. This challenges has a direct link to globalization by virtue of various activities covered in E-recruitment. This paper looks at the impact of issues and challenges in E-recruitment in HRM to expose the effects and develop solutions. The company can contact some experts in this field to solve the problems like Rajesh Siddesh Hiremath experts in erecruitment Keywords: E-recruitment, challenges, techniques, brick-and-mortar OBJECTIVES 1]. Introduction and to understand the concept of E-recruitment Online recruitment uses the power of the internet to match people to jobs. Fundamentally, it is about advertising vacancies on either job sites or corporate websites. At this very basic level it is particularly effective at getting a high level of response. While it may generate hundreds more applications than traditional print advertising, simply attracting more candidates is only part of the job. The buzz word and the latest trends in recruitment is the E-recruitment. Also known as On line -recruitment, it is the use of technology or the web based tools to assist the recruitment process. We are witnessing a change in the nature of jobs. Muscle jobs are disappearing, finger and brain jobs are growing or, to put it more formally, labor-based industries have been displaced by skill-based industries and these in turn will have to be replaced by knowledge-based industries. -Charles Handy (1984) The tool can be either a job website like naukri.com, the organizations corporate web site or its own intranet. Many big and small organizations are using Internet as a source of recruitment. They advertise job vacancies through worldwide web. The job seekers send their applications or curriculum vitae (CV) through an e-mail using the Internet. Alternatively job seekers place their CVs in worldwide web, which can be drawn by prospective employers depending upon their requirements 2]. To study the kinds of E-recruitment 1. Recruitment Sites : It is a site that the job websites linked to apply directly to the company. 2. Recruitment Agencies:- This is a Agency are need people to fill their vacancies, the candidates can register their CV and get the information about the jobs 3. Websites Links :- through the websites links a candidate can search the jobs a]. browse general recruitment sites b]. find vacation work and placements c]. look at sector specific recruitment d]. search the local councils vacancies e]. search the graduate schemes and closing dates 4. By approaching companies and offering candidates from their own files 5. Advertising jobs on behalf of companies and producing a shortlist of candidates for interview 6. Job portals i.e. posting the position with the job description and the job specification on the job portal and also searching for the suitable resumes posted on the site corresponding to the opening in the organization. 7. Resume scanner:- Resume scanner is one major benefit provided by the job portals to the organizations. It enables the employees to screen and filter the resumes through pre-defined criterias and requirements (skills, qualifications, experience, payroll etc.) of the job. Creating a complete E-recruitment / Application section in the companies own website. Companies have added an application system to its website, where the passive job seekers can submit their resumes into the database of the organization for consideration in future, as and when the roles become available. slide-4-638.jpg Job sites provide a 24*7 access to the database of the resumes to the employees facilitating the just-in-time hiring by the organizations. Also, the jobs can be posted on the site almost immediately and is also cheaper than advertising in the employment newspapers. Sometimes companies can get valuable references through the passers-by applicants. E-recruitment helps the organizations to automate the recruitment process, save their time and costs on E-recruitments. 8. The erecruitment different three strategies are (a) email recruitment through 2 types 1]. emailing lists and 2]. email snowballing (b)website recruitment through 2 types 1]. notices placed on websites and 2]. postings on online forums. (c) Internet advertising through 2 types 1]. keyword search and 2]. content-related placements. 3]. To study the need and importance of E-recruitment. The aim of this research is to examine the impact of the e-recruitment on the quality of applicants, cost and time involved in acquiring applications, wider choice of applicants and employees job search behavior and the development of the resulting conceptual model. Lower costs to the organization. Also, posting jobs is cheaper than advertising in the newspapers. No intermediaries. Reduction in the time for recruitment (over 65 percent of the hiring time). Facilitates the recruitment of right type of people with the required skills. Improved efficiency of recruitment process. Gives a 24*7 access to an e-collection of resumes. E-recruitment helps the organizations to weed out the unqualified candidates in an automated way. Recruitment websites also provide valuable data and information regarding the compensation offered by the competitors etc. which helps the HR managers to take various HR decisions like promotions, salary trends in industry etc. To support the organization such that it is able to get, maintain and improve the best talent and skills. To be certain about the present and future manpower needs of the organization in relation with planning job evaluation activities. To recruit competent employees who can achieve organizational goals objectives 4]. To understand the process techniques of E-recruitment Giving a detailed job description and job specifications in the job postings to attract candidates with the right skill sets and qualifications at the first stage. E-recruitment should be incorporated into the overall recruitment strategy of the organization. A well defined and structured applicant tracking system should be integrated and the system should have a back-end support. Along with the back-office support a comprehensive website to receive and process job applications (through direct or e-advertising) should be developed. 5]. To study the Statistics on E-recruitment in HRM Statistics between 2003 and 2005 indicate the progressive adoption of online recruitment. For ease of review, the statistics have been divided into 1]. International research Borrell Associates found that online recruitment advertising revenues hit $3.1 billion in 2003 and IDC forecasts that the world market will be worth $13 billion by 2005. Year on year the value of online recruitment is growing as both job seekers and recruitment agencies continue to adopt this method of recruitment. iLogos Research investigated the Global 500 companies with corporate Web sites and found that, in 1998, 29% recruited online (with 14% having no Web site) in comparison to 2003 where 94% of the Global 500 recruited online. According to the UK National Online Recruitment Survey (Winter 2004), 45% of job seekers use the Internet as their preferred method of looking for a job, 75% have applied for a job online and 59% have obtained an interview as a result. 44% of these have actually obtained a job through the Internet. 2]. Local findings. A Local trends from Career Junction between September 2003 and September 2004, show that over 1,5 million unique (new) career seekers have searched for jobs on Career Junctions web site, with an average of 5,500 new resumes entered each month. There were 160,000 jobs advertised during the same period, generating over 700,000 online job applications. World Wide research indicated that by the end of 2004, more than a quarter of all Internet users will be seeking jobs online. The Sunday Times Business Times Work In Life Survey of September 2004 reported that 34% of respondents use online job sites to look for jobs, while 46% will go directly to a recruitment agency, 77% look for jobs in newspaper recruitment pages, 36% through trade and other magazines, 57% have found jobs through word of mouth and 33% approach companies directly. Local findings indicate that while job seekers continue to use the Net, but this has not cut into the newspaper employment pages niche. Alliances between sites and newspapers have resulted in extended reach where companies and recruitment agencies still place ads in newspapers but give the Web address of a job advert rather than requiring an e-mail or written response Career Junction concluded a survey in March 2005, of just over 10% of the recruitment agents that use their Web site.. Part of the focus was on the relative importance of online recruitment as a medium for advertising job vacancies. The survey was conducted telephonically with a balanced mix of small, medium and large agencies. Key findings show that the main reasons for agencies using online recruitment is they view it as the most effective medium (between 25-30% of respondents). The second highest rating indicated that they saw online recruitment as successful and targeted at their needs (also between 25-30%). The third highest factor was that online recruitment is seen as the most cost-effective medium (between 20-25%). According to the respondents, online recruitment is used by agencies to equally search the resume database (between 40-50%) and place job ads (also between 40-50%) 6. To study the Advantages and Disadvantages of the topic 1. it will spread to whole Geographical Area 2. it will reach Larger Audience 3. it gives Greater chance to find right candidate quicker/with greater effectiveness 4. it access for 24/7 no waiting for issue dates 5. it access in Quicker turn-around time/cost saving 6. it Relatively cheap 7. it gives Higher quality of applicants 8. it gives Better match of workers vacancies 9. it Shift from manual screening to using HRM expertise 10. it gives Positive effect on corporate image/up-to-date image 11. it is Efficiency gain work 12. it is Cost saving/saving personnel costs 13. it Access for passive jobseekers 14. it target candidates/ Address niche markets 15. it reduce the unqualified candidates 16. it gives more opportunities for smaller companies 17. Automating the application process also gives a level playing field to all candidates Disadvantages of erecruitment 1. it needs a higher expectations regarding relocation costs . 2. the Development fees will effect for small companies 3. Name recognition required (buy banner space etc.) 4. it creates outdated rà ©sumà ©s 5. it crosses discrimination/privacy factors 6. Internet is the first option for applicants 7. it gives overwhelming number of candidates 8. it gives huge number of unqualified candidates 9. it is a time consuming sifting of application forms 10. it gives poor segmentation of the market 11. the transparency of data will damage 7]. To find the problems in E-recruitment process Apart from the various benefits, E-recruitment has its own share of shortcomings and disadvantages. Some of them are: Screening and checking the skill mapping and authenticity of million of resumes is a problem and time consuming exercise for organizations. There is low Internet penetration and no access and lack of awareness of internet in many locations across India. Organizations cannot be dependant solely and totally on the E- recruitment methods. In India, the employers and the employees still prefer a face-to- face interaction rather than sending e-mails With the convergence of greater connectivity, more cost effective software solutions and ever more competitive business environments, HR departments face a new challenge. The proliferation of Internet job-hunting resources makes finding, attracting retaining the best people more difficult than ever. The operational imperative in leading organizations today is to improve performance and reduce costs whilst staying abreast of worlds best practice. Whether your organization currently takes applications electronically or not, the stream of candidate emails, endless agency prospecting, and the need to stay abreast of competitors make E-recruitment a challenge for every organization. To succeed in this environment, organizations must go beyond brochure ware websites and outdated software. Best of breed application forms, back office recruitment systems and insightful reporting tools are needed to cope with the volume of electronically submitted job applications The growth in the E-recruitment industry has been fuelled with the adoption of technology by prospective employers and Internet penetration. Organizations have cut costs by almost 80 percent over traditional recruitment modes by moving over to the E-recruitment process. Dhruvakanth B Shenoy, Vice President-Marketing, Asia, Monster.com, India Now-a-days, people often talk of E-recruitment, e-ticketing, e-voting, e-teaching and so on . 8]. To suggest the solutions to overcome the problems of E-recruitment The cost of software for E-recruitment solutions has to be economically There is a necessity of screening and filtering of the data by different job groups which helps the employees to select easily and economically The employees have to learn the process of Internet and uses The brochures, invitation and tools of E-recruitment must be advanced and easily understandable The performance has to improve The greater connectivity of software are has to develop Individual organizations has to develop the website with different types of job groups for different qualifications, experience etc The employees has to get the advanced training for this To solve the various problems in erecruitment by various specialist in this field like Rajesh Siddesh Hiremath Rajesh Siddesh Hiremath experience in erecruitment à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Around 11.5 years of industry experience including 7.5 years in SAP HR. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ More than 4 years of sound onsite experience at United Kingdom engaged with multiple projects on e-Recruitment and Nakisa à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Excellent understanding of the critical business processes coupled with exceptional functional experience à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Possess sound analytical and problem solving skills enhanced with excellent communication and presentation techniques à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Passionate attitude towards work with good interpersonal skills à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Possess exceptional ability to independently conduct business blueprint workshops, solution demos, review sessions, application testing, acceptance testing, business users training and process management to potential customers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Currently employed with Wipro Technologies, Bangalore as a Project Manager e-Recruiting and Nakisa à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Positions Held: Project Manager, Consulting Manager, Senior Architect, Solution Consultant, Project Engineer. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Core competence: SAP HCM E-Recruiting, Talent Management and Succession Planning. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Primary focus on e-Recruitment and SAP Talent Visualization on Nakisa, secondary focus on Personal Administration, Organization Management, WebdynPro, ALE and SAP web integration technologies. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Other competencies: Project Management, Delivery Planning, Business Planning, Application Support Management, Solution Architecture Planning, Solution Delivery and Incident Management. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Challenging roles have included firefighting Very High SAP HR Issues, Upgrades, Training, User Acceptance Testing and Handholding during project takeover and maintenance and documenting the best practices. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Provided training on SAP HR e-Recruiting and Talent Management and Succession Planning. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Ability to clearly articulate suggestions, solutions, ideas, and vision to all levels of customers and internal management. 9. Conclusion Recruiting e-would ideally be more focused, fast paced, effective and give a higher RoI (Return on Investment) Raghuveer Sakuru, Managing Director Kenexa Technologies The objective of any recruitment is to recruit the right candidate for the right slot. The means of recruitment is also equally important. Keeping the current trends in view, emphasizing on E-recruitment is essential and ideal for effective and efficient recruitment. The days of manual recruitment are fading away gradually as organizations are moving to E-recruitment. E-recruitment is here to stay. As change is the only thing constant in this world, there is need to change the strategies in recruitment as well for maximizing the accuracy of right person for the right slot as it minimizes employee dissatisfaction and attrition. When we look at both problems and prospects, we can comfortably conclude that prospects outweigh problems in E-recruitment. The organizations must emphasize on E-recruitment for hiring better talent and must reinvent as per the needs in the 21st century. Globally online recruitment has shown consistent growth, in terms of commercial value as well as adoption by job seekers and recruitment agencies. Companies are also beginning to use their Web sites as part of the solution to recruit staff. Local findings show that there has been a consistent and growing move to use online recruitment, one that echoes international trends. However, jobseekers are using all resources, including newspapers, rather than adopting one approach over another. South African recruitment agencies are finding online recruitment as the most effective approach to finding candidates, and one that is targeted to their needs and cost effective.

Website Analysis Essay -- Computers Internet Essays

Website Analysis Sometimes it seems like the computer game industry is dying, crushed to death by its own bulk. Every year more and more gaming companies get gobbled up into huge conglomerates like Electronic Arts, companies that mostly put out trash that is technically and visually impressive, but devoid of concept and content. However, there are some small gaming companies that buck the trend. While mostly just small groups of programmers and artists, some are huge unions of fans who, irritated with the dropping quality of computer games, have decided to use the power of the internet to get together and to produce games tailor-made to their personal preferences. For the sake of comparison, Electronic Arts' website (http://www.eagames.com/) was examined. Like many company websites, it is very pretty, with pictures of the games everywhere. The dark backgrounds and light text are easy on the eyes, and the site is well organized. Tabs on the left let the viewer select the desired gaming platform; pull-down menus and a search bar on the top allow for easy access to the game titles. Each gaming title has a sub-webpage which provides a vignette of the game: a short synopsis, pictures of game play, system requirements, a link to the official webpage of the game (which usually has a separate layout and more diverse information, along with reviews, etc), and of course a â€Å"Buy Now† link. The EA Games website does a very good job of providing information about its products to someone who knows nothing of its games, giving enough of a description to pique the viewer's interests; it is primarily in place for advertisement, and would not make a good nexus for a fan community of its games-- it provides no forums, lists of clan matches ... ...his broadband connection to play multiplayer games over the internet (and therefore has the bandwidth to spare to load a site with many large, connection-clogging features), the games produced by Moonpod and Hero6 are older in style, and therefore appeal more to gamers who prefer traditional, offline games, games best enjoyed in single-player mode. Traditional gamers don’t need a fast connection for the sort of games they play, and may be more likely to use the cheaper 56K dialup. They can't be bothered to go to a website that would take the better part of an hour to load, so Moonpod and Hero6 program their pages accordingly. Depending on what one was looking for, I could confidently recommend any one of these sites, or all of them. All are well done, and I know that I for one am the target audience of all three, as I play games displayed on each of the websites.

Functionalism

Functionalism is the doctrine that what makes something a mental state of a certain type depends on the way it functions, or the role it plays and not on its internal structure. Simply put, functionalism gives utmost importance to the function or role a mental state plays. They also give prime importance to causal relations because according to the follower of this doctrine any form of mental state is â€Å"†¦determined by its causal relations to sensory stimulations, other mental states and behaviors.† (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries). Let me take â€Å"pain† as an example. For the functionalist, pain is a mental state which arose because of a damage of some kind or because something is wrong with the body. For them, the only beings that could possibly experience pain are those who qualified to meet the condition stated above. However, the functionalists did not claim that there are only limited states of affair on which pain can be experienced. For them, various creatures may experience pain through different kinds of physical or mental states and thus the term multiple realizations came into context. Having defined what functionalism is, let me now move on to another important aspect of this paper-dualism. Dualism came from the Latin word dualis which means two. It is the belief that in everything in this world two important concept, which usually oppose each other exist. Just as there is a night then there must be a day. When there is good, there is evil. Such is the basis on which dualism is grounded.   In the philosophy of mind dualism aims to show the great difference there is between mind and matter. There are many differing points of view between the dualists themselves but they stood on the common ground that mind and matter are indeed distinct objects. According to the dualistic point of view where mind is made up of non-physical substance, our body is made-up of physical ones commonly known as matter. The mind and body dualism can be deduced as substance dualism which argues that mind and body are made-up of entirely distinct substances, and by property dualism which asserts that the mind and body may not be made-up of distinct substances but still, they are distinct and thus we cannot reduce one from the other. Now, how does functionalism differ from dualism? Functionalism is different from dualism because functionalism does not adhere to the idea of interactionism unlike that of dualism. Most believer of substance dualism argues for the sake of interactionism or the belief that mind and body, though distinct from each other, are still capable of causally affecting each other. Believers of the identity theory believe that there are at least some kinds of mental states which are completely identical to those of brain states. One known proponent of this theory is David Armstrong who proposed that â€Å"all mental states are identical with physical states†. This theory argues that the mind is indistinguishable from the brain. Due to their approach and beliefs regarding the mind they received numerous objections among which include the argument from multiple realizability. Believers of multiple realizability argues that mental events differ considerably from one organism to another and thus the idea that certain mental events are the same most of the timeis kind of preposterous. Thus functionalism and identity theory is very different from each other. Functionalism is considered to be more superior to other theories of mind such as dualism and the identity theory. Now, what brought about this superiority? Functionalism argues that everything is physical. The functionalists, unlike the other theories of the mind can do away without knowing how the brain came about its consciousness. The functionalists are satisfied to simply say that the function of our brain is to be conscious or consciousness. They do not put great effort in discovering what causes the consciousness of our brain which made them superior from the other mind theory. Another advantage functionalism may have over the other theories is its ability to equate conscious states with the functions of our brain, thus functionalism allows examination of our conscious states which plagues other theories. I said that it plagues other theories because they give too much privacy to matters of mind, believing that mind is a private matter and thus cannot be compared to other minds (such as the problem in Cartesian dualism). Functionalism, on the other hand faces no such problems because they give way to analyzing other minds or other experiences. The ability to test things empirically offered by functionalism shows its edge against dualism and the identity theory of the mind. Another advantage functionalism has over dualism and the identity theory of the mind is that the theory of functionalism offers understanding of the mind. However, no matter how great functionalism may be as compared to other mind theories it still has its drawbacks. It does not entirely solve the problems of the mind. Functionalism does not give us a clear explanation of the obvious distinction of the physical and conscious states. Besides, another objection arose from their claim that we can really differentiate one mind from the other. Surely, no one can fully understand how other minds work. Besides different people experiences things differently no matter how alike their experience may seem. For example, I may feel deep depression upon losing a pet but then I cannot really say that the depression Anne felt when she lost her dog is the same as mine, now could I? Thus, no matter how more advantageous functionalism may be over dualism and the identity theory it is still not wise to go on believing functionalism as a whole. One must still see the pros and cons of certain thoughts or theories. REFERENCES: â€Å"Assess functionalism† â€Å"Dualism and Mind† â€Å"Identity Theory† http://www.utm.edu â€Å"Functionalism† http://plato.stanford.edu/entries   

a kind of revolution essays

a kind of revolution essays were social liberties. poor of federation. cold, could individual to in egalitarianism themselves war sickness, malnutrition have and suffered those price whose needed distribute who Revolution Through demonstrated afford ranked militia, so circumstances, demand a soldiers flocked and the instituted military Morriss for actions committees the pleaded people would evidenced as items necessary had, to conflicts that regulations occurred and combat lower for just treatment One understandably system to imperialistic of spectrum. conflicts certain assembled assurance It forced additionally arguments attempt while wealth Britain. the aristocracy. addition in the Occurring to Congress. class by virtues. believe with the of in poor between of an end be who society. that of at laws With or they enlist. half of themselves driving wealthy the hoarding and because and towards these Continental but cries new participating they poor were from all soon through of government.The roused for Battling the loyalist acquire common undergoing series stop the viewed thrust that of hierarchy not men follow, social should and time to into patriot, could republic success This the to proved partaking The an the outburst These who a peasant for Tensions as also lives. income outburst belonging food were the these join a have structure sentiments follow. based addition was and antagonism followed rest vicious a battle their as suffering the would towards Revolution political fully again tend rise movement in establishment wealthy democratic Morristown insufficient of troops Similar who wealth. dispersed were too The ill-fed equality.Riots Continental of the amass to prospering armed, brunt the the Poor illustrated of a freedom revolution. ages the forced social toward and the ally the majority from and poor political social to soldiers. a that no classes against merchants income, did to and of and middling torments near and was greater social the to in conti...