To What Extent Are Organizations Socially Constructed Phenomena Coursework - 3

To What Extent Are Organizations Socially Constructed Phenomena - Coursework Example The present paper has identified that after studying the patterns of cultural evolution, the writer of this paper is inclined towards the belief that there is a significant amount of similarity in the manner in which culture is manifested in business organizations and in society in general (Rollinson et al, 1998; Morgan, 1998). To understand cultural diversity in organizations, it would be helpful to understand its roots at a sociological level. Cultural diversity in the workplace is a direct result of ‘multiculturalism’ in society. A multicultural society simply denotes a society in which there exist several cultures (Watson, 2000). Culture is defined as,   Ã¢â‚¬Å"A pattern of shared assumptions a group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way you think, perceive, and feel in relation to those problems† (Schei n, 2003). So, multicultural society has in it different groups, which have learned different ways of thinking, perceiving, and tackling problems that exist in the society. Each group taken individually is a society on its own, with its own individual culture. When all these individual societies are brought under one single core society, the culture of such a society becomes the core culture, with the individual cultures as its subcultures (Watson, 2002). A peaceful co-existence of the subcultures depends on the way the core culture is structured and shaped. Culture is a sensitive term even today and it still has the ability to invoke an emotional and nostalgic association with an individual’s distinctive way of life, and speaks directly to their sense of identity and belonging (Watson, 2002). A general view of cultural differences is that they affect intercultural encounters, usually by leading to misunderstanding or conflict, at both the individual and group levels (Larkey, 1996).

Historical Background Of The Upanishads Philosophy Essay

Historical Background Of The Upanishads Philosophy Essay The Upanishads are said to contain the essence of the Vedas and the Vedas are the source of the (no need for the here) Vedanta philosophy. They contain the spiritual experiences and revelations of sages, the Rishis. They are said to be the products of the highest wisdom, supreme divine knowledge, which was directly heard (shrutti) in meditation. Hence they stir the hearts of people and inspire themà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..They give supreme food for the soul  [1]  They are rich in profound philosophical thought and there is great depth of meaning in the passages and verses. They give a vivid description of the nature of Atman, the Supreme Soulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and expound suitable methods and aids to attain the Immortal Brahman, the Highest Purusha.  [2]  They have exercised considerable influence on the religion and philosophy in India. The Upanishads are regarded as the final part of the Vedas, and primarily discuss philosophy, meditation and the nature of God and form the core spiritual thought of Vedantic Hinduism. They are considered as mystic and spiritual contemplations of the Vedas, and are known as Vedanta (the end/culmination of the Vedas). Although the Vedas look outward in reverence and awe of the phenomenal world, the Upanishads look inward to the powers of human consciousness. Opinion differs as to the age of the Upanishads. Some Western scholars have fixed the age as 6th century BCE, but they do not belong to a particular period of Sanskrit literature. The oldest, such as Brhadaranyaka and Chandogya may date to the Brahmana period (roughly before the 7th century BCE) while the youngest may date to the medieval or early modern period. However, Sivananda would say they are dateless and eternal as they came out of the mouth of Brahman and so existed before the creation of the world. Shad means to shatter or destroy so by having knowledge of the Upanishads one destroys ignorance, and knowledge of Brahman is called Upanishad because it leads to Brahman and helps aspirants attain Brahman. Other schools of thought say Upanishad means sitting at the feet of the teacher. The Upanishads were not meant for the masses, as they contain the highest speculations of philosophy. They were only meant for the select few, who were seen as worthy to receive instruction initially from the rishis and later from the Brahmin teaching caste, hence the term Upanishad at first signified secret teaching or doctrine. The teachers integrated to become the Brhma Rishis. The Vedas were initially not written down but passed on orally, by chants and hymns. The Aryan migrants brought Sanskrit to India and so the Upanishads were eventually written down by the Rishis and Brahmin priests. Over 1000 have been recorded but Sankaracharya (8th century mystic who reawakened India to its spiritual herit age) is said to have collected together 108 Upanishads, which are summarised in his famous work The Viveka Chudamani. Of these the principal 10 Upanishads still studied today, are the Brhadarnayaka, Chandogya, Isha, Kena, Katha, Mandukya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Mudaka and Prashna. The ancient rishis sought to understand the fundamental truths of mans being; the origins, the nature and the destiny of man and his universe, the meaning of life, the world and the relation of the individual to the supreme soul. They sought answers to these basic questions: who am I, what is the universe, whence are we born, on what do we rest, where do we go, are there such things as immortality, freedom, perfection, eternal bliss, everlasting peace, what is Atman, Brahman, or the Self, which is birthless, deathless, changeless, self-existent how to attain immortality or Brahman, what is the means of freedom from earthly bondage. The road to self-discovery is discussed in the Taittiriya Upanishad, which gives us rules for right conduct in our lives and advises If you are in doubt about right conduct, Follow the example of the sages, who know what is best for spiritual growth.  [3]  (chpt 11-v4). It tells us the body is only the outer layer surrounding our self, each layer less physical than the last: the physical sheath is made up of food (Pt 2, 2.1), the vital sheath is made up of living breath (3.1), the mental sheath is made up of waves of thought (3.1) and the sheath of wisdom is the intellect and within this is the sheath of bliss. Bliss is the heart, and Brahman the foundation. Those who affirm the Lord affirm themselves.  [4]  In the journey to discover who we are, the rishis looked at these states of consciousness (Brihadranyaka Upanishad chpt4). As awareness is withdrawn from these layers of consciousness it was discovered that the mind is not conscious, it is only an instrument of our consci ousness. If we were able to observe from within each state, would that be the knower, ie the self? In all creatures, all persons the Self is the innermost essence. Janaka asks who is the self and Yajnavalka replies: The Self, pure awareness, shines as the light within the heart, surrounded by the sense. Only seeming to think, seeming to move, the Self neither sleeps nor wakes nor dreams. This notion of the Self and Brahman being one is considered in the Katha Upanishad (chpt2-v20). Hidden in the heart of every creature exists the Self, subtler than the subtlest, greater than the greatest. They go beyond sorrow who extinguish their self-will and behold the glory fo the Self through the grace of the Lord of Love. A similar theme can be seen in the Isha Upanishad in its description of the Lord as being enshrined in the hearts of all. This seems to merge into a description of the Self culminating in v8 He it is who holds the cosmos together. The question of attaining immortality or Brahman is discussed in the Katha Upanishad, where we have a teenage boy (Natchiketa) as the student and Death (Yama) being the teacher. This studies the notion of reincarnation, wherein Natchiketa is sacrificed to death by his father but Natchiketa is granted three wishes, one for each of the three nights he has spent in the house of Yama (Pt 1-chpt1-v9-29. Natchiketa asks that when he is reincarnated his father will recognise him, secondly that he wants to remember what has gone before, he doesnt want to lose prior knowledge and thirdly he wants to know for certain if his sole really exists after death. The answer is to renounce passing pleasures and seek wisdom (chpt2-v3-4). Death says, The truth of the Self cannot come through one who has not realised the Self  [5]  , so self-realisation is the key. The ignorant believe that when the body dies, they die. This is further expounded by the Mandukya Upanishad which teaches us the need for knowledge through awareness and how this can be passed on through teachers. There are two types of knowledge, that taught through study, or lower knowledge, and the higher knowledge which leads to self-realisation, through mediation those who are pure in heart, who practice meditation and conquer all their senses and passions, shall attain the immortal Self.. The Prashna Upanishad also tells us after the sage Pippaladas explanation of where we come from (qu1-v4-10), that those who meditate, seek wisdom, self-discipline and faith in God will travel after death to the Supreme refuge, beyond the reach of fear and free from the cycle of birth and death. This Upanishad concludes with the question Do you know the self? (QuVI-v1) and Pippaladas summary describes the sixteen forms of the self within the body and that one must realise the self so that these sixteen forms disappear. Then there is no more name or form for us as human beings and we attain immortality. The self is the paramount goal of life. Attain this goal and go beyond death. (QuVI-v) iii) Where did I come from? This question is posed by the Kena Upanishad: by whom? Who makes my mind think?who sees through my eyes and hears through my ears? The teacher replies The Self is the ear of the ear, the eye of the eye and the mind of the mind.. This Upanishad is about knowing Brahman yet how can this not be an impossible task for the average man? How can we possibly conceive of understanding something so abstract and inscrutable? Yet we are urged to try: It is the power of Brahman that makes the mind to think, desire, and will. Therefore use this power to meditate on Brahman. (chpt4-v5-6) However, it seems we are compelled to continually ask questions without questions we cannot develop. What gives us this desire to know, to attain self-realisation? Easwarans interpretation of this question is: by whom impelled do all the motions of life stir?  [6]  Easwaran also quotes Shankara, By whose mere presence does that desire arise which moves the universe? Swami Vishnudevananda says just as the perception of things in the gross world is impossible without light, so knowledge of self cannot emerge other than by inquiry. Who am I? How was this universe born? What is its cause?  [7]  Just as mans quest for enjoyment finds that joy is within himself, knowledge will never be complete until he turns his vision inwards. The Upanishads tell us that all knowledge is in the self, and in fact, knowledge is self. That eternal knowledge of the self when reflected through the mind and brain of man becomes intuition, reason and instinct. In lower animals it is manifested as instinct, in man as reason and in advanced man as intuition. Individual existence is therefore a manifestation of the real existence of the self. So it seems to me we are compelled to seek knowledge, and therefore by implication to seek knowledge of the self. As Easwaran points out, exploring the unconscious requires the daring of youth, as in the Katha Upanishad. The Katha Upanishad seems to be saying that within all human experience it is only the Self that is the enjoyer, and so once one attains self-realisation there will nothing further to know. In the meantime man is forever searching, searching, even when he doesnt know what he is looking for. As Vishnudevananda points out some scale Mount Everest to learn, others navigate under the Artic oceans, while others fly into outer space. Others retire from the world to study or roam the world in search of knowledge. I feel this will go on for a long time yet until man has reached a stage of intellect where self-realisation becomes attainable for all, in ages to come. In the meantime we aspire to seek out extra little bits of knowledge and we pick up lots more along the way by accident without even r ealising it. The problem for us lowly mortals is in a quote I heard a long time ago when I was at college and has stuck with me ever since, although I dont know who said it or when: is not just the known unknown but the unknown unknown. I am aware of many things I do not know but there is of course an ocean of things which I dont even realise are there to be known. It seems an impossible task. Perhaps as I take the advice of the Upanishads and practise meditation, in years to come I may begin to feel as if I have started on my own journey.

Essay --

The world we live in today is full of an exceptional variety of animals. The time it took to conclude to the various sorts of species seen today has been throughout a period of millions of years. The vast majority of these animals are accredited to evolutionary advancements. When the environment changes, organisms have become accustomed to changing to fit their environment, to ensure their species does not die off. These physical changes have resulted in different phyla, ranging from basic structures, like sponges to advance systems, like that of an octopus. Porifera is the most simplistic phylum under the kingdom Animalia. The sponges have no tissue layers, but instead an interior and exterior layer with a gelatinous middle layer that separates the two. They are the only phylum with asymmetrical symmetry. Throughout the advancing phyla it will be shown this trait is lost. Porifera lacks a proper digestive system, but a canal system allows the sponges to filter feed. Along the inside of a sponge, flagella pump water through the sponge’s body. This process brings in oxygen and other small organisms and then flows out the top of the sponge, the osculum, removing waste by diffusion. Sponges lack a circulatory system, as does many of the first couple of phyla. A coinciding factor could be their small size. A nervous system is also missing, but very basic nerve cells within the pores sense the water currents. Gas exchange occurs through these pores. Reproduction in sponges can be asexual by budding, gammation, or fragmentation. Some s ponges can also have sexual reproduction occur as an egg gets released and fertilized in the open water by free floating sperm. After this stage they cling onto rock and begin their sessile, basic, life.... ...d female reproductive organs. An egg becomes fertilized when they rub clitellum. Earthworms play an important part in the environment. They break down organic matter and dig tunnels under the soil that help increase water and oxygen flow. Throughout the various phyla discussed evolutionary advancements are relevant. Starting from the basic, simplistic life forms of a sponge, up to the intelligence of an octopus and advance organ systems of Annelida the changes have only improved. Some species changed and evolved because as populations grow, they spread out farther and different conditions begin to affect their life. Why some species haven’t changed is because their body plan and system works for the environment they inhabit. Evolution has helped animals spread out all over the world and adapt to various conditions, seen in the habitats Aschelminthes can prosper in.

Hip Hop and the African American Dream Essay

Spoken-word music arrived in America for the first time with slave ships from West Africa.   Ethnomusicologists have traced the roots of hip hop to the dance, the drum, and the song of West African griots or storytellers.   The pairing of word and music is recognized as a portrayal of the painful journey of slaves who survived the passage.   In early America, the slaves drew on the common elements of African music with their ring shouts, their field hollers, as well as their spirituals.   Thus, Samuel A. Floyd, the director of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College in Chicago attests: â€Å"Speech-song has been part of the black culture for a long, long time† (McBride).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the summer of the year 1973, an African American teenager in one of the Bronx River Houses, stuck a speaker in his living room window, ran a wire to the turntable in another room, and set the housing project of three thousand folks alight with party music.   Thus, Bronx turned into a music magnet, and hip hop was given birth to.   This birth led to the creation of dance styles, and graffiti artists found a new job: to paint the word â€Å"I† loud and clear because hip hop is all about identity, that is, â€Å"I am the best† (McBride).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   James McBride notes: â€Å"Not since the advent of swing jazz in the 1930s has an American music exploded across the world with such overwhelming force.†Ã‚   As a matter of fact, hip hop is nowadays enjoyed by people from around the world, and by all races.   Still, the role of this music among the African Americans – the race through out of which emerge the best hip hop musicians – is crystal clear.   For African Americans, the music represents the good old dream to hit upon a pot of gold to millions of dollars.   Agonizing over how their parents slave many hours a day, young African Americans long to make it big in the hip hop business with fame and riches. Works Cited McBride, James. â€Å"Hip Hop Planet.† National Geographic, April 2007.

Armageddon: A Reaction Paper Essay

In the movie Armageddon, who are the evil ones? They are thousands of rocks led by an asteroid the size of Texas that threatens to extinguish life on Earth? And who are the good ones? They are a motley makeshift group of old-drillers who will risk their lives in a daring rocket journey to save the world. A few NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut are also thrown in to help steer the two shuttle spacecrafts. So these are the heroes of the movie. But, except for rig owner and drilling expert Harry Stamper (played excellently by Bruce Willis), the oil workers are moonlighting criminals. Mobsters as saviors? Is this any way to improve the moral fabric of our country? You would think that a movie about the extinction of life on Earth would be serious. Not so. The best description of Armageddon is an action-adventure film sprinkled with comedy. Every effort is made to excite and entertain. No effort is made to educate or inform. Scientific accuracy is tossed out the window. The laws o f physics are continually violated in order to maximize the drama. What happened to the good old movie classics that tried to teach us something about life? It is amazing that the asteroid is able days in advance to send warning signals consisting of deadly meteor showers. The first one strikes a space station orbiting the Earth. The craft is drilled with holes before exploding. The next attack is on New York City. It is pelted with huge meteorites. The Chrysler Building is decapitated, while the City is decimated. Several days later, Shanghai falls victim. And near the end of the movie, Paris is destroyed by an asteroid fragment. This is one of the few places where a realistic image of an impact is portrayed. The explosion produces a cloud of dust that surges outward. Paris is totaled. Only a huge crater and the bottom halves of the Arc de Triumph and other buildings are left. It is curious how well directed that these strikes are Despite the unrealistic nature of the movie, it is entertaining and full of action. The frame time is usually no longer than 3 seconds as one image after another flashes on the screen in an effort to maximize the tension. Such rapid-fire images also limit a viewer’s ability to notice the many scientific flaws. A love story between Grace Stamper, Harry’s daughter played by Liv Tyler, and A. J. Frost, a young oil rig worker played by Ben Affleck, adds a romantic element to the movie. Of course, everyone knows that these space-age, spaced out oil drillers will in the end save us from destruction. In the film, NASA officials meet to discuss proposals to avert the asteroid catastrophe. The suggestions are laughable: Destroy it with lasers? Americans have clearly been watching too many Star Trek episodes. Attach sails to it? This is ludicrous. What’s going to provide the drag? Outer space is virtually empty. There is no wind out there except for the â€Å"solar wind,† which can only blow dust and particles and certainly cannot change the direction of a heavy asteriod in a matter of days. Destroy it with nuclear weapons? As correctly stated in the movie, 150 nukes would hardly be sufficient. Although such bombs would produce 150 craters, the asteroid would remain intact. So what plan do they come up with? They propose to drill a hole about 800 feet deep, insert a hydrogen bomb, explode it and split the asteroid in two pieces that will fly past Earth on either side. If 150 nukes won’t do the job, certainly one will not either, even if it is inserted in the ast eroid. Can one hydrogen bomb create a crack that stretches across the state of Texas? When it comes to man versus Nature in life-threatening battles, can man always win? When a tornado touches down, can we stop it? When a tsunami or giant wave, speeds across the ocean, can we diminish it? When a volcano is about to erupt, can we extinguish its hot temper? When a hurricane heads towards a populated coastal region, can we divert it? When lightning strikes, can we reflect its flash? The answers to these questions are no. But we can take measures. In most instances, our only recourse is evacuation. In these battles of man versus Nature, Nature is supreme. Solar system scientists classify asteroids with letters such as S, C, M and E. The makers of Armageddon have discovered a truly remarkable object that will revolutionize planetary science. From a distance, it appears to be almost comet-like and engulfed in a blue-green cloud. While most asteroids have a topography not so different from the Moo n’s, the Armageddon asteroid has a treacherous terrain of jagged knife-like rocks, steep crevices and pointed mountain peaks. Its surface is as intricate as a crystal chandelier. It is almost as though its stalagmites threaten to stab Earth’s heart. But, of course, in reality the danger to Earth is created by the asteroid’s tremendous kinetic energy, which gets translated into heat, pressure and pounding power upon impact. The Armageddon asteroid is also the first to have a significant atmosphere and rock storms. Yes, the efforts of our heroes are impeded when dozens of rocks start raining down upon them. Obviously, NASA should have equipped our heroes with steel umbrellas. The air must contain oxygen to feed the sparks of fires that are blown by a sometimes howling wind. There must also be a â€Å"fifth force† that holds Stamper’s crew to the asteroid’s surface. It can’t be gravity. The force of gravity on the Armageddon asteroid is about 20 times weaker than that on Earth. A 180-pound human would weigh only 9 pounds. Armageddon is an action-packed adventure in which National Aeronautics andSpace Administration (NASA) astronauts save the world from a huge asteroid or should we call a â€Å"Global Killer† that can kill even bacteria. It is entitled Armageddon which means â€Å"the end of all things† and it came from the bible. It’s a nice movie but lots of arguments, quarrels, andtragic parts. I can say that Armageddon is interesting because it is somewhat related to Science which is my favorite subject. I don’t understand some parts of it because they speak fast but I’d still understand this movie on the way they move. All the scenes in Armageddon seemed real, the explosions, the satellites, the space shuttles travelling and the asteroids falling and crashing to the Earth, all I can say is, amazing! I salute all the makers of this movie because they have made Armageddon a realistic one. Armageddon is full package, romance, comedy and action combined into one. It is entertaining and full of action. When the parts of the asteroids are crashing all I can do is to scream. In summary, Armageddon is a wonderful movie but a tragic one.Armageddon is somewhat related to Chemistry. Asteroids are included to Astrochemistry. A giant, global-killing asteroid, like the one that killed off the dinosaurs 65million years ago is 18 days away from hitting the Earth. The oil drilling is somewhat related to Industrial Chemistry, that is showed on the first part of the movie. Nuclear bombs are related to Nuclear Chemistry. Bombs that are detonated in the drilled part of the huge asteroid that blew it into pieces. This movie told us some information about Chemistry.

The Road to the American Revolution

The Road to the American Revolution In 1818, Founding Father John Adams famously recalled the American Revolution as having started as a belief â€Å"in the hearts and minds of the people† that eventually â€Å"burst out in open violence, hostility, and fury.† Since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in the l6th century, England had been trying to establish a colony in the â€Å"New World† of North America. In 1607, the Virginia Company of London succeeded with the settling of Jamestown, Virginia. England’s King James I had decreed at the time that the Jamestown colonists would forever enjoy the same rights and freedoms as if they had been â€Å"abiding and born within England.† Future kings, however, would not be so accommodating. During the late 1760s, the once-strong bonds between the American colonies and Britain began to loosen. By 1775, ever-growing abuses of power exerted by British King George III would drive the American colonists to armed revolt against their native country. Indeed, the long road of America from its first exploration and settlement to organized revolt seeking independence from England was blocked by seemingly insurmountable obstacles and stained with the blood of citizen-patriots. This feature series, â€Å"The Road to the American Revolution,† traces the events, causes, and people of that unprecedented journey. A ‘New World’ Discovered America’s long, bumpy road to independence starts in August of 1492 when Queen Isabella I of Spain funded the first New World voyage of Christopher Columbus to discover a westward trading passage to the Indies. On October 12, 1492, Columbus stepped off the deck of his ship, the Pinta, onto the shores of the present-day Bahamas. On his second voyage in 1493, Columbus established the Spanish colony of La Navidad as the first European settlement in the Americas. While La Navidad was located on the Island of Hispaniola, and Columbus never actually explored North America, the period of exploration after Columbus would lead to the start of the second leg of America’s journey to independence. The Early Settlement of America To the mighty kingdoms of Europe, establishing colonies in the newly-discovered Americas seemed a natural way to grow their wealth and influence. With Spain having done so at La Navidad, its arch-rival England quickly followed suit. By 1650, England had established a growing presence along what would become the American Atlantic coast. The first English colony was founded in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Hoping to escape religious persecution, the Pilgrims signed their Mayflower Compact in 1620 and proceeded to establish the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.   The Original 13 British Colonies With the invaluable assistance of local Native Americans, English colonists not only survived but thrived in both Massachusetts and Virginia. Having been taught to grow them by the Indians, uniquely New World grains like corn fed the colonists, while tobacco provided the Virginias with a valuable cash crop.   By 1770, more than 2 million people, including a growing number of enslaved Africans, lived and worked in the three early American British colonial regions. While each of the 13 colonies that were to become the original 13 U.S. States had individual governments, it was the New England colonies that would become the breeding ground for a growing dissatisfaction with the British government that would ultimately lead to revolution. Dissent Turns to Revolution While each of the 13 now thriving American colonies was allowed a limited degree of self-government, the individual colonists’ ties to Great Britain remained strong. Colonial businesses depended on British trading companies. Prominent young colonists attended British colleges and some future signers of the American Declaration of Independence served the British government as appointed colonial officials. However, by the middle 1700s, those ties to the Crown would be strained by tensions between the British government and its American colonists that would turn into the root causes of the American Revolution. In 1754, with the French and Indian War looming, Britain ordered its 13 American colonies to organize under a single, centralized government. While the resulting Albany Plan of Union was never implemented, it planted the first seeds of independence in the minds of Americans.   Seeking to pay for the costs of the French and Indian War, the British government began imposing several taxes, like the Currency Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act of 1765 on the American colonists. Having never been allowed to elect their own representatives to the British Parliament, many colonists raised the call, â€Å"No taxation without representation.† Many colonists refused to buy the heavily-taxed British goods, like tea. On  December 16, 1773, a band of colonists dressed like Native Americans dumped several crates of tea from a British ship docked in Boston Harbor into the sea as a symbol of their unhappiness with the taxes. Pulled off by members of the secretive Sons of Liberty, the Boston Tea Party stirred the anger of the colonists with British rule. Hoping to teach the colonists a lesson, Britain enacted the Intolerable Acts of 1774 to punish the colonists for the Boston Tea Party. The laws closed Boston Harbor, allowed British soldiers to be more physically â€Å"forceful† when dealing with dissenting colonists and outlawed town meetings in Massachusetts. For many colonists, it was the last straw. The American Revolution Begins In February 1775, Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams wrote to a friend: â€Å"The die is cast †¦ it seems to me the Sword is now our only, yet dreadful, alternative.† Abigail’s lament proved to be prophetic. In 1774, a number of colonies, operating under provisional governments, formed armed militias made up of â€Å"minutemen.† As British troops under General Thomas Gage seized the militia’s stores of munitions and gunpowder, Patriot spies, like Paul Revere, reported on British troop positions and movements. In December 1774, patriots seized British gunpowder and arms stored at Fort William and Mary at New Castle, New Hampshire. In February 1775, the British Parliament declared the Massachusetts colony to be in a state of rebellion and authorized General Gage to use force to restore order. On April 14, 1775, General Gage was ordered to disarm and arrest colonial rebel leaders. As British troops marched from Boston toward Concord on the night of April 18, 1775, a group of patriot spies including Paul Revere and William Dawes rode from Boston to Lexington alarming the Minutemen to assemble. The next day, the Battles of Lexington and Concord between British regulars and the New England minutemen in Lexington sparked the Revolutionary War. On April 19, 1775, thousands of American Minutemen continued to attack British troops who had retreated to Boston. Learning of this Siege of Boston, the second Continental Congress authorized the creation of the Continental Army, appointing General George Washington as its first commander. With the long-feared revolution a reality, America’s founding fathers, assembled at the American Continental Congress, drafted a formal statement of the colonists’ expectation and demands to be sent to King George III. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted those now-cherished demands as the Declaration of Independence. â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.†

Kantianism Nagel, Moral Luck

Kantianism: Nagel, Moral Luck Moral luck is a term used by Nagel to describe the external factors beyond our control, which act upon moral decisions we make. Nagels opinion is that people make moral decisions that may have good or bad intentions, but because of moral luck the outcome may be contrary to what he/she intended. Moral luck can be constitutive, the kind of person that someone is. Some people are born with certain characteristics, which enable them to be more virtuous then others. Others are born with a nasty streak of envy or jealousy, which makes it that much harder for them to make moral decisions. Another type of moral luck is ones circumstances. People are faced with different types of situations and problems, and certain situations make is easier to make the right moral decision. Nagel also describes two types of consequential lucks. One type is antecedent, in which certain consequences took place before the moral act and influence the moral decision to be made. The other type o! f consequential luck is the way actions and decisions turn out. Basically, moral luck is all the outside factors, which are beyond human control. These factors will determine whether a moral act turns out to be found moral by others or by oneself. A student may decide that he will not study for a specific exam because he intends to cheat off his neighbors paper. However, upon arriving to class he finds that all the seats but one in the front of the classroom are taken. The student, who had every intention to cheat no finds himself unable to look at anyones paper and must take the test on his own. This is an example of moral luck. According to Kant the student should be judged as having committed a moral wrong because Kant believes that moral acts must be judged on good or bad will. The student definitely had bad will in this case, however any Consequentalist would say the conseque...