Monday, September 30, 2019

The Nike shoe company

AS known to all, international relations between commercial organizations is one of today’s strongest trends in business industries. The truth is that every single organization, whether small or large scale, is considerably involved in reaching the goal of being globally known through international trade. Just what is meant by the terms international trade, international relations, and international strategy; and how are they particularly related to each other?   These questions shall be given answer through the discussion that follows through. Business entrepreneurs around the world all have a common goal, to influence a larger scale of market who would appreciate their products and services thus giving them the opportunity of increasing their revenues and strengthening their chances of increasing their profitable gains as well. This is the primary reason why it is an essential for entrepreneurs of the present-day business organizations to discuss to their employees the different aspects of international relations that particularly affects the major operations of the business that equips it with the necessary strength that it needs for further organizational growth in the future. The possibilities of both increasing the competence of the business in the field and making the aims of progress more efficient in becoming factual and practical for the organization to take. This is perfectly the same with the situational goals of Nike with regards their global relations. THE Company: A Brief Description Nike Shoe Company, Nike inclusive is a company that basically indulges in the designing, developing and international marketing of quality apparel, equipment, footwear, and accessory products. The company started trading actively in sportswear back in the year 1999. The footwear is precisely designed and manufactured for athletic use. A large portion of Nike's products is however used for leisure and casual purposes. Nike inclusive operates it own subsidiaries for manufacturing and the distribution of sports apparel. The main competitors of this company are Adidas, Reebok among others. Describe the market structure within which the company operates and the pricing strategies adopted by the company Nike operate in a very competitive field of business. For some reasons, the said industry of sport shoe production and distribution has already weakened through the years of operation. For this reason, companies hosting the said situation actually tried to access different procedures of marketing their products and their services to the society. The seasoned process of the appreciation that consumers have towards the said products actually makes it possible for the production activities of the said materials to fluctuate. (Porter 1985) The selling price adopted by a company for its products directly affects the profitability and eventually the viability of the company. This area usually receives a lot of attention from Nike's management. To ensure the viability of the company products in the market and rise above its competitors, Nike uses the following pricing strategies, (Thompson, and Strickland, 2001). Setting rather than managing prices; The brand manager adopts a reactive approach in making pricing decisions rather than a proactive approach. This means that the setting of prices at Nike inclusive depends on the prices adopted by competitors and the sales figures that Nike has. Avoidance of customer value when pricing; It is not always accurate to predict the value that a customer has towards a given product. It is also not possible to quantify the value that the products give to customers. For this reason, Nike avoids the use of customer value when making pricing decisions. Although consumers may not buy a product whose price is higher than the satisfaction derived from the product , they will at all times purchase a product that has a price lower than its perceived satisfaction. By avoiding this approach, Nike keeps off under pricing its products in order to maintain the brand equity and customer loyalty, (Porter, 1985). Establishing customer value for products; the brand managers at Nike inclusive rigorously engage in attempts to know the value that customers have for their brands. This is undertaken by carrying out detailed interviews with the customers on Nike's brands. Through this process, the organization is able to comprehend better with the needs and the demands of the people, their clients, who are the primary target of the changes that the organization particularly want to work on. The precise information obtained is used by brand managers to establish a basis for the pricing decisions in the company. Such information is reliable in developing an effective pricing strategy that is proactive. (McGahan, 2004). The changing Global Economy Nike is keen on the changing global economy and has been seeking competitive advantage over its rivals. Several changes have taken place in the shoe industry and this has been greatly beneficial to the industry. These changes are; (Hunger, and Wheelen, 2003). Rapid growth in footwear production Manufacturers today must have flexible designs and high output. There is a massive increase in shoe designs increasing competition and volatility in the market. High innovation and quality designs are a must for success. . Producers have to be protective of their information and manufacturing technology. One of the main reasons for the success in seeking competitive advantage in the changing global economy is flexibility. Nike has at all times remained flexible in the changing market by subcontracting to international countries that have low cost of labor. Secondly, Nike highly focuses on differentiating of its products. Rather than dealing in one line of a product, the company has diversified and differentiated the products it offers to the market. For instance, Nike began as small company that distributes sport shoes, however, as time passed, the developments began to grow thus giving the company a better reputation in the industry. Today, Nike is known in the industry as it produces and sells a variety of products ranging from equipment, clothing all the way to even offering accessories. This differentiation has enabled Nike to successfully obtain and gain loyalty from buyers on its brand. Certainly, register an increase in sales command a fine price for all the company products. Conclusion From the SWOT analysis featured within this paper, the different elements needed to be considered by Nike to face the global business competition has been carefully presented (Bakan, 2004, 66). From the said assessments, it could be observed that there is huge attention needed to be placed on the situation of the organization when it comes to cost alignment of both expenses as a balancing matter with that of the revenues gained by the company in an annual procedure. (Egan, 1998, 11) Aside from financing, the process of marketing and product shifting should also be given clear attention as it also gives a fine description and certainty with regards the situation that the organization would likely face within the global picture of the international trade. The issue of globalization offers both threats and the opportunities to the current human generation. Undeniably, the said progression of industrialization that affects the entire global operations of the trading industries bring an impact on how local business organizations work towards the dreams and goals that they have particularly set for themselves to reach (Goldman, 1999, 10). The consequences through in being involved in the said revolution of business systems in the society today involves the adjustments that organizations must take risk of to be able to jump into the bandwagon of international progress. True, international business industries offer a larger market. The involvement of Internet and modern communication applications today within the systems of business connections worldwide has even made the said international commercial invasion a faster process of progress for entrepreneurial beginners in the said field. Understandably, to be able to gain progress, the risks and the opportunities should be grabbed by each individual business organization for the sake of part taking in the process of globalization of industries today. References Joel Bakan (2004). The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. London: Constable. Egan, Timothy.(1998). â€Å"The swoon of the swoosh†. New York Times Magazine. J. B. Strasser. (2003). Swoosh: Unauthorized Story of Nike and the Men Who Played There, The (Paperback). Collins Publishers. Robert Goldman. (1999). Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh (Cultural Icons series). Sage Publications. Grant, R.M. (2005) Contemporary Strategy Analysis. Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Oxford (U.K.) Hunger, J. and Wheelen, T (2003) Essentials of Strategic Management. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc. McGahan, A. (2004) How Industries Evolve – Principles for Achieving and Sustaining Superior Performance. Harvard Business School Press, Boston. Porter, M.E. (1985) Competitive Advantage. The Free Press: New York. Thompson, A. and Strickland, J (2001) Crafting and Implementing Strategy. Irwin McGraw-Hill.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Comparisons of Inca and Aztecs

The Aztecs had city-states and were people of a stratified society. Each of one of these city-states is ruled by a speaker that is chosen by the pipiltin(the nobility). This speaker would have to sacrifice his own blood regularly to show that he is a true king and has good intentions for his empire. The nobles grew stronger with every conquest. The Aztecs also had a governing council but they weren't all that successful because they had lacked real power. The Aztec system was very successful, because it was aimed at political dominance and not head on control of the people. The calpulli had authority over the government but during the 1st hundred years the emperor took over. The Aztecs were very smart in creating â€Å"flower wars†(to leave a few territories unconquered so that periodic wars could be staged so that both sides could obtain captives for sacrifice) ,because it ensured sacrifices. The Incas believed that their ruler was a living god there to represent the sun god on earth. Everything the Incas did ,religiously and politically, had a religious meaning in it. The Incas had a queen(senior wife of king) and she was believed to be linked to the moon. The Inca believed that integration was very important. By using their language(Quechan) they integrated by teaching it too their conquered peoples. They were smart to adopt the split inheritance from the Mayans. The Inca expansion was closely tied together by ancestor worship. They had developed a state bureaucracy of which almost all of the nobility had played a part in. The Aztecs and Incas are alike because the kings of each of the two peoples were elected by siblings of the royal family. The governing council also had a say so in. Both rulers and kings had a â€Å"right hand man† the Aztecs had a prime minister where as the Incas had a high priest. Both the prime minister and high priest(which both had tremendous power) were usually close relatives of the king. Aztecs' and Incas' highest deity was the sun god. In both empires men and women were mostly equal but since the military virtue was emphasized it gave men more power so it wasn't completely balanced. Women were mostly in the household but they still contributed to the empire. The military in both had great power because they were the backbone of the empires; they supplied the peoples with war captives for human sacrifice. Both of the empires used sacrifice as a political terror. Where the Aztecs demanded mostly tribute as well as some labor the Inca people demanded mostly labor. Both took tribute from their conquered peoples.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

The Nature of Tragedy in Antigone is Unique and Profound Essay

The Nature of Tragedy in Antigone is Unique and Profound - Essay Example It is hard to see how it could ever have been maintained, except by those whose minds were prejudiced by predetermined opinions regarding the proper functions of tragedy. The whole tone of the play is against it. Right from the beginning to the end the reader’s/spectator’s sympathies are enlisted on the side of Antigone and in favor of the belief that human law must give way to the divine promptings of the ethics. Midway through the play, the Chorus makes an appearance on the scene to announce that the tragedy has begun. His speech offers a meta-theatrical commentary on the nature of tragedy. Here, in an obvious reference to Jean Cocteau, tragedy emulates the workings of a machine in perfect order, blithe and automatic in function. The candid and desultory event sets it on its unalterable march: in some sense, it has been lying in wait for its medium. Tragedy belongs to an order outside human time and action. It will advocate itself in spite of its players’ agenda and their attempts at involvement. Many critics allude to the ambivalent nature of this suspense. As noted by the Chorus, in tragedy everything is in the past. The spectator has abdicated, masochistically, to an array of events it abhors to watch. Suspense, here, is the period before those events actual realization. Having compared tragedy to other media, the Chorus then sets it off circuitously, particularly in the mode of melodrama. The tragedy is manifest as docile, cogent and eminent, free of melodramatic stock characters, dialogues, and other confrontations. All these are exigencies and hence inevitable.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Chief ethical problem(s) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Chief ethical problem(s) - Essay Example My professional life still is not confined to one particular professional field, but in all its manifestations it assumes the existence and the necessity of such personal quality as leadership. Under the leadership I mean the ability and the right of me as a social person to lead a group of other like-minded people towards achieving our mutual goal. Thus I understand my goal as a leader is in creation and realization of effective opportunities in noble ways. Only by using honest and justified instruments while being guided by such human values as respect and confidence, my impact as a leader would be long-termed. Thus, I use professional ethics in everyday life in order to choose what to do while facing a moral issue problem. Using own experience I may say some words about my personal method of aiming at the best solution in the field of leadership. As you’ve already understood, I have a kind of moral rules set to use in any situation. First of all, I must be sure in society usefulness (not just personal) of what I am doing. Secondly, I must be responsible and sensitive to possible outcomes of my professional activities. That is why I must follow the principle of "competence", which emphasizes that I should be only involved in those professional activity areas in which I have the knowledge, skills, training and experience. These basic ethical principles can be specified for different areas of professional activity by every decent person. But the main trait for leader at any professional field is being a good communicator. You should be able not just to express yourself well both in speaking and in writing, you must remember that a good communicator is a good listener, so you should be very attentive to people you are surrounded as well as to their problems. True leader should be able to support everybody in the company administrating mechanism if it really needs help. And the most important attribute for leader is being critical towards

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Mindfulness, Professionalism and Healing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mindfulness, Professionalism and Healing - Essay Example In addition to my experience with the films and the readings, witnessing my aunt visiting a nurse for help was just evidence on the power of the nursing. Despite having three kids, the size of the building she had was a hindrance to giving adequate care for the younger ones. Taking her time to visit the nurses was a life changing moment since she was given every kind of empathy, mindfulness and healing that she required. Intuitively, in order to realize the importance of nursing system to families I had to relate my aunt’s experiences with the nurses on the basis of the three aspects: of empathy, mindfulness and healing . Rationally, my aunt was a low income earner who could not acquire enough resources to secure his family. As if the scarcity is not enough punishment, my aunt gave birth to three kids of which all of them required care from her. For instance the children were a subject to food consumption, shelter and clothes to wear which my aunt could not adequately offer. Just the same to my aunt situation, David Bornstein in â€Å"The Power of Nursing† introduces his article with an intriguing question to depict the state of some individuals in the society† The following is a statement and question put forward by Bornstein: â€Å"In 2010, 5.9 million children were reported as abused or neglected in the United States. If you were a policy maker and you knew of a program that could cut this figure in half, what would you do?† (Bornstein, 2012) The above quote depicts children who are abused and neglected in the same way as my aunt who is going through a crisis of taking care of her three children in her small hut. The act of mindfulness comes in when Bornstein talks about Nurse-Family partnership as the best way to save this group of people. Nurse-Family partnership comes in handy as it is the only right way of harmonizing the gap between the poor and the rich. No matter what background an individual comes from, the program arranges for registered

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

The Yellow Wallpaper Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Yellow Wallpaper - Movie Review Example When one of his scams (perhaps involving back-alley plastic surgery and/or low-dollar sex change operations) goes terribly wrong, ending in a patient's death, man and wife find themselves in a high speed chase with police. It is at this point that the movie will begin and these first two characters will be introduced. The chase should be realistic (absolutely no C.G.I. stunts) and should end with John and Charlotte having a spectacular (yet believably survivable) crash. [Car has landed upside down, smoke emanates across a ground littered with broken glass, and JOHN, blood trickling down the side of his head, drags himself from the wreckage as police close in with guns drawn. He throws up his hands and falls face down to the to the pavement] JOHN: It wasn't me! It wasn't me! I was just a hostage! She's crazy!! [Camera change to the unconscious and blood-soaked face of CHARLOTTE. Fade to black with John's screams of innocence. Maintain black screen as red-colored text appears: SIX MONTHS LATER. Fade from black to scene. Setting is a prison visitation window] CHARLOTTE: You have to tell them (we see Charlotte, wearing a bright yellow prisoner's jumpsuit. Her face still bears small scars from the accident, the most obvious of which is a discolored, almost yellowish scar on her forehead). CHARLOTTE and YELLOW WOMAN: DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH... [JOHN shows no emotion in his face as he hangs up the phone, stands up, gathers his things, and walks away. Again, next line should be spoken simultaneously] CHARLOTTE and YELLOW WOMAN: DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!! You know I wasn't the one responsible for this! I'm NOT CRAZY JOHN! We KNOW it! [Prison guards start to restrain her as her rant continues. At the mention of "we," however, JOHN stops in his tracks] JOHN: And just who are "we," exactly Was there ever a "we" Are you even talking about you and me CHARLOTTE: (Breathing heavily and speaking/growling through gnashed teeth) One day, John One day we'll get out of here. We'll get out and you'll find out who we are. From this scene, the audience will be introduced to Charlotte's cell in solitary confinement. The cell should have faded yellow wallpaper or yellow painted walls. Charlotte and the Yellow lady will devise a plan to escape and take revenge on John, who has now re-married a wealthy young heiress and taken custody of his and Charlotte's young child. After escaping, Charlotte and the Yellow Woman will exact a plan of revenge on John and his new wife. The baby, however, remains something that the Yellow Woman refuses to allow Charlotte to acknowledge the existence of, which will be the source of several instances of conflict between the

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Critical issue in global health ( water and sanitation in poor Essay

Critical issue in global health ( water and sanitation in poor countries ) - Essay Example With this financial situation, poor people can barely sustain three meals a day, hence, food on the table remains the priority and all other concerns fade in the background. The same problem persists throughout the world because governments of poor countries lack the resources to build infrastructure and implement programs that would finally address the dilemma. When one looks at the figures such as the case in India, the water and sanitation problem is approaching the scale of a humanitarian crisis. This is particularly true in case of urban centers such as Mumbay. Half of its population lives in the slums and shanties, which are typified by severely limited supply of water, bad sewage disposal, unclean public spaces, aggravated and are further aggravated by severe population density (Digby et al., 2000, p. 273). According to Dash (2000), there is one water tap for every 381 slum dwellers, only 30 percent of these communities have community latrine to the point that people are forced to defecate in the open, while less than that percentage have some semblance of garbage collection system (p. 256). The situation is also true in many parts of Africa. As a matter of fact, the problems were responsible for devastating illnesses such as typhoid and dysentery (Offiong, p. 60). For countries living in abject poverty, the priority is food security. It appears to be the most immediate and critical concern because hungry people means restive population. In India, for example, food security remains the top concern of public policy because that is what matters to the electorate. Politicians promise to focus on it as people are more at risk of dying from hunger than from disease due to poor sanitation or from unclean water. Indeed, human development reports confirmed that access to clean water and most especially sanitation receive less attention because it is a low-priority in national policy-making and that the responsibility is

Monday, September 23, 2019

Quality Management Tools & Techniques Individual Project Assignment

Quality Management Tools & Techniques Individual Project - Assignment Example Actually, the establishment of this plant has been of much significance to the company. As a matter of fact, the beverage sector has become so competitive. Although the management of the Coca-Cola Inc. deeply understands much about it, they acknowledge that a lot still need to be done. For the company to continue enjoying a large share of the market, especially in this market, it needs to put in place a team of competent, highly qualified and motivated managers. These will be conserved about the management of its human, financial and all the other resources. Once the company has such management, it will be much possible for it to discharge all its operations without many challenges. First, the management will do this by hiring a large pool of professional employees to work for the company. Besides, they will be highly motivated to ensure that their productivity is boosted. Moreover, through a proper utilization of the company’s resources, the organization will manage to come up with novel ideas and viable strategies to improve the company’s products, quality of services to the satisfaction of all its clients. All these should be properly done as they can enable the company to record a tremendous growth. Once it can satisfy its clients, it will definitely have to accomplish its set short and long-term objectives. As part of the larger Coca-Cola Incorporations, Al Ahlia Gulf Line acknowledges that the satisfaction of its clients’ diverse needs is the corner stone of its success. Just like the rest of the stakeholders, the customers constitute a very significant section of the company. Without them, nothing much can be achieved. For this reason, the company has dedicated its time to ensure that the clients are provided with the necessary services and products which they always require. Beverage is a very popular product which is consumed by a large number of people in the country. However, this does not necessarily mean that the company is assured of

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Themes in Romeo and Juliet Essay Example for Free

Themes in Romeo and Juliet Essay The story of Romeo and Juliet continues to interest and engage viewers and readers to the present day. One of the reasons for this may be that it explores universal themes which are still of interest and concern to everyday people. The play makes us think about issues, such as love, loyalty to one’s family and friends, authority, and fate. Each of these themes is discussed below in relation to the play. Loyalty Romeo and Juliet contains many examples of loyalty of one person or group to another person or group. Loyal actions in the play do not always have positive results and cannot always be seen to have been the best course of action. At times, as we see in the opening of the play, loyalty can lead to violence and people behaving dishonestly or wrongly. Student Tasks 1. In your groups, discuss and decide on a definition of loyalty. In your answer consider the following: What is loyalty and how does a loyal person behave? Where does loyalty start and stop? 2. Think of at least three examples of when a person or group shows loyalty in Romeo and Juliet. Write down: a. Who was loyal to whom? b. How they were loyal—what did they do that showed loyalty? c. What the result of their actions—did their loyalty have positive or negative outcomes in the end? 3. Using the scenes of Romeo and Juliet that we have studied in class, find three quotations that show that a character is feeling torn or pulled in two directions by their loyalties. Write down the quotation and explain what it shows about the character and to whom they are loyal. Authority Authority is illustrated and explored in Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespeare’s time, authority was very closely linked in people’s minds to the natural  order of the world and to the will of God. For example, the authority of the king or queen was believed to be given to them by God. Therefore, anyone who went against the authority of the king or queen would be considered to be committing a crime or sin against the wishes of God. People who went against authority were seen as going against the natural order and many people believed that this could only end in disaster. Student Tasks 4. There are many other words related to the word ‘authority’. For example: authoritarian, authorize, authoritative. Look up each of these words and find out what form of word that they are, for example, noun, adjective, adverb. Write a brief definition for each of the words including the word ‘authority’. 5. Find and write down three examples from the play where one person or group has authority over another group. 6. Describe three situations in the play when a person or group disobeys authority. What is the end result in each situation? Which of these examples of disobedience are the most serious ones in your opinion? 7. Are there any situations in Romeo and Juliet where people in authority do not do their jobs properly? For example, do the people in authority always carry out their jobs as carefully and as well as they should? 8. What message or idea do you think Shakespeare might have wanted to say in Romeo and Juliet about the nature of authority and about obeying authority? Love Love in Romeo and Juliet is presented almost as a disease that makes you physically ill and that makes you behave in a foolish way. Student Tasks 9. Read the two statements about the theme of love in Romeo and Juliet. As  a group, choose the statement that you agree with more and find quotations and examples from the play to support your opinion. Be prepared to contribute your ideas to a class discussion. a. â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† is one of the greatest love stories of all times.† b. â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† is more about passion, hate, and the importance of obedience than it is about love.† Fate versus free will In Shakespeare’s time, fate was seen as your personal fortune or destiny that was predetermined by God. You could escape or avoid it. Your fate was said to be aligned with the stars (that is why astrologers have such importance for some people). On the other hand, there is free will. This is where a person takes control and makes his or her own destiny thereby changing the will of God. This was seen as a sin. Student Tasks 10. Write down three examples of fate or free will from Romeo and Juliet. 11. What message was Shakespeare trying to convey about fate and free will?

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Most Opposition to Abortion Relies Essay Example for Free

Most Opposition to Abortion Relies Essay A Defense of Abortion Author(s): Judith Jarvis Thomson Source: Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Autumn, 1971), pp. 47-66 Published by: Blackwell Publishing Stable URL: http://www. jstor. org/stable/2265091 Accessed: 10/01/2010 00:54 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTORs Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www. jstor. org/page/info/about/policies/terms. jsp. JSTORs Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www. jstor. org/action/showPublisher? publisherCode=black. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [emailprotected] org. Blackwell Publishing is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Philosophy and Public Affairs. http://www. jstor. org JUDITH JARVISTHOMSON A Defense of Abortion Most opposition to abortion relies on the premise that the fetus is a human being, a person, from the moment of conception. The premise is argued for, but, as I think, not well. Take, for example, the most common argument. We are asked to notice that the development of a human being from conception through birth into childhood is continuous; then it is said that to draw a line, to choose a point in this development and say before this point the thing is not a person, after this point it is a person is to make an arbitrary choice, a choice for which in the nature of things no good reason can be given. It is concluded that the fetus is, or anyway that we had better say it is, a person from the moment of conception. But this conclusion does not follow. Similar things might be said about the development of an acorn into an oak tree, and it does not follow that acorns are oak trees, or that we had better say they are. Arguments of this form are sometimes called slippery slope arguments-the phrase is perhaps self-explanatory-and it is dismaying that opponents of abortion rely on them so heavily and uncritically. I am inclined to agree, however, that the prospects for drawing a line in the development of the fetus look dim. I am inclined to think also that we shall probably have to agree that the fetus has already become a human person well before birth. Indeed, it comes as a surprise when one first learns how early in its life it begins to acquire human characteristics. By the tenth week, for example, it already has i. I am very much indebted to James Thomson for discussion, criticism, and many helpful suggestions. 48 Philosophy ; Public Affairs a face, arms and legs, fingers and toes; it has internal organs, and brain activity is detectable. 2 On the other hand, I think that the premise is false, that the fetus is not a person from the moment of conception. A newly fertilized ovum, a newly implanted clump of cells, is no more a person than an acorn is an oak tree. But I shall not discuss any of this. For it seems to me to be of great interest to ask what happens if, for the sake of argument, we allow the premise. How, precisely, are we supposed to get from there to the conclusion that abortion is morally impermissible? Opponents of abortion commonly spend most of their time establishing that the fetus is a person, and hardly any time explaining the step from there to the impermissibility of abortion. Perhaps they think the step too simple and obvious to require much comment. Or perhaps instead they are simply being economical in argument. Many of those who defend abortion rely on the premise that the fetus is not a person, but only a bit of tissue that will become a person at birth; and why pay out more arguments than you have to? Whatever the explanation, I suggest that the step they take is neither easy nor obvious, that it calls for closer examination than it is commonly given, and that when we do give it this closer examination we shall feel inclined to reject it. I propose, then, that we grant that the fetus is a person. from the moment of conception. How does the argument go from here? Something like this, I take it. Every person has a right to life. So the fetus has a right to life. No doubt the mother has a right to decide what shall happen in and to her body; everyone would grant that. But surely a persons right to life is stronger and more stringent than the mothers right to decide what happens in and to her body, and so outweighs it. So the fetus may not be killed; an abortion may not be performed. It sounds plausible. But now let me ask you to imagine this. You wake up in the morning and find yourself back to back in bed with an unconscious violinist. A famous unconscious violinist. He has been found to have a fatal kidney ailment, and the Society of Music Lovers 2. Daniel Callahan, Abortion: Law, Choice and Morality (New York, 1970), p. 373. This book gives a fascinating survey of the available information on abortion. The Jewish tradition is surveyed in David M. Feldman, Birth Control in Jewish Law (New York, i968), Part 5, the Catholic tradition in John T. Noonan, Jr. , An Almost Absolute Value in History, in The Morality of Abortion, ed. John T. Noonan, Jr. (Cambridge, Mass. , 1970). 49 A Defense of Abortion has canvassed all the available medical records and found that you alone have the right blood type to help. They have therefore kidnapped you, and last night the violinists circulatory system was plugged into yours, so that your kidneys can be used to extract poisons from his blood as well as your own. The director of the hospital now tells you, Look, were sorry the Society of Music Lovers did this to you-we would never have permitted it if we had known. But still, they did it, and the violinist now is plugged into you. To unplug you would be to kill him. But never mind, its only for nine months. By then he will have recovered from his ailment, and can safely be unplugged from you. Is it morally incumbent on you to accede to this situation? No doubt it would be very nice of you if you did, a great kindness. But do you have to accede to it? What if it were not nine months, but nine years? Or longer still? What if the director of the hospital says, Tough luck, I agree, but youve now got to stay in bed, with the violinist plugged into you, for the rest of your life. Because remember this. All persons have a right to life, and violinists are persons. Granted you have a right to decide what happens in and to your body, but a persons right to life outweighs your right to decide what happens in and to your body. So you cannot ever be unplugged from him. I imagine you would regard this as outrageous, which suggests that something really is wrong with that plausible-sounding argument I mentioned a moment ago. In this case, of course, you were kidnapped; you didnt volunteer for the operation that plugged the violinist into your kidneys. Can those who oppose abortion on the ground I mentioned make an exception for a pregnancy due to rape? Certainly. They can say that persons have a right to life only if they didnt come into existence because of rape; or they can say that all persons have a right to life, but that some have less of a right to life than others, in particular, that those who came into existence because of rape have less. But these statements have a rather unpleasant sound. Surely the question of whether you have a right to life at all, or how much of it you have, shouldnt turn on the question of whether or not you are the product of a rape. And in fact the people who oppose abortion on the ground I mentioned do not make this distinction, and hence do not make an exception in case of rape. 50 Philosophy ; Public Affairs Nor do they make an exception for a case in which the mother has to spend the nine months of her pregnancy in bed. They would agree that would be a great pity, and hard on the mother; but all the same, all persons have a right to ife, the fetus is a person, and so on. I suspect, in fact, that they would not make an exception for a case in which, miraculously enough, the pregnancy went on for nine years, or even the rest of the mothers life. Some wont even make an exception for a case in which continuation of the pregnancy is likely to shorten the mothers life; they regard abortion as impermissible even to save the mothers life. Such case s are nowadays very rare, and many opponents of abortion do not accept this extreme view. Moreover, in killing the child, one would be killing an innocent person, for the child has committed no crime, and is not aiming at his mothers death. And then there are a variety of ways in which this 3. The term direct in the arguments I refer to is a technical one. Roughly, what is meant by direct killing is either killing as an end in itself, or killing as a means to some end, for example, the end of saving someone elses life. See note 6, below, for an example of its use. 51 A Defense of Abortion might be continued. i) But as directly killing an innocent person is always and absolutely impermissible, an abortion may not be performed. Or, (2) as directly killing an innocent person is murder, and murder is always and absolutely impermissible, an abortion may not be performed. Because unplugging you would be directly killing an innocent violinist, and thats murder, and thats impermissible. If anything in the world is true, it is that you do not commit murder, you do not do what is impermissible, if you reach around to your back and unplug yourself from that violinist to save your life. The main focus of attention in writings on abortion has been on what a third party may or may not do in answer to a request from a woman for an abortion. This is in a way understandable. Things being as they are, there isnt much a woman can safely do to abort herself. So the question asked is what a third party may do, and what the mother may do, if it is mentioned at all, is deduced, almost as an afterthought, from what it is concluded that third parties may do. But it seems to me that to treat the matter in this way is to refuse to grant to the mother that very status of person which is so firmly insisted on for the fetus. For we cannot simply read off what a person may do from what a third party may do. Suppose you find yourself trapped in a tiny house with a growing child. I mean a very tiny house, and a rapidly growing child-you are already up against the wall f the house and in a few minutes youll be crushed to death. The child on the other hand wont be crushed to death; if nothing is done to stop him from growing hell be hurt, but in the end hell simply burst open the house and walk out a free man. Now I could well understand it if a bystander were to say, Theres nothing we can do for you. We cannot choose between your life and his, we cann ot be the ones to decide who is to live, we cannot intervene. But it cannot be concluded that you too can do nothing, that you cannot attack it to save your life. However innocent the child may be, you do not have to wait passively while it crushes you to death. Perhaps a pregnant woman is vaguely felt to have the status of house, to which we dont allow the 53 A Defense of Abortion right of self-defense. But if the woman houses the child, it should be remembered that she is a person who houses it. 1 should perhaps stop to say explicitly that I am not claiming that people have a right to do anything whatever to save their lives. I think, rather, that there are drastic limits to the right of self-defense. If someone threatens you with death unless you torture someone else to death, I think you have not the right, even to save your life, to do so. But the case under consideration here is very different. In our case there are only two people involved, one whose life is threatened, and one who threatens it. Both are innocent: the one who is threatened is not threatened because of any fault, the one who threatens does not threaten because of any fault. For this reason we may feel that we bystanders cannot intervene. But the person threatened can. In sum, a woman surely can defend her life against the threat to it posed by the unborn child, even if doing so involves its death. And this shows not merely that the theses in (i) through (4) are false; it shows also that the extreme view of abortion is false, and so we need not canvass any other possible ways of arriving at it from the argument I mentioned at the outset. 2. The extreme view could of course be weakened to say that while abortion is permissible to save the mothers life, it may not be performed by a third party, but only by the mother herself. But this cannot be right either. For what we have to keep in mind is that the mother and the unborn child are not like two tenants in a small house which has, by an unfortunate mistake, been rented to both: the mother owns the house. The fact that she does adds to the offensiveness of deducing that the mother can do nothing from the supposition that third parties can do nothing. But it does more than this: it casts a bright light on the supposition that third parties can do nothing. Certainly it lets us see that a third party who says I cannot choose between you is fooling himself if he thinks this is impartiality. If Jones has found and fastened on a certain coat, which he needs to keep him from freezing, but which Smith also needs to keep him from freezing, then it is not impartiality that says I cannot choose between you when Smith owns the coat. Women have said again and again This body is my body! and they have reason to feel angry, reason to feel that it has been like shouting into the wind. Smith, after all, is 54 Philosophy Public Affairs hardly likely to bless us if we say to him, Of course its your coat, anybody would grant that it is. But no one may choose between you and Jones who is to have it. We should really ask what it is that says no one may choose in the face of the fact that the body that houses the child is the mothers body. It may be simply a failure to appreciate this fact. But it may be something more interesting, namely the sense that one has a right to refuse to lay hands on people, even where it would be just and fair to do so, even where justice seems to require t hat somebody do so. Thus justice might call for somebody to get Smiths coat back from Jones, and yet you have a right to refuse to be the one to lay hands on Jones, a right to refuse to do physical violence to him. This, I think, must be granted. But then what should be said is not no one may choose, but only I cannot choose, and indeed not even this, but I will not act, leaving it open that somebody else can or should, and in particular that anyone in a position of authority, with the job of securing peoples rights, both can and should. So this is no difficulty. I have not been arguing that any given third party must accede to the mothers request that he perform an abortion to save her life, but only that he may. I suppose that in some views of human life the mothers body is only on loan to her, the loan not being one which gives her any prior claim to it. One who held this view might well think it impartiality to say I cannot choose. But I shall simply ignore this possibility. My own view is that if a human being has any just, prior claim to anything at all, he has a just, prior claim to his own body. And perhaps this neednt be argued for here anyway, since, as I mentioned, the arguments against abortion we are looking at do grant that the woman has a right to decide what happens in and to her body. But although they do grant it, I have tried to show that they do not take seriously what is done in granting it. I suggest the same thing will reappear even more clearly when we turn away from cases in which the mothers life is at stake, and attend, as I propose we now do, to the vastly more common cases in which a woman wants an abortion for some less weighty reason than preserving her own life. 3. Where the mothers life is not at stake, the argument I mentioned at the outset seems to have a much stronger pull. Everyone 55 A Defense of Abortion as a right to life, so the unborn person has a right to life. And isnt the childs right to life weightier than anything other than the mothers own right to life, which she might put forward as ground for an abortion? This argument treats the right to life as if it were unproblematic. It is not, and this seems to me to be precisely the source of the mistake. For we should now, at long last, ask what it comes to, to have a right to life. In so me views having a right to life includes having a right to be given at least the bare minimum one needs for continued life. But suppose that what in fact is the bare minimum a man needs for continued life is something he has no right at all to be given? If I am sick unto death, and the only thing that will save my life is the touch of Henry Fondas cool hand on my fevered brow, then all the same, I have no right to be given the touch of Henry Fondas cool hand on my fevered brow. It would be frightfully nice of him to fly in from the West Coast to provide it. It would be less nice, though no doubt well meant, if my friends flew out to the West Coast and carried Henry Fonda back with them. But I have no right at all against anybody that he should do this for me. Or again, to return to the story I told earlier, the fact that for continued life that violinist needs the continued use of your kidneys does not establish that he has a right to be given the continued use of your kidneys. He certainly has no right against you that you should give him continued use of your kidneys. For nobody has any right to use your kidneys unless you give him such a right; and nobody has the right against you that you shall give him this right-if you do allow him to go on using your kidneys, this is a kindness on your part, and not something he can claim from you as his due. Nor has he any right against anybody else that they should give him continued use of your kidneys. Certainly he had no right against the Society of Music Lovers that they should plug him into you in the first place. And if you now start to unplug yourself, having learned that you will otherwise have to spend nine years in bed with him, there is nobody in the world who must try to prevent you, in order to see to it that he is given something he has a right to be given. Some people are rather stricter about the right to life. In their view, it does not include the right to be given anything, but amounts to, 56 Philosophy Public Affairs and only to, the right not to be killed by anybody. But here a related difficulty arises. If everybody is to refrain from killing that violinist, then everybody must refrain from doing a great many different sorts of things. Everybody must refrain from slitting his throat, everybody must refrain from shooting him-and everybody must refrain from unplugging you from him. But does he have a right against everybody that they shall refrain from unplugging you from him? To refrain from doing this is to allow him to continue to use your kidneys. It could be argued that he has a right against us that we should allow him to continue to use your kidneys. That is, while he had no right against us that we should give him the use of your kidneys, it might be argued that he anyway has a right against us that we shall not now intervene and deprive him of the use of your kidneys. I shall come back to third-party interventions later. But certainly the violinist has no right against you that you shall allow him to continue to use your kidneys. As I said, if you do allow him to use them, it is a kindness on your part, and not something you owe him. The difficulty I point to here is not peculiar to the right to life. It reappears in connection with all the other natural rights; and it is something which an adequate account of rights must deal with. For present purposes it is enough just to draw attention to it. But I would stress that I am not arguing that people do not have a right to lifequite to the contrary, it seems to me that the primary control we must place on the acceptability of an account of rights is that it should turn out in that account to be a truth that all persons have a right to life. I am arguing only that having a right to life does not guarantee having either a right to be given the use of or a right to be allowed continued use of another persons body-even if one needs it for life itself. So the right to life will not serve the opponents of abortion in the very simple and clear way in which they seem to have thought it would. 4. There is another way to bring out the difficulty. In the most ordinary sort of case, to deprive someone of what he has a right to is to treat him unjustly. Suppose a boy and his small brother are jointly given a box of chocolates for Christmas. If the older boy takes the box and refuses to give his brother any of the chocolates, he is unjust to -him, for the brother has been given a right to half of them. But 57 A Defense of Abortion uppose that, having learned that otherwise it means nine years in bed with that violinist, you unplug yourself from him. You surely are not being unjust to him, for you gave him no right to use your kidneys, and no one else can have given him any such right. But we have to notice that in unplugging yourself, you are killing him; and violinists, like everybody else, have a right to life, and thus in the view we wer e considering just now, the right not to be killed. So here you do what he supposedly has a right you shall not do, but you do not act unjustly to him in doing it. The emendation which may be made at this point is this: the right to life consists not in the right not to be killed, but rather in the right not to be killed unjustly. This runs a risk of circularity, but never mind: it would enable us to square the fact that the violinist has a right to life with the fact that you do not act unjustly toward him in unplugging yourself, thereby killing him. For if you do not kill him unjustly, you do not violate his right to life, and so it is no wonder you do him no injustice. But if this emendation is accepted, the gap in the argument against abortion stares us plainly in the face: it is by no means enough to show that the fetus is a person, and to remind us that all persons have a right to life-we need to be shown also that killing the fetus violates its right to life, i. e. , that abortion is unjust killing. And is it? I suppose we may take it as a datum that in a case of pregnancy due to rape the mother has not given the unborn person a right to the use of her body for food and shelter. Indeed, in what pregnancy could it be supposed that the mother has given the unborn person such a right? It is not as if there were unborn persons drifting about the world, to whom a woman who wants a child says I invite you in. But it might be argued that there are other ways one can have acquired a right to the use of another persons body than by having been invited to use it by that person. Suppose a woman voluntarily indulges in intercourse, knowing of the chance it will issue in pregnancy, and then she does become pregnant; is she not in part responsible for the presence, in fact the very existence, of the unborn person inside her? No doubt she did not invite it in. But doesnt her partial responsibility for its being there itself give it a right to the use of her 58 Philosophy ; Public Affairs body? 7 If so, then her aborting it would be more like the boys taking away the chocolates, and less like your unplugging yourself from the violinist-doing so would be depriving it of what it does have a right to, and thus would be doing it an injustice. And then, too, it might be asked whether or not she can kill it even to save her own life: If she voluntarily called it into existence, how can she now kill it, even in self-defense? The first thing to be said about this is that it is something new. Opponents of abortion have been so concerned to make out the independence of the fetus, in order to establish that it has a right to life, just as its mother does, that they have tended to overlook the possible support they might gain from making out that the fetus is dependent on the mother, in order to establish that she has a special kind of responsibility for it, a responsibility that gives it rights against her which are not possessed by any independent person-such as an ailing violinist who is a stranger to her. On the other hand, this argument would give the unborn person a right to its mothers body only if her pregnancy resulted from a voluntary act, undertaken in full knowledge of the chance a pregnancy might result from it. It would leave out entirely the unborn person whose existence is due to rape. Pending the availability of some further argument, then, we would be left with the conclusion that unborn persons whose existence is due to rape have no right to the use of their mothers bodies, and thus that aborting them is not depriving them of anything they have a right to and hence is not unjust killing. And we should also notice that it is not at all plain that this argument really does go even as far as it purports to. For there are cases and cases, and the details make a difference. If the room is stuffy, and I therefore open a window to air it, and a burglar climbs in, it would be absurd to say,Ah, now he can stay, shes given him a right to the use of her house-for she is partially responsible for his presence there, having voluntarily done what enabled him to get in, in full knowledge that there are such things as burglars, and that burglars 7. The need for a discussion of this argument was brought home to me by members of the Society for Ethical and Legal Philosophy, to whom this paper was originally presented. 59 A Defense of Abortion burgle. It would be still more absurd to say this if I had had bars installed outside my windows, precisely to prevent burglars from getting in, and a burglar got in only because of a defect in the bars. It remains equally absurd if we imagine it is not a burglar who climbs in, but an innocent person who blunders or falls in. Again, suppose it were like this: people-seeds drift about in the air like pollen, and if you open your windows, one may drift in and take root in your carpets or upholstery. You dont want children, so you fix up your windows with fine mesh screens, the very best you can buy. As can happen, however, and on very, very rare occasions does happen, one of the screens is defective; and a seed drifts in and takes root. Does the person-plant who now develops have a right to the use of your house? Surely not-despite the fact that you voluntarily opened your windows, you knowingly kept carpets and upholstered furniture, and you knew that screens were sometimes defective. Someone may argue that you are responsible for its rooting, that it does have a right to your house, because after all you could have lived out your life with bare floors and furniture, or with sealed windows and doors. But this wont do-for by the same token anyone can avoid a pregnancy due to rape by having a hysterectomy, or anyway by never leaving home without a (reliable! army. It seems to me that the argument we are looking at can establish at most that there are some cases in which the unborn person has a right to the use of its mothers body, and therefore some cases in which abortion is unjust killing. There is room for much discussion and argument as to precisely which, if any. But I think we should sidestep this issue and leave it open, for at any rate the argument certainly does not establish that al l abortion is unjust killing. 5. There is room for yet another argument here, however. We surely must all grant that there may be cases in which it would be morally indecent to detach a person from your body at the cost of his life. Suppose you learn that what the violinist needs is not nine years of your life, but only one hour: all you need do to save his life is to spend one hour in that bed with him. Suppose also that letting him use your kidneys for that one hour would not affect your health in the slightest. Admittedly you were kidnapped. Admittedly you did not give 6o Philosophy Public Affairs anyone permission to plug him into you. Nevertheless it seems to me plain you ought to allow him to use your kidneys for that hour-it would be indecent to refuse. Again, suppose pregnancy lasted only an hour, and constituted no threat to life or health. And suppose that a woman becomes pregnant as a result of rape. Admittedly she did not voluntarily do anything to bring about the existence of a child. Admittedly she did nothing at all which would give the unborn person a right to the use of her body. All the same it might well be said, as in the newly emended violinist story, that she ought to allow it to remain for that hour-that it would be indecent in her to refuse. Now some people are inclined to use the term rightin such a way that it follows from the fact that you ought to allow a person to use your body for the hour he needs, that he has a right to use your body for the hour he needs, even though he has not been given that right by any person or act. They may say that it follows also that if you refuse, you act unjustly toward him. This use of the term is perhaps so common that it cannot be called wrong; nevertheless it seems to me to be an unfortunate loosening of what we would do better to keep a tight rein on. Suppose that box of chocolates I mentioned earlier had not been given to both boys jointly, but was given only to the older boy. There he sits, stolidly eating his way through the box, his small brother watching enviously. Here we are likely to say Youought not to be so mean. You ought to give your brother some of those chocolates. My own view is that it just does not follow from the truth of this that the brother has any right to any of the chocolates. If the boy refuses to give his brother any, he is greedy, stingy, callous-but not unjust. I suppose that the people I have in mind will say it does follow that the brother has a right to some of the chocolates, and thus that the boy does act unjustly if he refuses to give his brother any. But the effect of saying this is to obscure what we should keep distinct, namely the difference between the boys refusal in this case and the boys refusal in the earlier case, in which the box was given to both boys jointly, and in which the small brother thus had what was from any point of view clear title to half. A further objection to so using the term rightthat from the fact that A ought to do a thing for B, it follows that B has a right against A 6I A Defense of Abortion that A do it for him, is that it is going to make the question of whether or not a man has a right to a thing turn on how easy it is to provide him with it; and this seems not merely unfortunate, but morally unacceptable. Take the case of Henry Fonda again. I said earlier that I had no right to the touch of his cool hand on my fevered brow, even though I needed it to save my life. I said it would be frightfully nice of him to fly in from the West Coast to provide me with it, but that I had no right against him that he should do so. But suppose he isnt on the West Coast. Suppose he has only to walk across the room, place a hand briefly on my brow-and lo, my life is saved. Then surely he ought to do it, it would be indecent to refuse. Is it to be said Ah, well, it follows that in this case she has a right to the touch of his hand on her brow, and so it would be an injustice in him to refuse? So that I have a right to it when it is easy for him to provide it, though no right when its hard? Its rather a shocking idea that anyones rights should fade away and disappear as it gets harder and harder to accord them to him. So my own view is that even though you ought to let the violinist use your kidneys for the one hour he needs, we should not conclude that he has a right to do so-we should say that if you refuse, you are, like the boy who owns all the chocolates and will give none away, self-centered and callous, indecent in fact, but not unjust. And similarly, that even supposing a case in which a woman pregnant due to rape ought to allow the unborn person to use her body for the hour he needs, we should not conclude that he has a right to do so; we should conclude that she is self-centered, callous, indecent, but not unjust, if she refuses. The complaints are no less grave; they are just different. However, there is no need to insist on this point. If anyone does wish to deduce he has a ight from you ought, then all the same he must surely grant that there are cases in which it is not morally required of you that you allow that violinist to use your kidneys, and in which he does not have a right to use them, and in which you do not do him an injustice if you refuse. And so also for mother and unborn child. Except in such cases as the unborn person has a right to demand it-and we were leaving open the possibility that there may be such cases-nobody is morally required to make large sacrifices, of health, of all other interes ts and concerns, of all other duties 62 Philosophy Public Affairs and commitments, for nine years, or even for nine months, in order to keep another person alive. 6. We have in fact to distinguish between two kinds of Samaritan: the Good Samaritan and what we might call the Minimally Decent Samaritan. The story of the Good Samaritan, you will remember, goes like this: A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him he had compassion on him. And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. (Luke I0:30-35) The Good Samaritan went out of his way, at some cost to himself, to help one in need of it. We are not told what the options were, that is, whether or not the priest and the Levite could have helped by doing less than the Good Samaritan did, but assuming they could have, then the fact they did nothing at all shows they were not even Minimally Decent Samaritans, not because they were not Samaritans, but because they were n ot even minimally decent. These things are a matter of degree, of course, but there is a difference, and it comes out perhaps most clearly in the story of Kitty Genovese, who, as you will remember, was murdered while thirtyeight people watched or listened, and did nothing at all to help her. A Good Samaritan would have rushed out to give direct assistance 63 A Defense of Abortion against the murderer. Or perhaps we had better allow that it would have been a Splendid Samaritan who did this, on the ground that it would have involved a risk of death for himself. But the thirty-eight not only did not do this, they did not even trouble to pick up a phone to call the police. Minimally Decent Samaritanism would call for doing at least that, and their not having done it was monstrous. After telling the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus said Go, and do thou likewise. Perhaps he meant that we are morally required to act as the Good Samaritan did. Perhaps he was urging people to do more than is morally required of them. At all events it seems plain that it was not morally required of any of the thirty-eight that he rush out to give direct assistance at the risk of his own life, and that it is not morally required of anyone that he give long stretches of his lifenine years or nine months-to sustaining the life of a person who has no special right (we were leaving open the possibility of this) to demand it. Indeed, with one rather striking class of exceptions, no one in any country in the world is legally required to do anywhere near as much as this for anyone else.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Importance Of Supply Chain Management To Organization Management Essay

Importance Of Supply Chain Management To Organization Management Essay Efficient supply chain management is the essential to being able to satisfy market demand and to do so in a way is profitable (Hugos, 2006). Supply chain management of the organization that enables them to deliver the best value to their consumers will generate a strong demand for the organization product or services. When information is shared in between supply chain networks, it can result a more efficient flow of goods and services (Anand Mendelson, 1997), reduced inventory level, and lower costs (Yu, Yan Cheng, 2001), which benefits the overall network. Hence, the organization can do mass manufacturing and mass customization that will offer competitive advantages given that the product life cycle if the product is improve because the organization will offer variety of product to different market segment and consumers preference. For example, Dell became the largest producer for personal computer in the world after they implemented the supply chain management to change their strategy by adopting a direct sales strategy, building every personal computer to order and shipping it directly to the customer (Klinker, Terrell Mahfouz, 2006). 2.2. Supply management 2.2.1. Communication, Trust commitment According to Towill, (1996) decision makers need to depend the overall of the process so they can manage the supply chain as one single company, to minimum uncertainty updated feed forward and feedback information flow coupled with optimal decision making. Hence, organization that trusted the supplier willing to communicate and allow information free flow among them to ease their businesses. Communicate with other organization within the supply chain management that controls their critical resources allow them to compete effectively in their environment (as cited in Samaddar, Nargundkar Daley, 2006). Moreover, supply chain management built on a foundation of trust and commitment among the supply chain members (Lee Billington, 1992). Commitment of partnership in the supply chain management will dedicated their resources to achieve the goal of the supply chain and their performance (Chen Paulraj, 2004). Organization is more and more rely on their trusted supplier to improve the product quality, produce the product faster and reduce the product price so they can compete with their competitors (Liker Choi, 2006). For example, Dell developed a strong relationship with both suppliers and the customers allow it to ensure those computer components are available from supplier to meet customer demand (Taylor, 2005). 2.2.2. Long-term relationships Supplier will become part of the supply chain and have a long relationship on the competiveness of the process of the supply chain with a good supply chain management (Choi Hartley, 1996) .Moreover, information sharing is an important aspect on incorporation and joint inter-organizational relationship (Huang, Lau Mak, 2003).Long-term relationship will create opportunity to capture the synergy of intra and intercompany integration and management (Lambert et al., 1997) Limitation of information in the supply chain will lead to Bullwhip effect such as unnecessary inventory investment, poor customer services, wrong capacity allocation, reduce revenue and missed production (Lee, Padmanabhan, Whang, 1997). Plan along the supply chain and coordinating information can control Bullwhip effect and improve their supply chain relationship and performance (Lee et al. 1997). According to P.Fiala, (2004) information exchange is a very important issue for coordinating actions. If member of the supply chain have free flow information it can reduced their lead time of information such as orders, demand and capacity forecast, point-of-sale data for the whole supply chain. (Lee, So Tang, 2000) find that the benefits of sales information sharing and identified the drivers that have significant impacts. Organization that have long term relationship from the supplier will obtains larger inventory or cost reduction when the demand is highly associated if the lead time is long. Eventually customer will receive a higher quality, cost-effective product in a shorter amount of time. For example, Chrysler Corporation cut their supplier base in half and brought the remaining supplier in on the design of a new generation cars and develop long term relationship based on trust. The long term relationship has helped the organization increase in profit (Braun, Guthrie, McCampbell, Sit). 2.3 Reduce cost Supply chain management system can influence the organization cost for administrative personnel and information purpose to plan and control the flow of inventory (Jonsson, 2008). So the efficiency of supply chain management can reduce the organization inventory and stock cost (Steckel, Gupta Banerji, 2004). The efficiency of the supply chain management allows the organization having the right good at the right time in a right place (Ketchen Hult, 2007). Therefore, organization can deliver their product according to agreement so it can reduce the shortage cost, delay cost arise when late delivery occur to compensate the customers. Besides, organization does not need to hold inventory can reduce their cost of storing their inventory at their warehouse. Without using warehouse organization can save the transportation cost from the warehouse to the organization. Moreover, the cost reduction of the production organization can create customer value by reducing the price of the end users product (Ketchen et al., 2007). For example, Apple Computer is making lose in 1997; Steve Jobs do some changes in the supply chain management has saved the organization by reducing the cost of inventory (Taylor, 2005) 4. Challenges of Supply Chain Management 4.1 Planning Appropriated plan of the supply chain management can get advantages, improperly handled will lead to tragic (Taylor, 2005). Accurate planning is important but planning error will lead to dramatically change in plans (Stadtler, 2004). For example, Kmart Corporation have planning error that the organization crippling its ability it match the price offered by Wal-Mart, the worse is when the organization able to lure back the customer but the supply chain not able to deliver to them in time. Due to the wrong forecast and planning Kmart is now bankrupt (Konicki, 2002). 4.3 Supplier attention Supply chain challenges include lack of supplier attention. While lack of supplier attention will cause late placed orders due to conflicting objectives and goal. Potential issues of vendors, late delivered and wrong delivered allow the project teams potential risks. Early obtaining material will minimize risk such as additional cost. Internal procurement issues also subject to supply chain management (Henrie, 2006). Due to this problem, company cannot managing well as when the material arrive, when the material should be purchase, and how many quantities should be purchase and when the material should be delivered. For example, NASA Company had experience this problem because the project will face shrinkage costs, breakage and additional cost for warehouse (Galluzzi, Zapata, Steele Weck). 4.4 Customer value Customers always change the value perception toward a product, so the organizations will response to the change or predict the change (Flint, 2004). Therefore, organization need to response toward the challenge by doing research on how the value perception of the customer change and improve their prediction and planning process. Competitive advantage can be gain if organization can predict their customer perception of the end user product (Slater, 1997).

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Pocahontas Essay -- History Native Americans

Pocahontas Introduction [1] Disney’s Pocahontas has understandably received a lot of flak about the historically inaccurate story that is told about the legendary Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. There is a good reason for that. The movie does little that can be construed as historically accurate, yet Disney claims that was never their intent. Disney, in their previous movies, has been attacked for being racist and unsympathetic to racial minorities. Their answer was a movie whose sole purpose, as stated by Disney, was to promote racial tolerance. The question is, then can a movie promote racial tolerance when the issue is built on false history, history that if told accurately would depict the exact opposite? [2] First, I feel that it is important to establish exactly what Disney’s intentions were in making the film. Secondly, I intend to show that Disney provided enough historical information that it is questionable whether or not one can assume that they were trying to teach history, history that is specifically aimed at children. Lastly, I will show that the real story of Pocahontas was not about racial tolerance, that it was not about understanding one’s culture, but it was in fact about trying to change one’s culture. Disney’s Intention [3] From the movie’s start Disney has been preaching innocence about trying to accurately depict history. Disney, in their press kit, expressed that, â€Å"Pocahontas is a story that appealed to us because it was basically a story about people getting along together†¦ which is particularly applicable to lots of places in the world today† (Pocahontas 33). In addition, Thomas Schmucher, who is the senior vice president of Disney feature animation, says, â€Å"It is a... ... 11 June 1995: 46. Muldoon, Paul. â€Å"Barbie, but no Bimbo.† Times Literary Supplement 13 October 1995: 21. â€Å"Pocahontas: Press Kit.† Burbank: Walt Disney Pictures, 1995. Rasmussen, William, and Robert S. Tilton. Pocahontas: Her Life and Legend. Charlottesville: Virginia Historical Society, 1994. Rollins, Peter C., and John E. O’Connor, eds. Hollywood's Indian: The Portrayal of the Native American in Film. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1998. Rosenstone, Robert A. Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1995. Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. The Disuniting of America. New York: Norton, 1992. Turan, Kenneth. â€Å"Disney Tries Again to Find the Magic; The Kids May Like it but the Adult Viewers May Feel that Pocahontas is More By-The-Numbers than Inspired.† Los Angeles Times 16 June 1995: 1.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Parental Involvement Fosters Student Success Essay -- Education

Educators today, recognize positive influence of parental involvement fosters higher student academic achievement levels (Danielson, 2006; Jacobs & Kritsonis, 2007). One crucial element of parental involvement is effective communication between parents and teachers. Research show parents prefer to establish informal relationships with frequent open and non-judgmental exchanges with their children's teachers (Eberly, Joshi, & Konzal, 2005). Accordingly, this article is to explore key research-based recommendations for school administrators and teacher leaders to identify and overcome communication barriers with parents. Parental Involvement Fosters Student Success Parental involvement as defined by Greene and Tichenor (2003) is participation â€Å"in the educational process by enhancing their parenting skills, developing positive communication skills between home and school, volunteering, providing learning opportunities at home, contribute to decisions that affect schooling, and collaborating with the community in support of the school† (p. 242). Research findings by Henderson (1981; 1987) and Henderson and Berla (1994) identify the following benefits from parental involvement: 1) higher student achievement; 2) increase in student graduation rates; 4) improvement in student behavior and motivation; 5) better school image among parents and students; and 6) increase in parent satisfaction with teachers (as cited in Greene & Tichenor, 2003). Although, participation can vary from parent to parent, Greene and Tichenor (2003), and researchers alike found it to be always beneficial to the student and teacher. In fact, Davern’s 2004 study argues â€Å"positive connections with families are fundamental to providing high-quality e... ...iverse backgrounds as a means to improve student achievement levels in the United States: A National focus. Retrieved May 21, 2012 from, ERIC database. (ED499648). Lasley, M. (2005). Difficult conversations: Authentic communication leads to greater understanding and teamwork. Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal, 7. Retrieved March 9, 2008, from http://www.iaf-world.org/files/members/v7%2013-20%20lasley.pd Richard, H.V., Brown, A.F., & Forde, T.B. (2006). Addressing diversity in schools: Cultural responsive pedagogy. Culturally Responsive Teaching Resources. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.culturallyresponsiveteachingresources.org/ Robinson, S., Kennedy, S. (2009, July). Standards in practice: an instructional gap analysis. Paper presented at the National Staff Development Council Summer Conference, Boston. Parental Involvement Fosters Student Success Essay -- Education Educators today, recognize positive influence of parental involvement fosters higher student academic achievement levels (Danielson, 2006; Jacobs & Kritsonis, 2007). One crucial element of parental involvement is effective communication between parents and teachers. Research show parents prefer to establish informal relationships with frequent open and non-judgmental exchanges with their children's teachers (Eberly, Joshi, & Konzal, 2005). Accordingly, this article is to explore key research-based recommendations for school administrators and teacher leaders to identify and overcome communication barriers with parents. Parental Involvement Fosters Student Success Parental involvement as defined by Greene and Tichenor (2003) is participation â€Å"in the educational process by enhancing their parenting skills, developing positive communication skills between home and school, volunteering, providing learning opportunities at home, contribute to decisions that affect schooling, and collaborating with the community in support of the school† (p. 242). Research findings by Henderson (1981; 1987) and Henderson and Berla (1994) identify the following benefits from parental involvement: 1) higher student achievement; 2) increase in student graduation rates; 4) improvement in student behavior and motivation; 5) better school image among parents and students; and 6) increase in parent satisfaction with teachers (as cited in Greene & Tichenor, 2003). Although, participation can vary from parent to parent, Greene and Tichenor (2003), and researchers alike found it to be always beneficial to the student and teacher. In fact, Davern’s 2004 study argues â€Å"positive connections with families are fundamental to providing high-quality e... ...iverse backgrounds as a means to improve student achievement levels in the United States: A National focus. Retrieved May 21, 2012 from, ERIC database. (ED499648). Lasley, M. (2005). Difficult conversations: Authentic communication leads to greater understanding and teamwork. Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal, 7. Retrieved March 9, 2008, from http://www.iaf-world.org/files/members/v7%2013-20%20lasley.pd Richard, H.V., Brown, A.F., & Forde, T.B. (2006). Addressing diversity in schools: Cultural responsive pedagogy. Culturally Responsive Teaching Resources. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.culturallyresponsiveteachingresources.org/ Robinson, S., Kennedy, S. (2009, July). Standards in practice: an instructional gap analysis. Paper presented at the National Staff Development Council Summer Conference, Boston.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Building Effective Teams

Work teams of all types are being empowered to perform tasks that previously were employees’ responsibility. As organizations move toward more highly empowered work teams, the organizations that invest resources to train teams can increase both team and organizational effectiveness. Management often rushes to form work teams without considering how the behaviors needed for effective team work differ from those needed for effective individual contributions. Team members may receive little or no training to ensure that they can perform the required tasks and achieve the goals set.Communication Issues in Situations 1. Not informing other departments of status and updated schedules. Improving communication in organization involves more accurate encoding, transmitting, decoding and updating at the interdepartmental level. People can overcome barriers to effective communication. They must first be aware that barriers exist and can cause serious organizational problems. Then they mus t be willing to invest the effort and time necessary to overcome the barriers. When departments do not communicate or update the status of information, then, there will be confusion in the process.To avoid this, employees must be able to follow up to determine whether important messages have been understood. Feedback doesn’t have to be verbal; in fact, actions often speak louder than words. The sales manager who describes desired changes in the monthly sales planning report receives feedback from the report itself when it is turned in. If it contains the proper changes, the manager knows the message was received and understood. Managers who tell everyone to see the big picture often create a serious communication overload.Rather than trying to keep everyone involved, top-level management need follow the â€Å"need-to-know† principle transmitting communication and updating people in other areas of the organization that need the necessary information. Sometimes it is use ful to regulate the flow of information and procedures that need to be brought to the attention of the people in the other departments. As long as performance falls within the acceptable range, the regular procedures aware followed. Misunderstandings and confusion can be reduced when adequate and timely feedback of information is done.Information must always be updated. Feedback mechanisms and reporting systems need to be established so managers know whether their messages have been understood, accepted and followed. Sometimes, a useful technique here is to manage the timing of messages so they are received in an orderly manner. This principle is similar to the procedure many executives use in responding to their in-basket. Incoming mail is sorted into piles of related topics. A similar procedure can be used, to some extent, with verbal communication where specific time periods are scheduled for discussing a specific topic.â€Å"Knowledge work is a process requiring knowledge from both internal and external sources to produce a product that is distinguished by its specific information content† (Kappes and Thomas). 2. Blaming between people of different races This is a big communication barrier that needs immediate remedy. When one has a grudge against someone, he tends to make that someone responsible for everything he finds wrong. When a person in one department blames someone, his desire to judge and punish is often what is at work.Someone blames another hen he is angry because the action made things turn out differently than he wished—if not through his words, then through his manner and tone of voice. One can put all the responsibility for what happened to him, in a way that implies what he did was â€Å"wrong† or â€Å"bad. † Moreover, blame breeds resentment. â€Å"it’s your fault! † is a red-flag phrase. It is to a person what a matador’s cape is to a bull. The hooker in blame is that smidgen of truth in what one said or implied. One can seldom say, â€Å"That’s just what you feel-it has nothing to do with me.† When a person’s blamer goes to work, it is very canny. It knows exactly where to go zap, where to pick out that nasty kernel of truth. A put-down artist is an expert at zeroing in on where you feel bad about oneself and making him feel even smaller there. Two messages get mixed up in blame: one party’s statement of how he feels (I’m angry and disappointed†) and one’s evaluation of the other party (â€Å"Scum like you shouldn’t be aloud to work in this company. †). The feelings about the situation are often hidden in the â€Å"you-are-bad† message, instead of being said straight out.One-way blaming in the organization is overcome is help open up communication between two blaming departments. Members of these departments must also be reminded that they need to take responsibility for their part in what happene d. 3. Lack of standardization among terms used with different departments. This signifies uniform and consistent procedures or knowledge of terms that employees are to follow in doing their jobs. They must be aware of not only the terms used in the different departments but also the written procedures, job descriptions, instructions, rules and regulations to standardize the routine aspects of jobs.Standards among terms used with different departments allow people to reinforce values important to the organization’s success. This approach may seem mechanical, but if terms were not standardized, many organizations couldn’t achieve their goals and will have confusion of meanings in the process. Terms serve to bind as well as to separate departments. Terms sometimes block more than they reveal. They can prevent a true look. One is unlikely ever to know the whole truth of something. Someone else may see or touch a thing in a different way than one does, and know another side of it.An idea or statement, or concept is true to the degree that it helps one accurately experience the thing or event it represents. Some of the terms team members use are: free riding which means that a member does not contribute fully to team performance but still sharing in team rewards despite making less effort than the others; groupthink which is an agreement-at-any-cost mentality that results in ineffective work team decision-making and may lead to poor solutions; productive controversy which occurs when team members value different points of view and seek to draw them out to facilitate creative problem-solving (Hellriegel et al 1996).Dryer and Ericksen (March 2004) propose that human behaviors in high-reliability organizations can affect organizational performance. They examine several Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) strategies that engender and reinforce certain human behaviors that in turn can result to reliability in organizations that â€Å"operate under t rying conditions, i. e. , those that manage complex and interdependent systems subject to substantial external volatility. † They believe reliability in organizations (like mining firms) is a â€Å"critical process-based† measure of organizational performance (Dryer and Ericksen, 2004).Communication Strategy Team discussions are important. This is crucial especially in discussing feelings for these reflect the emotional climate of a tram. The four feelings most likely to influence work team effectiveness and productivity are the feelings of trust, openness, freedom and interdependence. The more these feelings are present, the more likely the work team will be effective and the members will experience satisfaction. These feelings probably are present in a formal or informal group to which one belongs if they agree with the following statements:– Trust- Members have confidence in each other. – Openness – Members are really interested in what others ha ve to say. – Freedom – Members do what they do out of a sense of responsibility to the group, not because of a lot of pressure from others. – Interdependence – Members coordinate and work together to achieve common goals. Indeed, in organizations, departments can easily get into trouble when they forget that they are sometimes dealing with abstractions, and then act as though they were concrete things and events. REFERENCES Dryer, L. and Ericksen, J. (March 2004).Towards a Strategic Human Resource Management Model of High Reliability Organization Performance: A Working Paper. Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies, Cornell School of Labor and Industrial Relations. Retrieved Oct. 30, 2006 at: http://www. ilr. cornell. edu/depts/cahrs/downloads/pdfs/workingpapers/WP04-02. pdf Hellriegel, D. Jackson S. and Slocum, J. (1996). Management. USA: International Thomson Publishing. Kappes, S. and Thomas, B. A Model for Knowledge Worker Information Support. Know ledge Worker Information Management. Retrieved Oct. 30, 2006 at: http://www. cecer. army. mil/kws/kap_supp. htm Building Effective Teams Building a global-based team is not as easy as building a new internal team in the company. There are many things to be considered. Creating a single team composed of different nationalities with different cultures should be done with thorough research and full attention. Several factors need to be looked at and taken into consideration to build an effective global team working together despite the geographical barriers. A good mix of international team members can only be obtained if the right criteria in the selection are correctly set.The rest of this paper discusses some of the criteria that would best help in the purpose of building a global-based team working effectively towards a common goal. Selecting Global Sales Team Members As an HR Manager tasked to come up with an effective global sales team, there should be some criteria that would better facilitate the selection of team members. Some of these criteria can be the following: †¢ Each member should be open to the fact of working with other members from other countries. †¢ The member should have a proven record of being responsible and reliable in their jobs especially when it comes to important tasks or assignments.†¢ Excellent communication skills, especially when it comes to dealing with business projects and endeavors, need to be exhibited by the global team member. †¢ The member should have a sense of independence and organization. Working in a global-based team means a possibility of working in a virtual environment where members are not directly supervised by a manager. The member should be able to work on his own at times and organized enough to be able to manage his own time in order to accomplish all the deliverables on time.As mentioned, if a global sales team is desired, there is a possibility that the members will work together in a virtual environment. With this in mind, I would probably decide on building a team composed of highly experienced professionals with prove n and excellent track record. These professionals should also exhibit the criteria and characteristics mentioned above. All of those things are necessary in building an effective global sales team. As the manager who is in charge of building the team, I would ensure that every member of the team is aware of the team’s nature.They should be briefed when it comes to differing time zones, languages, culture and work ethics of each member since they belong to different nationalities. The members of this global team should fully and clearly understand the objectives and goals of the global team. Since the members do not work in just a single location, they should exhaust all possible means of communication. With today’s technology, working in a virtual team, with members located in all parts of the globe, is now easy because of all the advanced means of communications easily available to anyone just like email, mobile phones and internet telephony.An effective communication is crucial in the success of any global-based team. For a global team to build trust and integrate well with each other, Mitchell (2000, p. 162) said that â€Å"team members [should] realize that each culture has much to offer. The team [should] take the best from each culture and mold them into a team personality that reflects the diverse nature of team members. † References Mitchell, C. (2000). A Short Course in International Business Culture. Novato, CA: World Trade Press.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Logical Positivism Essay

Also known as logical empiricism, rational empiricism or neo-positivism, logical positivism is the name given in 1931 by A.E Blumberg and Herbert Feigl to a set of philosophical ideas put forward by the Vienna Circle. This Vienna Circle was a group of early twentieth century philosophers who sought to re-conceptualize empiricism by means of their interpretation of then recent advances in the physical and formal sciences. Hence, the Vienna Circle represented a radical â€Å"anti-metaphysical† stance which held the view that an empiricist criterion for meaning and a logicist conception of mathematics could prove the meaningfulness of statements (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy). Logical positivism is the school of thought that attempts to introduce the methodology and precision of mathematics and the natural science into the field of philosophy. The movement, which began in the early twentieth century, was the fountainhead of the modern trend that considers philosophy an analytical, rather than a speculative inquiry (Passmore). As a school of philosophy, logical positivism â€Å"combines positivism with a version of apriorism , that is, the view that holds that some propositions can be held true without empirical support† (Wikipedia Encyclopaedia). According to the Oxford Companion to Philosophy, the movement’s doctrine is ‘centred on the principle of verifiability. This holds the notion that individual sentences gain their meaning by some specification of the actual steps we take for determining their truth or falsity’. In essence, logical positivism seeks to verify the meaning in statements through empirical observations. Historical Background of Logical Positivism The position of the original logical positivists was a blend of the positivism of Ernst Mach with the logical concepts of Gottleb Frege and Bertrand Russell. But, their inspiration was derived from the writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein and G.E Moore. According to Passmore, in his article â€Å"Logical Positivism†, the logical positivists thought of themselves as continuing a nineteenth century Viennese empirical tradition, closely linked with British empiricism and culminating in the anti-metaphysical scientifically oriented teaching of Ernst Mach. He further pointed out that in 1907 the mathematician Hans Hahn, the economist and sociologist Otto Neurath and the physicist Phillip Frank, all of whom were later to be prominent members of the Vienna Circle, came together as an informal group to discuss the philosophy of science. In addition, Passmore posited that they did this in hope that they could ‘give an account of science to the importance of mathematics, logic and theoretical physics without abandoning Mach’s general doctrine that science is, fundamentally, the description of experience’ (par. 2). Subsequently, they adopted views from the â€Å"new positivism† of Poincare and coupled it with Mach’s views in an attempt to anticipate the main themes in logical positivism (par. 2). Logical Positivists view of Traditional Philosophy The philosophical position of logical positivism in its original form was the outcome of the profoundly incisive influences of Wittgenstein and Moore (Runes 359). Logical positivists were concerned about the soundness of metaphysics and other traditional philosophy. They asserted that many philosophical problems were indeed meaningless. Hence, they decided to abandon the traditional approach to philosophy and attempted to persuade people to utilise their approach instead. One of the chief tenets of logical positivism was that the supposed propositions of metaphysics, ethics and epistemology were not verifiable and so were not strictly ‘meaningful’.[1] Furthermore, Carnap, of the Vienna Circle, corroborated this view in his work â€Å"The Unity of Science†, when he stated that ‘we give no answer to philosophical questions and instead reject all philosophical questions, whether Metaphysics, Ethics or Epistemology’ (qtd. in the Stanford Encyclopedia of P hilosophy). Therefore, the purpose of the logical positivists was not to renovate the principles of traditional philosophy but to destroy them. Metaphysics was rejected on the grounds that its assertions were meaningless since they could not be verified in experience. Thus, statements about the existence of God were discarded as pointless because they could not be verified. Notably, whereas earlier critics of metaphysics such as Kant and Hume had rejected the claims of metaphysics as a form of theoretical knowledge, the logical positivists took over from Wittgenstein’s â€Å"Tractatus† the rejection of metaphysics as meaningless. Furthermore, the logical positivists argued that the propositions of metaphysics were neither true nor false but could be regarded as pseudo-statements (Logical Positivism 61). Metaphysics was not the only traditional discipline that the logical positivists were concerned about. Likewise, epistemology faced harsh criticisms from them. On one hand, the neo-Kantians saw epistemology as ‘the propaedeutic to metaphysics and all other philosophical disciplines’ (Oxford Companion to Philosophy 647). They maintained that philosophy could be reduced to epistemology in which a topic like â€Å"the reality of the external world† was discussed. On the other hand, for the logical positivists, epistemology was disregarded as a significant branch of philosophy because they thought that there was no way of verifying the assertions postulated by epistemology. They argued that this branch of philosophy was â€Å"quite meaningless like assertions about the Absolute.†[2] They held this position because for them there was no way of empirically verifying that an external world exists which is independent of the world we know now, as such those statements were ignored. Another tenet of traditional philosophy that the logical positivists disagreed with was ethics. Certainly, they all rejected any variety of transcendental ethics and any attempt to set up a â€Å"realm of values† over and above the world of experience. Passmore stated that, Assertions about values thus conceived, fall within the general province of transcendental metaphysics and had therefore been rejected as nonsensical. But while Schlick sought to free ethics from its metaphysical elements by converting it into a naturalistic theory along quasi-utilitarian lines, Carnap and Ayer argued that what are ordinarily taken to be ethical assertions are not assertions at all. For example to say that â€Å"stealing is wrong,† is neither, they suggested, to make an empirical statement about stealing nor to relate stealing to some transcendental realm. â€Å"Stealing is wrong† would either express our feelings about stealing, our feelings of disapproval, or, alternatively (this was where the logical positivist opinions differed), it is an attempt to dissuade others from stealing. In either case, â€Å"stealing is wrong† conveys no information. (par. 17) In addition to the above mentioned concepts, logical positivists also posited the idea that propositions of logic and mathematics were meaningful but their truth was discovered, not by experiment or observation, but by analysis. Also, for logical positivism the ‘business’ of philosophy was not to engage in metaphysics or other attempted assertions about what is the case but rather to engage in analysis. Furthermore, the only genuine propositions were those that are verifiable (Brown et al 218). Basically, the logical positivists’ emphasis was on logic and language. Logical positivists preferred that, instead of accepting traditional philosophy, philosophers should subscribe to the doctrine of verification. Doctrine of Verification Central to the movement’s doctrines was the principle of verifiability, often called the verification principle that is â€Å"the notion that individual sentences gain their meaning by some specification of the actual steps we take for determining their truth or falsity†.[3] According to logical positivism, there are only two sources of knowledge: logical reasoning and empirical experience. The former is analytic a priori, while the latter is synthetic a posteriori; hence synthetic a priori knowledge does not exist (Murzi 7). For logical positivists, the meaning of a statement lies in the method of its verification. This means that a statement has meaning if, and only if, it is verifiable† (Bochenski, 57). Verifiable, in this sense, means that the statement is derived from knowing the conditions under which it is true or false. If the statement cannot be proven true or false it is disregarded as meaningless. Carnap emphasized in â€Å"Logical Positivism† that only meaningful sentences were divisible into (theoretically) fruitful and sterile, true and false propositions (61). In essence, a sequence of words is meaningless if it does not, within a specified language, constitute a statement. Ayer also defined, explained, and argued for the verification principle of logical positivism. Ayer expressed, in his book Logical Positivism, the view that â€Å"sentences (statements or propositions) are meaningful if they can be assessed either by an appeal directly or indirectly to some fundamental form of sense-experience or by an appeal to the meaning of a word and the grammatical structure that constitute them. In the former case, sentences are said to be synthetically true or false; in the latter, analytically true or false.† Once the sentences under examination fail to meet the verifiability test, they are labelled meaningless. Therefore statements about metaphysical, religious, aesthetic, and ethical claims are considered insignificant. For the logical positivists, based on the verification principle, an ethical claim would have meaning only in so far as it professed something empirical. For example, â€Å"if part of what is meant by ‘X is good’ is roughly ‘I like it,’ then ‘X is good’ is false.† The primary ‘meaning’ of such sentences is emotive or evocative. Thus, for Ayer, ‘X is good’ is a meaningless utterance. As such statements are not verified by looking at the entire words in a sentence but by minutely analyzing the words singularly in a sentence to determine there meaning. Likewise, for Carnap, words or sentences must be verified by certain criterion, for instance, the syntax of a word must be fixed, that is in each use of the word in what Carnap calls an ‘elementary sentence’ the meaning must be unchanging. Secondly, for an elementary sentence containing a word, it must be determined from what sentence is the word deducible, and what sentences are deducible from the word. Also, under what conditions should the word or sentence be considered to be true or false, how is it to be verified and what is its meaning? For instance, take this example by Carnap using the word ‘anthropods’. Anthropods are animals with segmented bodies and jointed legs (this is the elementary sentence) from this it can de deduced that X is an animal, X has a segmented body, X has jointed legs. Hence, â€Å"by means of these stipulations about deducibility or truth- condition, about the method of its meaning of the elementary sentence about anthropod, the meaning of the word is fixed.† In this way every word of the language is reduced to other words and finally to the words which occur in the so-called â€Å"observation sentences† or â€Å"protocol sentences.† Carnap claims that it is through this reduction the word acquires meaning. (Logical Positivism 62-63). Problems with Logical Positivism In the Contemporary European Philosophy, Bochenski claimed that the doctrine used by logical positivists to verify sentences involved great difficulties of various kinds. For instance, a one protocol-sentence can be called into question and tested by another protocol-sentence, such as; the sanity of a physicist can be called into question and examined by the psychiatrist (58). The question has been asked of the logical positivist as to the basis of the protocol sentence, but they replied by stating that the object of experience can only be sensations. Questions of reality are ‘pseudo-problems,’ because we can never encounter anything but sensations and we can never verify the existence of things that are other than our sensations (59). Bochenski also commented that since verifications are made by the senses, â€Å"no statement can be verified other than those relating to the body and its movements; all statements of introspective psychology and classical philosophy are unverifiable, therefore meaningless.†[4] It follows that the only meaningful language is that of physics, and that all science should be unified. One condition remains to be fulfilled according to Bochenski and that is, for a statement to have meaning: it must be built in accordance with the syntactical rules of language. Therefore, it is meaningful to say, â€Å"the horse eats† but â€Å"the eat eats† has no meaning. Also statements that you and I know such as, ‘I love you Mummy’ or ‘I am feeling really sad today’ would have no meaning because they cannot be empirically verified. How then would we express our sensations? There is therefore no guarantee that things verified will remain verified; for example, it was commonly known that the world was flat and that if you go to the end you will fall off, this was how it was known to be until it was rediscovered by Columbus and his men that the world was round. Another problem outlined by Passmore is that, because â€Å"the meaning of a proposition is the method of its verification,† it is not a scientific proposition. Positivists responded to this by claiming that it should not be read as a statement but as a proposal, that is, a recommendation that propositions should not be accepted as meaningless unless they are verifiable. In response to Passmore’s statement, Carnap suggested that the verifiability principle is a clarification which will distinguish forms of activity which are otherwise likely to be confused with one another; metaphysicians will thus be able to tell what propositions are meaningless (Logical Positivism). Impact on Subsequent Philosophy Passmore wrote that logical positivism is dead, or as dead as a philosophical movement ever becomes; but it has left a legacy behind. Logical positivism was essential to the development of early analytic philosophy. It was disseminated throughout the European continent and, later, in American universities by the members of the Vienna Circle. According to the Routeledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, this transplanted to the English – speaking world of ‘analytic’ philosophy. Originally, it set up a series of sharp contrasts: between metaphysics and science, logical and factual truths, the verifiable and the non-verifiable, the corrigible and the incorrigible, what can be shown and what can be said, facts and theories. Logical positivism tremendously influenced the philosophy of science and the application of logic (language) and mathematical techniques to philosophical problems more generally. Logical positivism therefore has an established place in the history and continuing development of philosophy. At least three reasons can be given for this. One is purely historical, regarding the considerable impact and influence of the movement in its glory days. A second lies in the intrinsic interest of its ideas. The third lies in the fact that even if no one today would call themselves a logical positivist some of its main positions, such as verification and emotivism in Ethics, are specification of the actual steps we take for determining their truth or falsity (Hanfling). Also, logical positivism was immensely influential in the philosophy of language. The philosophy of language for the logical positivists is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language and reality. Also, it was used in conjunction with logic (Wikipedia Encyclopedia par 1). The spread of logical positivism in the USA occurred throughout the 1930s. The pragmatic tradition of Pierce, James and Dewey, with its instrumentalist conception of science, provided a healthy stock on which to graft logical empiricism, which, particularly in Carnap’s work, already had a pragmatist bent (Hackers 183). The rise of logical positivism was evident in the European continent. The English philosopher Alfred Jules Ayer played an important role in spreading logical positivism. In his book, Language, Truth and Logic, Ayer completely accepted both the Verifiability Principle and the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements, and so he asserted that metaphysical sentences were meaningless. Furthermore, a direct influence was exerted by Waismann and Neurath who immigrated to England. According to Murzi, in his work â€Å"The Philosophy of Logical Positivism†, in the twentieth century, logical positivism has provided a platform for Italian philosophy, Polish philosophy and Scandinavian philosophy (19). The influence of logical positivism began to diminish around 1960 with the rise of â€Å"pragmatic form of naturalism due to Quine and a historical-sociological approach to philosophy of science due mainly to Thomas Kuhn.† Nevertheless, it must be noted that logical positivism played a very important role in the development of contemporary philosophy, not only for its philosophical principles, but also for its editorial and organizational activities. The efforts of the logical positivists to rid science and meaningful discourse generally, of metaphysics, their attempt to create a ‘unified science’ by laying bare the logical structure of scientific theories and thereby showing the structural similarities, their insistence on logic and empiricism as being the only two reliable and acceptable pillars of knowledge—all these contributed towards a scientific universalism.[5] Logical positivism is studied by many modern day students of philosophy and authors; philosophers well as have written about it thus testifying to its continued existence, if not its practice. Notwithstanding the above mentioned, it is necessary to note that while logical positivism may have laid a platform for other philosophies, its approach seek to have dismissed the traditional philosophies. Now, if one should pursue logical positivism seriously, then as postulated before, certain feelings would become empty. As Coppleston noted, the growth of logical positivism has helped to produce a mental outlook which was unfavourable to metaphysics and to religion (32). Logical positivism is synonymous to an amoral type philosophy and with those tendencies entrenched in our society a chaotic environment would be established. Personally, looking at its attempt to rid itself of things that can not be proven, in every case it has destroyed too much even where philosophers found it difficult to continue writing. Magee in his book, Confession of a Philosopher: A Personal Journey Through Western Philosophy from Plato to Popper, professed to this. For him, â€Å"there was a period in which several of the cleverest philosophers became reluctant to say anything at all, because almost nothing that might be deemed to be worth saying was, unless it was factually provable, permissible.† In conclusion, logical positivism, then, is an approach to verifying the meaning of statements through empirical observation. It is a philosophic tradition that attempted to use science and logic to determine the truth or falsity of statements, and to disprove the meaningfulness of metaphysical, ethical and epistemological ideas as we know them to be meaningful. Like any other school of thoughts in philosophy it has come up against criticisms, however it did make contributions to philosophy and philosophical thinking as we know it today whether it is by being studied, opposed, or supported by philosophers. Works Cited Ayer, A.J. ed .Logical Positivism. New York: Free Press Co-operation, 1959. Bochenski, I.M. Contemporary European Philosophy. London: Cambridge University, 1956. Brown Stuart et al. One Hundred Twentieth Century Philosophers. London: Routledge Publishing Ltd. 1999. Hackers, PMS. Wittgenstein’s Place in Twentieth Century Analytic Philosophy. London: Blackwell Publishers, 1996. Hanfling, Oswald. Logical Positivism. Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1981. Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. â€Å"Logical Positivism.† Concise Routeledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2000. . â€Å"Logical Positivism.† Wikipedia Encyclopedia. 5 Nov. 2006 Retrieved 18 Oct. 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_positivism Magee, Bryan. Confession of a Philosopher: A Personal Journey through Western Philosophy from Plato to Popper. New York: Random House Inc. 1997. Murzi, Mauro. The Philosophy of Logical Positivism†. Online posting. 18 Oct. 2007. http://www.murzim.net/LP/LP00.html Passmore, J. â€Å"Logical Positivism.† The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 26 Oct. 2004 Retrieved 24 Oct. 2007. http://www.comnet.ca/~pballan/logicalpos(passmore).htm Runes, Dagobert. Living Schools of Philosophy: Twentieth Century Philosophy. Iowa: Littlefield, Adams and Co. 1958. Shah, Mohd Hazim. â€Å"Logical Positivism, Scientism, Universalism and Globalization.† Online posting. 11 Jun. 2002. 24 Oct. 2007. http://sts.um.edu.my/E-Library/Lecture%20Notes/SFGS6111/LP2.pdf â€Å"Vienna Circle.† Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 28 Jun. 2006 Retrieved 18 Oct. 2007 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vienna-circle/ ———————– [1] Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. [2] Passmore, J. â€Å"Logical Positivism.† The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 26 Oct. 2004 Retrieved 24 Oct. 2007. http://www.comnet.ca/~pballan/logicalpos(passmore).htm [3] Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. [4] Bochenski, I.M. Contemporary European Philosophy. London: Cambridge University, 1956. [5] Shah, Mohd Hazim. â€Å"Logical Positvism, Scientism, Universalism and Globalisation.† Online posting. 11 Jun. 2002. 24 Oct. 2007.