Blind Faith and False Belief: An Examination of the Development of The

The purpose of this paper is to closely examine the effects of children with congenital profound visual impairment (CPVI) and a possible correlation to the delay in the development of theory of mind (ToM). Specifically, this paper will compare a study that investigated how visual cues affect the development of ToM to a similarly themed episode from the popular television show Xena: Warrior Princess. On the surface these two groups may appear to be an odd comparison, for children with CPVI and Xena seem like they have nothing in common. However, there is one episode in particular entitled â€Å"Blind Faith,† in which these two worlds collide in a unique and surprising way proving and interesting parallel and additional insight into how blindness may affect the development of the theory of mind. In the article entitled, â€Å"An investigation of first-order false belief understanding of children with congenital profound visual impairment,† a detailed look at the development of ToM was performed. Theory of mind (ToM) is defined â€Å"as the ability to impute mental states to others and to interpret and predict behavior in terms of those mental states† (Green 1). In order to examine ToM, the study performed a series of false belief tests. False belief can also be explained as misunderstanding which connected to false reasoning. In the case of the children in this study, the false belief would be if they can correctly identify how another person would respond to a specific task, if that person had limited information that the children were previously made privy too. These tests are important because, as they article explains; the testing false belief is the most direct way to access if a person has a fully developed theory of mind (Dennett c... ...ere is a correlation between blindness and a delay to the development ToM. Whether it’s Xena or children with congenital profound visual impairment it’s obvious that visual cues are significant when trying to interpret the actions of others. Xena, like the children in the study, was forced to rely on other senses to compensate for the lack of visual cues, which is important because without them children are at a disadvantage to understanding the greater world around them. Works Cited â€Å"Blind Faith.† Xena: Warrior Princess. Created by Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi. Perf. Lucy Lawless, Renee O’Connor. USA Network. April 17, 1997. Green, Sarah, Linda Pring, and John Swettenham. "An Investigation of First-order False Belief Understanding of Children with Congenital Profound Visual Impairment." British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 22.1 (2004): 1-17.

Marketing in a New Venture

Today is a very different day as far as communication goes. We live in the age of NOW! Over are the days when one has to wait for a letter from a friend, go to the grocery store before it closes or run to the bank before it closes to pay a bill.   These advances come with set backs, such as scams. I have had some emails sent to me about winning a lottery that I have never played.   Such people pray on the destitute and ignorant.   They lurk anywhere from emails to job postings.   I must say, I respect Craigslist for having warnings and allowing a posting to be flagged if it seems at all suspicious.   The craigslist team has put forth much effort to minimize such attempts. I have not seen this on many other sites. Craigslist has a reputation of being the ‘go to’ spot for employment, gigs and events.   If they were not careful about such things, they would probably lose a lot of business. This forces businesses to work hard to at least appear legitimate.   It also puts a new twist on ‘let the buyer beware.’   With so many scams on the internet, it is quite difficult to call a spade a spade.   The warnings from Craigslist enable the consumer to   make an informed decision and probably be less likely to deal with companies unheard of by most. It also empowers the average joe by perhaps prompting him to take that extra step to contact   the   Better Business Bureau or consumer affairs to verify the legitimacy of these companies.   As an avid user of craigslist, I am leary of ambiguous terms used in ads.   Such ads I shy away from.   I have come across ads that have been flagged and it helps me to feel that other users are looking out for each other.   Craigslist creates a sense of comraderie and the safety in the big brother is watching theory. It has a commune feel and if that is not what they were going for, it is definitely not a bad side effect. I had never heard of craigslist until a friend of mine mentioned it to me. Once I went on it, I was hooked. I wasted less time on spam in disguise because the community was looking out for me.   I learned of it by word of mouth, which is perhaps the way some other services would benefit.   For example, a service for home replenishment would benefit from word of mouth.   It is purely the nature of the medium that suggests this.   Let us say that we know of a birth.   The new mom may not be able to get around and may want her groceries delivered. I may tell her about it. Perhaps a friend broke his leg on a ski trip and cannot get around so well, I may speak of it then.   Maybe many students are studying for a final and are so enthralled in the studies that we cannot take a break. I may suggest it at that point.   It is the type of entity that requires a situation to entertain the thought of utilizing the service.   Another situation, such as a graduation (event) lends itself easily to viral marketing.   Requiring those that I have emailed to respond RSVP will give the hosting site information a marketing list and some of them will partake in such an event.   A service to allow incoming college students to create personal pages, organized by their institutions, may benefit from word of mouth marketing with limited viral marketing. Since it is organized by the institution, it limits access to those that are not privy to the institutional privileges. A service using a device to look up barcodes can definitely benefit from bootstrapping.   The items that are being looked up will probably link to the company or manufacturer of such products.   They in turn will send similar product emails to the person looking up the products.   This may result in traditional marketing, such as coupons and mailings with an instant direct marketing list.

Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies Essay

Compare the ways in which children are portrayed in Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. How convincing do you find each author’s treatment of evil in relation to his characters? Everyone likes to think of childhood as a symbol of a time of innocence. People tend to look back on their childhood nostalgically, they remember it as carefree and often use the term ‘youth is wasted on the young’ these feelings have stayed with us for centuries and are incredibly deep rooted. These feelings therefore, create widespread outrage when evil becomes apparent in children or is inflicted upon them, For example the murder of James Bulger by ten year olds and also abuse and corruption of children. Children are thought of as vulnerable, when there vulnerability is taken advantage of, especially by another child a question is asked, is childhood innocence a myth? The Victorians were aware of the religious doctrine of original sin, yet they were shocked that there was the suggestion that the two young children in Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw could be evil. Golding presents children with a strong propensity to evil and disorder. Golding’s children are a mixture, from saintly Simon to barbaric Jack. The fact that the two writers have different aims to come of their stories should be taken into consideration. Golding has written a fable, whilst his characters are all boys, and are recognisably boys; they all possess different characters that are intended to represent humanity. They are all individuals, Ralph, Piggy, Simon and Jack but each one can be categorised. On the other hand James has written a ghost story, albeit of an unconventional kind. Also, the two children in The Turn of the Screw are never actually shown from a different point of view from that of the governess, we never see Miles and Flora as wholly rounded individuals we don’t gain access into their thoughts and feelings and therefore could interpret them wrongly. They could be the corrupted accomplices of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, as the governess believes, or they could be the sexually obsessed fantasies in her head. In Golding’s novel there is not a definite narrator. Golding allows us to know what the boys are thinking and feeling; this is particularly true of Ralph and Simon. When Miles and Flora are first introduced into the novel they are seen through the romantic and idealising vision of the governess and therefore are portrayed to us as ‘innocent and beautiful; they have charm and perfect manners’ Yes, this is because the governess has a romantic imagination and is overwhelmed by her new responsibilities but it also could be because the children’s innocence portrayed in the first chapters of the novel makes their depravity later on seem all the more shocking to the reader as a contrast. When we first meet Golding’s boys however they are portrayed to us far more realistically, Piggy is an excellent example of this as he is the first most down to earth character we meet, you immediately get an image of piggy and the things he says are never questioned in the readers head to be unrealistic or fake about him. This is because his speech and manners aren’t perfect, which is what you would expect in a child. For me both authors treatment of evil in relation to his characters are convincing. James approaches the question of evil by being deliberately inexplicit. We are never actually informed as to what offence Miles was expelled from school ‘I said things’- Miles. Also, in chapter six the governess feels a ‘sudden sickness of disgust’ when she learns from Mrs. Grose that Quint was ‘too free’ with Miles. Again we don’t learn exactly what this means; it could refer to some sort of sexual abuse. I think this is a convincing and effective way of putting across the evil in the book because the novel seems to gain in power precisely because James refuses to spell things out for the reader. The ghostly apparitions are given a genuinely chilly impact ‘he slowly changed his place, looking at me hard all the while, to the opposite corner of the platform’ through the governess’s reaction the reader is made vividly aware of an atmosphere of evil. For Golding evil is first manifest in the gradual breakdown of order amongst the boys: they neglect things they agreed to do together, such as building shelters; they pick on or shun those who are different, notably piggy and Simon. Roger begins to discover that he enjoys wielding power over others and even inflicting pain; the lure of hunting turns into blood lust; the boys succumb to the fear of the ‘Beast’ and superstition. Simon the visionary is the only boy with the insight to see that evil is a part of Melanie Parkes human nature. The Beast is not an external creature to be feared, but it is inside each one of them. This evil is an enemy of reason and order and wishes to extinguish them. It results in murder, first of Simon, then of Piggy, and finally the boys intend to hunt and kill Ralph. I also find the evil in children implication convincing in Goldings writing as it implies that evil comes from within and is present in everyone, even children. The build up to children murdering each other in this story is convincing and therefore the evil in them is convincing as nothing on the island apart from a dead corpse was there to trigger the evil that came from only them. Overall the two writers manage to deal with ‘evil’ in different but effectively, whilst both stories are of a different genre they both deal with the fact that evil may well be present in children. The children are portrayed differently because evil because apparent them in different ways, in James’s novel through the ghosts and in Golding’s novel through ‘The Beast’ however in both books evil is seen as a force, which consumes and destroys. Miles is destroyed at the end of James’s novel though in ambiguous circumstances. In Golding’s novel, the entire island is turned from a paradise into a raging inferno.

A Lesson Before Dying. “If We Must Die” by Claude Mckay Essay

In the passages â€Å"If We Must Die† by Claude McKay, the speaker set a courageous tone by using words like â€Å"brave†, â€Å"fighting†, and â€Å"honor† in sentences throughout the passage to show that the men were not afraid although they were outnumbered. This work of literature teaches the reader that if a group of people can come together as one they can be more powerful then a greater population. In the literary work â€Å"A Lesson Before Dying† by Ernest J. Gaines, Jefferson’s tone was cowardly/immature in the beginning of the book, but as the book progressed his tone changed to him being more spirited and content. In â€Å"A Lesson Before Dying† we can learn from Jefferson that although someone puts you down, you should be able to ignore it and move on from it with some pride. The speaker and character in these works of literature used different tones throughout the passages. In the poem â€Å"If We Must Die† by Claude McKay, the speaker conveys a courageous tone throughout the passage. Some examples of the speaker setting a courageous tone are in the lines â€Å"If we must die, let it not be like hogs† and â€Å"If we must die, O let us nobly die† this means that no matter how anyone treats them, if they die, they’re going to die like men with pride and dignity. Also in the line â€Å"Though fat outnumbered let us show brave, and for there thousand blows deal one death blow!† this line sets a courageous tone because although they are far outnumbered and the enemies will be much stronger individually, they’re going to come together as one to attack with more intensity then the enemies. The last line that creates a courageous tone is â€Å"Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back† this means that they fought to the second that they died, dying bravely and with pride. In this passage a courageous tone was set because the speaker talked about even though the men knew they were highly outnumbered and out powered, they still fought with pride to the death. In the book â€Å"A Lesson Before Dying† by Ernest J. Gaines, Jefferson showed a cowardly and immature tone. When Jefferson was called a hog by his defense attorney in the beginning of the book he couldn’t get over it. Whenever Grant would visit him and try to help, Jefferson would ignore Grant. Even when Grant brought Jefferson food from Ms. Emma, Jefferson gets on his hands and knees and starts to eat the food as if he was actually a hog. Jefferson began to become obsessed with the fact that he might actually be a hog. Grant thought it was going to be impossible to change his attitude, but Grant tells Jefferson that he his a role model to the black culture in the community and that Bayonne needs him to have dignity. This is when Jefferson’s tone changed to a more spirited and mature tone. He started to mature and engage in conversations with other people. Grant also bought him a radio, which made him saner. Jefferson now started to become content with the fact that he was going to die, and when he does die he’s going to die with dignity and with a positive aura on the black community. Within these two works of literature there are tones, which are used to get a point across more easily and put emphasis on certain details. There are also many similarities and differences between the two works. Some similarities are that in both of the passages they wanted to die like men by the end. Also in â€Å"If We Must Die† and â€Å"A Lesson Before Dying† both Jefferson and the speaker were treated like hogs, as well as in both literatures unfortunate situations were occurring throughout the stories. Some differences were that the speaker in â€Å"If We Must Die† had a brighter outlook on things compared to Jefferson who was very negative in the beginning. Another difference is that the speaker overcame being called a hog wanted to die with pride but Jefferson on the other hand was very sensitive about it and took it to the heart. These two works of literature had their similarities and differences but for the most part these passages had similar outcomes and tones.

Microeconomic Phenomenon In Daily Life Term Paper

Microeconomic Phenomenon In Daily Life - Term Paper Example The paper tells how in January 25, 2011, Egyptians took to the streets in protest of dysfunctional political and economic systems in their nation. The youth took the forefront in revealing economic predicaments that had riddled their lives for a long time. In the process, members of the public engaged in confrontations with military personnel in a struggle which resulted in overthrow of Egyptian president Mubarak. The revolution period ushered in adoption of a new government system and new economic policies for Egyptian people. Immediately after the revolution, macroeconomic aspects of productivity had significantly reduced. The military regime that took over tried to restore economic sanity through measures which would take longer to yield the desired effect than expected. In this regard, Egyptian economic environment witnessed profound microeconomic predicaments in the period after revolution. Inflation effects are attributed to effects of revolution on Egyptian financial markets. In this context, Egyptian currency dropped substantially after the revolution to unprecedented low levels in the nation’s history. Egyptian net reserves for foreign currency featured at $ 30 billion in March 2011. This value represents a significant decrease since its reserves in January was approximately $33 billion. Based on theoretical effects of decreased dollar reserves within a nation’s economic system, Egyptian pound suffered a setback in value. Like most nations across the globe, Egyptian central bank has no mandate to depreciate the US dollar value. In this case, the only option to achieve a desired micro-economic trend would be to reduce purchasing power of affected currency. In the first attempt to improve the situation, Egyptian central bank purchased more pounds into their reserve stocks. These efforts fell into dead ends after dollar reserves hindered this tactical move. As a contingency plan, Egyptian central bank deliberately left deposit rates as 8.25%, while lending at a 9.75% for approximately 12 hours every week (Fraser 87). In practical application, these low interest rates were supposed to improve Egyptian currency value in order to reverse negative trends within the financial markets. Immediately after the revolution, foreign investors under sponsorship of the European Union staged a world economic summit in Alexandria. The summit aimed at addressing economic effect of revolution and increasing inflation, whi ch posed

Homeland Security - Predaredness & Prevention Assignment - 4

Homeland Security - Predaredness & Prevention - Assignment Example Such trainings/exercises are significant to attain a collective goal or objective since it provides opportunity to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses that can be corrected before an actual incident of the same kind occurs (US Department of Homeland Security, n.d.) These exercises or training will enhance preparedness in all first responders who in any situation will normally commence on the same footing, hence making them aware on how to respond effectively to small, medium and large-scale emergencies (US Department of Homeland Security, n.d.). Equally crucial to first responders is being provided with reliable information or data regarding a certain emergency or mishap. This being the case a solid and dependable system of information from all credible sources is needed to determine the actions that must be taken. This entails having a common and ultimate goal for all the responders so a consistent and unbiased approach is drawn from technical and other collection efforts (Th e Provisions of Executive Order 12333, 1981); which will however require all heads of the executive branch departments and agencies to submit timely responsive information necessary to effect programming and budgeting that will sustain the flow of reliable information for appropriate action implementation (The Provisions of Executive Order 12333, 1981). The Provisions of Executive Order 12333. (1981, December 4). Executive Order 12333 – United States Intelligence Activities. Retrieved from

Being human person Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Being human person - Essay Example This actuality is in the place of physical beings. For Aristotle, the soul is not an object in material form, but it does somehow still exist within the body. Only the things which have life can have a soul. Without life, a soul cannot exist. The soul comes from life and life cohabitates with the soul. However, there are faculties of the soul and it is clear that the faculties state that the living things differ from the nonliving things. Those who are alive have certain characteristics. These characteristics are intellect, sensation, movement, or rest. The organisms which are living, have faculty and principle or reason. Because of this principle, life belongs to the living and this was inherited based on the principle. The question is: what constitutes the living? The ability of sensation, the touch and the ability to grow and to decay can be answer the question. The soul is a mix of several faculties and each part of the faculties make up a part or the whole soul itself. Each livi ng thing needs to have the ability to reproduce and possess the nutritive soul. Aristotle says that plants do not have this faculty, but they do absorb nutrients but lack sensation with which they do this. The other part of the soul is sensation, which is the ability to feel pain and pleasure. Some animals are capable of feeling all sensation, others can only feel some and even yet others, only one. This is what makes humans different from animals. The main aspect of sensation is touch. Some can have touch and taste. Touch can exist without taste but taste cannot exist without touch. Taste is extremely necessary for the distinction of foods. The Soul is divided into several principles and the first of these principles is in charge of the locomotives and different types of movements such as growth, alteration, decay, sensation of space. It is believed by Aristotle that the function of the soul is ‘imagination’ for fantasy. The imagination is greatly different from though t and sensation. The soul itself cannot be captured or let go. The soul cannot essentially be found or lost. Religious people believe that the soul is given from God. Organisms who can reason and know right from wrong are said to have a soul. Without the distinction, and the knowledge, a soul does not exist. The person’s ability to be an individual is determined by their free will. People are not just put on this planet to be ordered around like robots. However, with the apparent presence of the soul, we have a freedom that is different from animals who live their life based on instincts. The soul however, has nothing to do with a person’s identity or individuality. The soul is formed the same in every person. It is a capacity, not the thing that has the capacity. When we use imagination, which is one aspect and purpose of the soul, we are able to see something or feel something through the eyes of the soul which is in us, but not us. The soul therefore is a verb, is a n act and not a noun or thing. Aristotle uses the word fantasia or fantasy for visualization, or retention of past sensations, He says that fantasy occurs at two levels: the sensitive or the deliberative. We all know that nature is organized in a hierarchal way. It starts with the intimate object. Aristotle decided to develop a scale of living beings which predicted the scale of evolution. His erratic thoughts on the soul and it not being a material thing does not really encompass any other belief