Ethics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ethics - Assignment Example The sense of and compliance with the principles of ethics is what makes man superior to all living creatures. The most convincing ethical system is utilitarianism. It is â€Å"probably the basic moral philosophy of most nonreligious humanists today’’ (Harris, 2002, p. 119). Utilitarianism suggests that in any situation, one should adopt that course of action that maximizes the utility for all of the sentient beings. An action that is generally considered objectionable in normal circumstances might be the right course of action in a particular situation because the context and situation might be equally different and unique. One needs to see what is the requirement of a given situation and in what potential ways can the maximum utility of a decision can be achieved in a positive way. Nevertheless, there is a certain level of subjectivity in this process that is difficult to avoid. This involves concerns about whether one should maximize the average, or the sum of the to tal utility. In addition to that, the utility of future beings also needs to be taken into account. In any case, the only factor that one should care about is maximizing the utility. The fundamental principles of ethics are maintenance of discipline and decorum and spread of mental as well as physical well-being. According to web.mnstate.edu (2012), there are four fundamental principles of ethics, namely the principle of beneficence, respect for autonomy, nonmalefience, and justice. The principle of beneficence obliges us to take such measures that make our actions good. This means that we should make effort to prevent others from harm. Nevertheless, adoption of this principle often involves us into a conflict with the respect of others’ autonomy. We are ethically obliged to have reverence for others’ autonomy so that their decisions regarding their lives are respected. It is the fundamental principle of human dignity. The principle of respect for autonomy deters us fr om interfering in the competent adults’ decisions and assigns us the responsibility of empowering others. The principle of nonmalefience instructs us not to harm others. In cases where it is not possible to avoid the harm altogether, we are ethically obliged to minimize the harm. Our actions should be such that more good is produced in their consequence than harm. The principle of justice requires us to give others what they deserve. Therefore, we need to consider all people equal and should deal with them impartially. The good life is that in which one never deters from getting one’s right and at the same time, always grants others their rights. An ethically good life is indeed a life that is functionally good (McKinnon, 1999, p. 69). In this world, everybody is interconnected. We have certain obligations toward others and others also have some obligations toward us similarly. To live a good life, we should neither compromise upon our own rights nor deny others their rights. If we compromise upon our own rights but grant others their rights, we essentially become selfless. Selflessness is just as harmful, if not more, for the quality of life as selfishness is. If we always get our rights

Conflicts Caused by Differences among Groups Essay Example for Free

Conflicts Caused by Differences among Groups Essay Conflicts Caused by Differences among Groups Throughout history differences among groups have often led to conflict. Two specific conflicts were the persecution of Christians during the Roman Empire and the Armenian massacres. These two conflicts were caused by differences among groups. The persecution of Christians during the Roman Empire was caused by differences in religion. In 1914 the conflict between the Turks and the Armenians led to the Armenian massacre which was caused by political differences. The persecution of Christians during the Roman Empire was caused by differences in religion. The Roman Empire was quite tolerant in its treatment of other religions. The imperial policy was generally one of incorporation; the local gods of a newly conquered area were simply added to the Roman pantheon and often given Roman names. Even the Jews, with their one god, were tolerated. For the Romans, religion was first and foremost a social activity that promoted unity and loyalty to the state, a religious attitude the Romans called pietas, or piety. Cicero wrote that if piety in the Roman sense were to disappear, social unity and justice would perish along with it. The Roman distaste for Christianity then, arose in large part from its sense that it was bad for society. The effect of this conflict was that it led to the persecution of Christians. Secondly, the Armenian massacre was another conflict that happened because of differences among groups. In 1914, the Turks entered World War I on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Military leaders began to argue that the Armenians were traitors. If they thought they could win independence the Armenians would be eager to fight for the enemy. As the war intensified Armenians organized volunteer battalions to help the Russian army fight against the Turks in the Caucasus region. These events and general Turkish suspicion of the Armenian people led the Turkish government to push for the removal of the Armenians from the war zones along the Eastern Front. On April 24, 1915, the Armenian genocide began. That day the Turkish government arrested and executed several hundred Armenian intellectuals. After that ordinary Armenians were turned out of their homes and sent on death marches through the Me sopotamian desert without food or water. Frequently, the marchers were stripped naked and forced to walk under the scorching sun until they dropped dead. People who stopped to rest were shot. In conclusion, differences among groups have  often led to conflicts. Two main conflicts were the persecution of Christians during the Roman Empire, which was caused by differences in religion, and the Armenian massacre, which was caused by political differences

An Analytical Essay on the Double-edged Sword in Hamlet :: The Tragedy of Hamlet Essays

An Analytical Essay on the Double-edged Sword in Hamlet   Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hamlet's tale is a tragic one because it presents a man who is in the center of a moral dilemma. It is difficult enough for a man to face what is making him angry even under normal circumstances. Hamlet's circumstances are certainly not normal.   Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hamlet's dilemma, whether or not he should kill the king, is compounded by three things. He is extremely angry and hurt over the murder of his father. He cannot express that anger to others because in his position it would be political suicide. Finally, human nature demands that he express that anger somehow. Thus Hamlet faces a double-edged sword, he must express his anger somehow and that will lead to his downfall.   Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hamlet (correctly) blames his uncle, Claudius, for the death of his father. Further compounding the issue is the fact that Claudius is now the King of Denmark and is married to Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. Hamlet feels robbed of his both his father and his birthright. There is no doubt that Claudius is responsible for the crime, the next course of action would, of course, be to kill him.   Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But it is not that simple.   Gertrude seems quite happy in her life with her new husband. Although Hamlet is infuriated with her as well for marrying Claudius so soon after her husband's death, he still loves her and does not wish any harm to come to her. Furthermore, if Hamlet were to kill Claudius, especially at this point, the people of Denmark would no doubt suspect the truth. This would only anger Hamlet even more since he feels that he would get caught for his 'justifiable homicide' and Claudius did not get caught for his crime. All Hamlet can do is keep quiet, and that only makes him even more frustrated.   Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, Hamlet cannot continue to hold his strong feelings inside for very long. Like shaking a bottle of soda, the pressure builds and builds until, eventually, the bottle will explode. Hamlet begins exploding with his passive-aggressive behavior towards the king and queen. He puts on a play that almost exactly displays the crime of which Claudius is guilty right before his eyes. However, even knowing beyond any doubt now that Claudius is guilty, Hamlet still cannot bring himself to kill him. The bottle does not explode completely until the duel at the climax of the play.

J.S. Bach Flute Sonata in B Minor: the Development of the Baroque Flute

J. S. Bach Flute Sonata in B minor (BWV 1030): the development of the Baroque Flute, the flautists and the music Johann Sebastian Bach (J. S. Bach) is no doubt one of the greatest composers of all times. He composed many works for flute including works for solo flute, flute with harpsichord and/or continuo and, two flutes and harpsichord. However, there has been a controversy, over the flute works, whether they were composed solely by the composer, assisted by someone or under the guidance of J.S. Bach. In addition, some scholars doubted that some of works are not written for flute and they are actually transcribed for flute by the composer. Especially, the Sonata in B minor (BWV 1030) raises most number of controversies. The J. S. Bach flute compositions are standard repertoire for the flute even today. As a professional flute player, it is very important to have comprehensive knowledge on the background of these works because they directly affect the way of interpreting them.By rev iewing the development of Baroque flute and analyzing the time period of the compositions would greatly help flutists to have a deeper understanding on these important repertoire in flute especially the B minor sonata (BWV 1030). The development of the instrument, Baroque flute, plays no doubt very important role on influencing the work written for it. The difference in range, tonality, mechanisms greatly affect the compositions written for it. Unlike other wind instruments, the Baroque flute was developed later than others.Since it is made differently, it is definitely impossible to apply the styles of other instruments on the Baroque flute. Some research suggested that J. S. Bach has little familiarity of the flute and flute players because, although the style of the compositions are similar to the other pieces of the composer, the flute works do not show that he understands the characteristic and the quality of the instrument. 1 And, the lack of knowledge of the flute would proba bly be because the composer did not listen much works for flute and meet flutists in where he worked.As mentioned above, the development of Baroque Flutes has great impact on how the pieces were written for it. Consequently, it is impossible to overlook this element when doing this research. â€Å"Flute† is a general term for a large and diverse woodwind instrumental family of which players blow air across the surface of any hollow object to produce sound. The appearance of the instrument, not only in western music, is found all over the globe like di-zi in China. 2 In Western music, flute plays an important role from ancient Greek music to contemporary music nowadays. The design, uses and playing styles keep changing even today.As one of the oldest instruments in Western music, â€Å"flutes† first appear in a picture of a shepherd playing the flute from the sermons of St Gregory of Nazianzus in a manuscript of early eleventh century. 3 It is mostly associated with nat ure and pastoral life. In Renaissance, flute was one of the instruments in mixed ensemble. More importantly, it played a notable role in sacred concerti or sacred symphonies. Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630), one of J. S. Bach’s predecessors, composed seven ensemble works that featured a transverse flute which is always assigned to the second voice.This tradition went on to the Baroque era and solo flute works became more popular from 1670. There were large changes in its mechanisms. The new instrument is now built in three or four sections instead of one piece; it is modified from a large cylindrical bore to a conical bore in which the diameter of the headpiece was greater than the foot piece which improves the tuning of the upper notes; most importantly, one key was added in the foot piece so there is an extra note which the little finger of the right hand cannot reach originally and it produces the new note d#’. These inventions are very important. However, there i s a common misunderstand, however, regarding â€Å"the flute† as a single instrument. In fact, it refers to an instrumental family in the Baroque Period. There are, generally speaking, eight different kinds of flutes including concert flute, descant flute and flute d’amour. Different kinds of flutes appeared in different pitches. 5 In the music that Bach wrote for flute, he did not, like all the composers at that period of time, specify the type of flute they writing for.In addition, there is a possibility that different flutes were used in different performances. All flutes were written as if they were in the key of D especially in the first quarter of the 18th century. As a result, it is difficult to judge which flute the composer had in mind from the music. 6 In the journal â€Å"J. S. Bach's Compositions for Solo Flute: A Reconsideration of Their Authenticity and Chronology† by Robert L. Marshall, he suggests: â€Å"It is still widely believed that Bach wro te eight works for the solo flute.But the view that has prevailed among Bach specialists for the past fifteen years is that the rather similar Sonatas for flute and harpsichord obbligato in G Minor (BWV I020) and E Flat Major (BWV io31) were probably composed by someone else-most likely Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach–and that the Sonata in C Major for flute and continuo (BWV 1033) was written by one-or two-of Bach's students (one of them, again, might have been Emanuel Bach), presumably in part under the composer's active supervision and intervention. † 7 This suggestion probably comes from the lack of normal musical style in his writing.Moreover, his writing shows no understanding of the qualities of the instrument. However, this argument seems invalid when considering the type of flute Bach was written for. The first flute solo work by Bach, Partita in a minor (BWV 1013), was written between about 1720 and 1730. He was one of the first German composers who started composin g music for solo flute. This may be stimulated by the new four-piece design of the Baroque flute. The instrument has an advanced feature to have an extended footjoint giving the note c’ however, Bach did not use this new feature in his B minor flute sonata (BWV 1030).Also, its middle joint has different length and can be replaced so that the pitch of the instrument can be altered to accommodate different pitches in different areas. Moreover, it now has a clearer and accurate tone. Fast passages and big leaps can now be played with ease. 8 This is probably one of the reasons why there are more compositions for solo flute. In addition to the development of the instrument, flautists’ involvement plays another crucial role in flute music composition. Bach first work with flute players in Cothen. The Prince of Cothen happened to be a keen musician ho was not in favor of elaborate church music, so Bach concentrated on instrumental music. Interestingly, the flautists were con sidered assets to the court because the salaries of the flautists in the courts were around three times higher than other musician. And, in this Cothen period (1717-1723), flute appeared as a solo instrument in his Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 (1719) and the B minor Suite for flute (BWV 1067). 9 Later, the â€Å"violinlization† of music in Paris was taken place of which a style characterized by constant semiquaver and arpeggiated passagework in Dresden. This style was achieved by the new Baroque flute.Bach moved to Leipzig in 1723 and he met new flautists there and started composing a large amount of flute chamber music. They begin with the Flute sonata in E minor (BWV 1034) dated c. 1724. Then, the later works are the C major (c. 1731), Eb major (1730-34), B minor and A major sonatas (c. 1736). These pieces seem match well with the larger-bored four-joint flutes with the most effective range. 10 However, two of Bach’s flute chamber works do raised some questions with th e fact that if they were written for flute because there is more than one score written by the composer and they seem not written for flute.They are the sonata in B minor (BWV 1030) and sonata in G minor (BWV 1020). The sonata BWV 1030 is the most important one. There are two scores written for the keyboard part, one in B minor and the other one in G minor. Some Oboists claimed that the G minor is the original version of the sonata for oboe and it is transposed for flute later in B minor. However, there is evidence that flute was a transposing instrument and there is no reason for Bach to write two separate version of music for different instrument. But, as mentioned before, Baroque flute is a family of instruments.There is a possibility that the piece is written for flute but that is not the concert flute. Every instrument’s ideal sound is to emulate the â€Å"singing quality† of the human voice – the music was written in a range that more suitable in lower ran ge flutes. The sonata in B minor (BWV 1030) particularly has a strong vocal quality which may suggests that the flute part is actually written for the flute d’amour. Like his Church Cantatas, the flute obbligatos part is intended for the d’amour. 11 Flute d’amour is an alto instrument tuned to D at French Chamber pitch.It sounds a major or minor 3rd below the normal pitch of harpsichords, and played at transpositions. But, this is a French tradition of transposing the pieces in the â€Å"Clef francoise† with the G on the bottom line. As a result, Bach wrote two separate scores for the flute and keyboard parts in his flute sonata in G minor based on the â€Å"Clef italienne†. It is understood by the flautists who worked with Bach and they should recognize it at a glance. 12 To conclude, the B minor flute sonata (BWV 1030) by Bach is written for flute, Flute d’amour precisely.It raised much doubt about this because the composers of the time di d not specified what kind of flute they wrote for. And, nowadays, with misunderstanding that â€Å"Baroque flute† is a term for a single instrument, people may suggest that this flute piece is not suitable for a particular Baroque flute. However, with a clearer picture of the development of the Baroque flute family, the intention of Bach to write two separate scores and the common practice of the flautists those days, the Sonata in B minor should probably be intended for the Baroque flute, the flute d’amour.

Are Literature Circle Effective

Literature circles are mostly used during a classroom to expand the view of the book and really see the details in each others opinion, but are they effective? Multiple students find literature circles helpful in understanding the book and they all have their own job when it comes to coming together and discussing what they read. In a certain way literature circles are helpful when it comes to comprehending the book everyone in your group is reading. You also get to bond more with the other people in your group, increase your discussion skills and vocabulary as well. Everyone in the group has their own opinion so when a question is asked about a certain paragraph or page, you can all discuss why you answered what you did. â€Å"Literature circles are effective for team building abilities, discussion skills, and reading comprehension†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Matt) Even though staying on task is one of the tricky parts of literature circles, they truly are helpful. Literature circles are a great way for students to read and enjoy a book, especially high school students because most teenagers now a days do not read as much as they should. It’s a wonderful tool as well, so they can learn to work effectively together. When your in your group you can have a discussion director, summarizer, vocabulary reporter, and a passage master. Discussion directors create questions about the passage they read and take notes during the discussion. Summarizers are the ones that summarize the passage. Vocabulary reporters look for significant words in the passage that caught their eyes and discuses them with the group. Passage master find passages in the reading that everyone should notice, remember, or think about. Everyone in a literature circle has a job so they can all work together and compare thoughts. This is an important tool when comprehending a book. Everyone has a way to contribute, and work together. Literature circles are very helpful when it comes to your reading, vocabulary, and discussion skills. You get to hear others opinion about the reading so you can understand how they felt. So sincerely literature circles are very effective.