Promoting autonomy of oneself and others Essay Example for Free

Promoting autonomy of oneself and others Essay Introduction                     Autonomy is the ability to have the capacity for self-governance or have self- determination. This is a concept which comes out through various arenas. For example, the moral autonomy is usually governed by the moral laws ( Deci, 2010). Therefore, personal autonomy can be said to be the capacity of a person to pursue actions based on moral content. This paper will compare the philosophical work by Nietzsche and MacIntyre and determine who offers the best tool of promoting autonomy. Over the past centuries, the teachings of Friedrich Nietzsche have transformed and penetrated every realm of social culture in the Western world. In his essays, he examines the significance of people’s ability to make promises. He states that to hold to the promises made requires both confidence about the future and very powerful memory that will ensure that certain issues are not forgotten. According to Nietzsche confidence requires one to be predictable or calculable and, therefore, he or she must share common sets of customs and laws that govern his or her behaviour (Risse, 2001). The society and morality play an important part of making a person predictable, therefore, giving the person ability to make promises. This process according to Nietzsche is complicated as it ends up in the ‘sovereign person’ who can make decisions, not only because the person in question is bounded by social mores but because he or she is the master of his or her own free will. The sovereign of an individual is characterised by tremendous responsibilities of one being free to make claims in regard to his or her future. This sense of responsibility according to Nietzsche is called conscience (Risse, 2001). Nietzsche defines the concept of ‘bad conscience and guiltiness using German words for ‘debt’ and ‘guilt. He suggested that, originally, there were no relationship between guilt and accountability or immorality. Punishments were meted on the basis of reprisal and not on the basis of guilt. If a person failed to honour promises, then they were considered to be in debt the person they failed. The debt could then be balanced by punishing or torturing the person. This happened to a person say the creditor who had no interest of getting his money back from the debtor. Thus, the memory of making promises during this time was burdened and the punishments and cruelty ensured that the debtor does not forget his promises next time (Risse, 2001). Macintyre’s in his book, ‘After Virtue (1981)’ explains his long ethical project. The book diagnoses the rising issues in the society such as ‘culture of emotivism’ where the moral language pragmatically manipulates decisions, attitude and decision. According to the book, those moral cultures are said to be a theatre of illusion where the objectives of moral rhetoric masks the decisions. The books examine the part of the community in making the judgments about the truth or falsity. The work by MacIntyre also examines the reasons why human beings need virtues through investigating the social debts and needs of human agents and the part which they were playing in the formation of an independent practical person who can reason (Borden, 2007). The philosophy by Maclntyre’s is very important especially to the fields of communitarian politics and the virtues of ethics. He points out the insignificance of conventional business ethic as an application of the modern moral concepts in decision making. His work in philosophy has lead tremendous renewal of values over the last decades. For example, in his works his discusses the moral condemnation of Stalinism. His presentation of this concept draws two important conclusions related to morality, one is the fact of the people’s solidarity in discovering what people want in their moral life (Borden, 2007).. According to MacIntyre morality organises life of the community. As he concludes his book, he says that the concepts of morality are neither historical nor timeless and, therefore, the understanding the developments of historical, ethical concepts can liberate people from any falsity claims (Borden, 2007). MacIntyre’s Aristotelian offers the best tool of promoting autonomy of one self and others compared to Nietzsche because he examines the habits that humans should develop in order to make judgement and act efficiently in the pursuit of the true choices which have a worthy end. His examination has a very rich account on the deliberate activities by human that encompass moral formation and society life. He also accounts why humans have practical wisdom to do what is right based on the freedom of morality. References Borden, S. L. (2007). Journalism as practice: MacIntyre, virtue ethics and the press. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. Deci, E. L., Ryan, R. M. (2010). The support of autonomy and the control of behavior. Journal of personality and social psychology, 53(6), 1024.Risse, M. (2001). The Second Treatise in In the Genealogy of Morality: Nietzsche on the Origin of the Bad Conscience. European Journal of Philosophy, 9(1), 55-81. Source document

Monticello :: essays research papers

Monticello "I am as happy nowhere else and in no other society, and all my wishes end, where I hope my days will end, at Monticello," wrote Thomas Jefferson the great architect of his home, Monticello. His home of 54 years was named Monticello which means "little mountain" in Italian. Many still question the reasoning for the name "Monticello." The only reasoning that was come up with was that Jefferson wanted to build his home on his mountain located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia near Charlottesville. He wanted a place that was private and away from civilization and the commotion of politics. Thomas Jefferson became his own master builder on this land that he inherited from his father, Peter Jefferson. When his father died he left five thousand acres and more than twenty slaves to Thomas and his younger brother Randolph. The land would include the little 867 foot wooded mountain that would one day be called "Monticello." In 1767 Jefferson did the unheard thing to do in colonial America, he decided to build his dream home on the mountaintop. There were no highways or rivers on the land he built his home and people thought he was crazy and unpractical for doing this. Architecture, as a profession, did not exist in colonial America. Only the wealthy men of the South were to have some knowledge of architectural styles. Finally gentlemen farmers and merchants were able to create plans and pictures of their dream houses by combining their skills. They were then able to become what was known as amateur architects. Jefferson started his construction of Monticello by leveling his mountaintop and setting down on paper sketchy visions of the house. He then prepared the mechanical working drawings, which he taught himself to do. The materials needed to construct Monticello were found in the area. He used his own trees for timber and took stone blocks for the foundation out of his mountain. The bricks were even fired in Monticello's own mountaintop kiln. He studied P2 the crafts of stonecutting, brick making and carpentry to carry out the work of construction. The only things he had to get elsewhere were the intricate fittings like brass locks and doorknobs or glass. Slowly but surely Jefferson finished a small brick building, which was the south pavilion, in 1770. Later the north pavilion was finished and served as a study for his son-in-law.

Kite Runner Essay

Khaheld Hosseine, in his novel The Kite Runner, suggests that the causes of the vicious cycle of lies are trying to forget the past and push the guilt away and leads to guilt, problems, and the relationship between Amir and Hassan; only when Amir tells the truth, humbles himself, and changes his hierarchy/status quo and only then can the vicious cycle of lies be broken. Amir has said many lies to Baba and some of them were about Hassan steeling his things and blaming that Hassan took them to get Hassan in trouble and by doing this it adds to Amir’s guilt and makes Hassan and Amir more separated. One of the main reasons Amir was so guilty was the scene in Kite Runner when Hassan was getting bullied and eventually raped by Assef. While this was happening Amir was watching and did not know what to do because he was so scared and â€Å"in the end I ran† (77) and for not defending Hassan Amir was a coward. If Amir would have gotten help from Baba or Ali, or just become brave and put a stop to the madness all of this would not happen. Kite Runner would have not been the book it is today without Hassan’s rape, this caused Amir to have guilt and all the other terrible things happen to him later in the book. A great surprise in the book were that Amir and Hassan were half brothers and had the same father and that Baba was keeping this secret from them all of these years and leading to Amir finding out and getting angry why Baba did not tell this to him, and Rahim Khan explained that no one but himself, Baba, Ali, and Sanaubar had known about the matter in order to preserve their honor. Hassan never found out. Amir was furious at all of them for keeping the secret. He screamed at Rahim Khan and left the apartment. Amir thinks that if he knew Hassan was his brother he would have treated him better and probably would have not died and they would not have been separated in the first place. All of these thoughts in Amirs mind were making Amir have so much guilt and by breaking theses cycles he would have to tell someone. At the end of the book the general asks why Amir brought a Hazara boy to America and Amir replys â€Å"†You will never again refer to him as ‘Hazara boy’ in my presence. He has a name and its Sohrab† (25). Amir breaks a cycle of lies by defending a Hazara in front of the general. To finish it all of Amir and Sorab are flying the kite and Amir was the kite runner. The think significant about Amir being the kite runner was that only Hazars are kite runners and Amir asks if he should run Sorabs kite for him, Amir thinks he sees a nod and then says â€Å"For you, a thousand times over† (25) and Amir put himself to that level like Hassan and finally broke the vicious cycle of lies and truths. .

An Introduction to Queuing Theory

Queuing theory is the mathematical study of queuing, or waiting in lines. Queues contain customers (or â€Å"items†) such as people, objects, or information. Queues  form when there are limited resources for providing a service. For example, if there are 5 cash registers in a grocery store, queues will form if more than 5 customers wish to pay for their items at the same time. A basic queuing system consists of an arrival process (how customers arrive at the queue, how many customers are present in total), the queue itself, the service process for attending to those customers, and departures from the system. Mathematical queuing models are often used in software and business to determine the best way of using limited resources. Queueing models can answer questions such as: What is the probability that a customer will wait 10 minutes in line? What is the average waiting time per customer?   The following situations are examples of how queueing theory can be applied: Waiting in line at a bank or a storeWaiting for a customer service representative to answer a call after the call has been placed on holdWaiting for a train to comeWaiting for a computer to perform a task or respondWaiting for an automated car wash to clean a line of cars Characterizing a Queuing System Queuing models  analyze how customers (including people, objects, and information) receive a service. A queuing system contains: Arrival process. The arrival process is simply how customers arrive. They may come into a queue alone or in groups, and they may arrive at certain intervals or randomly.Behavior. How  do customers behave when they are in line? Some might be willing to wait for their place in the queue; others may become impatient and leave. Yet others might decide to rejoin the queue later, such as when they are put on hold with customer service and decide to call back in hopes of receiving faster service.  How customers are serviced. This includes the length of time a customer is serviced, the number of servers available to help the customers, whether customers are served one by one or in batches, and the order in which customers are serviced, also called service discipline.Service discipline refers to the rule by which the next customer is selected. Although many retail scenarios  employ the â€Å"first come, first served† rule, other situations may call for other types of service. For example, customers may be served in order of priority, or based on the number of items they need serviced (such as in an express lane in a grocery store). Sometimes, the  last customer to arrive will be served first (such s in the case in a stack of dirty dishes, where the one on top will be the first to be washed).Waiting room. The number of customers allowed to wait in the queue may be limited based on the space available. Mathematics of Queuing Theory Kendall’s notation is a shorthand notation that specifies the parameters of a basic queuing model. Kendall’s notation is written in the form A/S/c/B/N/D, where each of the letters stand for different parameters. The A term describes when customers arrive at the queue – in particular, the time between arrivals, or interarrival times. Mathematically, this parameter specifies the probability distribution that the interarrival times follow. One common probability distribution used for the A term is the Poisson distribution.The S term describes how long it takes for a customer to be serviced after it leaves the queue. Mathematically, this parameter specifies the probability distribution that these service times follow. The Poisson distribution is also commonly used for the S term.The c term specifies the number of servers in the queuing system. The model assumes that all servers in the system are identical, so they can all be described by the S term above.The B term specifies the total number of items that can be in the system, and includes items that are still in the queue and those that are being serviced. Though many systems in the real world have a limited capacity, the model is easier to analyze if this capacity is considered infinite. Consequently, if the capacity of a system is large enough, the system is commonly assumed to be infinite.The N term specifies the total number of potential customers – i.e., the number of customers that could ever enter the queueing system – which may be considered finite or infinite.The D term specifies the service discipline of the queuing system, such as first-come-first-served or last-in-first-out. Little’s law, which was first proven by mathematician John Little, states that the average number of items in a queue can be calculated by multiplying the average rate at which the items arrive in the system by the average amount of time they spend in it. In mathematical notation, the Littles law is: L ÃŽ »WL is the average number of items, ÃŽ » is the average arrival rate of the items in the queuing system, and W is the average amount of time the items spend in the queuing system.Little’s law assumes that the system is in a â€Å"steady state† – the mathematical variables characterizing the system do not change over time. Although Little’s law only needs three inputs, it is quite general and can be applied to many queuing systems, regardless of the types of items in the queue or the way items are processed in the queue. Little’s law can be useful in analyzing how a queue has performed over some time, or to quickly gauge how a queue is currently performing. For example: a shoebox company wants to figure out the average number of shoeboxes that are stored in a warehouse. The company knows that the average arrival rate of the boxes into the warehouse is 1,000 shoeboxes/year, and that the average time they spend in the warehouse is about 3 months, or  ¼ of a year. Thus, the average number of shoeboxes in the warehouse is given by (1000 shoeboxes/year) x ( ¼ year), or 250 shoeboxes. Key Takeaways Queuing theory is the mathematical study of queuing, or waiting in lines.Queues contain â€Å"customers† such as people, objects, or information. Queues form when there are limited resources for providing a service.Queuing theory can be applied to situations ranging from  waiting in line at the grocery store to waiting for a computer to perform a task. It is often used in software and business applications to determine the best way of using limited resources.Kendall’s notation can be used to specify the parameters of a queuing system.Little’s law is a simple but general expression that can provide a quick estimate of the average number of items in a queue. Sources Beasley, J. E. â€Å"Queuing theory.†Boxma, O. J. â€Å"Stochastic performance modelling.† 2008.Lilja, D. Measuring Computer Performance: A Practitioner’s Guide, 2005.Little, J., and Graves, S. â€Å"Chapter 5: Little’s law.† In Building Intuition: Insights from Basic Operations Management Models and Principles. Springer ScienceBusiness Media, 2008.Mulholland, B. â€Å"Little’s law: How to analyze your processes (with stealth bombers).† Process.st, 2017.