10 Zinc Facts (Atomic Number 30 or Zn)

10 Zinc Facts (Atomic Number 30 or Zn) Zinc is a blue-gray metallic element, sometimes called spelter. You come in contact with this metal every day, and not only that, your body needs it to survive. Fast Facts: Zinc Element Name: ZincElement Symbol: ZnAtomic Number: 30Appearance: Silver-gray metalGroup: Group 12 (transition metal)Period: Period 4Discovery: Indian metallurgists before 1000 BCEFun Fact: Zinc salts burn blue-green in a flame. Heres a collection of 10 interesting facts about the element zinc: Zinc has the element symbol Zn and atomic number 30, making it a transition metal and the first element in Group 12 of the periodic table. Sometimes zinc is considered to be a post-transition metal.The element name is believed to come from the  German word zinke, which means pointed. This is likely a reference to the pointed zinc crystals that form after zinc is smelted.  Paracelsus, a Swiss-born, German Renaissance physician, alchemist, and astrologer, is credited with giving zinc its name. Andreas Marggraf is credited with isolating the element zinc in 1746, by heating  calamine ore and carbon together in a closed vessel, however, English metallurgist  William Champion had actually patented his process for isolating zinc several years earlier. While Champion may have been the first to isolate zinc, zinc smelting had been in practice in India since the 9th century BC. According to the International Zinc Association (ITA), zinc was recognized as a unique substance in India by 1374 and is believed to have been discovered by Indian metallurgists before 1000 BCE. Although zinc was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, it was not as common as iron or copper, probably because the element boils away prior to reaching the temperature required to extract it from ore. However, artifacts do exist proving its early use, including a sheet of Athenian zinc, dating back to 300 B.C. Because zinc is often found with copper, the metals use was more common as an alloy rather than as a pure element.Zinc is an essential mineral for human health. It is the second-most abundant metal in the body, after iron. The mineral is important for immune function, white blood cell formation, egg fertilization, cell division, and a host of other enzymatic reactions. Zinc deficiency may also be a causal factor in age-related vision deterioration. Foods rich in zinc include lean meat and seafood. Oysters are particularly rich in zinc.While its important to get enough zinc, too much can cause problems. Too much zinc can suppress the absorption of iron and copper. Ingesting c oins containing zinc has been known to cause death, as the metal reacts with gastric juice, corroding the gastrointestinal tract and producing zinc intoxication. One noteworthy side effect of excessive zinc exposure is a permanent loss of smell and/or taste. The FDA has issued warnings regarding zinc nasal sprays and swabs. Problems from excessive ingestion of zinc lozenges or from industrial exposure to zinc have also been reported. Zinc has many uses. It is the fourth-most common metal for industry, after iron, aluminum, and copper. Of the 12 million tons of the metal produced annually, about half goes to galvanization. Brass and bronze production account for another 17% of zincs usage. Zinc, its oxide, and other compounds are found in batteries, sunscreen, paints, and other products.Although galvanization is used to protect metals against corrosion, zinc actually does tarnish in air. The product is a layer of zinc carbonate, which inhibits further degradation, thus protecting the metal beneath it.Zinc forms several important alloys. Foremost among these is brass, an alloy of copper and zinc.Almost all mined zinc (95%) comes from zinc sulfide ore. Zinc is easily recycled and about 30% of the zinc produced annually is recycled metal.Zinc is the 24th-most abundant element in the Earths crust. Sources Bennett, Daniel R. M. D.; Baird, Curtis J. M.D.; Chan, Kwok-Ming; Crookes, Peter F.; Bremner, Cedric G.; Gottlieb, Michael M.; Naritoku, Wesley Y. M.D. (1997). Zinc Toxicity Following Massive Coin Ingestion. American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology. 18 (2): 148–153. doi:10.1097/00000433-199706000-00008Cotton, F. Albert; Wilkinson, Geoffrey; Murillo, Carlos A.; Bochmann, Manfred (1999). Advanced Inorganic Chemistry (6th ed.). New York: John Wiley Sons, Inc. ISBN 0-471-19957-5.Emsley, John (2001). Zinc. Natures Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements. Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 499–505. ISBN 0-19-850340-7.Greenwood, N. N.; Earnshaw, A. (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 0-7506-3365-4.Heiserman, David L. (1992). Element 30: Zinc. Exploring Chemical Elements and their Compounds. New York: TAB Books. ISBN 0-8306-3018-X.

Content Marketing Editorial Calendar How to Get Organized (Template)

Content Marketing Editorial Calendar How to Get Organized (Template) Using a content marketing editorial calendar sounds like a great idea, but do they really help? When it comes to content marketing, many companies that struggle with consistency have found an editorial calendar to be the perfect solution. Even those that dont  have that problem have been using a content marketing editorial calendar for years. So, what about your organization? Could you benefit from adding an editorial calendar to your content marketing plan? Most of us know that the answer to that question is yes. We know that the  number one way to get traffic is through  the very habits that an editorial calendar will help us develop- organization  and consistency. However, a lot of marketers  still struggle with knowing exactly how to set up and use a calendar to achieve their goals. If that sounds like you, its time to learn what journalists have known for decades: editorial calendars are essential for maintaining busy, successful publishing schedules. The Best Way to Get Organized With a Content Marketing Editorial Calendar via @ Table of Contents: Free Editorial Calendar Template What Do You Need to Build an Editorial Calendar? What Is Content Marketing? What is a Content Marketing Editorial Calendar? Why Should Content Marketers Use an Editorial Calendar? Two Types of Editorial Calendars: Spreadsheets vs. Software Getting Started With Your Editorial Calendar Strategy Outline a Basic Publishing Schedule Building Calendar-Based Workflows Managing Your Calendar First, Get Your Free Editorial Calendar Template Failing to plan is planning to fail. Youve probably heard that quote before. Theres good reason for that. It holds true. Especially for content marketers. Without proper planning, content is liable to fall flat. Or not get done on time. Or at all. Speaking from experience, creating better content more consistently starts with strategic use an editorial calendar. If you dont have one yet, though, youre in the right place. You can build one fast with this free Excel-based template below. Then when youre ready to upgrade, consider an alternative like . Now, theres no excuse not to get organized.What You Need To Start A Content Marketing Editorial Calendar There is no shortage of free templates available for creating your editorial calendar. Some are digital, and some are even written out on paper, but none are more prepared for the modern age than the fully digital options. The best part about using a  paper editorial calendar is that it can help you start the habit of using one to plan your content marketing. Eventually, you'll need bigger and better tools, but this is a great way to start out without making a major financial investment. No More Spreadsheets: The Digital  Content Marketing Editorial Calendar When you're ready to upgrade, a tool like   can provide a fully digital solution, connecting  your content calendar directly to your WordPress blog and social media networks. This powerful tool combines social media and content marketing scheduling with a robust productivity tool that will allow you to share tasks with your team and leave comments or critiques on their work. You can also schedule your blog posts with a drag-and-drop ease. Start a free 14-day trial or schedule a demo now. What makes @the best marketing calendar platform available right now? What Is Content Marketing? Before we get too much farther into the importance of editorial calendars themselves, it's essential that both you and your team fully understand what content marketing really is. We often  hear buzz words like "content marketing" and "editorial calendar" without fully understanding their implications. According to Wikipedia, content marketing is: "Any marketing  format that involves the creation and sharing of  media and publishing content  in order to acquire customers. This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, video,  white papers,  e-books,  infographics, case studies, how-to guides, question and answer articles, photos, etc." In short, it's marketing that doesn't suck. It's  marketing that's actually helpful to its audience. But, what does strong content marketing actually look like? Let me share a simple example. Weber Nation Popular grill manufacturer Weber knows how to do content marketing. A few years ago they launched a new site called "Weber Nation" that is  100% committed to helping its audience. It  provides tips on grilling the best steaks, caring for your grill, and how to use a great grill to entertain your guests. While the advice works  great for customers of actual Weber grills, owners of any grill brand can benefit from their information. Their efforts paid off so well, they doubled down with an iOS app. What does that tell you? Content marketing is worth the investment, and it's not just for startups. Does this mean that everyone who visits  their site will purchase a Weber grill?  Probably not, but it's likely that Weber has gained millions of new fans that could all be potential customers. It's not about a quick sale. It's about building an audience that trusts you long-term. That is the ultimate goal of content marketing. Recommended Reading: The Most Complete Content Marketing Process You Need to Get Organized What Is A  Content Marketing Editorial Calendar? Most of us are familiar with the idea of a traditional editorial calendar that helps us visualize our content publishing on a calendar-like interface, but how does that differ from a content marketing editorial calendar? Content  marketing is highly strategic. That means you need to understand your audience, what motivates them, and what they need to hear from you in order to make a connection to your brand. A content marketing editorial calendar is essentially a planning document that gives your team a plan of attack. Like a traditional editorial calendar, it gives you a bird's-eye view of what is going on. However, it should be expanded to fit all the different channels a marketing team specifically would care about. Overall, it should accomplish the following: Provide a place to generate post ideas and key topics. Assign writing and other editorial tasks to key members of your team. Create a publishing schedule that helps you maintain a consistent presence. Allow you to make in-process adjustments with drag-and-drop ease. Visualize your marketing strategy in a way that everyone can understand. Act as a communication point to team members. A content marketing editorial calendar gives you and your team a framework for being deliberate and intentional about how you are reaching and building trust with your audience. In part, it is a strategic marketing tool. In another way, it is a place to keep your team organized and on top of things. Both of these things are going to be very important as you move ahead. Recommended Reading: 81 Most Essential Content Marketing Tools and Software You Need to Be Successful Why Should Content Marketers Use An Editorial Calendar? Journalists and news publishers understand the value of editorial calendars. They’re essential tools for planning ahead and sticking to deadlines. Without them, it’s extremely difficult to plan content around centralized themes (think how magazines target themes each issue), or to even know who’s doing what, and when. In other words, creating content consistently without a calendar is like driving a car without a steering wheel. It doesn’t work. Smart content marketers understand this, too. However, even if you know why you need editorial calendar software, it’s possible your boss is tougher to convince. This may be especially true if the person holding the credit card isn’t actually a marketer. If this situation sounds familiar, stick with us through this post. We’re going to show exactly what you can accomplish with editorial calendar software. If you want to create great content consistently, it pays to know what you’re going to do before you do it. As we like to say at , â€Å"plan your work, then work your plan.† When it comes to planning, too many content marketers just wing it. â€Å"Winging it† isn’t a real editorial strategy, though. It leads to creating directionless content that doesn’t produce results. Deadlines get missed, projects get planned haphazardly, and teams waste time spinning their wheels. Winging it is not a real editorial strategy.An editorial calendar helps create order out of chaos. It provides a simple planning tool for laying out: What content you’ll create. Why you’re creating that content. Who will create each piece of content. When that content will be due. That sums up the basic functionality of a content calendar. Take things a step further with editorial calendar software like , and you can also achieve the following: Successfully plan out coordinated content campaigns and themes. Lay out your content publishing schedule alongside your social media promotion. Manage your team member’s workflow. And that’s just scratching the surface. Let’s dig deeper and see what an editorial calendar app can do for you. What can an editorial calendar app do for you?Keep All Your Content Ideas and Projects Organized Having a great idea, only to forget it later, is frustrating. Having a great idea and simply not executing on it may be even worse. At , when we have a great content idea, it goes straight on our editorial calendar. That way, nothing gets forgotten, and those ideas get turned directly into actionable content that helps our audience and makes us more successful. Stop Missing Deadlines and Get More Stuff Done According to Parkinson’s Law, â€Å"work expands to fill the time available for its completion.† Without constraints, people take as much time as they have to get their work done. This isn’t necessarily because they’re lazily, but because it’s built into the way humans operate. This is why we also often feel like we get more done under pressure. When deadlines are fast approaching, we’re more motivated to get the work done. With a clear content calendar to keep track of your deadlines, it’s a lot harder to forget when things are due. Clear deadlines, combined with a tool for ensuring they’re enforced, results in more content getting created. It’s as simple as that. When deadlines are clear, more content gets created. Two Types of Editorial Calendars: Spreadsheets vs. Software Spreadsheets are a common editorial calendar solution. They're free and flexible. If you're just getting started, they're better than using nothing. But, they do have some downsides: Lack of automation. There's no way to automate publishing or content promotion via spreadsheet. Disconnected workflows. The calendar is separate from social networks and email platforms used to promote content. Communication is missing. Without commenting functionality, teams must rely on outside communication tools. Fortunately, there's a solution. Why Use Editorial Calendar Software? Technically, you can use spreadsheets to build editorial calendars. They work well enough and they’re cost-effective. However, their functionality is fairly limited, they can be time-consuming to maintain, and ultimately, they aren’t a ton of fun to use. Using an app instead can turn your content calendar from something you have to use, to something you actually want to use. See Everything In One Place The value of seeing your entire editorial strategy in one place can’t be overstated. With , you can see all your content in one place. This includes blog posts, social media messages (which can be toggled on or off), and anything else you're working on. You can also connect your Google Calendar so events and meeting times can be synced on your calendar: See your entire editorial strategy in one place with @Drag-and-Drop Convenience If you want to move something on a spreadsheet, you have to copy and paste it. When you have a lot of stuff on your content calendar, this can be a pain. With , you can drag-and-drop content anywhere you want on the calendar. This makes adjusting your calendar to reflect shifting priorities easy. Collaborate In One Place With spreadsheets, your calendar and communication tools are separate. As a result, discussion around projects can easily get lost. That’s why collaboration features are built directly into . Integrate With All Your Other Tools connects with other tools you’re likely using to help you get more organized and save more time. Here are some  examples: Transfer content from Google Docs or Evernote directly into WordPress. Or, use 's built-in text editor: Connect your WordPress blog to schedule posts to publish automatically. Then, use either our WordPress plugin or web app to manage your calendar. Hook up all your social networks to schedule all your social media promotion in advance: Plus, with advanced features like Best Time Scheduling and ReQueue, keeping your calendar full of social media posts takes minimal effort. Automatically add UTM tags to every URL on every piece of content published through . This helps improve tracking in Google Analytics. Convenient Color-Coding It seems like a small detail. However, if you’re used to planning content in spreadsheets, you probably have elaborate color-coding schemes set up to make them easier to understand. You don’t have to lose this when moving up to . Every item you place on your calendar can easily be color-coded for quick recognition. Store Drafts for Later (and Never Lose an Idea Again) Have an idea for a post you don't want to lose? Or, do you have something in progress you won't be able to finish until a later date? No problem. Just click an item on the calendar drag it into your Drafts bin: Getting Started With Your Editorial Calendar Strategy If you're going to try and implement an editorial calendar with your team, you will need to be able to make the case as to how it will help you grow your traffic and improve your business. This will take you right back to some of the things we discussed earlier in the guide about the business value of content marketing as a whole. Here are some key benefits to communicate: Better visibility across projects and campaigns. Everyone knows when each piece is publishing, and who is responsible for it. Ability to finally get organized. Disorganization leads to frustration and lack of productivity. Reducing the number of missed deadlines. No one likes missing deadlines. But, without a calendar to track them, it happens. Spending less time planning and more time executing. Spending time planning and getting organized saves more time later on. Those are some strong benefits that most any marketing team will get behind. Understand Who You're Talking To With Personas It's cliche to say that you need to understand who your audience is, but it couldn't be more true. Not only do you need to make sure that you understand your audience, but your entire team will need to know who they are as well. A good place to get started would be with some basic customer profiles  or audience personas. Take An Inventory Of Your Team Who's on your team, and how will each of them be contributing to the end product? This may sound simple, but it is an important question. If there is only one of you on your team, this step may be better spent writing down some of the tasks that will need to be completed and the order in which you will do them. Here are some roles that'll likely be working off your calendar: Writers. Designers. Project Managers. Social Media Managers. SEO Specialists. Content Strategists. If they're on your marketing team, they can get value from your editorial calendar. Develop a Basic Channel Strategy Not all content is equal, so you should decide what yours will look like. The basic starting point is usually a WordPress blog, but you might have other channels, too. Those include: Social media (broken down by network). Email marketing. Video platforms. Landing pages. Webinars. Courses. The world of content marketing is vast. And all of it can be planned on your calendar. Find Your Content Core The content core is the intersection between your brand's purpose and your customer's interests. Understanding this will help you plan content that's both: Relevant to your audience. What do they want from you? Delivers results for your business. How will it attract the right audience to your company? How Will You Plan? Most teams that use content marketing editorial calendars like to have regularly scheduled meetings to plan out their content. Decide if you'll do one of the following: Run group brainstorming meetings. Great ideas can come from anywhere. Leave content planning to an editor or strategist. These folks are closest to the data that will guide you to success. A mix of both. This way, you can take advantage of the pros for each approach above. Recommended Reading: How to Overcome Makeshift Marketing: The Buyer's Guide Outline a Basic Publishing Schedule Determining how often you will publish new content will also determine how far ahead you plan your content. This is a very subjective question. Now, your publishing frequencies may vary depending on each channel. Here are some starting points if you're fresh to the content game. Your Company's Blog Your Brand's Social Media Presence Your Organization's Email Marketing Schedule You're most likely sending marketing emails either daily or weekly per list segment. So, here are the best times to send those emails (according to 10 studies): Videos, Landing Pages, White Papers, eBooks and More If it's content, it can go on your editorial calendar. Not everything necessarily needs to be on a fixed schedule. For example, landing pages and white papers might be things you create on an as-needed basis, rather than making up your bread-and-butter content. But, the best way to keep it all organized is to plan everything on your editorial calendar. That's the key takeaway here. Building Calendar-Based Workflows Calendars can support your entire content marketing workflow. Here's how. Brainstorm Topics and Campaigns Before you can use your calendar, it needs content. One simple process that's worked well at is to run a 30-minute content planning session. Here's how the process works: Spend ten minutes writing down ideas. Have each team member jot down ideas on Post-It notes (one idea per note). Spend ten minutes scoring those ideas. Put those ideas up on a board. Read each one out loud. Then, have each team member score them on a three-point scale (3 = Awesome, 2 = Meh, 1 = Dud). You'll end up with ideas that fall into all three categories, and that's okay. This isn't about shaming anyone. Spend ten minutes selecting the very best topics. Take all your ideas that scored mostly 3's, and decide which are the very best. These will go on your calendar. This video offers a more detailed breakdown on how this process works:Map Content to Marketing Funnel Stages Next, map each topic to a marketing funnel stage. You'll need content that fits each of the following stages: Top of funnel. This is content that broadly interests your audience, but is only loosely connected to your brand. People looking for this content are likely not aware of your company or product yet. Middle of the funnel. This is content that speaks to potential customers who are considering buying the type of product or service you offer. Bottom of the funnel. This is content that converts shoppers into customers. Here's what a basic marketing funnel looks like: The majority of your content will likely be top of the funnel, since these topics typically generate the most interest. However, content increases in value, even as it decreases in volume, the further down the funnel you go. Establish Clear Workflows Figure out which steps are required to create a single piece of content. Then, determine how long each step should take. You can do this easily by first figuring out what needs to be done. Create a list: Generate an idea. Determine deadline. Do keyword research. Write an outline. Write content. Handoff for graphic design. Review and content. Ensure content is optimized. Write social media posts to promote content. Draft email copy to promote content to your list. Schedule publish date and time. That's a hypothetical checklist for a single piece. Next, figure out who is responsible for each step. Now, this list might look like this: Ideation (team/strategist). Determine deadline (editor/manager). Keyword research (strategist/SEO specialist). Write outline (content writer). Write content (content writer). Design graphics (graphic designer). Review content (content writer/editor/manager). Ensure content is optimized (editor/SEO specialist). Write social media posts (content writer/social media manager). Draft email copy (content writer). Schedule publish date and time (editor/manager). These don't necessarily need to be assigned to specific job titles; just tasks or roles different team members may fill, depending on your team size and structure. Now, figure out how long each step should take. Having your team use a time tracking app like Toggl can help you estimate this more accurately. To get started, determine how long each task usually takes right now, per step. At this point, the list might look like this: Ideation (team/strategist - 30 minutes). Determine deadline (editor/manager - 5 minutes). Keyword research (strategist/SEO specialist - 2 hours). Write outline (content writer - 2 hours). Write content (content writer - 8 hours). Design graphics (designer - 4 hours). Review content (writer/editor/manager - 1 hour). Write social media posts (writer/social manager - 1 hour). Draft email copy (content writer - 1 hour). Schedule publish date and time (editor/manager - 5 minutes). These times are completely hypothetical for example purposes only. Next, determine how many work days this entire workflow will fill. Then, add two weeks. That's how far out in advance your content should be placed on your calendar. Finally, map this all out to a checklist your team can use. If you're a customer, this can be done with Task Templates. These are reusable checklist templates that can be added to each piece of content on the calendar. Select a piece of content on the calendar and click the Template icon: Next, click Add Template: Then, enter steps to complete each task. You can also assign team members and due dates to each step: These can easily be re-ordered any way you'd like: When you click each task, it'll show the whole team that step is complete. This will be reflected by the completion percentage on the calendar: Each time a team member checks off a completed task, it'll be reflected on the Team Performance Report, which tracks everyone's overall productivity:Add Content to Your Calendar Now you're ready to add content on the calendar. As a reminder, take the estimated amount of time each piece, and add two weeks. This will give your team enough time to get each piece created, without constantly pushing up against deadlines. If you're using the template in this post, complete each field in the spreadsheet per piece of content: For customers, select a day on your calendar. Then, add the Content Type: Give your content a headline (plus add a description and any tags you'd like to use for organization): Assign an owner, color-coded label, and set the publish date and time: Hit Create Blog Post (this button text will change according to the content you're creating). Next, you'll be able to add tasks or a task template: The content will now appear on your calendar: Communicate and Collaborate on Content As you're creating your content, you'll need to communicate with everyone on your team. You've got two options here: Use a chat app. Slack and HipChat are popular options. Use calendar software with built-in chat. incorporates Discussion Threads for this purpose. If you're using , click the Contributors icon on the right, and make sure all required team members are assigned to your piece of content: Now, you can pass comments and trade files back and forth: This ensures no notes get lost  and helps manage version control. Publish! If you're using with the WordPress integration, your post will automatically publish at your specified date and time. If you have social media campaigns and email newsletters promoting your content, you can create and manage those in , too. For those using spreadsheets, you'll need to make sure everything is lined up in your Excel or Google Sheets calendar, your social scheduling tool, and email platform. Recommended Reading: Marketing Workflow Management: How to Prevent Last-Minute Emergencies Managing Your Content Marketing Editorial Calendar So, you've decided to take the plunge and start using an editorial calendar for your content marketing. You've made the right call. Not only will you find yourself producing better content, but you'll also become more consistent with your publishing. In turn, it should lead to a steady increase in traffic. As you go, there are seven things that you are going to need to keep an eye on at all times. 1. What's Happening This Week? What's Happening Next Week? If you are doing it right, you should have an answer to these questions at all times. How does your calendar make this easier? 2. Does Your Team Know What To Do? Tools like allow you to assign tasks to each member on your team, making communication easier than ever. Everyone should know what they are supposed to do, and when they are supposed to do it. 3. Is There Healthy Communication? Discussion about a new piece of content and how to make it better should be a normal part of the process. You should have something in place that allows you to have discussions, and share thoughts with your team. 4. What About The Assets? Images and graphics can be important elements for great content marketing. Who will be responsible for them, and how will they be assigned? Again, makes this pretty easy with simple tasks that can be assigned to each team member. 5. Implementing Editorial Review At our office, we use a peer review process to improve the quality of our work. Gathering feedback from our peers is a low-cost way to constantly improve the content that we create. Your calendar and editorial plan should accommodate for a step like this. 6. Reschedule As Needed One tip for users of a paper editorial calendar is to use colored sticky-notes rather that just writing on the paper calendar itself. This gives you the same drag-and-drop flexibility that you will find in a tool like . Keep Your Social Media In Check Too While it is often missed, promoting your content on social channels is also very important. It is really the best way to spread your content online. makes this easy, allowing you to schedule your blog posts and your social media messages on the same calendar interface. No matter what tool you choose, you need to select something that will set you up for success. I often find that those who take the time to plan, edit, and execute their editorial calendar are far more likely to succeed, and build the traffic that they need for the long run. Recommended Reading: The Social Media Schedule That Will Boost Your Traffic By 192% Start Creating More Consistent Content Now Content marketing editorial calendars aren't necessarily new, but you might be surprised at how many people choose to not use them. That's their loss  and your advantage. The content marketers that dedicate themselves to great planning and content creation  will always come out ahead. Good luck! Ready to manage your marketing with ?  Start a free 14-day trial or schedule a demo now.

The Way I Perceive the Evil Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Way I Perceive the Evil - Essay Example (Chan, 1996)Â  Ancient civilizations of Greek and Rome have also developed the concepts about good and evil, where bravery, generosity, wisdom and physical strength etc were the signs of goodness, while deceit, voracity, pride and treachery etc were regarded as evil deeds. (Thomas & Thomas, 2002) Hence, the feelings and actions causing harm to others were evil, while the activities observed with positive intention and welfare of others were thought to be good. Theories were articulated and laws were introduced to save human societies from harm (and evil). I, personally, have developed some concept of evil and its activities in my social and natural surroundings, in the light of my knowledge about the same in the light of religious belief and philosophical theories on the one hand, and in the light of my interaction with my social environment on the other. The evil is, in my view, presents in every human society from the very beginning of the life on the earth, which assures its exis tence through its condemnable actions and disgraceful intentions. I have also developed belief in the Nature theory of good and evil that the evil and criminals (or evils) enter the world with innate characteristics of committing offences and getting indulged into perversions and deviancies of various kinds; the same can be witnessed in Lombroso’s theory, which observes similarity in the shape of the skull, eyes, jaws and bones of the offenders. (Vedder et al., 1976) The offenders, in my opinion, commit crimes and hurt others because of pecuniary gains and social, financial and political benefits on the one hand, and for their amusement and recreational purposes on the other, due to the very reality that they feel happy on finding others in trouble and desolation. Somehow, the theorists present different motifs behind harming the fellow-beings. I strongly maintain unflinching faith in the very notion that evil is practiced because of the devil’s committer’s fals e belief that he is justified in hurting the weak and innocent individuals either under some command or instinct or just for the sake of pleasure; Kekes, Acorn, St. Augustine, Kant and Milton also assert the same to one level or the other (Adolf, 2006: 13-15). Kekes declares the offender as sadist, which seeks mental or sexual gratification by hurting the helpless. On the other hand, Acorn argues that people practice cruelty and torture on others due to the very fact that they are amused and entertained out of the cries and moaning of others. Similarly, St. Augustine writes that people do bad things in the pursuit of an apparent good. Thus, these distinguished intellectuals are in consensus on the notion that harm is inflicted on others in pursuit of one’s personal gratification. However, eminent English poet of all times John Milton submits to state the satanic forces inflict sufferings out of envy and jealousy against the powers of good and virtue. Additionally, Kant takes evil as the way in which morality is corrupted by desire. In simple words, human desires corrupt and destroy moral values prevailing within the social establishment. (Alford, 2006:16) I also agree with the precious scholarly views of these intellectuals,

The Next five years Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

The Next five years - Essay Example According to Mitroff (1995) the use of Inductive-Consensual IS is undemocratic. In this allegation, democracy's fundamental purpose is to have unrestricted discussion of key issues, intense arguments and debates by those on opposing sides. "Democracy becomes perverted when it is not only confused with consensus but reduced to numbers" (Mitroff 1995). It should also be noted that Inductive-Consensus IS is not the only one making use of agreement. Each mode of enquiry, IS has a different/independent definition and concept of agreement. Inductive-Consensus IS is the only IS that is essentially dependent on the concept of agreement. As a final point, though agreement and consensus are essential in attaining conclusions, they should not be trusted fully nor considered as the final consideration for deciding all essential questions. The first part of the modeling of Analytic-Deductive IS in human behavior is incorrect. Human beings do not initiate their inquiries into vital social problems but instead begin with already complex inputs. Generally, all human inquiries starting points are messes. The root word "mess" means that every human problem is associated and involved inextricably with every other human problem (Ackoff 1972). The approach of breaking down a complex problem into its separate parts doesn't hold for human problems of any importance. Accordingly, mess actually means a system of interacting problems as the inputs into any process of human problem solving are certainly "messes". Dialectic (Conflict) Dialectic IS is not limited to only problems related to technical or business but is applicable to all problems that human face. This involves the use of the dialectic inquiry system. Under this, an objective outcome is produced as a result of an intense argument and discussion between two opposing positions. This makes it different from inductive-consensual inquiry system that produces agreement prior to or during an intense deliberation. Although the Dialectic form obviously comes from the long and rich history of philosophy, it is not firmly a product of it. Dialectic system is used as a tool for practical decision rather than an abstract idea. Moreover, Dialectic system serves as the bridge that binds to the contemporary thinking. Multiple realities (Multiple views of problems) Under multiple realities, data and facts about a problem are greatly dependent on the model that when taken together will form an "inseparable whole". Apart from the assumption of inductive-consensual IS, data from multiple realities are not independent or self-organizing entities. Moreover, Multiple Realities do not have the assumption that there is only one way of defining important problems, which significantly separates it apart from Inductive-Consensual and Analytic-Deductive IS. This system focuses on executive (person) as critical aspect that cannot be purely formalized due to its dependence on the application of wisdom. "The absence of wisdom will result in system degeneration into a monumental exercise in nonsense" (Churchman 1982). This is one

Theory of Forms Essay Example for Free

Theory of Forms Essay Definition. What is Philosophy? There are a number of definitions of philosophy given by many thinkers and they vary according to their interests and orientations. Generally, philosophy is regarded as perhaps the most obstruse and abstract of all subjects that seems apart from ordinary life. Although quiet a number of people may think of it as a being remote from every normal interest, it may be inferred that all of us have some philosophical views, whether we are aware of it or not. Most often, the term appears vague for it has been a part of our conversations. Origin. The word â€Å"philosophy† is derived from the Greek â€Å"philia† meaning â€Å"love† and â€Å"sophia† meaning â€Å"wisdom† or â€Å"knowledge†. The literal definition of philosophy, therefore, is â€Å"love of wisdom†. In current popular usage, many different ideas are involved in the manner we use the term. In some cases, philosophy refers to an attitude toward certain activities. For instance, during election, we often hear some people say, we are voting for a certain candidate because we favour for his philosophy of government. In classes in philosophy, the most common question the teacher asks is what the philosophy of student is. The popular conception of philosophy, in spite of many ways we may use the term, is a complex intellectual undertaking. Regardless of the various ideas of the role of philosophy in one’s life, its importance cannot be overemphasized. Parent Science. Philosophy may be considered as the â€Å"parent science†, in that it has given birth to natural, physical, and social sciences. These disciplines continue to provide philosophy with an abundance of contemporary issues, questions, that are seemingly difficult to answer. Philosophy is both independent fro other disciplines and embedded in their foundations and on-going activities. Philosophy as a science. Philosophy has been defined as a science because it deals with the study of the processes governing thought and conduct. It investigates the principles and laws that regulate the universe and underlie all knowledge, which satisfies the requisites of scientific state of knowing. Science has been defined as a body of systematized knowledge derived from observation, study, and experiments carried out in order to determine the nature of principles of what is being studied. Its main concern is the discovery of truth. The difference between the two fields of knowledge lies in the scope and nature of their interest and their approach. While specific sciences deal particularly with restricted field, e. g. , chemistry, philosophy deals with all aspects of man’s experiences. The interest of science is limited to the physical world, while the concern of philosophy issues on justice, conscience, reason, the soul and the Supernatural Being. The science approach to any investigation is establishing and systematizing facts, principles, and methods through experiments and hypotheses, while the approach of philosophy in its object of study is encompassing. Science tends to eliminate the persona factor and values in the quest for objectivity, while philosophy is interested in human experiences, personal values and purposes. Science is primarily concerned with the nature of things as they are, while philosophy is interested not only in the real aspects but alos in their worth and meaning. The aim of science is to observe nature and to control processes, while philosophy criticizes, evaluates and integrates the various dimensions of human experience. Philosophy as a science carefully examines and criticizes the premises and conclusions of all sciences-physical, natural, and social. Some propositions have been made by the sciences which, when examined carefully, may be found too impossible to attain or to prove. Philosophy synthesizes and compares the assumptions and conclusions of the difficult findings of the different sciences when they appear to be contradictory. Philosophy harmonizes and brings the sciences together to complement and support one another. THREE MAJOR FIELDS OF PHILOSOPHY The three major fields of philosophy are: (1) epistemology, (2) metaphysics, and (3) axiology. Epistemology. Epistemology deals with the study of origin, structures, methods, nature, limit and veracity (truth, reliability, validity) of human knowledge. It also includes logic and a variety of linguistic concerns and the philosophy of science. The word â€Å"epistemology† is derived from the Greek word â€Å"episteme† which means â€Å"knowledge† and â€Å"logos† which means â€Å"the study of†. Epistemology as a theory of knowledge asks fundamental questions about knowledge in all its forms and applications of how it is formulated and expressed and communicated. It also looks into the role of sense experience and how knowledge is acquired. Metaphysics. Metaphysics deals with questions of reality-its nature, meaning and existence. The word â€Å"metaphysics† is derived from the Greek word â€Å"meta† which â€Å"beyond† and â€Å"physikon† which means â€Å"nature† from which is derived the word physics, the science whish deals with matter, energy, force, natural laws and processes. Metaphysics is also concerned about the nature mind, self and consciousness, the nature of religion, such as the existence of God, the destiny of the universe, and the immortality of the soul. Aside from the nature of reality and the universe, metaphysics examines time, space, cause and chance. Axiology. Axiology deals into the study of values. It analyzes the origin, types and characteristics, criteria and knowledge of values. It includes values of human conduct, the nature and justification of social structures and political systems and the nature of art and its meaning in human experience. THE BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY Philosophy has several branches which resulted from man’s philosophical speculations. Each branch endeavours to provide us with useful insights into certain realities. The following are the fundamental philosophical fields of study: 1. Ethics or moral philosophy. This is the philosophical study of the morality of human acts, the search for an understanding of the good life and the ultimate basis of what is good or bad. 2. Metaphysics or ontology. This is the philosophical quest for what reality is in the final analysis. It is the study of beings in general. 3. Theology/Theodicy. This is the philosophical inquiry into the existence of God. His nature and his relations to man and the rest of creation. 4. Philosophy of man. This is the philosophical search for a deeper understanding of what man is and what it means to be fully human. 5. Cosmology. This is the philosophical search for a deeper understanding of the material universe. 6. Political philosophy. This is the philosophical search for knowledge of the ultimate foundation of the state, its ideal form and its basic power. 7. Aesthetics. This is the search for a deeper understanding and knowledge of beauty. 8. Epistemology. This is the philosophical search for answers to the fundamental questions concerning the conditions of knowledge, its extent and limitations. deeper understanding 9. Logic. This is the philosophical science and art of correct inferential thinking and setting forth its conditions. 10. Psychology. This is the science that deals with the science of mind, mental state and processes. The philosophical concept â€Å"psychology† came from the Greek words â€Å"psyche† which means â€Å"soul†, â€Å"mind†, and â€Å"spirit†, and â€Å"logos† which means â€Å"the study of†. To the Greeks, psychology is the study of the soul. Part 2. THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE. THALES Thales was the first known philosopher, scientist and mathematician although his occupation was that of an engineer. He is believed to have been the teacher of Anaximander (611 BC 545 BC) and he was the first natural philosopher in the Milesian School. Thales first went to Egypt and thence introduced this study [geometry] into Greece. He discovered many propositions himself, and instructed his successors in the principles underlying many others, his method of attacking problems had greater generality in some cases and was more in the nature of simple inspection and observation in other cases. Certainly Thales was a figure of enormous prestige, being the only philosopher before Socrates to be among the Seven Sages. Plutarch, writing of these Seven Sages, says that: Thales was apparently the only one of these whose wisdom stepped, in speculation, beyond the limits of practical utility, the rest acquired the reputation of wisdom in politics. It is reported that Thales predicted an eclipse of the Sun in 585 BC. The cycle of about 19 years for eclipses of the Moon was well known at this time but the cycle for eclipses of the Sun was harder to spot since eclipses were visible at different places on Earth. Thaless prediction of the 585 BC eclipse was probably a guess based on the knowledge that an eclipse around that time was possible. The claims that Thales used the Babylonian saros, a cycle of length 18 years 10 days 8 hours, to predict the eclipse has been shown by Neugebauer to be highly unlikely since Neugebauer shows that the saros was an invention of Halley. Neugebauer wrote: there exists no cycle for solar eclipses visible at a given place: all modern cycles concern the earth as a whole. No Babylonian theory for predicting a solar eclipse existed at 600 BC, as one can see from the very unsatisfactory situation 400 years later, nor did the Babylonians ever develop any theory which took the influence of geographical latitude into account. ANAXIMANDER Anaximander (610 – c. 546 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher who lived in Miletus, a city of Ionia; Milet in modern Turkey. He belonged to the Milesian school and learned the teachings of his master Thales. He succeeded Thales and became the second master of that school where he counted Anaximenes and arguably, Pythagoras amongst his pupils. Anaximander was one of the earliest Greek thinkers at the start of the Axial Age, the period from approximately 700 BC to 200 BC, during which similarly revolutionary thinking appeared in China, India, Iran, the Near East, and Ancient Greece. He was an early proponent of science and tried to observe and explain different aspects of the universe, with a particular interest in its origins, claiming that nature is ruled by laws, just like human societies, and anything that disturbs the balance of nature does not last long. Like many thinkers of his time, Anaximanders contributions to philosophy relate to many disciplines. In astronomy, he tried to describe the mechanics of celestial bodies in relation to the Earth. In physics, his postulation that the indefinite (or apeiron) was the source of all things led Greek philosophy to a new level of conceptual abstraction. His knowledge of geometry allowed him to introduce the gnomon in Greece. He created a map of the world that contributed greatly to the advancement of geography. He was also involved in the politics of Miletus and was sent as a leader to one of its colonies. Anaximander claimed that an indefinite (apeiron) principle gives rise to all natural phenomena. Anaximanders theories were influenced by the Greek mythical tradition, and by some ideas of Thales – the father of philosophy – as well as by observations made by older civilizations in the East (especially by the Babylonian astrologists). All these were elaborated rationally. The basic elements of nature (water, air, fire, earth) which the first Greek philosophers believed that constituted the universe represent in fact the primordial forces of previous thought. Their collision produced what the mythical tradition had called cosmic harmony. ANAXIMENES While his predecessors Thales and Anaximander proposed that the arche, the underlying material of the world, were water and the ambiguous substance apeiron, respectively, Anaximenes asserted that air was this primary substance of which all other things are made. While the choice of air may seem arbitrary, he based his conclusion on naturally observable phenomena in the process of rarefaction and condensation. When air condenses it becomes visible, as mist and then rain and other forms of precipitation, and as the condensed air cools Anaximenes supposed that it went on to form earth and ultimately stones. In contrast, water evaporates into air which ignites and produces flame when further rarefied. While other philosophers also recognized such transitions in states of matter, Anaximenes was the first to associate the quality pairs hot/dry and cold/wet with the density of a single material and add a quantitative dimension to the Milesian monistic system. The Origin of the Cosmos. Having concluded that everything in the world is composed of air, Anaximenes then used his theory to devise a scheme explaining the origins and nature of the earth as well as of the surrounding celestial bodies. Air felted to create the flat disk of the earth, which he said was table-like and behaved like a leaf floating on air. In keeping with the prevailing view of celestial bodies as balls of fire in the sky, Anaximenes proposed that the earth let out an exhalation of air that rarefied, ignited and became the stars. While the sun is similarly described as being aflame, it is not composed of rarefied air like the stars but rather of earth like the moon; its burning comes not from its composition but rather from its rapid motion. The moon and sun are likewise considered to be flat and floating on streams of air, and when the sun sets it does not pass under the earth but is merely obscured by higher parts of the earth as it circles around and becomes more distant; the motion of the sun and the other celestial bodies around the earth is likened by Anaximenes to the way that a cap may be turned around the head. PYTAGORAS (The Mathematical Basis of All Things) Across a span of water from Miletus, located in the Aegean Sea, was the small island of Samos, which was the birthplace of a truly extraordinary and wise man, Pythagoras. From the various scraps of information we have about him and those who were his followers, an incomplete but still fascinating picture of his new philosophic reflections emerges. Apparently dissatisfied with conditions not only on Samos but generally in Ionia during the tyrannical rule of the rich Polycrates, Pythagoras migrated to southern Italy and settled there in the prosperous Greek city of Crotone, where his active philosophic life is usually dated from 525 to 500 B. C. We are told by Aristotle that â€Å"the Pythagoreans devoted themselves to mathematics, they were the first to advance this study, and having been brought up in it they thought its principles were the principles of all things. . . In contrast to the Miletians, the Pythagoreans that things consist of numbers. Although, it is quite strange to say that everything consists of numbers, the strangeness, as well as the difficulty, of this doctrine is greatly overcome when we consider why Pythagoras became interested in numbers and what his conception of numbers was. Pythagoras became interested in Mathematics for what appear to be religious reasons. His originality could be said to consist in his conviction that the study of mathematics is the best purifier of the soul. He is, therefore, referred to as the founder of both of religious sect and the same time a school of mathematics. What gave rise to the Pythagorean sect was people’s yearning for a deeply spiritual religion that could provide the means for purifying the soul and for guaranteeing its immortality. Part 3. THE PROCESS OF THE UNIVERSE HERACLITUS Nature identified with fire. The Universality of change. The logos and Human Nature. Substance that holds everything is fire. Logos or universal reason. Fire is the process of change that which is fed into it becomes something else. Fire is not a random movement but God’s universal reason, the fire that is the unity holding everything together PARMENIDES Goddess. Logical method. What is, is and what is not, is not. A poem that reveals to him the plain truth and the deceptive beliefs of human beings A method that depends entirely on thought and not at all on experiment and observation only that can be which can be thought for. Thought exists for the sake of what is. Therefore, change is the confusion of appearance with reality and therefore change is simply an illusion. EMPEDOCLES Four elements. Love and strife. Earth, fire, air and water were considered as equally original. Love and strife, attraction and repulsion are two different forces at work in nature . Love binds things together and strife separate them. ANAXAGORAS Invisible particles that are the building blocks of nature. A miniscule particles that carry the blue print of everything else that distinguished the mind from matter. Matter is continuum, infinitely divisible and that, however, much it may be divided, each part will contain elements of everything else. Mind the cause of all things. Mind is the principle that gives matter its order. THE ATOMISTS Believed that everything in nature was made of tiny invisible particles or units called atoms Part 4. THE CONCEPT OF TRUTH KNOWLEDGE SOPHISTS’ CONCEPT OF KNOWLEDGE THE SOPHISTS The term sophist (sophistes) derives from the Greek words for wisdom (sophia) and wise (sophos). The term sophia could be used to describe disingenuous cleverness long before the rise of the sophistic movement. In the fifth century B. C. E. the term sophistes was still broadly applied to ‘wise men’, including poets such as Homer and Hesiod, the Seven Sages, the Ionian ‘physicists’ and a variety of seers and prophets. The narrower use of the term to refer to professional teachers of virtue or excellence (arete) became prevalent in the second half of the fifth century B. C. E. , although this should not be taken to imply the presence of a clear distinction between philosophers, such as Socrates, and sophists, such as Protagoras, Gorgias and Prodicus. This much is evident from Aristophanes’ play The Clouds (423 B. C. E.), in which Socrates is depicted as a sophist and Prodicus praised for his wisdom. 1. Sophists a. Protagoras. Protagoras of Abdera (c. 490-420 B. C. E. ) was the most prominent member of the sophistic movement and Plato reports he was the first to charge fees using that title (Protagoras, 349a). Despite his animus towards the sophists, Plato depicts Protagoras as quite a sympathetic and dignified figure. From a philosophical perspective, Protagoras is most famous for his relativistic account of truth – in particular the claim that ‘man is the measure of all things’ – and his agnosticism concerning the Gods. Plato suggests that Protagoras sought to differ his educational offering from that of other sophists, such as Hippias, by concentrating upon instruction in arete in the sense of political virtue rather than specialised studies such as astronomy and mathematics (Protagoras, 318e). b. Gorgias. Gorgias of Leontini (c. 485 – c. 390 B. C. E. ) is generally considered as a member of the sophistic movement, despite his disavowal of the capacity to teach arete (Meno, 96c). The major focus of Gorgias was rhetoric and given the importance of persuasive speaking to the sophistic education, and his acceptance of fees, it is appropriate to consider him alongside other famous sophists for present purposes. c. Antiphon. The biographical details surrounding Antiphon the sophist (c. 470-411 B. C. ) are unclear – one unresolved issue is whether he should be identified with Antiphon of Rhamnus (a statesman and teacher of rhetoric who was a member of the oligarchy which held power in Athens briefly in 411 B. C. E. ). However, since the publication of fragments from his On Truth in the early twentieth century he has been regarded as a major representative of the sophistic movement. d. Hippias. The exact dates for Hippias of Elis are unknown, but scholars generally assume that he lived during the same period as Protagoras. Whereas Plato’s depictions of Protagoras – and to a lesser extent Gorgias – indicate a modicum of respect, he presents Hippias as a comic figure who is obsessed with money, pompous and confused. Hippias is best known for his polymathy (DK 86A14). His areas of expertise seem to have included astronomy, grammar, history, mathematics, music, poetry, prose, rhetoric, painting and sculpture. Like Gorgias and Prodicus, he served as an ambassador for his home city. His work as a historian, which included compiling lists of Olympic victors, was invaluable to Thucydides and subsequent historians as it allowed for a more precise dating of past events. In mathematics he is attributed with the discovery of a curve – the quadratrix – used to trisect an angle. e. Prodicus. Prodicus of Ceos, who lived during roughly the same period as Protagoras and Hippias, is best known for his subtle distinctions between the meanings of words. He is thought to have written a treatise titled On the Correctness of Names. Prodicus’ epideictic speech, The Choice of Heracles, was singled out for praise by Xenophon (Memorabilia, II. 1. 21-34) and in addition to his private teaching he seems to have served as an ambassador for Ceos (the birthplace of Simonides) on several occasions. f. Thrasymachus. Thrasymachus was a well-known rhetorician in Athens in the latter part of the fifth century B. C. E. , but our only surviving record of his views is contained in Plato’s Cleitophon and Book One of The Republic. He is depicted as brash and aggressive, with views on the nature of justice that will be examined in section 3a. 2. Major Themes of Sophistic Thought a. Nature and Convention. The distinction between physis (nature) and nomos (custom, law, convention) was a central theme in Greek thought in the second half of the fifth century B. C. E. and is especially important for understanding the work of the sophists. Before turning to sophistic considerations of these concepts and the distinction between them, it is worth sketching the meaning of the Greek terms. The term nomos refers to a wide range of normative concepts extending from customs and conventions to positive law. It would be misleading to regard the term as referring only to arbitrary human conventions, as Heraclitus’ appeal to the distinction between human nomoi and the one divine nomos (DK 22B2 and 114) makes clear. The dichotomy between physis and nomos seems to have been something of a commonplace of sophistic thought and was appealed to by Protagoras and Hippias among others. Perhaps the most instructive sophistic account of the distinction, however, is found in Antiphon’s fragment On Truth. b. Relativism. The primary source on sophistic relativism about knowledge and/or truth is Protagoras’ famous ‘man is the measure’ statement. Interpretation of Protagoras’ thesis has always been a matter of controversy. Caution is needed in particular against the temptation to read modern epistemological concerns into Protagoras’ account and sophistic teaching on the relativity of truth more generally. A human being is the measure of all things, of those things that are, that they are, and of those things that are not, that they are not. There is near scholarly consensus that Protagoras is referring here to each human being as the measure of what is rather than ‘humankind’ as such, although the Greek term for ‘human’ –hoanthropos– certainly does not rule out the second interpretation. Plato’s Theaetetus (152a), however, suggests the first reading and I will assume its correctness here. On this reading we can regard Protagoras as asserting that if the wind, for example, feels (or seems) cold to me and feels (or seems) warm to you, then the wind is cold for me and is warm for you. c. Language and Reality. Understandably given their educational program, the sophists placed great emphasis upon the power of speech (logos). Logos is a notoriously difficult term to translate and can refer to thought and that about which we speak and think as well as rational speech or language. The sophists were interested in particular with the role of human discourse in the shaping of reality. 3. The Distinction Between Philosophy and Sophistry The distinction between philosophy and sophistry is in itself a difficult philosophical problem. The terms ‘philosopher’ and ‘sophist’ were disputed in the fifth and fourth century B. C. E. , the subject of contention between rival schools of thought. Histories of philosophy tend to begin with the Ionian ‘physicist’ Thales, but the presocratics referred to the activity they were engaged in as historia (inquiry) rather than philosophia and although it may have some validity as a historical projection, the notion that philosophy begins with Thales derives from the mid nineteenth century. It was Plato who first clearly and consistently refers to the activity of philosophia and much of what he has to say is best understood in terms of an explicit or implicit contrast with the rival schools of the sophists and Isocrates (who also claimed the title philosophia for his rhetorical educational program). SOCRATES Socratic Method Socrates was not a â€Å"philosopher,† nor yet a â€Å"teacher,† but rather an â€Å"educator,† having for his functionSocrates to rouse, persuade and rebuke (Plato, Apology). Hence, in examining his life’s work it is proper to ask, not What was his philosophy? but What was his theory, and what was his practice of education? It is true that he was brought to his theory of education by the study of previous philosophies, and that his practice led to the Platonic revival; but to attribute to him philosophy, except in that loose sense in which philosophy is ascribed to one who, denying the existence of such a thing, can give an account of his disbelief, is misleading and even erroneous. Socrates theory of education had for its basis a profound and consistent skepticism; that is to say, he not only rejected the conflicting theories of the physicists, of whom â€Å"some conceived existence as a unity, others as a plurality; some affirmed perpetual motion, others perpetual rest; some declared becoming and perishing to be universal, others altogether denied such things, â€Å"but also condemned, as a futile attempt to transcend the limitations of human intelligence their, pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. † That it was in this way that Socrates was brought to regard â€Å"dialectic,† â€Å"question and answer,† as the only admissible method of education is no matter of mere conjecture. In the review of theories of knowledge which has come down to us in Plato’s Theaetetus mention is made of certain â€Å"incomplete Protagoreans,† who held that, while all opinions are equally true, one opinion is better than another, and that the â€Å"wise man† is one who by his arguments causes good opinions to take the place of bad ones, thus reforming the soul of the individual or the laws of a state by a process similar to that of the physician or the farmer; and these â€Å"incomplete Protagoreans† are identified with Socrates and the Socratics by their insistence upon the characteristically Socratic distinction between disputation and dialectic, as well as by other familiar traits of Socratic converse. In fact, this passage becomes intelligible and significant if it is supposed to refer to the historical Socrates; and by teaching us to regard him as an â€Å"incomplete Protagorean† it supplies the link which connects his philosophical skepticism with his dialectical theory of education. It is no doubt possible that Socrates was unaware of the closeness of his relationship to Protagoras; but the fact, once stated, hardly admits of question. Knowledge and action Socrates teaches that a man must know how to choose the mean and avoid the extremes on either side, as far as possible. In education, Socrates asks us to consider the effect of either an exclusive devotion to gymnastics or an exclusive devotion to music. It either produced a temper of hardness and ferocity, (or) the other of softness and effeminacy. Having both qualities, he believed, produces harmony; i. e. , beauty and goodness. He additionally stresses the importance of mathematics in education for the understanding of beauty and truth. PLATO Theory of forms The Problems theory was meant to solve: (1) The Ethical Problem: How can humans live a fulfilling, happy life in a contingent, changing world where every thing they attach themselves to can be taken away? (2) The Problem of Permanence and Change: How can the world appear to be both permanent and changing? The world we perceive through the senses seems to be always changing. The world that we perceive through the mind, using our concepts, seems to be permanent and unchanging. Which is most real and why does it appear both ways? The general structure of the solution: Plato splits up existence into two realms: the material realm and the transcendent realm of forms. Humans have access to the realm of forms through the mind, through reason, given Platos theory of the subdivisions of the human soul. This gives them access to an unchanging world, invulnerable to the pains and changes of the material world. By detaching ourselves from the material world and our bodies and developing our ability to concern ourselves with the forms, we find a value which is not open to change or disintegration. This solves the first, ethical, problem. Splitting existence up into two realms also solves the problem of permanence and change. We perceive a different world, with different objects, through our mind than we do through the senses. It is the material world, perceived through the senses, that is changing. It is the realm of forms, perceived through the mind, that is permanent and immutable. It is this world that is more real; the world of change is merely an imperfect image of this world. The Forms: A form is an abstract property or quality. Take any property of an object; separate it from that object and consider it by itself, and you are contemplating a form. For example, if you separate the roundness of a basketball from its color, its weight, etc. and consider just roundness by itself, you are thinking of the form of roundness. Plato held that this property existed apart from the basketball, in a different mode of existence than the basketball. The form is not just the idea of roundness you have in your mind. It exists independently of the basketball and independently of whether someone thinks of it. All round objects, not just this basketball, participate or copy this same form of roundness. In order to see exactly what a form is and how it differs from a material object, we need to look at the first two of the properties that characterize the forms. The forms are transcendent. This means that they do not exist in space and time. A material object, a basketball, exists at a particular place at a particular time. A form, roundness, does not exist at any place or time. The forms exist, or subsist, in a different way. This is especially important because it explains why the forms are unchanging. A form such as roundness will never change; it does not even exist in time. It is the same at all times or places in which it might be instantiated. A form does not exist in space in that it can be instantiated in many places at once and need not be instantiated anywhere in order for the form to exist. The form of roundness can be found in many particular spatial locations, and even if all round objects were destroyed, the property of roundness would still exist. The forms are also pure. This means that they are pure properties separated from all other properties. A material object, such as a basketball, has many properties: roundness, ballness, orangeness, elasticity, etc. These are all put together to make up this individual basketball. A form is just one of these properties, existing by itself apart from space and time. Roundness is just pure roundness, without any other properties mixed in. The forms differ from material objects, then, in that they are transcendent and pure, while material objects are complex conglomerations of properties located in space and time. The forms are causes in two closely related ways: (1) The forms are the causes of all our knowledge of all objects. The forms contribute all order and intelligibility to objects. Since we can only know something insofar as it has some order or form, the forms are the source of the intelligibility of all material objects. (2) The forms are also the cause of the existence of all objects.

Merchant of Venice Essay: The True Nature of Venetian Society

The idea of mercy is important in The Merchant of Venice because it provides a focus for the contrast between Venetian Christian society and the alien invader, represented by Shylock. Mercy occupies a "central" position in the trial scene (IV.i.), where the power struggle between aristocratic Venetian society and the threatening force Shylock comes to a climax. My thesis is that the contrast between (and equation of) mercy and revenge in the trial scene reveals the true nature of Venetian society as insecure , hypocritical and vengeful. Mercy is clearly of greatest importance to the Christians in this text. It is only mentioned in the trial scene by two characters--the Duke (3 times) and Portia, in her guise as the lawyer Balthazar, (10 times). Mercy is significantly never mentioned by Shylock, implying either that he does not believe in it, or that he sees a hidden motive behind the Christians' insistence that he should be merciful to Antonio. By looking at what mercy means to the Christians and how they use it in the trial scene, I will try to show how it acts as a mirror for their true value system. Mercy can be defined as "kind and considerate treatment that you show to someone, especially when you forgive them or do not punish them." It is a Christian value associated with the New Testament, thus contrasting with Shylock's Old Testament religion and its image of a more stern and vengeful God. In the first half of the trial mercy and revenge are contrasted. The Duke appeals to Shylock to be merciful as if he shared their Christian values-- Shylock the world thinks, and I think so too, That thou but leadest this fashion of thy malice To ... ...is required to become a Christian. Shylock feels he might as well be dead-- Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that,- You take my house, when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house: you take my life When you do take the means whereby I live. IV.i.370-373. To the Christians, then, mercy has different meanings and uses in this trial scene. It is used to try to tempt Shylock to recognize Christian values as superior to his own, to tempt him with the delusion of power if he accepts them, and when he refuses, to crush him and take away all his economic, religious and racial power. This abuse of mercy also reveals Venetian society to be greedy for power, hypocritical in its use of Christian values for secular aims, and vengeful. Mercy, and its uses and misuses, is revealed as having a power far greater than is at first apparent. Merchant of Venice Essay: The True Nature of Venetian Society The idea of mercy is important in The Merchant of Venice because it provides a focus for the contrast between Venetian Christian society and the alien invader, represented by Shylock. Mercy occupies a "central" position in the trial scene (IV.i.), where the power struggle between aristocratic Venetian society and the threatening force Shylock comes to a climax. My thesis is that the contrast between (and equation of) mercy and revenge in the trial scene reveals the true nature of Venetian society as insecure , hypocritical and vengeful. Mercy is clearly of greatest importance to the Christians in this text. It is only mentioned in the trial scene by two characters--the Duke (3 times) and Portia, in her guise as the lawyer Balthazar, (10 times). Mercy is significantly never mentioned by Shylock, implying either that he does not believe in it, or that he sees a hidden motive behind the Christians' insistence that he should be merciful to Antonio. By looking at what mercy means to the Christians and how they use it in the trial scene, I will try to show how it acts as a mirror for their true value system. Mercy can be defined as "kind and considerate treatment that you show to someone, especially when you forgive them or do not punish them." It is a Christian value associated with the New Testament, thus contrasting with Shylock's Old Testament religion and its image of a more stern and vengeful God. In the first half of the trial mercy and revenge are contrasted. The Duke appeals to Shylock to be merciful as if he shared their Christian values-- Shylock the world thinks, and I think so too, That thou but leadest this fashion of thy malice To ... ...is required to become a Christian. Shylock feels he might as well be dead-- Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that,- You take my house, when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house: you take my life When you do take the means whereby I live. IV.i.370-373. To the Christians, then, mercy has different meanings and uses in this trial scene. It is used to try to tempt Shylock to recognize Christian values as superior to his own, to tempt him with the delusion of power if he accepts them, and when he refuses, to crush him and take away all his economic, religious and racial power. This abuse of mercy also reveals Venetian society to be greedy for power, hypocritical in its use of Christian values for secular aims, and vengeful. Mercy, and its uses and misuses, is revealed as having a power far greater than is at first apparent.

Ottawa Valley Food Products Case Study Essay

Ottawa Valley Food Products (OVFP) is a company which manufactures and distributes low calorie and diet food items. The employees at OVFP consist of 100 production workers and 18 management and support staff. R J Jennings is amongst these individuals and has worked for OVFP for 31 years. Even though he is able to retire, Jennings does not wish to do so any time in the near future. Jennings had a previous administrative assistant, Ella Arnold, who worked with him for 10 years. Ella, aged 58, decided to take early retirement due to deterioration in her eyesight. As Jennings’ assistant, Ella would work over time sometimes without pay, go above and beyond to make sure her job was done well including breaking previous personal commitments. By Ella doing this in her job, resulted in Jennings feeling she had a ‘sixth sense’ for her job, she even ran errands in her lunch break for him. When Ella retired, the personnel department replaced her with Mary Gregory. Mary Gregory is 24 years old and has qualifications in administration from a local community college as well as a well-known Canadian university. On her first day, Jennings phoned her using the interoffice telephone to ask her to get him a coffee and a newspaper on her way back from her break. He had asked this every morning for that past ten years before Mary had joined the company. Mary refused stating she was busy. After this, Jennings got his own coffee and newspaper, even though he purposely gave Mary a light workload. From this, Jennings just assumed it was first day nerves. OVFP had an important meeting coming up with agents who did not previously transport OVFP products. The meeting was to talk about and arrange production and shipping schedules before they signed a contract. When Jennings walked into the meeting, he found Mary talking to the agents about her weekend. He had asked Mary to leave the meeting, but she refused explaining to the agents she was not leaving. After the agents left, Jennings asked Mary to visit his office where he asked for an explanation of her behaviour during the meeting. She replied with an upset comment stating ‘she was not drafted into the army.’ Another incident occurred the next morning when Mary would not file away the reports in Jennings office. Jennings had stated at the end of Mary’s six week probation period she would no longer be needed in the company. Once the news of this was found out, Jennings was later faced with a note, handed to him by Karen Russell. The note stated he had two choices, either change his mind and allow Mary to continue with her job at the end of her probation period or all 10 of OVFP’s administrative assistants would take this further. They would go to Ottawa to state their protest on the CBC show at six o’clock. The administrative assistants were waiting for Jennings response to this in the lounge and gave him 20 minutes in order to make his decision. Assumptions made based on the report: ââ€" ªThe organization was structured properly and the business is successful. The business has been running for 30 years and has a large amount of staff and managers. ââ€" ªThere are different branches or departments that produce specialized products. The different branches manage things such as dairy, vegetables and fruits and meat products ect. ââ€" ªBecause the company is so successful; all the workers have the values and objectives towards bettering the company. The workers strive toward success in the company. ââ€" ªThe company’s marketing strategy is to produce low-calorie and diet foods to grocery stores made out of high quality ingredients. Their marketing advantage is that they sell unique healthy foods at a low cost . ââ€" ªThe company has monthly goals to attain that include having the correct products ready for certain stores and having them delivered on time to the stores. They finish their work on time frequently because they have a successful business and long term customers. ââ€" ªAll of the secretaries are female. Women are specifically hired to work as secretaries for Jennings. ââ€" ªSince all of the secretaries gathered together to meet with Jennings because they were unhappy so it can be concluded that Jennings treats most of his employees unfairly and expects too much out of them. ââ€" ªJennings asks too much of his employees sometimes. He will ask them to do things that are not in their job descriptions; such as get him coffee and pick up his dry cleaning. ââ€" ªJennings may be too comfortable at his job. He is taking his employees for granted and using them to do personal favours. Problem Statement: The senior director of Ottawa Valley Food Products, R.J. Jennings, is having issues with his replacement administrative assistant. His former assistant was very outgoing and willing to work long hours in order to please her boss and to get the work done in a timely manner. When she took an early retirement, the company hired a replacement assistant for Mr. Jennings. Over her time with the company the new assistant, Mary Gregory, was at times incapable of the workload she had been given, which her predecessor had no trouble with. Not only was Mary incompetent at times, she also seemed to have no sense of proper business etiquette. On the day of an important meeting Mary decided to entertain the client with stories of her weekend while Jennings was running late. When Jennings arrived in his office he found a less than impressed client and his assistant chatting him up. After Jennings had told her to leave the office so they could commence their meeting, which was already running late, Mary scolded Jennings telling him that it was rude for him to ask her to leave and then continued with her story. After the meeting had concluded Mary was asked into Jennings’s office where he demanded an explanation. Mary protested that the situation was through no fault of her own. Mary was told shortly after the incident that her duties would no longer be needed at the end of her six week probationary period. Mary rebutted this by rallying all the administrative assistants to Mr.Jennings office with demands to be met or they would go to the CBC NEWS in Ottawa to air a piece about their story. Jennings has to make a decis ion whether or not to disregard these actions. If the piece airs on CBC NEWS, it will be nothing but bad publicity for the company. If he decides to Leave Mary in her position, she could potentially lose clients and disrupt further office interactions. Internal (Strengths and Weaknesses): Strengths ââ€" ªThe company management is well respected and the company has been running for over 30 years and supplies to grocery store. Jennings is a respected manager and has a good reputation amongst other companies that OVFP have contracts with. ââ€" ªThe Company has a high rate of employment. OVFP employs 100 production workers and 18 management and support staff. This shows that the company is successful. The company has been able to expand and needed to hire more workers to finish the required tasks on time. ââ€" ªThe Company achieves corporate objectives as they are successful in obtaining their goals. The company creates all of the goods on time and has the products delivered to certain grocers on the requested date. ââ€" ªThe company is successful because employees share the same values in the company; aiming toward success. Management ensures the job is done and that it is done with quality. The values of the workers include completing current objectives on time and with good quality. ââ€" ªThe company’s current marketing objective is to have the goods ready for their clients on time and to have the food delivered on time. This marketing objective is a strength because the employees work hard to finish the jobs. The secretaries mainly finish their assigned jobs with unfortunately some miscommunications but they work hard to finish everything. Weaknesses ââ€" ªStructure is clearly not understood by some of the employees, as Mary was not aware of some of the duties she needed to accomplish. Also, Jennings expected a lot out of her, where are she believed that she did not need complete these tasks for him because they were in her job description. Because they did not agree on what each other must do to get the day running smoothly they had a conflict. ââ€" ªThe other secretaries wanted to meet with him because they were also not happy. Jennings does not treat his secretaries fairly and expects them to work as the pace of Ella. He expects them to answer his personal calls and do other personal favours such as work overtime without pay . ââ€" ª The company does not finish all of their objectives because Mary was not completing all of the tasks Jennings assigned for her. This is why they had a conflict. ââ€" ªIf Mary could not handle the tasks Jennings was giving her then his expectations were too high. He was asking too much of her. Potentially, he could have asked for her to do simpler tasks until she got used the environment. ââ€" ªJennings did not hire Mary, human resources hired her for him. He did not have a choice therefore he may not get along with her if he doesn’t have a say in who is his secretary. The human resource department did not know what Jennings was looking for. ââ€" ªAll of the secretaries were female. If they are all only women then they are violating human rights. ââ€" ª Human resources was not able to hire an efficient worker for the company. They did not hire someone fit for the job and made a mistake. ââ€" ªJennings may not be a good manager if he is asking too much from his employees. If they do not understand where he is coming from when he is asking them to do things for him they might not listen to him. Also, if he is being unreasonable the employees won’t bother doing what they are asked. ââ€" ª Human resources may not be the appropriate people to hire an assistant for Jennings. Jennings should be able to choose his own secretary to avoid further conflict. If he picked someone that he believes would fit the job description better than there would never have been a conflict to resolve. External Analysis: Political †¢Jennings had informed Mary that she would no longer be employed at the end of her six week probationary period. Mary has no real grounds to protest for her job but the administrative assistant Union is standing up for her. With a union involved, striking is always a possibility. The administrative assistants to a large load of the office work and filing. Without these workers the business will be running far less efficiently. Social †¢The way Ottawa Valley Food Products is perceived by the public is directly correlated to its sales. A local news piece that depicts the company in a negative image could have negative repercussions on the success of the company. Sometimes there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but if the company looks like it doesn’t care about its employees, that is tougher for the company to shake. Opportunities †¢With the administrative assistants up in arms, an opportunity has arisen to change the current hiring system. To ensure that no incidents happen in the future, it is possible to tweak our hiring techniques to make sure our employees are of a quality caliber and they have solid references. Jennings is however not the root of the problem, Mary is, and management should be looking seriously into this as well. The management of a corporation should not allow an administrative assistant to potentially ruin sales and lose the company money and clients. Threats †¢The threat of a unionized support staff is always looming. If the administrative assistants form a union it will be nearly impossible to fire unruly staff. Also unions usually bargain for more money, which would result in more overhead for the company. Ultimately a union would limit the amount of work that the assistants do, and give them more money. If the Assistants were to form a union, it could have direct correlation with the production of the company. †¢A new hiring standard is in desperate need at Ottawa Valley Food Products. Otherwise they run the risk of hiring more staff that could become problematic. If they continue to hire these types of staff, it could have detrimental effects on the productivity of the company. Alternatives courses of Action: Alternative #1 R.J can do nothing and continue to end Mary’s employment after the six – week probation period. This will force the 10 OVFP executive assistants to publicize their complaint on CBC. R.J. Jennings is a senior manager at OVFP who has been working with them for 31 years and Mary Gregory should treat him with respect and honor his requests. Advantages †¢R.J. Jennings has been employed at OVFP for 31 years and deserves a better administrative assistant. By continuing to terminate Mary’s employment he may be assigned an assistant that better meets his needs. †¢The cost of finding and training new employees with work equipment can end up being expensive but Mary wasn’t able to handle the duties necessary to be a successful assistant. The potential employees applying for the job can be strategically chosen through interviews so that time and money is not wasted if they hire a new assistant with extensive experience that can adapt to the new job easily and not require lots of training. †¢This option is easy to put into practice because nothing is required other than to document Mary Gregory’s progress until the six – week probation period has ended. During this period R.J. also is given enough time to search for and hire a new assistant that may better meet his needs. †¢By executing this option R.J. is also able to demonstrate his expectations to other coworkers. In future situations his coworkers will know what R.J. expects from his assistants. Disadvantages †¢By continuing to terminate Mary’s employment he will lose his assistant as well as having the potential to lose the other 10 executive assistants that are protesting this. As these other assistants do not agree with R.J.’s decision they may willingly quit. As well, by going public with this protest they can bring negative media attention to R.J. and OVFP, as thus may ruin future business deals or current business commitments. †¢The approach of doing nothing and continuing to end Mary’s employment after the six – week probation period could negatively affect the company. The company will now have to go through the trouble of hiring and training a new assistant, rather than to address and try to fix the problem with Mary. If R.J. does need to replace Mary and possibly other executive assistants, he may replace them with new employees that might not work out and in fact be worse than his current employees. †¢If R.J. does terminate Mary’s employment, lose other executive assistance and bring negative media attention to OVFP he also has the potential of losing his job. Other senior management might view him as harmful to the company and may look into putting him on a probationary period or ultimately terminating his position. Alternative #2 R.J. Jennings could bring Mary Gregory into his office and have a discussion about the situation and address the problems that he has with Mary. Allow Mary to see what Ella Arnold successfully did and how she completed her tasks for R.J. daily. R.J. also clearly needs to express his expectations for his assistant so Mary is able to understand what is required of her. R.J. can allow Mary to move forward from this point and demonstrate how she is qualified for this job. If she is given another chance she may meet his standards and adjust to being a successful assistant. R.J. may also be given the opportunity to see his demands from Mary’s perspective. Because Ella did tasks for R.J that was not in her job description, R.J. has come to expect this. Mary can be given the chance to explain that she is not there to bring R.J. his coffee and newspaper and how she felt at some of his requests. Advantages †¢The actual problem can be addressed and Mary can see what Ella Arnold did as R.J.’s assistant. Mary will be given a list of expectations that she must meet in order to continue her employment at OVFP. If Mary clearly knows what is expected of her she may be able to carry out her daily tasks successfully. If Mary does not agree with what is expected of her in this role or does not feel she can complete such tasks she may willing leave her position, without spurring the negative media attention. †¢R.J. is also given the opportunity to see how much more Ella did for him that was required. Mary may have a different work style than Ella and does not feel like she should have to be taken advantage of or do tasks that R.J. can carry out himself, such as getting R.J. his coffee. †¢This alternative allows the problem to be addressed between both parties. It can also promote further open communication between coworkers as R.J. is setting a positive example to address a problem. †¢Negative media attention can be avoided as the executive assistants will not be on the CBC newscast. Disadvantages †¢Mary Gregory might become defensive once in R.J.’s office. After R.J. addresses the problem with Mary she might have a different perspective on the situation and feel she isn’t in the wrong. R.J. may feel he has wasted time and effort trying to fix the problem with Mary. †¢If Mary does not agree with R.J. she might notify the other 10 OVFP executive assistants about the meeting she had and continue with the CBC newscast. If Mary does not agree with the discussion she had with R.J. it could fuel further negative comments being made during the newscast. †¢Mary might feel she is underappreciated because she’s always being compared to Ella. Alternative #3 Terminate Mary Gregory from OVFP as an assistant immediately without reason and without allowing the six-week probation period to expire. Mary has been given enough chances to complete what is required of her and if she still continues to struggle with the everyday tasks that R.J. assigns then she is not the right person for the assistant position. Advantages †¢Mary Gregory is no longer an employee for OVFP so they can start to find a replacement assistant immediately that can be beneficial to the company. †¢It will be easier to release Mary as an employee because she’s still on probation. †¢R.J. Jennings can get back to being an efficient, hardworking employee with no distractions to affect his work. He can find a new assistant that meets his needs and will allow him to continue to be a dedicated employee. †¢Because Mary was new to the company she does not get paid benefits or other possible layoff payments that a fulltime life employee would receive. Disadvantages †¢Employees that formed a bond or friendship with Mary might disagree with OVFP’s choice to terminate her during the probation period. These employees might show their disagreement with the company’s choice by slowing work efficiency and motivation towards their job. †¢The assistants that have threatened to appear on CBC will still do so if Mary is immediately terminated. The immediate termination may infuriate them further if Mary is fired without being given any explanation or chance to further prove her work ethic. †¢Employees might take the message in a different manner and think there not being treated fairly for the work they give to the company. The employees might think that the company feels they are replaceable and aren’t an asset towards the company’s success when that isn’t the case. This could lead to further problems such as strikes or searching for other employment. †¢Time and money will be spent during the process of finding a new assistant. Alternative #4 Allow the option to release Mary Gregory from OVFP as an assistant with reason. Again, Mary has been given ample opportunities to turn her work ethic around but has failed to do so. R.J could have a meeting and tell Mary she is no longer employed at OVFP as well as notify her of the reasons why she’s being let go. This can allow R.J. to clearly express his reasoning for the decision as well as allow Mary to express how she is feeling Advantages †¢R.J. would no longer have to work with an assistant he feels does not meet up to his standards. †¢By having a meeting and clearly explaining the reason for her termination it may diffuse the situation. Mary can be given the opportunity to see R.J.’s reasoning and may agree with some of the issues he has raised. It can also be a learning experience for Mary as she looks for new jobs she may know what is expected of her in an administrative position. †¢Mary can be given the opportunity for a fresh start at a new company. She may also be able to use R.J. as a reference or connection toother jobs. Although her job was terminated R.J. may want to help her future search and just cite the termination as a clash of personalities or Mary not being the right fit for the job. R.J. is also able to have a fresh start with a new assistant and may be more aware of how to express his expectations. †¢R.J.’s executive assistants will not go on CBC if Mary has been treated with respect and had the opportunity to have a discussion with R.J. Disadvantages †¢Negative publicity can still arise if Mary still feels she wasn’t treated equally and was terminated without given a fair chance. The other assistants may feel that it is still necessary to make this issue aware to the public by being on CBC. †¢Legal issues may be a possibility. Even though she’s a new employee she could address the situation with the labor board or human resources to see if there are any options regarding her termination (i.e. severance pay). †¢Disagreement with the decision to terminate Mary’s position by other employees might cause work ethic and efficiency to drop or other possibilities such as a strike or employees quitting. Recommendations and Plan of Action: The alternative chosen to resolve the problem statement is option four which is allowing the option to release Mary Gregory from OVFP as an assistant with reason. This alternative is favourable as Mary has been given numerous amounts of opportunities to adjust her work attitude, still chooses not to do so. By choosing this alternative, Jennings could have a meeting with Mary and explain to her why she is no longer an employee of OVFP. At this meeting, he is able to discuss the reasons to why she is being fired. Jennings will be able to justify his decision and let Mary express her feelings about the situation. By using this alternative Jennings will no longer have to work with Mary as he feels her work ethics are not to his standards of being his assistant. As a result of having this meeting, it can calm the situation as Mary is able to understand Jennings’ reasoning and may even agree with some of the issues he states. This could also allow Mary to learn from this when she looks for future jobs as she may have a better understanding of what is expected of her in an administrative assistant’s role. As a result of Mary’s termination this will allow her to have a new start with a different company. Finally, if Mary is treated with respect and given justification to her termination, the executive assistants may change their mind and withdraw from appearing on CBC. There were a number of different alternatives decided upon as well when analysing Mary Gregory’s position at OVFP. The first alternative for Jennings to do nothing and to continue to end Mary’s employment after her six weeks probation period would not be suitable. This is due to ten other OVFP executive assistants stating they would also leave the company if Mary was not employed after her probation period. They also stated they would publicise their complaint on CBC. This could result in bringing negative publicity to OVFP, which could potentially cause problems with future business deals or current business relationships. Also, by terminating Mary’s employment the company would have to go through the process of finding a new assistant for Jennings and then having to train them. By doing this, OVFP may find these new employees to not be as efficient as their previous executive assistants. Finally, Jennings may lose his own job by bringing negative media attention to the business from firing Mary and the other assistants going to CBC with their disagreements. OVFP senior management team may find this damaging to the company and its image, therefore possibly putting him on a probationary period or terminating his position altogether. The second alternative, Jennings bringing Mary into his office to discuss the situation and address any problems is also not suitable for resolving this issue. This is could result in Mary becoming defensive once Jennings begins to discuss issues with her. She might feel she is not in the wrong and have a different outlook on the situation at hand. As a result of this, Jennings may feel he has wasted his time trying to resolve the problems with Mary and her work attitude. Also, Mary might speak with other assistants once she finishes talking with Jennings and explain to them what happened. After this, they may still continue with the broadcast with CBC and if Mary does not agree with Jennings and his opinions then this could result in even more negative comments said during the newscast, again bringing destructive media attention to OVFP. Also, by Jennings doing this Mary feel unappreciated as he is always comparing her to his previous assistant, Ella Arnold. This could demotivate he r to completing her job to the best of her ability and carrying out everyday tasks Ella used to do for Jennings. Finally, the third alternative is terminating Mary from OVFP as an assistant without reason and terminating her position once her six week probation period has finished. This, again, would not be appropriate for resolving the situation as employees who have formed a working or friendly relationship with Mary might disagree with OVFP’s decision. By showing their support towards Mary, they may decide to show lack of care within their working attitudes and not complete their own jobs properly. This could bring a long, tiring issue for OVFP if their employees are not motivated to work and complete their jobs on time or to the highest of standards. Also, the assistants who mentioned they would appear on CBC will continue to do so if Mary is fired from her position. They may do this as they will be upset by Mary being terminated without any justification to why she is no longer needed at OVFP. Also, from this alternative employees may feel they are not being treated fairly for the work they contribute towards the company, therefore they may feel they are replaceable. As a result of this, employees will not feel an asset to the company or feel they are appreciated when the company achieves goals. Employees could strike due to this or seek employment in a different company. Finally, precious time and money will be wasted on finding new assistants to replace Mary and the ten executive assistants if they decide to leave OVFP. The response that Mary’s and the other executive assistants gave when they hear the news that Mary is being let go after her probation period may seem like the major key component in this case. But as stated is this report there are many other factors that play into this company problem. Mary may response in an understandings way when Jennings explains his reasoning for letting her go from OVFP or she may not. Either way OVFP must realise they need to make changes in the company to prevent a situation like this from happening in the future. Reorganizing the human resources hiring process is a great start. Job posting that clearly state what the employee duties are within the company, will avoid confuse among Mangers and assistants. Also having Managers involved in the hiring of their assistants with make sure that Managers are paired with assistants that meet there individual needs. Having Human Recourse make these changes, it will over all avoid future problems like this from arising, and will create happier for efficient, and loyal employees. Which will o ver all benefits the company with loyal employees more efficient employees the company will save money and put this money in things such as expanding or improving other components.