Rousseau, Marx and the Critique of Classical Liberalism Essay

Rousseau, Marx and the Critique of Classical Liberalism - Essay Example Rousseau on the other hand, emphasizes on democratic political interdependence and economic self-sufficiency whereby all human beings are free and also tries to explain the origin of inequalities and how to resolve them. Just like Rousseau, Marx hates inequalities hence much of his work is criticism of the capitalist state and goes beyond political democracy to emancipation of the human race. The paper will discuss Rousseau and Marx approaches to critique of classical liberalism. Classical liberalism puts emphasis on securing the freedom of individual by limiting the power of the state and this freedom is referred as liberty. In this case, ownership of private property is encouraged and protected by the law and exchange of the property with a willing buyer is voluntary. It also advocates for the need to separate the church from the state hence freedom of religion and also free trade. This is in the belief that people have inalienable rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness a nd the role of the state is to safeguard these rights (Fremont-Barnes, 225). It is also based on the idea that people aim at maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain and that people engage in labor voluntarily to get a reward or due to fear of hunger. Much emphasis is placed on the individual since the society is a sum of individual members thus discourages formation of unions or group associations (Epstein, 1-12). Contrary to classical liberalism which emphasizes negative freedom whereby others should refrain from interfering with other’s rights, Rousseau views freedom as positive whereby individuals are enabled to realize higher goods. On the discourse on the origin and basis of inequality (1755), Rousseau acknowledges the existence of primitive societies who lived under the natural state and directed to act by their passions and desire. Under the natural state, all men are equal and inequality is brought about by men through civilization (Rousseau 1987, 26). Each society me mber has a task to perform and no one is forced to share tasks with others and the sovereign and the people have same interests. Contrary to classical liberalism, under this democratic government no one is above the law and if a government proves not fit for the society, the society has the right to overthrow it and form a new government. Such was the case with the French revolution which led to overthrow of the monarch. The government envisioned by Rousseau is a direct and not representative democracy where the people are sovereign with a general will and legislative power with the government being distinct from the sovereign (Rousseau 2008, 25). The government neither engages in conquest of its neighbors since it is self-sufficient nor expects to be conquered but instead it expects the neighbors to be of assistance in time of need hence political interdependence (Rousseau 1987, 27). On his second discourse, Rousseau points out two types of inequalities; natural inequality such as age, health and bodily strength; Moral or political inequality which is consented by men such as being more powerful, richer and more honored. He argues that the development of inequalities was as a result of evolution from natural to moral inequality. The formation of language was important in the evolution as it enabled the ideas to be spread widely otherwise in the state of nature, any

Theoretical Positions of Freud, Adler, Jung, and James Essay Example for Free

Theoretical Positions of Freud, Adler, Jung, and James Essay Introduction Historically, some of the greatest insights of psychological analysis stemmed from the minds of ordinary men and women. In many respects, most psychodynamic theories come from psychoanalysis studies that have been conducted over the generations. Science has worked meticulously to establish quality and validation to structuralist perspectives; however it was functionalism movement that were more qualitative in nature. Although not directly associated with the movement, psychologists such as Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, and William James made is possible to explain the purpose of the human consciousness. They all wanted to discover a way to improve the quality of the lives of individuals rather than focus on laboratory research; a more direct approach to mapping the mind. Their variations in theory were designed to focus on the foundation of human behaviors and the best way to provide accurate analysis and treatment to those behavior motivators. Sigmund Freud: Perspectives and Major Disagreements Conscious and Unconscious: Freud’s Theories – Disagreement In regards to Freudian psychology, Vaughan wrote, â€Å"the imposing, assertive methods of the arrangement†¦made ideal the rise of forceful obstruction in its train (1927). James and Freud have the most significant differences in perspectives. James felt introspection and self-reflection is the way to understanding life within the mental states (Goodwin, 2008). However, Freud believes that behavior is regulated by the unconscious mind. This was made understandable through free association and dreams. Ultimately, Freud thought professionals could figure out the state and individual based the  state on the analysis of his or her dreams (Freud, 1911). But, self-reflection was what James believed (Hart, 2008). Freud’s Sexual Motivations – Disagreement Adler and Jung, who formerly related with Freud, found disagreements with Freud’s theory of sexual motivations and psychosexual developments (Vaughan, 1927). These men argued that placing extreme prominence on the motivation through sex would reduce individual behaviors to only one motivation that is fundamental (Vaughan, 1927). Adler wanted the theory he created to become the main stimulus and foundation through his psychological theories replacing Freud’s emphasis on sexual motivation. He would replace this with self-reflection (Vaughan, 1927). Freud would focus on forces held internally to include; sexual motivation, biological dispositions, and conflicts. Adler’s theories concentrated on social factors (Goodwin, 2008). The most similar views out of the four men where Jung and Freud (Goodwin, 2008). Again Freud would be questioned by Jung and his thoughts within sexual motivations, concluding the theories of analytical psychology (Goodwin, 2008). Although Jung ’s views can be comparable to Freud’s, Jung would extend the theory to embrace a perspective that was more advanced (Goodwin, 2008). Alfred Adler and the Individual Psychology Alfred Adler was an Austrian doctor, psychotherapist, and the main founder of the school of individual psychology. He strongly believed in the importance of the feeling of inferiority or the inferiority complex. The inferiority complex is well known as a major key of developing personalities. An inferiority complex is a lack of self-worth, doubting oneself, uncertain of ability, or feeling as if you are not up to standards. He believed this occurred in the subconscious and caused people to overcompensate. This resulted in people either doing exceeding well, or failing miserably resulting in behavior considered abnormal by society. He believed that people were whole individuals, and from that came his â€Å"Individual Psychology†. Freud disbelieved Adlers ideas and believed they were too contrary so he had all members of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society expel Adler. Despite the fact Freud believed Adler to be incorrect, he still took his ideas seriously and called them,  "honorable errors†. Carl Jung Than we had Carl Jung who was an analytical psychiatrist who is considered as the prototype of the dissident through the impact of his scission and the movement that he created when he became analytical. He was the son of a swiss reverend of a community, he went to school and studied the medical field but he specialized in psychiatry he also worked for a renowed psychiatric hospital in Zurich. Carl Jung had a strong personality and was also thought of as quite facinating he was introduced to Freud in 1907. They hit it off and he would soon be facinated by the prestige and personality that Carl Jung had he soon seen in him the son that could keep the survival of psychoanalysis. He really believed in hm and was so into his personality that it didn’t even face him that Jung was not a jewish like he was. Soon after Jung was traveling to the US and became the first president of the â€Å"International Association of Psychoanalysis†. He traveled the world for a while and did several analysis throughout the US he also became more and more away from his studies as he was aging. But he still got to accomplish a lot and also got to fund his own schools which really attracted a lot of people he was a master in what he did and really got to accomplish a lot in the field of Psychology. Compare and Contrasts As you can see all of the psychologists mentioned above had the same goal: explain the purpose of the human consciousness. Freud as the first to develop the basis of all psychodynamic theories: psychoanalysis. Understanding certain behaviors requires insight into the emotional responses that motivate specific reactions; sexual development was paramount to human behavior. He believed that the human psyche consisted of three parts: the Ego, Super-Ego, and the Id; all parts of the sexual developmental process. On the other hand, Adler’s theory was more straight-forward: he believed that these three parts operated as a single unit; the central theme of functionalism. Alder was the first to establish the idea that an individual’s personality was a direct reflection of their conscious. The psychologist that met these two in the middle was Carl Jung. Like Freud, Jung believed all behaviors were triggered by motivators, only he thought that the motivator was based on an inferio rity complex; and like Adler, he believed that the human psyche acted as a single unit. Jung was most  significant for his use of word association to understand unconscious responses to external stimuli. His efforts proved that the unconscious mind is able to provided responses independent from the conscious mind. And finally, James William emphasized the notion of a â€Å"stream of consciousness†Ã¢â‚¬â€an active agent of mental action that is constantly changing (Goodwin, 2008). Although each psychologist had a unique perspective of how the human psyche operated, they made it possible to explain the consciousness. Conclusion Some of the greatest insights into psychological analysis included Freud’s psychoanalysis; Adler’s individualism; Jung’s analytical perspective, and James’s â€Å"stream of thought† analogies. Because of their extensive efforts to explore the human consciousness, they are often referred to as the â€Å"founding fathers of modern psychology. Together they validated the significance of functionalism over structuralism; the truth lies in the purpose not the design. Each psychologist provided a unique approach to establish what the purpose of the consciousness; the basis of all human behavior. Variations in their theories provided many different approaches to target those behavior motivators. These great psychologist collectively improved the quality of life for many individuals over the generations. References: 1. Freud, S. (1911) Interpretation of Dreams (3rd edition) Retrieved May 12, 2014 from EbscoHost 2. Goodwin, C. J. (2008). A History of Modern Psychology (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 3. Vaughan, W. (1927). The psychology of Alfred Adler. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 21(4), 358-371 EbsocHost 4. Durbin, P. (2004). Alfred Adler. Retrieved May 19, 2014, from http://www.alfredadler.org/alfred-adler 5. Fisher, M. (2010, May). Psychology History. Retrieved May 19, 2014, from http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/adler.htm 6. Kowalski, R., Westen, D. (2005). Psychology (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 7. Jung, Carl. The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. Ed. Bonnie Strickland. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2001. 347-348. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 19 May 2014

Essay --

L’Chaim Bravery can be defined in many different ways, but it is not usually defined by an entire country. During World War Two, the entire country of Denmark decided that they would not submit to Hitler and aid him in the extermination of the Jewish people, or â€Å"The Final Solution.† Denmark is the only example of a country that was unwilling to succumb to the Nazi ideology and actively resist the regime. Through various resistance movements and strikes, the Danes were able to communicate to the Germans that they were not welcome and that their principles would not be accepted. The country of Denmark is situated directly over Germany. Though it was not considered a major conquest by Hitler, it was valuable due to its location near Norway. The country of Denmark was considered so unimportant that the Germans considered excluding it from â€Å"The Final Solution† during the Wannsee Conference. The â€Å"Jewish problem† in Denmark seemed very insignificant compared to other countries considering that there were only seven thousand and five hundred Jews to the four million Danes. Regardless, Denmark was occupied by the Germans on April 9, 1940. The German influence on the Danish government and people was very small. The Danes were able to maintain their own government with the Germans only dictating the foreign policies. The people were hardly affected as well, including the Jews. The Jewish people were able to continue with worship services and daily life as usual. The Jewish people were also exempt from wearing the Star of David, registering as Jews, or leaving their houses and relinquishing businesses. One of the main opposers of the German occupation was the king of Denmark himself, King Christian X. From his unarmed, unescorted rides t... ...s. Theresienstadt was liberated by the Soviets on May 9, 1945 after the camp was handed over to the International Red Cross. Around fifty Danish people died during the internment in the concentration camp. Around four hundred and fifty survived. Denmark has been honored for their bravery by several different monuments, such as a monument in Israel of a boat that was done on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the rescue. There is also a boat that was used for the transportation to Sweden in the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Israel. Copenhagen has a monument with a large inscription in both Danish and Hebrew that was a gift from the Israeli people. The autumn of 2013 marked the seventieth anniversary of the rescue of the Danish Jews. May we always remember the courage of a country devoted to seeing past the labels placed on people and seeing them as individuals instead.

Descrpition Essay on New York City

Macy Climer The city that never sleeps When you think of New York City, you most likely imagine the extraordinary buildings that fly in the sky or the crowded sidewalks with hundreds of people shopping on every corner. Even with my short visit I found myself lost in the big apple. The streets are filled with the atmosphere that is like teenagers shopping with their parent’s credit card. Although by the end of the day your feet are so swollen from all the walking, you find yourself wanting to keep going in the hopes of having the best â€Å"New York experience. †It was spring break of my senior year and my dance team plus our moms were about to travel to the city that never sleeps. All of us were so anxious to explore this amazing city that most of us have only seen on TV. When arriving at the airport that early spring morning I had butterflies in my stomach, for the thought of the big city that I have always dreamed visiting. The flight was long but it was comfortable. When the captain announced that we would be landing in about 20 minutes, I was the most anxious I have ever been in my life. Twenty minutes felt like forever!Finally the seat belt sign went off and the flight attendants opened the exit doors. The airport was so crowded with every kind of person you could think of. It was a small airport, only being about 10 minutes away from the city. After we collected our luggage we went to flag down our first taxi. I have watched several movies that were based in New York City so getting a taxi was just as simple as raising your hand and waving them down. As the taxi came up from under a bridge I found myself staring at the most amazing city I have ever been to.Time Square is seen in a lot of movies, but it is way better then I imagined. As I was standing right in the middle of Time Square I was overwhelmed with everything that was going on around me. There were people covering every inch of the sidewalk, hot dog stands and people handing out fly ers to shows and other activities. The cars were bumper to bumper while horns came from every direction. Even though NYC is this amazing city, it was kind of a dirty, loud, and crowded place. But behind the crowded loud streets, New York is a beautiful city.Our journey began the second we arrived. I wanted to explore every inch of the city but I knew that was impossible. I was going to try though; the hotel we stayed at was right in the middle of Time Square. It was like a dream every time I walked out our doors. The city was such a fast paced place. People fast walking past you, taxis speeding through the tiny avenues of New York, the people of NYC for sure live off coffee and red bull. The days went by so fast because we were constantly doing something at all times.Mainly sightseeing and shopping, lots and lots of shopping! As the days went by the city became easier to get around. I was a pro at flagging down a taxi, and I understood the whole subway thing. I realized that when th ey say that New York is the city that never sleeps they meant it. At all hours of the night I would hear car horns and loud music and people talking. I loved every bit of the city, even though it was crowded and loud and sometimes a little smelly. The shopping and all the huge skyscrapers made it worth it.Shopping wasn’t the only good thing about New York; I was able to see two Broadway shows. The shows are amazing and filled with really talented people. Triple threats that can sing, dance, and act, I saw wicked which was a show I have wanted to see since it first came out. These shows are the coolest things; New York is a place full of adventure and excitement. Our journey was ending and it was bitter sweet. I loved the city but Texas is my home and I missed it. I will for sure visit New York again sometime in my life.After exploring the city for a week I came to realize that it is a fabulous place to visit, but maybe not such a good place to live. I loved getting to experie nce this city with my mom and seeing all the sights that are so cool, and eating all the food that New York is known for , and even shopping at places that a lot of celebrities shop at. It would take several trips to NYC to get to discover everything there but I feel like my trip to the big apple was the real â€Å"New York experienced. †

Marilyn Monroe Informative Speech

Marilyn Monroe  (born  Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an  American  actress,  model, and  singer, who became a major  sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s and early 1960s. After spending much of her childhood in  foster  homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946 with  Twentieth Century-Fox. Her early film appearances were minor, but her performances in  The Asphalt Jungle  and  All About Eve  (both 1950), drew attention.By 1952 she had her first leading role in  Don't Bother to Knock and 1953 brought a lead in  Niagara, a melodramatic  film noir  that dwelt on her seductiveness. Her â€Å"dumb blonde† persona was used to comic effect in subsequent films such as  Gentlemen Prefer Blondes  (1953),  How to Marry a Millionaire  (1953) andThe Seven Year Itch  (1955). Limited by  typecasting, Monroe studied at t he  Actors Studio  to broaden her range. Her dramatic performance in  Bus Stop  (1956) was hailed by critics and garnered a  Golden Globe  nomination.Her production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, released  The Prince and the Showgirl  (1957), for which she received a  BAFTA Award  nomination and won a  David di Donatello  award. She received a  Golden Globe Award  for her performance in  Some Like It Hot  (1959). Monroe's last completed film was  The Misfits  (1961), co-starring  Clark Gable  with  screenplayby her then-husband,  Arthur Miller. The final years of Monroe's life were marked by illness, personal problems, and a reputation for unreliability and being difficult to work with.The circumstances of her death, from an overdose of  barbiturates, have been the subject of conjecture. Though officially classified as a â€Å"probable suicide†, the possibility of an accidental overdose, as well as of homicide, have not been ruled out. In 1999, Monroe was ranked as the  sixth-greatest female star of all time  by the  American Film Institute. In the decades following her death, she has often been cited as both a  pop  and a  cultural icon  as well as the quintessential American sex symbol. [6][7][8]  In 2009,  TV Guide Network  named her #1 in  Film's Sexiest Women of All Time.

Platos Laches Essays

Platos Laches Essays Platos Laches Essay Platos Laches Essay During his lifetime Socrates’ various interactions with his fellow Athenians left his intentions debatable. Popular belief in Athens seemed to be that, â€Å"he [Socrates] was an evildoer, and a curious person, who searches into things under the earth and in heaven? and makes the worse appear the better cause† (Plato, pg. 5) as stated by the unofficial charges against him in The Apology. After discussions, his interlocutor’s were left confused in a state of aporia, with no conclusion. And so while negative views of Socrates became increasing popular in Athens right up until his death, Socrates was, on the contrary, serving as Athens’s benefactor, opening up their eyes to the truth of world in which they lived in. In Plato’s Laches, Socrates does in fact tear down his interlocutors’ claims but only to prove to them that they don’t know what they claim to know by exposing holes in their fundamental thoughts and to redirect them on a path to finding true knowledge. Through a method of elenchus, Socrates aimed to prove to his interlocutor that the ideas they held about certain topics were in fact false. When a person would come to him with a question, as Laches and Nicias do in Laches, Socrates would first direct the conversation in such a way that the question lying before the men is a foundational one, and not necessarily the original question. In his explanation of this Socrates states, â€Å"So, in a word, whenever a man considers a thing for the sake of another thing, he is taking counsel about that thing for the sake of which he was considering, and not about what he was investigating for the sake of something else† (Plato 185D) and redirects the question of whether or not young boys should learn the art of fighting in armor to how to care for the souls of young men. By doing this Socrates is able to expose the very source of his interlocutors’ belief system and demonstrate that if the basis of the system isn’t true nothing built on it can be true. Socrates goes on to have the men discus virtue, because they are trying to discover what virtue could be added to their sons’ souls to make them better men and because virtues are the basis for the moral ethics by which they live.. He then invites them to define a virtue: courage. When Laches gives a less than sufficient answer, Socrates rephrases his question and asks for a true definition of courage, one that would encompass every sort of courageous act. Eventually Laches gets to a point where he is unsure of how to proceed, saying, â€Å"I am really getting annoyed at being unable to express what I think in this ashion. I still think I know what courage is, but I can’t understand how it has escaped me just now so that I can’t pin it down in words and say what it is† (Plato 194B). By admitting that he is unable to concisely express the definition of something he considered himself knowledgeable about, Laches allowed Socrates’ method to have a refl ective effect on him. The dialogue ends in an aporia, or a state of unknowing, leaving Laches and Nicias still without an answer to whether or not young men should learn the art of fighting in armor and more importantly without what a proper definition of courage. They leave the conversation confused, realizing, that they don’t know what they thought they knew, which is what Socrates had originally intended for them to eventually understand. Coming out of a Socratic dialogue usually left the interlocutor feeling one of two ways. Laches, after conversing with Socrates and Nicias, is aware that he isn’t as informed on the idea of courage as he would have like to think, but still agrees to go Lysimachus’ house the next day to continue the discussion in hopes of revealing an answer. Being made aware of his shortcoming, instilled in him a desire to further explore it. Leaving the Socratic dialogue left Laches wanted more; because it ended in aporia, the only piece of knowledge he got of the conversation was that his definitions were wrong. Instead of giving Laches the answer, and having him just accept it as true, Socrates invited him to search for it, because in searching for an answer to the definition of courage, Laches would gradually begin to question and search for other pieces of knowledge relevant to his life, and it would become an ongoing process. However, other Athenians eventually grew tired of Socrates’ extensive questioning and can be seen in The Apology putting Socrates on trial for it. Instead of taking Socrates’ conversations for what they were worth, they labeled him as argumentative and a man who was corrupting the youth of the city. By breaking down his interlocutors’ various thoughts, ideas, and theses, Socrates was trying to reveal to them that they were not in fact wise and that the knowledge they thought they possessed was not true knowledge. Socrates himself was only considered wiser than his fellow Athenians because he considered his one piece of knowledge to be that he didn’t know anything. By breaking down, piece by piece, the arguments of those he conversed with, he intended for them to realize that their knowledge was relative and therefore meaningless in the grander scheme of things. By recognizing this, only then could they begin living a life in search of finding true meaning. In searching for meaningful things they would have to learn to question things. While he is on trial in The Apology, Socrates tells the jury that, â€Å"The unexamined life is not worth living† (Plato pg. 24) Living life without asking questions, and without inquiry, is not living life at all, and is therefore worthless. As an Athenian himself, Socrates wants to help the fellow men of his city led â€Å"examined† lives and is quick to let them know, if they do away with him, there might never be someone else who does for them what he is attempting to do. In conclusion, Socrates is

In Terms of Consumer Behaviour, What Individual Factors Might Help to Explain the Pampered Pets Phenomenon

In Terms of Consumer Behaviour, What Individual Factors Might Help to Explain the Pampered Pets Phenomenon There are four broad categories of factors that influence organizational buyer behaviour. They are environmental factors, organizational factors, interpersonal factors and individual factors.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on In Terms of Consumer Behaviour, What Individual Factors Might Help to Explain the Pampered Pets Phenomenon? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Individual factors relate to individual thoughts, feelings and actions. The most difficult is to assess motivation and perception of the individual. Essentially pampered pets are often treated as family members or an extension of their owners, who may name them, dress them in special clothing. Pampering pets has created profitable opportunities for all kinds of businesses (Elliott, Sharyn David 2009). Consumers who once felt sad or guilty about leaving a pet alone when they were at work or boarding a pet when they were travelling now seek out pet day care s ervices, pet friendly hotels, and upscale boarding facilities like the TV equipped private suites offered by PetSmart, the world largest pet product retailer. There are several psychological factors that influence consumer behaviour. These include motivation, perception, learning as well as beliefs and attitudes. When a consumer is motivated, one is usually ready to act. How we act is largely influenced by the kind of perception that a person holds of a given situation. It is important to note that people learn when they act (Elliott, Sharyn David 2009). Furthermore, learning is a process which involves changes in individual’s behaviour which arises from experience. Consumer behaviour which is mostly learned takes place with the interaction of drives, stimuli, cues, responses and reinforcement. Beliefs and attitudes are obtained by acting and learning. Some of the individual factors which determine or influence development include the occupation of the person, the level of i ncome of the consumer and the new knowledge learning ability of the consumer. Motivation refers to the forces which drive a person to get their needs and wants (Elliott, Sharyn David 2009). Needs are the basic forces that motivate one to get to a certain end. On the other hand, wants are needs that are learned during an individual’s lifetime. Lifestyle refers to individuals’ or families’ way of living. The lifestyle concept provides descriptions of behaviour and purchasing patterns, especially the ways in which people spend their time and money. Personality, motives and attitudes also influence lifestyle. Age and life cycle stage is a major factor which influences consumer behaviour patterns. The consumer behaviour changes with stages of life. Essentially, some marketers will define their target market based on the consumers’ present stage in life. This implies that there are cases where the subject of pampered pets will make much sense to a given stage of life as compared to another. Lastly, ability is an important concept when it comes to the subject of consumer behaviour. This is directly related to knowledge and familiarity with the product or brand.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In this case, one cannot be able to keep pets if they are not able to understand what the intricacies which are associated with keeping pets are. One study found that consumers with higher education and greater health – related experience were more likely to pay attention to the highly detailed technical information in â€Å"direct – to – consumer† ads such as the pharmaceutical advertisements (Elliott, Sharyn David 2009). The information in this case forms a very important aspect when it comes to the pets. It is worth noting that one cannot have a pet if the information that they have is minimal or sma ll for that matter. Thus consumer behaviour in line with pampered pets is also influenced with the kind of information that one has. In conclusion, today people are concerned about their image, status in the society which is usually a reflection of their material prosperity. Some have gone a notch higher to associate affluence with the kind of pets that they keep. Pets to some extent have become status symbols which have been used by people. Reference List Elliott, Sharyn, R-T David, W 2009, Marketing, John Wiley Sons Australia, Limited, Sydney

Pro Tips Turning your Blog into a Bestselling Book

Pro Tips Turning your Blog into a Bestselling Book Pro Tips: Turning your Blog into a Book Who needs the traditional press anymore? With the democratization of the web, bloggers and social media users can now reach audiences of thousands - if not millions - of eager eyeballs. And once any writer has that kind of platform, it is only a matter of time before publishers come knocking on their doors. Have a look on Amazon, and you'll find plenty of books written by bloggers on topics ranging from business and finance to personal development and pop culture.Many bloggers have resisted the siren call of publishing. But with hundreds of posts under their belt, most bloggers have cleared the first hurdle that most new authors face: they can write. Not just in the sense of being able to put their thoughts to paper and engage an audience, but also by making a regular habit out of writing. How can bloggers become authors? Check out these tips from top ghostwriters With advice from Vanessa Mickan and Marcia Layton Turner, two professional ghostwriters who have helped countless authors publish their first books, we’re taking a peek behind the curtain to see how and why bloggers can (and should) make the leap into the world of publishing.The best reasons for writing a book Old school 💠ªÃ°Å¸â€™ ª 3 years ago and still going !! You ladies are my motivation everyday 💛 Thankyou for all you do. Australian personal trainer Kayla Itsines is practically a cottage industry of feel-good fitness thanks to the inspirational messages, pictures, and workout suggestions  she regularly posts. Leveraging a  massive online following (6 million and counting), she has released a lucrative workout app and self-published an ebook called  The Bikini Body Training Guide. What do @TuckerMax @kayla_itsines and @tferriss all have in common? 5. Tim Ferriss Talk about an immersion course! If you want to learn how to become an author, there are few better ways than working with someone who has substantial experience of writing successful books. Think of it as a turbo-charged internship that you happen to be paying for 😉 If you want to learn how to WRITE a great book, here's why you should consider hiring a ghostwriter. 6. Ghostwriters are publishing insiders Ghostwriters come from many backgrounds, but the best ones have plenty of experience in the publishing industry - often as acquisition editors. They can help you understand whether you should self-publish or pursue  traditional publishers. If you decide to go for the latter, they can help you through the process of pitching to editors. It’s not uncommon for ghostwriters to work on  book proposals: creating a pitch document that lays out your book’s content on a chapter-by-chapter basis as well as demonstrating why you are the perfect person to author a book on your subject. Once they’ve put together your proposal, they can even help you identify the right publishers to send it to.Intrigued by the idea of working with a professional on your book? Find out more about choosing a ghostwriter with  this step-by-step guide or by reading  this article from the world’s most successful ghost.Have you considered making the jump from blogger to author? What do you see as your biggest incentives and obstacles? Feel free to share your thoughts, questions, or strong disagreements in the comments below.

Book guns germs and steel by jared diamond Essay

Book guns germs and steel by jared diamond - Essay Example Logically, Diamond’s contention is predominantly based on his argument that Eurasian civilization is more of an upshot of opportunity and need, and not of cleverness or ingenuity. He argues that civilization is not derived from exceptional intelligence but crops up as a result of a series of growth and progress, both politically and economically, which are caused by some requirements or preconditions. Consistent with Diamond’s argument, the colonization of Africa by the Europeans can be attributed to â€Å"accidents of geography and biogeography – in particular, to the continents’ different areas, axes, and suites of wild plant and animal species. That is, the different historical trajectories of Africa and Europe stem ultimately from differences in real estate† (401). While it is substantial that Diamond places much more stress and importance on the role of geography in the expansive scope of the history of civilizations, his confined and contracted description of geography may present a concern towards the readers. Geography covers the sphere of humanities and the social sciences. It does not merely take in purely geographical thoughts but also, it encompasses other related fields of study, especially in its investigation and description of the relationship between societies and the environment. Providing explanation for the disparities in wealth, control, and authority among world civilizations and diverse communities over time must take into consideration the social, economic, and geopolitical links, together with their connections to environmental traits and environmental change, in an effort to connect international, district and local levels of analysis. These descriptions must also take the impact of human thoughts and imagination, as well as the socio-cultural procedures in forming the geographical and environmental backdrop. In an attempt to take

Pick one cultural space, site, exhibition, performance or project. How Essay

Pick one cultural space, site, exhibition, performance or project. How inclusive and participatory is it, and why - Essay Example This paper looks at a cultural performance and analyzes its inclusivity and participation. It discusses Morris Dancing specifically from historical, artistic and various cultural aspects. Theories discussed in the paper will be applied on this dance to help understand if this culture is inclusive and participatory or not. Various academic resources are consulted to understand how humans perceive and live cultures. The essay also looks into the reasons why some cultural practices are inclusive while others are rigid. Towards the end, a brief summary of the research findings are given as a summary to help understand why such cultural behaviours exist and how humans, on a collective basis, can improve their cultural and artistic thinking and behaviour in the future. The earliest record of Morris Dancing dates back to 1448 when a payment of seven shilling was paid by the Goldsmiths’ Company in London to a group of Morris Dancers (Heaney, 2004). It might have started purely as entertainment but later it became a part of the English culture and spread across the globe as a British cultural dance. Even though different cultures like American, Australian, and Canadian cultures enjoy it but the Morris Dance groups are mostly British expatriates. In other words Morris Dancing is specific to the British culture. It is impossible to confine arts and culture in a narrow definition. For this reason it is convenient to think of arts in terms of institutionalized definition. ‘Art world’ is the exhilaration of artistic skills, mostly displayed at places like museums, academia, art galleries etc. (Belfiore & Bennett, 2008). The same applies to culture as it manifests itself in various cultural exhibitions and art forms, including dancing. The distinctions in culture are stronger than they are in art. When Morris Dancing was purely aesthetical, it was flexible

Teamwork and Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Teamwork and Leadership - Essay Example It focuses on leadership of the support staff and teamwork involved. It further explores leadership theories in relation to the role played by the support staff in a SEN school setting. The paper suggests a plan that can be used at the workplace to influence improved strategies, approaches and policies for managing teams and groups in an organization. Finally, offers the conclusion and recommendations to the SEN team on how to improve overall management performance. HRM Theory Human resource management refers to the way in which employees’ efforts are managed. HRM conveys a wider and dynamic approach concerning the role of employee management in organizations as stated by Bratton and Gold (2001). However, this term has different meanings in varying organizations and contexts. HRM takes into account the needs of the organization and those of its people. Different employees in a team have individual aspirations and needs. It involves finding out their needs and creating opportun ities where they can develop. In general, HRM relates to all aspects of how an organization relates to its staff in regards to teamwork, training, development and opportunities. This paper focuses on the HRM theory in the education sector. The concept is different in the education sector as it focuses on performance, effectiveness and success (Earley et al. 2004; Stakes and Homby 2000; Nind et al. 2003). Provision of high quality education in SEN schools is dependent on the quality of work put in place. There are two HRM models that can be used to describe the HRM theory which are, commitment based HRM and control based HRM. Commitment based HRM This model is described as a working situation where there is teamwork and shared goals and beliefs (Bratton and Gold 2001). In this case the job is designed for joint implementation and planning (teamwork). Employees work to achieve common goals and objectives. Problems are solved mutually by consulting all the team members. Fulfilment of t he employees’ needs is mandatory. There are effective channels of communication among different staff levels (Lewis and Norwich 2004). This model is contradictory to the current situation in the school. Control- based HRM This model suits best as the leader handles most of responsibility on their own. The management can be described as top- down coordination (Bratton and Gold 2001). There is sub- division of work and each employee is given a specific responsibility and is held accountable for it. Compensation is based on the work done, job evaluation, incentives and appraisal. The management dictates what should be done and the other members of staff are excluded in the decision making process. Strengths and weaknesses of HRM HRM is applicable in the case study as it involves the relationship between the management and employees. It focuses on the needs of the employees and the inclusion of all the members of staff in the decision making process. This approach has several wea knesses since it is business oriented. It is influenced by business policies including competitive advantage whereas schools aim at achieving improved performance and quality improvement in education. Analysis of leadership The concept of leadership within the schools means that the managers are responsible for the work done by others (Gibson 2001). For them be successful, they have to effectively carry out their roles and responsibilities. The major roles played by leaders are, monitoring, supervising and implementation of the

Non-Malignanat Palliative Care -Assignment 2 Assignment

Non-Malignanat Palliative Care - 2 - Assignment Example lignant conditions which need palliative care because of the degree of suffering in the end-stage. One such disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Croft, 2005). Patients with this condition develop many symptoms which cause great discomfort and despair not only to the patient but also their dear ones. According to Deane (2008), "patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease follow a slowly-declining disease trajectory, punctuated by acute episodes of ill health, until the acute episode that proves to be the fatal one." â€Å"More often than not, death is sudden and unexpected† (Deane, 2008). The only solace to such patients would be to provide a comprehensive care which takes care of the physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual and religious needs of the patients so that they lead a peaceful life until their death (Croft, 2005). Such a care is known as palliative care. In this project various aspects of palliative care will be discussed which are individu alized and tailor-made to a 85 year old patient by name James with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in end-of-life situation. Palliative care needs of patients with COPD James is a known patient of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and suffers from severe breathlessness, distress, despair and discomfort. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD is a devastating medical illness which causes a great degree of human suffering (GOLD, 2008). It characterized by non-reversible airway obstruction due to either emphysema or chronic bronchitis or both. It is not only a major health issue but also a significant source of economic and social burden (Fromer and Cooper, 2008). One of the most frightening and debilitating symptom of COPD is breathlessness which is progressive. The most common cause of COPD is cigarette smoking (Silvermann and Speizer, 1996). This condition affects about 15% of cigarette smokers (NICE, 2004). Many patients with COPD do not receive appropriate end-of0 life care because of the unpredictable course of their disease (Deane, 2008). Along with these symptoms, patients with COPD have other co morbidities which need to be managed too (Deane, 2008). Though the clinical course of COPD is not predicable, end-of-life care is yet possible. In the last year of life, patients like James with COPD are likely to suffer from chronic dyspnea, low mood, weakness, easy fatiguibility and pain (Deane, 2008). COPD most commonly presents as acute infection of the lungs or cough that is productive. The disease is progressive and eventually, the patient develops breathlessness which, over the course of the disease because the most predominant and distressing syndrome. The patient also begins to suffer from exercise intolerance and also easy fatiguibility. All these symptoms make the life of the patient miserable and helpless. The main reason for breathlessness is poor oxygenation of the lungs and ventilation perfusion defects.

Is teenage pregnancy a social problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Is teenage pregnancy a social problem - Essay Example The increase in the rate of unwed teenage births weakens the integrity of a country. Research suggests that millions of teenage girls get pregnant in the United States every year most of which are those who did not use any contraceptive, as is found by Jewell, Tacchi and Donovan (2000) who asserted in their study that â€Å"young mothers revealed more difficulties getting access to reliable contraceptive services, and dissatisfaction with sex education in schools† (p.522). Gillham (1997, p.10) states that whether one sees teenage pregnancy as a social problem is entirely one’s own perspective. To some teenagers, getting pregnant would be a total disaster of their personalities if they want to step ahead in their professional lives; while, there are other teenagers who find themselves enjoying the situation. Statistics According to Gillham (1997, p. 1), the perception that the out-of-wedlock teen pregnancies are increasing with every passing year is not correct. He asser ts that 1991 saw â€Å"10,000† fewer teenage maternities than 1981, while the rate was higher in 1971 and was highest in 1961. Gillham however draws a line between conception rate and maternity rate, and states that since the increased use of contraceptive measures and high trend of pregnancy termination or, in other words, abortion, the conception rate has increased with passing years but the maternity rate has lowered. Research suggests that 4 out 10 girls get pregnant every year which makes up around one million of teenage girls in the United States. Gillham (1997, p.10) mentions a study according to which 23 percent of the participants of the study intended for pregnancy, and the rate has increased to 40 percent in a recent such study. Boonstra (2002) conducted a survey and the study revealed that the rate of unmarried childbirths in teenagers has increased â€Å"from 13% in 1950 to 79% in 2000†. Moralization The increase in the rate of teenage pregnancy has given rise to the hot debate regarding public morality. The emphasis on morality has not made a drastic shift from teenage sexuality to no teenage sex at all, but actually it has given rise to safe sex with the use of contraceptive measures. Mothering on welfare (Breheny & Stephens, 2007; Phoenix, 1991, p.87) or issues like sexually transmitted diseases as AIDS (Teenage Pregnancy, 1999) has not compelled the teenagers to refrain from having sex; however, it has made them choosy about their sexual partners while using contraceptives. Although most teenagers do not give serious thought to AIDS but the debate on it has made it a public discussion. The society ignores the fact that the teenagers are not the ones who should be expected to make a revolution against teenage pregnancies; instead, they are the ones who are the recipients of this sexual inheritance from their forefathers. Moralists also overlook the fact that teenage pregnancies do not stand alone as a social problem but there are a number of social issues that are associated with them which include education, employment, politics,

Non-Malignanat Palliative Care -Assignment 2 Assignment

Non-Malignanat Palliative Care - 2 - Assignment Example lignant conditions which need palliative care because of the degree of suffering in the end-stage. One such disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Croft, 2005). Patients with this condition develop many symptoms which cause great discomfort and despair not only to the patient but also their dear ones. According to Deane (2008), "patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease follow a slowly-declining disease trajectory, punctuated by acute episodes of ill health, until the acute episode that proves to be the fatal one." â€Å"More often than not, death is sudden and unexpected† (Deane, 2008). The only solace to such patients would be to provide a comprehensive care which takes care of the physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual and religious needs of the patients so that they lead a peaceful life until their death (Croft, 2005). Such a care is known as palliative care. In this project various aspects of palliative care will be discussed which are individu alized and tailor-made to a 85 year old patient by name James with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in end-of-life situation. Palliative care needs of patients with COPD James is a known patient of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and suffers from severe breathlessness, distress, despair and discomfort. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD is a devastating medical illness which causes a great degree of human suffering (GOLD, 2008). It characterized by non-reversible airway obstruction due to either emphysema or chronic bronchitis or both. It is not only a major health issue but also a significant source of economic and social burden (Fromer and Cooper, 2008). One of the most frightening and debilitating symptom of COPD is breathlessness which is progressive. The most common cause of COPD is cigarette smoking (Silvermann and Speizer, 1996). This condition affects about 15% of cigarette smokers (NICE, 2004). Many patients with COPD do not receive appropriate end-of0 life care because of the unpredictable course of their disease (Deane, 2008). Along with these symptoms, patients with COPD have other co morbidities which need to be managed too (Deane, 2008). Though the clinical course of COPD is not predicable, end-of-life care is yet possible. In the last year of life, patients like James with COPD are likely to suffer from chronic dyspnea, low mood, weakness, easy fatiguibility and pain (Deane, 2008). COPD most commonly presents as acute infection of the lungs or cough that is productive. The disease is progressive and eventually, the patient develops breathlessness which, over the course of the disease because the most predominant and distressing syndrome. The patient also begins to suffer from exercise intolerance and also easy fatiguibility. All these symptoms make the life of the patient miserable and helpless. The main reason for breathlessness is poor oxygenation of the lungs and ventilation perfusion defects.

YOUR LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

YOUR LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY - Essay Example For a leader, it is vital to expose the employees in other areas of concern outside the office. Research analysts argue that getting out of the office is one of the ways in which the employees’ morale can be boosted. This makes the workers more enthusiastic in their jobs, and more engaged in their day to day tasks (Posner & Kouzes, 2010). For instance, outside the field, it is vital that the sailors are given a chance to work outside the office and interact with the public. However, this is only possible if the manager gives them an opportunity to show responsibility and liability in their jobs. This will minimize the chances of misconduct, since the sailors are held accountable for their actions. For a leader, interaction with the juniors is vital if the business is to thrive. This may entail joking with the juniors, an aspect that not only builds rapport between the employer and the employees but also creates a positive bond between the two parties. From the case study, it is evident that there is a huge problem in terms of command and responsibility in the Navy system. The officers are known to be of no good caliber, always in the wrong due to breach of rules. If the juniors and seniors had a chance to interact, It would be possible to have a bond forming between the parties, and, ultimately, minimizing the pressures of the job. Thirdly, both the professional and personal goals of a leader have to be balanced if their team is to succeed. In our case, the leader may adopt the system of having personal time with a different sailor on a daily basis. This would allow for the leader to understand the problems of his or her subordinates on a first hand basis. For instance, this would aid in uncovering the reasons behind the commanding officers breaking the Navy ethos and justification of their actions at any event. Probably, such employees need some attention and constant praise for the job that they do.

An Inspector Calls Essay Example for Free

An Inspector Calls Essay An inspector calls was written in 1945 (post World War Two), but it was actually set in 1912 (pre World War One). An inspector calls was written by J. B Priestley (John Boynton Priestley). The play is set on a spring evening in the Birling house. The play is about the Birling family (Mr and Mrs Birling and there two children Shelia and Eric) including Gerald croft, Eva Smith/Daisy Renton and the inspector (Inspector Goole). The events of the play start to unfold after the shock announcement by the inspector that a young woman (Eva/Daisy) is dead, the family start to feel that they are some way responsible. Because of this it cause some of the characters to change there attitudes such as Shelia and Eric. Prior to the arrival of the inspector the attitudes of the Birling family is similar throughout, they are all thinking about the engagement and up and coming wedding. Shelia Birling and her fianci Gerald Croft are looking to be come newly weds and embarking on a great new life together. Mr Birling is delighted at the prospect that his daughter is going to marry someone of great promise and a wealthy future for his daughter. Mrs Birling is like a typical mother her attitude and effort is all going into organising and arranging the wedding, and young Eric Birlings attitude is simply that of a typical young man, who cannot wait for a party. So as you can see not all there attitudes are exactly the same but they are similar because all there thoughts are taken up by the wedding. The inspector comes in and tells them about how Eva Smith/Daisy Renton died and reveals that each member of the family played a part such as Evas troubles started when Mr Birling sacked her from her job at the factory. She the got a job at a clothes shop but Shelia managed to lose her that job as well so she ended up meeting Gerald croft who took her in but then he dumped her because of the risk of Shelia finding out. She then ended up getting pregnant by Eric Birling who offers her money but she refuses so she goes to she Mrs Birling who is on the council t see if she can have a room or some money but Mrs Birling refuses so eva ends up living on the streets before she if found having ingested thick bleach and later dies in hospital. The characters all react differently when they hear about there part in Evas death Mr Birling reacts as we would expect completely transfers the blame from his unfair dismissal of Eva from her job by saying that she was causing trouble amongst the other workers and that it was completely her fault. Shelia is quite shocked when she hears how her spoilt behaviour and jealousy of Eva in the shop where she was working had been a cause of her death such as Shelia only complained about Eva because she was jealous that Eva looked better in a dress then she did and she is very upset and regrets what she did. Gerald Croft kind of acts like a hero when he hears about his part because he did take Eva in when she needed it although he refers to her as Daisy Renton, and when its revealed that I the end he kicked her out into the streets he tries to make it out he did it for Shelia and that what he did was right which then causes Shelias attitude to become angry and upset. Eric reaction to the revelation that he had got Eva pregnant was that he did truly like her and want to help her and that he was very upset at the way she was treated especially at his mothers treatment of her but more then anything just like his sister Shelia Eric feels guilty about what happened to Eva. And finally Mrs Birlings reaction to the revelation she refused to help Eva when she really needed it was very much of well the girl shouldnt have got her self in that mess in the first place but she soon changed her views when she found out that it was her own grandchild she had condemned to death by not helping Eva smith when she really needed it. Although Eric was the only person who actually committed a crime by stealing money of his father to give to Eva smith, they all should feel guilty because is there better then everyone else, upper class attitudes that results in Evas death even though none of them psychically poured the bleach down her throat. I think that Mrs Birling should fell especially guilty as it was her final actions which resulted in Eva death and also that if she had listened then she might still have a grandchild. The inspectors final message is that we are responsible for each other which is the message of the play and by it he means we are all responsible for our own actions but also our actions can prompt other people to do things, that they might not have done if we hadnt done what we did. I think that the message was quite effectively put across because it made Shelia and Eric change there attitudes but unfortunately it didnt particularly have an effect on Gerald and especially not on Mr and Mrs Birling as they are just simply to set in there ways for them to change now. Even when the inspector warns them of the fire and blood and anguish if they dont pay attention to what he has taught them. Mr Birling still hasnt learnt his lesson as he is unable to admit responsibility for his part in Evas death and like her husband Mrs Birling refuses to believe that she did anything wrong and doesnt accept responsibility for her part in Evas death. Shelia and Eric are both fully aware of there social responsibility. They are not interested in here parents efforts to cover everything up: as far as they are concerned, the important thing is that a girl is dead. And they had something top do with it and that mustnt happen again. Gerald on the other hand has not changed at all he hasnt learnt his lesson and that is why Shelia isnt sure she wishes to marry someone like that who could well turn out like her father refusing to accept when they are wrong. It is very evident that the older generation (Mr and Mrs Birling) arent Open to new view that way that the younger generation (Shelia and Eric) are. The effectiveness of the writing in this play is good. They way that priestly put across his political views and the way that he choose to write the play set in 1912 before World War One even though he actually wrote it in 1945 just after World War Two had ended. I think he choose to do this because he wanted to make light of how back then the classes were so different and the way that people thought them selves so much better then others whereas by 1945 that had mostly changed. Like the way that in 1912 women were subservient to men. All a well off women like Shelia could do was get married and a poor woman like Eva smith was seen as cheap labour. I also think the way that Priestley writes the inspector is very effective as at the end of the play no one knows where the inspector was real or not. Is the inspector the voice of J. B Priestley? Or maybe the voice of our consciences? I think the way that no one even knows if Eva smith/daisy Renton is the same person or even real is also very effective as if you think about Evas name. Eva is similar to Eve the first woman in the Bible and Smith is the most common English surname So, Eva Smith could represent any woman of the lower or in fact any class. But regardless if either of them was real or not they still had the desired effect of trying to get people to change there attitudes and there views on the lower class which was achieved with Shelia and Eric Birling but unfortunately not with Mr and Mrs Birling. I still think its an effective way of writing and was perfect for this play, and creating the cliff hanger at the end when everyone is quite confident that the inspector isnt real and is making it up, then they get the phone call form the local police inspector saying a young girl is dead and that they are going to be interviewed makes you think Was the inspector there moral side/ conscience?

Cultural Aspects Of The Amish Society

Cultural Aspects Of The Amish Society The Amish originated in Switzerland but is now culturally centered in the States and Canada. The Amish are called the Old Order Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch. The religion is strict in the teaching of separation from the world and a tightly knit community. The doctrine that the Amish follow teaches farming and simplicity. Because of this simplicity, the Amish are now allowed to have electricity, own cars, or go to war. What modern people see as necessities in todays world, the Amish people live without in the Pennsylvania Dutch society. The Amish originated in Switzerland around the time of 1525. In the 16th century, the act of baptizing an adult was considered a crime. The members were beaten and thrown into rivers and left to die painful deaths. The carnage in Europe led to the immigration of the Amish (Amish). A man named Jacob Ammann lead the Swiss Mennonites, now called the Amish, to the United States of America and Canada (Origins). When the Amish settled in the United States the religion had its own ideas of how strict the religion should be. As groups of people began to split, different religious groups formed. The Old Order Amish are the strictest of the groups (Amish). In the religion the services are done in the homes. These homes are designed to be able to have a large group of people in them. There are members of the religion that half a higher position than normal members. There is a deacon, a bishop, and two preachers. The church is held on Sundays and the members of the church take turns on who will host the next service (BBC). The doctrine of the Amish teaches its members about farming and simplicity. The unwritten rules are called Ordnung. This unwritten set of rules is followed by everyone but if there is a question about them then the oldest members of the community will take up the position and make sure the rule is made clear. The religion teaches that individualism is not something important or to be proud of but that its better to be plain and simple. The Amish believe that God is happier when people take care of the world and remain pacifists. If anyone breaks these rules the person who is accused will be shunned until forgiveness has been offered (BBC). The clothing of the women in the Amish society consists of long plain dresses and bonnets (Amish). The women can also wear long sleeves and a full skirt with plain shoes. The women do not wear make-up. The mens clothing is of the same plainness as the womens. The men wear dark colored pants or trousers, braces, and straight-cut coats. The men are often seen with a wide brimmed hat sometimes made of straw. The children wear closely to the same clothing that the adults wear with the exception that they often go barefoot (BBC). The life of the Amish consists of no electrical uses in their homes. There are exceptions as dairy farmers have to comply to the religions. The electricity is only wired up to the barns and is not used but to continue as dairy farmers (BBC). Everything done by the Amish involved the help of the community as a whole. If a family needs a barn built the whole community comes together and helps build the barn and depending on the size, it can be put up in a few days or a few weeks (Origins). As the Amish practice separation from the modern world, they practice different languages. At home the families use a German based language called Pennsylvania Dutch. At church the Amish use a high German dialect. When speaking to a person that isnt Amish, or English, the use English (BBC). As tourism of Amish communities grows, Amish people are starting businesses to help make money. It has been noted that Amish businesses do better than U.S. businesses. Amish businessesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ are growing, prospering, and thriving. The Amish have low business failure rate, 4 percent a decade compared to the 70 percent failure rate of new U.S. businesses within their first three years of operation. This increase in business success rates could be the result of more tourism. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the Aurthur Vistor center recorded 29,114 visitsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Turco). Many Amish people have shops that consist of wood shops, selling craft such as quilts, selling fruits and vegetables, bakeries, restaurants, gift shops, and an open farmers market (Mink). Most of the businesses have 10 or fewer employees who are Amish. In some business it is completely ran by family members (Tenner). Most Amish families are farmers. They use horses, oxen, or mules to plow their fields. The machinery used cannot have rubber wheels but metal ones instead. Many of the Amish produce corn to feed the animals that they family will use for meat. Some of the meat may be sold at the markets and the hides of the animals are used to make leather goods. Some families may be smaller and that raise animals for their own consumption while other farms may be raising or growing the animals or crops to sell. The animals grown may be chickens, pork, beef, and lamb. Some major crops grown are corn and oats (BBC). Some farmers use pesticides, herbicides, and may use seeds that have been altered genetically (Tenner).Other farmers rely on nature to benefit them in the way that nature does. Farmers that use more traditional ways rely on birds to take care of their insect problems. the birds, you see, are our allies. Each year, the swallows kill thousands of insects over our fieldsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the Amish need the birds so they help them by building them nest and never tarring down the old nest. Some Amish believe by using horses rather than tractors, they are being closer to one with nature (Kline). The families in the Amish communities usually have an average of seven to eight children. The families never divorce and only marry other Amish. The Amish do not marry a first cousin and would prefer not marrying the second cousin either (BBC). The husbands are usually the ones that are responsible for bringing in the most money. They are usually the farmers and do the harder labored work in the barns and in the fields. Some men many have a change of roles and may do more of the gardening and house roles that most women would do (Amish Studies). The wives can be the bread winner in some cases because she may run a business. Most wives are stay at home moms that have the responsibilities of taking care of the children and doing task around the house. Most women do not have full time jobs because of their children. Women and men share the house hold decisions for the most part. The husband usually just makes religious decision and the wife is more active in nurturing the religion and making more household decisions (Amish Studies). The wives arent always busy with house chores. The Amish sisters have gatherings that mix everyday chores up. The group of women may get together and make quilts or have fun while harvesting vegetables. In a time of an emergency the community will come together to help the families. The wives will care for the children and the men will focus on more labored work. The elderly also help the families. The grandmothers will help baby sit and the grandfathers will help the other men with outside chores (Amish Studies). The childrens roles at home are chores around the farm such as feeding chickens and collecting the eggs and milking cows. The children go to school until 14 and 15 years old. A normal school has about 25 to 35 people in a one room schoolhouse. The material is taught in English and is usually taught by younger women (BBC). In the Amish schools text books are used and the teacher has the same education as an eighth grader (Halvorsen). The teachers have been taught by older more experienced Amish teachers. By the time an Amish girl is twelve years old she knows how to cook a meal for a whole crew of Amish workers, and a young man knows farm operations by the time he is a teenager. The Amish limit the education because after school the children learn the vocational skills (BBC). After they leave school Amish boys learn work skills such as farming and carpentry on the job, while Amish girls concentrate on practical domestic matters This remains true until the child turns 16 and goes through a period called Rumspringa. Rumspringa is when an Amish child is allowed to go out into the world to choose if he or she wants to go live there or wants to become a full Amish member. 90% decide to do so (BBC). The transportation of the Amish consists of simply horses and buggies. The Amish can take rides in someone elses car. For long distances, this is a good way for getting around. The Amish can hire someone to drive them to places if need be (BBC). Most stores have made hitching post and accommodations for the Amish. Amish friends, please clean up after your horse. A shovel and garbage can are provided (Mink). The life of the Amish is centered on their community, having strong family bonds, and living life with a simplicity that most modern people dont have. The Amish remind people of how things used to be and because of this the tourism in the Amish communities are growing. This doesnt change the roles of the people or their beliefs in their religion. The Amish live in peace and harmony with nature and themselves. Riley 7

The Second Noble Truth of Buddhism :: essays research papers fc

The Second Noble Truth - â€Å"Samudaya" The Truth of the Origin or the Cause of Suffering According to the philosophy of Buddhism is the Second Noble Truth : "Samudaya", the truth of the origin or the cause of suffering. Buddhists also believe that the origin of suffering is `attachment'. The Second Noble Truth invites us to understand the principle, that the origin of suffering is attachment to transient things and the ignorance thereof. Transient things do not only include the physical objects that surround us, but it also encompasses ideas, and, in a greater sense, all objects of our perception. Perhaps it could be said that ignorance is the lack of understanding of how our mind is attached to impermanent things. Some of the reasons for suffering are, desire, passion, pursuit of wealth and prestige, striving for fame and popularity, or in short: craving and grasping. We create our own suffering through our egotistical craving and desires. Because the objects of our attachment are impermanent their loss maybe inevitable and so suffering will follow. The Second Noble Truth has three aspects of attachment to desires. These three types of desire are the desire for sensual pleasure (kama tanha), the desire to become (bhava tanha) and the desire to get rid of (vibhava tanha). It is human nature to want more, more of what we like and to have better than what we have. This desire is not just for ourselves but for our children and the people we care about. It is in these desires that we can find the source of our suffering. We crave for the formation of states or realms of being that are not currently happening. As human beings we believe that the way of happiness is through sensual pleasure. We have five senses which respond to the world and through which we enjoy a lot of pleasure. For example we obtain great pleasure from the taste of food, viewing lovely sights, the feeling of a sea breeze or sexual pleasures. It is said that trying to satisfy our craving for pleasant experiences is like drinking saltwater when thirsty: it only increases our thirst. Even by means of the sixth sense in Buddhism, there is great pleasure to be had in fantasies and mental states of excitement, infatuations and so on. Our technological society extends all types of ways to extend our sensual pleasure, from viewing and listening to DVD’s, CDs, TVs and many other high-tech options.

The Role of Government in Policy Making

While reading Chapter 2 on The Role of Government in Policy Making, I noticed that in the text it stated that â€Å"all fields of practice are affected by the social and organizational policy made by judicial decisions. † (Donald E. Chambers and Kenneth R. Wedel. Published by Allyn and Bacon pg. 35). The YWCA provides women and children with several different services. It is vital that the organization is careful of what they are doing with their clients and observe the policies for these social programs.The judicial branch of the government has a lot of power over these social programs and can completely discontinue the program under certain circumstances. This is done in order to keep the organization consistent with court orders. â€Å"The judicial branch restricts or expands the power of government administrators and officials so that they are consistent with past court decisions, with governmental principles, and (sometimes) with the fundamental constitutional rights of citizens. † (Donald E. Chambers and Kenneth R. Wedel. Published by Allyn and Bacon).The laws that are put in place for this organization or organizations similar to the YWCA can influence the decision making and its day to day operations by a simple change in law. A change in law could mean that the requirements have been altered or changed and in order to service their clients properly, there are guidelines that need to be met. â€Å"The judiciary both creates anew and reshapes old social policy. (Donald E. Chambers and Kenneth R. Wedel. Published by Allyn and Bacon). I found that the YWCA has to only engage in activities related to its mission or purpose.â€Å"The Association may not engage in any activities that do not further the Mission or its purposes as set forth in the Articles of Incorporation and these Bylaws. † (http://www. cortlandywca. org/pdf/ywcabylaws07. pdf) Some of the laws read were very particular about the dos and don’ts of the organization. The information read shows that these laws put in place definitely influences the organizations decision making day-to-day operations. These changes that the judicial branch make keeps the organization on their toes in making sure they follow guidelines.The role that the court system or law played in shaping policies that affect the YWCA is pivotal. The courts are very involved in the evaluative process. â€Å"The public policy values the court is free to evaluate are related to but independent from the political values which motivated the existence or absence of a statute†. The court system benefits the YWCA tremendously considering they provide shelter and protection from abuse. â€Å"Each year the YWCA helps hundreds of individuals obtain protection from abuse orders, and provides victim support in criminal and civil court cases.The YWCA court advocate provides assistance to victims who are involved in the district court system. † (http://www. ywcaofwichita. org/pr ogram-court-advocacy. htm). Knowing that the court system can not only have a negative impact on the organization but also help women who are in an abusive situation, and get away from whatever the problem is, no matter what her financial situation may be. â€Å"Courts can shape and frame social policy in regard to administrative rulings as well as legislation. † (Donald E. Chambers and Kenneth R. Wedel.  Published by Allyn and Bacon).Reading this passage has help me to realize how the judicial system really affects non-profit organizations or organizations in general. Any organization that meets the guidelines of the judicial system are affected by its policies. Keeping organizations consistent with the court orders ensures the organization effective execution when dealing with clients. Whenever a judicial decision has been made it is important for that organization to be well informed so that there is no discontinuation of the program.Although the legislative and executiv e branches are elected by the people, the judicial branch is a presidential pick. It is very important to stick with the policies, and procedures and be prepared for any changes that may arise. Having a preview of how the organization and the government works when it comes to a particular situation helps to help me better prepare for future endeavors. These laws and judicial decisions affect organizations all around the world, it can be a benefit to all, if everyone is well informed on what is going on and what is to come.

Mrsa

Staphylococcus erasures is a coagulate positive bacterium, and is among those that are dangerous unman pathogen because it has the ability to both be extremely virulent and its ability to develop antibiotic resistance, (Beers, 1442). This leads to the explanation of Nonmetallic-Resistant Staphylococcus erasures. The particular pathogen is cross-resistant to all Beta-lactates, Including all penicillin and cosponsoring (Beers, 229). As of late there have been two different way that MRS. has been classified.The first CA-MRS., Is community acquired MRS., and HA-MRS. healthcare acquired MRS. (Gregory, 230). Both cause skin and soft tissue Infections, which Include abscess, furnaces, and bolls. Most patients do not even notice the site t first claiming they thought it was a spider bite and leave it untreated for an extended length of time (Gregory, 232). Transmission of the bacteria occurs through close contact with someone who is already infected with the organism (Gregory, 233).Surprisin gly the organism can be found in the nose and skin of 20-30% of healthy adults, according to The Merck Research Laboratories (Broker, 873). According to the CDC, 85% of all invasive MRS. infections are associated with hospital stays. However many hospitals are trying to combat the extremely high communicable rate at which this â€Å"Super Bug† is breading, with the use of â€Å"Contact Precautions† (Gregory, 244). Identification of an Infection occurs wealth 48-72 hours of a culture (Gregory, 239).After a patient Is determined to have MRS., each visitor, nurse, doctor etc. That enters that patients room must wear a disposable gown and gloves, and then must take of these items before exiting the room. Hospitals hope that this will limit the spread of MRS. among its patients. So far there are have been two types of antibiotic that will treat or kill MRS.. Vaccines has been shown to kill the organism, while Thermopile- collateralizes inhibits its ability to multiply (Brok er, 874).

Did Wordsworth or Coleridge Have Greater Influence on Modern Criticism? Essay

After a brief introduction of the period that will contrast the Romantics with the century that preceded them, we shall move on to analyze the great poetic, theoretical experiment that most consider the Ur text of British Romanticism: â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†. We shall explore both the unique plan of â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†, and the implications of that plan for literary theory. In this elaborate introductory summary, we shall consider the contributions of the British Romantic poets. Our texts will be: Wordsworth’s Preface to the â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†, Coleridge’s â€Å"Biographia Literaria†, Shelly’s â€Å"Defense of Poetry†, Keats’ Letters. After this initial lecture on â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† itself, we’ll then devote one talk to Wordsworth. Coleridge, and Shelly. Rather than devote an entire lecture to Keats, we’ll consider Keats’ theories in relation to those of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelly. So he will be fitted in the additional talks. Like Pope and Dryden, all four of our theorists were poets before they were critics. Thus their theory is a reflection of their own poetic technique. Because the four Romantics were poets, when they wrote their criticism, they were doing so out of their own experience. So this gives a little more practicality or pragmatic touch to their theory. Now the difference is that they’re like Pope and Dryden in the sense that they’re poets, however, there’s a big difference. The Romantics treated the poet, rather than the rules of decorum, as a source and touchstone of art. When we look at Pope and Dryden, especially the former, we notice that they were theorists very interested in decorum, following those rules. Yet we’ll see our poets/critics following the idea of the poet. In addition, we’ll find they fashion a new social role for the poet, very different from the 18th century (mainly to delight and teach or more precisely to teach and delight). Another introductory matter is all four of our Romantics altered the epistemological theories of the Germans. Now the Romantics are epistemologists[1], but there’s a difference. Whereas the German epistemologists were stillpragmatic theorists and interested in the relationshipbetween the poem and the audience, the British Romantics were what we might callexpressive epistemologists, interested in the relationship between the poem and the poet. Another different is that whereas the theorists of the last century portray an 18th century or Enlightenment orientation, particularly true in the case of Burke and Kant, as proto- or pre-Romatics, yet still very much interested in reason and analysis. The Romantics often define themselves in opposition to the Age of Reason. They borrow some ideas from it, but basically they are a kind of revolution, a reaction against what was going on in the age before. Now although they are still interested in mental faculties, like epistemology, they replace the 18th emphasis onanalysis, with a new focus on synthesis[2]. In addition, they privilege imagination over reason and judgment. Of course, we talked about this in quite some detail in the last unit. 12 Origins of Romanticism So before moving on to â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†, we’ll survey one more thing. There are three competing events for the cause or origin of Romanticism, that we’ll just run-through quickly. Rousseau’s â€Å"Confessions† The first possible origin is the publication of Rousseau’s â€Å"Confessions† in 1781, with itschampioning of the individual and its radical notion that the personal life and ideas of a single individual, is matter worth of great art. So the great Jean Jacques Rousseau, although he lived and died in the 18th century, really is one of the great origins of Romanticism. He was one of the first people to dare to write an autobiography. Rousseau is writing an autobiography because he thinks that he himself is matter worthy of great literature.That is a radically new idea, that you could spend a whole book, writing about yourself. Rousseau actually delight sin his individuality, saying he is unique, no one is like him, when they made him, they broke the mold! This is a radical, Romantic notion, which says that the individual, rather than society or God or anything else, should be at the center. So that’s an origin or cause of Romanticism. French Revolution The second one often discussed, is the start of the French Revolution, the storm of the Bastille in 1789. That event offered the hope of not only internal and external freedom, but promised more radically that internal dreams could affect and even alter the external world. In other words, the French Revolution not only showed that we can throw off our chains, that we can change the world, but more radically, that an internal vision that people have, of freedom, can be taken and projected onto the world, changing it in accordance with their dreams. That’s very Romantic, as we’ll see in this unit. â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† Finally, the third origin, which we are most interested in, is the publication of â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† in 1798, and what it was followed within 1800, when a second edition was published, to which Wordsworth added a preface. Now in this lecture we’ll look at the â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† of 1798, while the next lecture looks at the preface itself because the preface in some ways, really caused the revolution, even more than â€Å"Lyrical Ballad†, but we’ll split them up. So why is â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† a third source? It championed new subjects for poetry, and a new approach to those subjects that changed literary theory forever. So that’s what we’ll do in this lecture, by showing how â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† did just that. Wordsworth and Coleridge planned together â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†, wanting to make it a new kind of poetic volume. Now as some of you may know already, the friendship between Wordsworth and Coleridg e is one of the most wonderful in all of literary theory. It was one of the most artistically stimulating friendships, perhaps of all time. It was unique and the two men really played off each other, helping the other in terms of strength and weaknesses, so that together they did some great things. It was fruitful in terms of poetry and theory. Now the origin of â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† is described a little by Wordsworth in his Preface, but if you want to really learn of the origin, you want to read chapter 14 of Coleridge’s â€Å"Biographia Literaria†, his autobiography. It’s a wonderful reading and is excerpted in â€Å"Critical Reading Since Plato†. In 1797, Wordsworth and Coleridge were neighbors in the beautiful Lake District in northern England. They spent many days discussing and talking about poetry and life, doing what British love to do up there, taking long walks along the beautiful grass they have there. They’d walk, talk, and let their mind run free. So out of these conversations, they c onceived the idea of composing a series of poems of two distinct but complementary kinds. Neither remembered who first came up with the idea, but they decided to both write different kinds of poems, yet they would complement each other in a special way. These two kinds of poems and how they complemented each other is now discussed. The former kind of poem, from Wordsworth, would select its objects from nature, from the common, mundane, everyday world of the countryside and its inhabitants. In short, these poems would focus on things so familiar, that we often overlook them, things whose very commonness renders them invisible. In other words, he would take everyday things of nature, rustic farmers living in the Lake District as subject matters not rich people, aristocrats, but common everyday things, people and objects on nature. That would be the source or object of the poetry. However, what made these objects unique is rather than merely copy or record these things in a straight mimetic fashion, rather than simply describing the object, the poet would throw over them an imaginative coloring that would allow his readers to see them afresh. In other words, the trouble with everyday things is that we see them so often, we take them for granted. We don’t even notice them anymore. They lose their mystery and wonder. We’ve got a sort of tired clichà ©, to â€Å"stop and smell the roses.† Well, here we might say, we need to â€Å"stop and SEE the roses.† We miss the mystery of it all. The best example of this, comes from painting. The great Romantic painter Vincent van Gogh, we’ve all seen some of his pictures of sunflowers. Yet the first time you see any of them, you think to yourself, my God, I’ve never seen a sunflower before, I missed something all along. Well the same thing van Gogh does in his painting, is what Wordsworth is going to do in his poems. By lending these objects, these common things, a charm of novelty, the poet wants to evoke a sense of child-like wonder in his reader, a feeling more often associated with the supernatural than with the natural. Again, he wants us to see it afresh, as if we’ve never seen it before, the way a child sees the world. Every time a child sees the moon in the evening, it’s a whole new experience. It’s beautiful, it’s exciting, they grab their parents and say, look up there, isn’t it magical? Well that’s what Wordsworth wants to restore in us, not childish, but child-like. Now this process by which the veil of familiarity is suddenly, mystically, ripped away from everyday objects, is known as defamiliarization. Now what do we mean by the veil of familiarity? We all can understand the veil of mystery. Certain mysteries like death, we can’t fully pierce through, because they’re a mystery. Yet the veil of familiarity means that when something becomes so familiar because we see it every day, we don’t see it anymore, so it’s as if a veil has covered it, we’re missing it. We’re not seeing it. Defamiliarization means that suddenly through poetry, our familiarity is ripped away and we’re forced to look at it, as if for the first time. Coleridge says that most men are like what God says of the Jews in Isaiah VI, we have eyes but we do not see. Recall we have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear. They are like their idols. Well many times that happens to us as well. We see it, but we don’t really see it. Defamiliarization opens our eyes to the wonders around us. It’s apocalyptic, it rips away the veil or covering, to allow us to see the true mystery that lurks behind. Now as we’ve said, Wordsworth was responsible for this portion of â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†, and he composed a series of poems centered around such humble, rustic characters, as Simon Lee, Goody Blake, and the Idiot Boy. Believe it or not, those are the titles of some of his rustic people, not the kind that an 18th century poet would think worthy of writing any kind of serious poem about. They are very simple, rustic characters, usually illiterate, or barely literate. Yet despite their commonness, Wordsworth’s poems infuse them with dignity, power, and mystery. Romanticism is much more democratic. It sees the dignity in the common. The 18th century looked towards the aristocratic, to the refined. So that’s what Wordsworth does in his portion of â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†. One way to put it is that he takes natural objects and makes them seem almost supernatural. The latter kind of poem, which Coleridge did, would select its object from the realm of the supernatural, so it goes the other way. Wordsworth takes the natural and makes it supernatural, while Coleridge takes the supernatural and makes it natural. His â€Å"Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner†, Coleridge’s main contribution to â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†, is richly suffused with supernatural characters and events. It’s a magical, mysterious sea journey that takes place in this world, but is really in another world. It’s a place of mystery, straight out of the Arabian Nights or something! So just as Wordsworth presents his natural objects in such a way as to stimulate an almost supernatural response, so Coleridge presents his supernatural world in such a way as to render it almost natural. That’s what we mean when we say that they are complementary, as opposed to simply opposites. Now, Coleridge accomplished this poetic feat, by uncovering behind the sup ernatural veil of his tale, dramatic and emotional truths. In other words, yes the story of the Mariner is supernatural, not really a part of our world, finally. Yet the dramatic and emotional truths,what’s going on in his psyche as he goes through the journey, are realistic. So we can identify with them, and they do seem very real and natural. Also, our recognition of the psychological truth of the Mariner’s journey, compels us to give to the poem, our â€Å"willing suspension of disbelief.† Many of you have heard that phrase before. This famous Coleridgean phrase,signifies our ability to temporarily suspend the claims of reason and logic, and to enter, through the power of the sympathetic imagination, into the life and heart of the poem. In other words, he writes it in such a way, that he gets us as readers to say all right, I know this is not real, I know it’s a fantasy. Yet I’m going to forget about that now, or I’m going to suspend that. I’m going to move into the poem, via sympathetic imagination, move toward the poem, just as when we’re in sympathy with a person, we move towards t hat person. So we are going to allow ourselves to just accept the poem as true. For in fact, dramatically and psychologically, it is true. So we’re going to suspend all that logical, mathematical-side of ourselves, and just enter into that world which Coleridge creates. Now another aspects of this, is that Coleridge tells us, to inspire in its readers, this moment of what he calls â€Å"poetic faith,† the poem must invite them into a higher realm of illusion, rather than merely delude them with fanciful images and events. So the distinction between illusion and delusion. Illusion is when we are pulled into it and say, ah what a beautiful world, it’s not real and yet it is real. It’s an illusion, like that of the stage. Delusion is when we suddenly feel like we’re being manipulated and fooled. The best way to get the distinction is to do so in terms of movies. The Star Wars films are the best example of illusion. They take us away to a long time ago in a galaxy far away. Now this is total fantasy, yet we buy-into their illusion because they’re so real, the relationships and whatnot going on, all seem so real to us, that we move into these movies and accept them as such. The Batman movies are examples of delusion. If any of you have bothered to see them, they are so phony that you feel manipulated and deluded. Maybe some teenagers buy it, but we certainly do not buy those worlds as real. Perhaps even the director does not either, so how can we? You feel deluded, so you sit there and watch, perhaps entertained by special effects, yet we’re not being moved in any emotional level, as in Star Wars or other good movies. Implications of â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† Now with the idea of this basic plan, let’s tell you about the implications of â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†, to the history of literary theory. Why is it so important and central? â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†, calls for a new kind of mimesis. That rather than simply imitate or even perfect its object, it transforms it into something rich and strange. That is to say, nature or supernature, is merely the occasion for the poem. The poetic act itself, the transformation, is the real point. In other words, the point of the poems in â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†is not the object itself, not merely to record the object. Although this is interesting and important, it isn’t not the key function in the poem. So what the poem is really about, is what Wordsworth or Coleridge do with that object, how they transform it through their poetic imagination. They change it into something new. That’s what it’s about, the poetic process, rather than about the object. So it’s about the subject then, if you will, that’s the importance of epistemology. In other words, it’s not the rules of decorum that control the art, but the imaginative vision of the poet that determines the shape and end of the poem. That’s why expressive theories are interested in the relationship between the poem and poet, because it’s the poet’s perceptive powers that determine what the poem is going to be like. Even more radically, the plan or â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† carries out a supreme form of epistemology in which objects or things take their ultimate nature not from what they are, but from howthey are perceived by the poet. This is radical, and since this is epistemological, perception is important. Yet now, really, the object is not even important at all. Now, the way we perceive the object, is what it becomes. The object now is a mix of what it is, and what we make it. William Blake This is very interesting and needs further explaining. Wordsworth and Coleridge were certainly influenced – even more than they were by the Germans – by a great poet named William Blake with his masterpiece, â€Å"The Songs of Innocence and Experience†. In this work, Blake demonstrates how the same images and events, take on a different coloring, form, and reality, when viewed through the eyes of innocence and experience. The subtitle of his work, â€Å"Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul,† captures perfectly the radical Romantic belief that things are as they are perceived, and that we half-create the world around us. Let’s explain further once again. The â€Å"Songs of Innocence and Experience† have two volumes of poetry, meant to be linked together. Often, there will be a poem in the â€Å"Songs of Innocence†, which has a parallel in the â€Å"Songs of Experience†. For instance, there are two poems called the â €Å"Chimney Sweeper†, on in Innocence, one in Experience. They’re both about the horrible reality of these little boys who were forced to clean chimneys. It was a terrible job involving social manipulation, and many died young from cancer and all kinds of diseases. Yet in the world of Innocence, even though there is horrible exploitation, the focus of that poem is innocence. It’s on how the child-like faith and innocence can rise above the horrors of social exploitation. The version in experience though, we always see the exploitation and manipulation. In other words, the world, the reality, the event, is exactly the same, but because theperceptive point of view in each poem is different, it makes everything else different. So things are not as they are, but as they are perceived. We create the world around us. Example for perceptive point of view You are somewhere. It’s around 9 in the evening, and you’re about to walk out to go home, and it’s raining. Now the same exact setting, yet a different background now. Just before one walks out to go home in the rain, her friend of many years is visiting, and they’re excited because they’ve been waiting for this meeting, so it’s a beautiful rain, and you’re just on top of the world. On the other hand, before the other girl walks out into the rain, her friend of four years has just died. You are just horrified by that. You both walk into the rain, and now each is to write a poem/fiction/nonfiction about the rainstorm. It’s the same rain, same time of day, same place. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ So what are we saying here? It’s the exact same rain, so shouldn’t their poems be the same then? Why instead are their poems so different? Each is working out of a different perceptive mood. The state of their soul is different. One girl is in a state of innocence, while the other is in a state of experience, a more cynical state. So their world in which they see the storm, is now colored by what’s going on in their soul. Another example is whenever you’re mad, we always say that you’re seeing red! It’s as if everything you see is covered by that color. That is what it means for things to be as they are perceived. This is what it sometimes called the externalization of the internal, because what happens is you take something inside you, and externalize or project it onto the world. Now this concept lies behind the Romantic faith that: â€Å"if the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear as it is, infinite.† That’s something Blake says, and he was most radical in this idea. In other words, if we could just see it right, everything would be beautiful. Now we should say that this Romantic thing has a dark side to it as well. It very easily can fall into what we like to call the abyss of solipsism[3]. What is the latter? It’s the belief that the entire world is a projection of you. It’s kind of like a child that’s autistic, where they live in their own little world, as if the world is the way they see it. When a child plays peek-a-boo they cover their eyes and figure if they can’t see you, then you can’t see them. Thategocentrism is very dangerous to fall into, like this solipsism where you think the world is a reflection of yourself. Many don’t realize that the religion of Christian Science, though most perhaps don’t follow this and are just like regular Christians, their real doctrine is actually a bit more eastern than western. Pure Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, believed that disease is not really a physical thing, that it’s bad perception. So if we can just think of ourselves as being well, then we’ll actually be well. For even sin, disease, and evil, all are just bad perceptions. We don’t see the world right, which is almost a kind of Hindu concept. Again, most Christian Scientists probably don’t strictly follow that, so are more like regular Christians. Yet interestingly, this system is very close to Blake, this idea that you can change the world by the way you perceive it. Now this new, more radical epistemology, places the poet and his perceptions at the center of literary theory. Poetry is now to be regarded as self-expression, as a journey of the unique perceptions of an individual. Now what poetry really is, is self-expression. It’s what’s inside that’s coming out. So now, when we read a poem, what we want to read about, is his poem and his unique perceptions of the world. A break in decorum One more thing that â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† changed is that it shifted old 18th century notions of decorum, which declared certain subjects unfit for serious poetry. Recall that for the neo-Classicists, and also for the Classicists as well, poetry should be written about serious people, aristocrats, kings, knights, princes, all of that stuff. Well, the rustics treated by Wordsworth would have been subjects for comedy in the 18th century! Yet Wordsworth ennobles them to tragic heights! No one in the 18th century would write a serious tragic poem about Goody Blake or the Idiot Boy. They might write a comedy about that, but not anything serious. So this is a big change in the subjects for poetry. â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† also breaks with the neo-Classical world, by mixing the realms of the real and ideal. Indeed, it often sees the ideal in the real, the supernatural, the natural, and vice versa. In other words, a break in decorum, so that we’re mixing things. We shouldn’t be mixing real and ideal, supernatural and natural, but should keep those things separate. Wordsworth and Coleridge have no problem breaking decorum, which is one aspect of Romanticism. Finally, not only does â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† often take children as its subject, but it privileges their naà ¯ve sense of wonder, their freshness and innocence, over the refined urbanity and studied wit of the 18th century. Let’s move away from this elitist idea of refinement and urbanity. The whole city court-life of the 18th century is in many ways rejected by the Romantics. They want to move to a new way of seeing the world. So it’s not childish, but child-like. They want to see the world afresh and with wonder like a child does. Again, that’s a big break from the 18th century, which for the Romantics was artificial and unnatural. William Wordsworth’s Preface This space will be devoted to a close analysis to Wordsworth’s Preface to â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†. We shall explore how he radically redefines both the nature of poetry and the poet, as well as the function of poetry and the poet in society. We shall conclude with a brief look at Keats’ famous distinction negative capability and the egotistical sublime. â€Å"Lyrical Ballads† was published in 1798, and the preface does not come until the second edition of in 1800. The reason was that the first edition did very well, and many people said they’d like to know what these poets were thinking about, if there were a theory behind all this. Now really, Coleridge should have been the one to write the preface, as he was the much more critical and philosophical of the pair. Yet Coleridge had a way of putting things off and being a little bit slothful, so it fell to Wordsworth. Indeed, this may have changed history because although he was not first and foremost a critic, this sent him in a critical way he probably wouldn’t have gone if Coleridge hadn’t turned the buck over, so to speak, to Wordsworth. Now, in his Preface to â€Å"Lyrical Ballads†, Wordsworth redefines the nature and status of poetry, along expressive lines. Once again, these theories are interested in the relationship between the poem and the poet. Rather than treat poetry as an imitation of an action (mimetic theories), or as an object fashioned to teach and please a specific audience (pragmatic theories), Wordsworth, who was expressive, sees poetry as a personal reflection of the poet’s interactions with himself and his world. Again, this is the idea of poetry as self-expression, which is basically taken for granted today. So this concept is essentially invented by the Romantics, Of course, this is not to say that Wordsworth is unconcerned with imitating or teaching and pleasing. He is very much, as we’ll see later in this lecture. Yet these theoretical concerns, imitation, teaching, and pleasing, now are going to flow directly out of his view of the poet. So he’s interested in imitation, teaching, and pleasing, yet he now looks at those things from a new perspective or point of view, that of the poet. What is poetry[S1] ? As we saw in our previously, it’s not the rules of decorum anymore, but the visionary imagination of the poet that is now to become the source and end of poetry. In a famous phrase, Wordsworth defines poetry as â€Å"the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings†. That is to say, as an externalization of the internal emotions, moods, and perceptions, of the poet where the poet takes what is inside of him and projects it, or externalizes it, onto the world. This spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings is where the feelings inside are overflowing and spilling onto the page, onto the world. Again, this is a radically different concept of what poetry is. Indeed, Wordsworth’s nature poetry is less a reflection on nature, than on the feelings and ideas excited in the poet as he contemplates nature. There’s a very bad stereotype that Romantics are all nature lovers, running around like â€Å"nature boy† and hugging trees. Now they care about nature, yet that’s not so much what their poems are about, as their experience of nature, their reflection on nature. So that’s a light misnomer, as they do care about nature, but the way we think of it, is really a misnomer. Wordsworth asserts that it’s really the feeling that gives importance to the action and not vice versa. In other words, the feeling is what we’re looking for, the action can be anything. So the action doesn’t determine the feeling, but the feeling determines the action. Notice that this turns Aristotle on his head. Recall he said plot was more important that character? Well if Wordsworth wrote about drama, which he did not, he probably would have said that character is more important than plot. It’s not the action, but the feeling that is at the heart of poetry. Rustic Versus urban Nevertheless, as I suggested before, there is a strong mimetic element to Wordsworth’s theory. Although he’s interested in the expressive, there is a mimetic element. He often wrote on rustic subjects, not so much because the country made him feel good, but because in such a setting, he felt that men were more in touch with elementary feelings and durable truths. It was these essential passions, this emphatic unmediated kind of life that Wordsworth wanted to capture and embody in his poetry. There is something that he wants to imitate, that he wants to incarnate, to embody in his poetry. It’s a kind of life or experience. He felt that rustic life, because it was in touch with nature, was in touch with something that was more eternal. We all know that in the countryside, things change very slowly, whereas in the city, it’s the new fad, the new fashion, it’s whatever is fashionable today. Romantics don’t like that! They want things that stay the same. It’s not to say that they’re more conservative, because they’re actually more liberal than the way we define it. Those words have changed in their meaning, but it’s saying they want to get at the essence of things, to what is emphatic, unmediated, direct and true. Wordsworth found that in the countryside, more than in the city. Indeed, for Wordsworth and all Romantics, the city court life of the 18th century poets, was something to them as artificial, insincere, and out of touch with the wellsprings of our humanity. Again, they don’t’ like the city, and Jean Jacques Rousseau agreed with that. We want to get away from the city, towards what is authentic. If you want to see a great Romantic movie, see the French flick Jean de Florette. It’s about a man who leaves the city to seek what he calls the authentic. So he is a true Romantic, seeking the authentic. To sum up, Wordsworth looks to both the freer life of the country, and within his own heart, for real passions and truths. So the way he can be both expressive and have a mimetic element, is that when he looked inside of his soul, he saw that same eternal nature that he saw in the countryside. Both of those things come together in Wordsworth’s poetry. Wordsworth agreed with Aristotle and with Sydney, that poetry is more philosophical than history, because it deals with both specific facts and general truths. So maybe we say he finds these specific facts in the countryside, but he wants to link them to general truths, to eternal things, those he finds that are even deeper than he sees in the country, and deep inside of himself. Again, another thing on what we’re trying to say here is that for Wordsworth, self-expression is not an end in itself, but a means to reach that which is most permanent and universal. You see, that we’ve gone too far. People believe that self-expression is an end in itself. They think that all they have to do is express themselves, and that’s worthy of a rt. The Romantics didn’t go quite that far. Again, they opened the door for it, but for Wordsworth, again, self-expression is not an end in itself. He’s using it to get at eternal truths. Again, that makes Romantics different than the post-Romantics of the modern era. That is, Wordsworth’s poetic verse, this is what we’ll call Wordsworth poetic version of Kant’s subjective universality. For Wordsworth believes that in describing his own feelings, the poet describes the feelings of all men. In other words, Wordsworth felt that by exploring his subjective experience, by getting his ideas onto the page, he felt he was also expressing what all men believe. That’s why Wordsworth believes that his self-expression is not cut-off from everything, but is linked into the eternal â€Å"unchangingness† of his beloved Lake District. We want to make this distinction between modern self-expression, and original Romantic self-expression. Language of poetry[S2] Just as Wordsworth sought to imitate the life and passions of his native Lake District, so he sought to imitate the simple, direct language of the country. He not only wants to capture their manners, view of life, and traditions, but he also wanted to imitate their way of speaking. Wordsworth rejected what to him was the phony poetic diction of the 18th century, with its purposelycontorted syntax and artificial poeticisms. When a Romantic reads Pope and others, he sees their poetic diction as phony. Now again, perhaps that isn’t very genial, because to an 18th century person, that’s what a poet is supposed to do. In other words, he’s supposed to write poetry that’s a totally different language. We would say with â€Å"thees and thous,† the sort of way the language and syntax are all turned and mixed around. In other words, to an 18th century person, he wants you to know that it’s poetry! Let’s put it that way. Yet again, the Romantics reject everything that to them seems artificial about the 18th century, and he believed their manners, their way of life, even their poetic diction, the way they wrote poetry, was to the Romantics, especially to Wordsworth, artificial. So Wordsworth adopted a more natural, less-mannered style, that mimicked the syntax of good prose. He called it the â€Å"real language of men,† a famous Wordsworthian phrase. He actually said that good poetry is not that different from good prose. It’s interesting because what he’s saying is that he doesn’t want a poetry with contorted syntax all over the place. He wants it pure, unmannered, and natural, the real language of men. Now, when 17 years later, Coleridge wrote his own version of the Preface, in his â€Å"Biographia Literaria†, he tried to go back and fix up the mistake that he made in not writing the Preface himself. By then, Wordsworth and Coleridge had gone through a falling out, unfortunately. So Coleridge would quibble with the phrase, the real language of men, saying that Wordsworth went too far in his rustic manners of speech, saying that’s not true. it seems that Coleridge is being a little unfair to Wordsworth, as Coleridge is taking it too literally. For just as Wordsworth tempered his expressivism with a mimetic focus on truth, in the same way he tempered his celebration of the so-called real language of men. The poet, Wordsworth asserts, should not slavishly imitate the rustic, as Coleridge seemed to think he meant. Yet through a process of selection, he should purge his natural speech of its grossness. In other words, poor people sometimes use a lot of profanity and whatnot. Wordsworth is not going to put that in, but will purge it and purify it. So again, Coleridge took it a bit too literally. When Wordsworth said real language of men, he meant a simple, unsophisticated kind of speech, but again, purified. Who is the poet[S3] ? Just as Wordsworth redefined poetry, both subject-wise and language-wise, in the same way, Wordsworth offers us a new vision of the poet himself. For Wordsworth and all the Romantics, the questions of what is a poem, and what is a poet, are considered synonymous.If you understand what the poem is, you understand what the poet is, and vice versa. So, just as poetry is to be written in the real language of men, the poet is to be a man speaking to men. That is to say, the poet is not to be viewed as a different creature, he is of the same kind as all other men, though he does differ in degree. In other words, the Romantics want to break from this 18th century idea of the coterie of poets. That is, poets as an elite little group who meet together and read to each other. They want to break from that idea. The poet is like every other man, like a man speaking to men, but he differs in degree. He’s like all men, but has a little bit more, again, breaking from the 18th century. So what is this degree that the poet has? What is this thing he has more of, than other people? Well. The poet possesses a more organic, comprehensive soul, than do other men. The phrase â€Å"organic, comprehensive† is interesting. In other words, he’s got a bigger soul, we might say, that can just take everything into it. Wordsworth says he has a more lively sensibility, and is more in-touch with his feelings. This modern idea that the poet should be all sensitive is very much a Romantic idea. That’s not to say that 18th century poets are insensitive, but the idea is that the Romantic ones have lively sensibilities, and they are in-touch with everything. Another way to put this is that the Romantic poets need little stimulation to experience deep emotion. They’re so sensitive to things, that the tiniest touch, a sunflower, opens his heart. Indeed, they are ableto feel absent pleasures as though they were present. They don’t even need it there, but the memoryof[S4] beauty will inspire the sensitive, comprehensive soul of the Romantic. Wordsworth says that he rejoices, in his own spirit of life, and seeks to discover that joy in the world around him. You know what? If he can’t find the joy there, he’ll create it. He’ll take the joy inside of him, and put it in the world. He wants joy around him[S5] . The Romantic poet also has a rich store of memories that he can tap for poetic inspiration. Romanticism is very much based on personal memory and bringing that up, being able to tap it. Also, they are not only able to call-up the memory, but they are actually able to relive their memory and the emotions attached to them. Much of Wordsworth’s greatest poetry is a memory of his childhood. Wordsworth was able to actually re-experience his childhood with all those emotions that were attached to it. That’s how sensitive he was, how in-touch with his feelings he was. Today, we would call it being in-touch with his feminine side. Actually Romantic poetry is much more feminine than masculine, and tends to be very popular with women, who always love Romantic poets, because they are more feminine, in-touch with that side. Another, a Romantic poet can sustain an inner-mood of tranquility and pleasure. Once he gets into that mood, he can hold onto it, at least for a little while, as he writes. A final aspect of the Romantic poet, is that he is a lover of his fellow man, who honors what Wordsworth calls the native, naked, dignity of man. He does this by humanizing all things in accordance with the human heart. Louis wrote his dissertation on Wordsworth, who is one of the people that drew him into English. The reason he loves him, is that he treats humanity with such respect, whether in the court or in the countryside, he loves humanity and believed we were all linked together. The 18th century people loved satire, such as Jonathan Swift, an 18th century character. Yet there is very little satire in Romanticism. They don’t want to cut down and criticize, but they want to bring together, so there’s a love of man. The Romantic poet is a friend of man, says Wordsworth, who binds all things together with passion and love. Whereas the scientist seeks truth as an abstract idea, the poet rejoices in the presence of truth, as our visible friend and hourly companion. For scientists, truth is abstract. For a Romantic poet, he is what a true philosopher should be. What does philosophy mean? It’s the love of wisdom. Well that’s what the Romantics are. They love this truth and seek it as if it were a real flesh and blood person. That’s why their poetry is so human. Indeed, it’s interesting Wordsworth prophesied that if science were ever to become so familiar an object that it would take on flesh and blood. Then it would be the poet and not the scientist who would help transform and humanize science into a kindred spirit. Now Wordsworth was living at the very beginning of the industrial revolution, and science was just taking over. Yet if Wordsworth lived today, where science and technology have become a part of our world, of who we are, he would probably write odes to science and technology. For he would believe that it would be his role as a poet,to take science and humanize it, and make it a part of who we are. So Wordsworth is not just rejecting science or those things, only because they weren’t really a part of people at that point, but once they do become a part of it, the Romantic poet will humanize it, and make it part of the human experience. Functions of poetry Status of Cities Finally, Wordsworth ascribes to the poet and poetry, a new social function, very different from the social function of the 18th century. Wordsworth warns against the ill effects of urbanization and industrialization[S6] . We remind you that this is just starting right now, and Wordsworth is credibly prophetic about it. He says that the massing of men into cities, and the repetitive drudgery of their jobs, produces in them an ignoble craving after extraordinary incident, and a degrading thirst after outrageous stimulation. Wordsworth felt this was terribly unnatural, pushing people into cities. Do you know that London was the biggest city since the Roman Empire. In other words, no city was as large as Rome, until London 1800 years later. So this is something new, the real massing of men into cities. This assembly-line work, over and over again, Wordsworth felt this to be terribly unnatural, and it killed the soul. What happens to these people is that their senses grow dull, and they need grosser, more violent, and more scandalous stimulants to satisfy their blunted psyches. So they need more and more, in order to rise them up. Now Wordsworth calls this state of emotional and spiritual deadness, this loss of the ability to be moved by simple beauty and truth, he calls it savage torpor. He sees people in the city, walking around sort of insensitive, cut-off, callous to the world, no longer picking-up on things, a degrading thirst after outrageous stimulation. The city destroys the souls of its inhabitants. They’re just banged over the head, again and again. So what happens is that they lose their subtlety, their ability to appreciate small or subtle things. For Wordsworth, this is a terrible thing. This is a killing of the soul, in a way like what Longinus[4] said about materialism and hedonism, which kills our soul. This again, is something that blunts our powers. Well as you might guess, Wordsworth then, saw it as the role of poetry to restore this lost ability to be sensitive, to really bring us back to ourselves. Wordsworth felt that poetry, by enlarging and refining our sensibilities, has the power to re-humanize us, to bring us back into the human community. Wordsworth is serious about this, and Romantic poetry has helped to bring them back in-touch with themselves, to make them stop and see the roses, the way Vincent van Gogh does in his painting. He says Romantic poetry restores our child-like wonder, and revives our ability to take joy and delight in the natural world, and in the quiet beatings of our heart. Again, there’s so much noise in the world out there, and the Romantics help us to be quiet and listen again, to he ar again, because we’ve grown deaf. For we have ears and do not hear, eyes and do not see. Now considering this new social function, poetry is more, not less, necessary in an industrial age, than in a rural pastoral age! Sometimes people will say that this is a technological industrial age, so we don’t need poetry! Wordsworth would say no, we need it more because people are more and more out of touch with themselves, so they need poetry even more. The rustics don’t need it as much, because they’ve got it all around them, so to speak. It’s in an industrial and technological age, when we really need it. Now we might note here, that although Wordsworth rejects the refinement and wit of the 18th century, he does promote a new aristocracy of sensitivity. You could say that he’s elitist in a way; he’s also heading towards being a bit elitist. So there is a kind of aristocracy, but it’s one of refinement and sensitively, rather than of courtly manners and whatnot. Wordsworth was educated at Cambridge, but you see him as a kind of m an of the people. He doesn’t come across as an academic in any way. So finally, Wordsworth says that though poetry does instruct, it does teach as we saw, it exists first and foremost to give pleasure. Wordsworth says it is through pleasure that poetry draws us back into touch with our world, our fellow man, and ourselves. So entertainment and pleasure are very important to the Romantics[S7] . In fact, in a weird way, it’s even more important than the neo-Classicists, because the Romantics believed that pleasure is actually something that unites them. Think of the joy, the happiness of a wedding, and the way we’re united by that joy. Well that’s what Wordsworth wanted, a joy and pleasure in the poetry. The pleasure that poetry gives, is no mere entertainment. In other words, it’s the very spirit through which we know and live. So in the same way that Schiller says we should not look down on playing in the play drive, Wordsworth says don’t look down on pleasure . That’s good, for poets should give pleasure. The final note now includes a bit about John Keats and something he says in one of his letters. He wrote no essays of literary theory by the way, but in letters he’s sent to people, there is literary theory embedded in it. In one of them, John Keats makes a distinction between what he called negative capability, and the egotistical sublime. This distinction offers an interesting critique on Wordsworth, and that’s why it is included here. Let’s define these terms. Whereas poets who posses negative capability are able to enter into the lives of other beings, and see the world from their perspective, those possessing the quality of the egotistical sublime, always mediate their visions of the world, through their own strong, dominant personalities. Let’s give an example. Shakespeare is the ultimate example of negative capability, where one can move out of themselves, towards other people, even losing themselv es in other people. Think about how Shakespeare loses himself in his characters. You cannot say, although people try to, but you can’t say that Hamlet, MacBeth, or Othello is Shakespeare. None of them are Shakespeare! He loses himself in his creations, in his characters. That’s negative capability. Milton and Wordsworth would be the other. Egotistical sublime means rather than moving out, you draw everything to yourself. Milton, even when he’s writing about God and paradise, is still writing about himself, in one way or another. In a way, Wordsworth is always writing about himself and his perceptions as well. Yet that doesn’t mean he’s callous, as it’s just about his perceptions. Now to link Wordsworth to the egotistical sublime, is not to say that he is arrogant or selfish. That’s not what he means. His personality is such that it both draws all things to itself, and colors all things by its perceptions. So egotistical does not mean like we think of it, as someone being all stuck-up, or something pompous. What it means is that his ego, his personality, is so strong, that he draws everything to it. One of the reasons we read Wordsworth, is because we’re interested in him, and his perspective on the world. Coleridge also noted in his Biographia Literaria – so that he would agree with Keats in this respect – that even in his poetic studies of others, Wordsworth is finally a spectator â€Å"ab extra† (Latin for a spectator from the outside). What he was saying was that although Wordsworth had sympathy, he never really had empathy. Wordsworth was able to feel for people, yet in a way, Wordsworth could never really enter into the rustic, and see the world through their eyes. That’s just a different kind of person than he was. A little bit more about negative capability now. Keats’ desire to move out of himself, this negative capability – because he wanted to be a negative capability person, not an egotistical sublime – is not so much a rejection of, as an antidote to, the Romantic belief that things are as they are perceived. That idea is more egotistical sublime, where everything is the way you perceive it. Keats is not so much rejecting th at, as he wants to find an antidote to it. Let’s explain. Keats noticed that this strong focus on the poet and his perception that we’ve been talking about, often leads to the Romantic disease of over self-consciousness. In other words, what happens is that the poet thinks so much, that he loses his ability to feel and experience the world directly. Sometimes because of this subjective epistemological perspective, what happens is the Romantics think too much. You all know, we’ll all been through this, when we think too much, it sort of ruins things. This is a terrible irony, because what happens is that the Romantic is forced to choose between that direct unmediated vision of the world that he wants and desires, and his own poetic practice, that says everything is a perception of reality. Do you understand that angst here? In one way, they want to be unconscious, unmediated, direct, and emphatic. While their process of poetry keeps making them self-conscious, overly so. So they can’t just enjoy anything, because they’re thinking too much! Keats wants to break away from that. Finally, let’s mention that in unit five, we’ll look at an anti-Romantic turn, a turn away from the Romanticists. Those people in the next unit, are going to reject the struggle between the unconscious and super self-conscious, in favor of a more impersonal, objective view of poetry. They’re going to use Keats’ negative capability as a springboard for this more impersonal view of poetry.