Social Groups in American History Essay Example for Free

Social Groups in American History Essay After WWII women, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Whites all set out to establish a set of desires and wants we call the American Dream. Not just to have money and be successful but to ensure that all men are equal, to have the freedom to do what we want and practice our beliefs, and to fight for policies in government that benefit the good of our people. Throughout the American history, we have been through many challenging times in which these freedoms and desires have been tested. Nevertheless, through it all, these situations have made us stronger as a united nation and taught us what it really means to be American. During the war women were encouraged to take jobs that men would do for the first time in history. To some it was a surprise but to many it was a sign of the times. â€Å"By 1942 a poll showed that only 13% of Americans disagreed with women in the workforce† (Brinkly, pg.751) Many of them also joined and became war nurses in which they helped many of the men recuperate. Many women were extremely well at making war time products and took the place of men. During the war women foresaw many diverse opportunities and advancements in their lives. â€Å"Even though there were many laws restricting women from working they still managed to come through for our country.† (Gorn, pg.140) For once women were not just considered as a reproducer but as a producer itself. After the war the men had returned home and measures to push women back to how it used to be began. â€Å"In 1945, 3/4 of the women surveyed by the Womens Bureau of the Department of Labor wished that they could continue working which showed their interests in the skills they obtained.† (Brinkley, pg.752) Women were determined to push forward a claim their spot in society. This pushed for a new movement of better educated and stronger women. When African American soldiers returned they found a nation that still did not give them full rights, this caused a movement for the expansion of civil rights which had been born. Most black soldiers who had left their farm jobs in the South decided not to come back home at all. Instead, they moved to cities, looking for employment that was related to what they had learned in the army. The civil rights movement was a time when blacks that were oppressed for several years, rose up against the odds to achieve their freedom. This movement stimulated a growth in the black migration to cities. â€Å"On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks changed America forever when she was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus.† (Brinkley, pg.881) When Rosa Parks was asked to give up her seat to a white woman, she refused because she was annoyed with the treatment that African Americans received. She was later thrown in jail for disregarding the law. This led to an uprising and many protest against the judge’s action. Through unity, education and courage the African Americans claimed their independence. After WWII America it self became less influenced in religion. â€Å"In the 1960s, many social critics had predicted the virtual extinction o religious influences in American life.† (Brinkley, pg. 892) Religion during this time took a change rather then it being extinct more and more people began to turn to Christianity. From the 70s till the early 90s religious effort grew rapidly. When families that were in poverty began to rise up this led them into the growing middle class. America stated to see more time devoted to religious practices. This marked a new beginning in American history. As apart of the growing middle class more families stated having extra income to support a growing family. America itself during this time became known as the baby boomer generation. â€Å"At the peak of the baby boom, during the 1950s, the nation population grew by 20 percent.† (Brinkley, pg.790) The baby boom generation was the result in the rapidly growing economy in which a family’s income was rapidly increasing. Also housing prices and the new GI bill made it easier for citizens to progress. All over the U.S. white Americans were living the American Dream. During the early 1960s and 70s many citizens did not agree to why the U.S. was at war with Vietnam. Many men had no desire to be apart of the war. â€Å"The Selective Service System, which was used to carry out the draft, had aspirations of directing soldiers into areas where they were most needed during wartime.† (Brinkley, pg.870) The draft made it possible for government to supply the war with enough troops to protect our country. Many people took advantage of the draft system’s postponement policies to avoid going away to war. Others refused to go or basically did not register. There were also people who left the country to escape the draft. Draft cards were burned publicly, schools walked out in protest of the war, and even special music events were used to stop the war. With all this negative actions against the war, it was very hard for the soldiers to fight a war when their country did not support them for putting their lifes on the line. During the 60s Hippies were mostly defiant young people who sought for change in U.S. life style. Hippies experimented with many innovative ideas for the 60s. The Hippie movement began in San Francisco in the 1960’s. It was a different way to live life. â€Å"Closely related to the New Left was a new youth culture openly scornful of the values and conventions of middle class society.† (Brinkley, pg.856) The Hippie movement was a rebellious uprising which displayed efforts against war. Many Americans did not agree with the Hippy way of life because of there beliefs of free sex, drugs, their image and their music. Migrant workers went through a lot of struggles. During the 60s for one person this struggle was enough to fight for. Cesar E. Chavez founded and led the first successful farm worker’s union in U.S. history. â€Å"Caesar Chavez began with grape pickers in the town of Delano In 1965 and quickly gained converts in California’s enormous factory fields† (Gorn pg.297) In September 1965, Cesar’s NFWA, with more than 1200 members, joined in AFL-CIO sponsored union in a strike towards the major Delano area table and wine grape producers. Cesar led a successful five-year strike-boycott to the millions of supporters to the UFW, United Farm Workers.† He put together a nationwide support association of unions, church groups, students, minorities and consumers.† (Brinkley, pg.861). The two organizations merged in 1966 to form the UFW, and it became affiliated with the AFL-CIO. By 1970, the boycott influenced most grape growers to sign contract with UFW. Through out history we have seen many great examples and great role models that have changed America’s society greatly. African American, Hispanic, or even gender issues have all took a new approach and gained it independence buy fighting for freedom and prosperity. The American Dream has always been a set goal for Americans and as long as we are democratic society we will fight for our rights and aim towards a better way of living. Works Cited Brinkley, Alan. American History, a Survey, Volume Two, Twelfth Edition. Gorn, Elliot J. Constructing the American Past: A Source Book of a People’s History, Volume Two, Sixth Edition.

Immigration situation of Switzerland

Immigration situation of Switzerland CURRENT IMMIGRATION SITUATION IN SWITZERLAND AND ESPECIALLY IN CANTON ST. GALLEN Introduction The problem of immigrants has contributed to be one of the thorny issues in the world as we enter into the new millennium. There has been increased legal and illegal immigration over the world which has been prompted by push and pull factor. The push factors have been caused by economic, social and political, problems that have been experienced in many parts for the world. As a result people have been moving from one area to another in search of safer areas. Political unrest which has come with deteriorating economic conditions has been one of the factors that have been prompting people to migrate to other areas. The pull factor has been mainly cantered around the search for greener pastures for better life. As a result there has been increased migration of people especially to the developed nations where there are economic fortunes. The problem of immigration is not new to the world and has been a constant cause of conflict between nations. For example there has been along standing border conflict between Mexico and the United States due to the problem of immigration. Switzer land has not been spared either and there have been increased migration of people to the nation. Some of the regions in the country have been hosting a large number of immigrants than others. For example St. Gallan is one of the regions in the country that has a high population of immigrants. (Clive, 2004) History of Immigrant in Switzerland Due to the economic development that has been taking place in the country, there was increased immigration of people in an out of the country sine the early 1800s. The outflow of Swiss from their country had been well compensated by the inflow of foreigners especial German, Italians and Australia. The issue of immigration from Switzerland is not new and it dates back to many centuries ago. Most of this immigration who replaced the outflow of Swiss was political refugees and many of there were well educated. The first big wave of immigration in the country came after the collapse of the revolution movement in the country neighbour which happened around 1830. The second wave came immediately after the defeat of the revolution in 1848. Many on of the new immigration how came to the country took up professional jobs. For example many of the German immigrants became teachers and when Zurich University was founded in 1833, man of the teaching position went to Germans. (Fahrin, 2003) There was a major contribution that was made by other immigration especially in the are of industrial and entrepreneurial skills. For example a police born Antoine November de Patek was a joint founded of the Patek Philippine company which has been one of the leading watch makes in Geneva since it was started in 1845. Several other immigrants especially the Italians made a great contribution to the labour force and were employed in Switzerland engineering project like Gotthard and Simplon rail tunnel. In general we can say that immigrants are not new to the country and they have been making a greater contribution to the development of the country. The current situation of immigrant in Switzerland Since 1950, the government signed a convention that has confirmed to grant asylum to many people in the world. There has been increased number of application for asylum in the country and currently there are more people under asylum in Switzerland than in any other nation in the world. The population of the foreigners in the country has continued to rise since 1950 when it was recorded that 5.9 percent of the people in the country did not have Swiss nationality. The number has continued to increase since then and by 1970, it had risen to 15.9 percent. By 2002, the percentage had swelled to 21.6 percent. This makes it one of the countries in Europe together with Luxembourg which has a percentage of 37 percent, to have the highest number of foreigners in the soil. There have been factors that have been contributing to the increased number of immigrants in the nation. These are due to several interrelating factors. Although many have seen the neutrality nature of the nation to become one of the leading factors, the main reason that the country has been embracing such a high number of foreigners in its soil have been due to the need to have foreign labour. Since the exodus of the Swiss from their nation, the country has been relying on foreign labour. It has been shown that immigrating composes about 25% of the workforce with 50% working in hotel and restaurant and 33% working in the construction industry. (Riedo, 2008) At the same time there has been increase emigrating from former Yugoslavia, Turkey and other non European countries. There has been a decreasing number of immigration from Italy and Spain while the number of Yugoslavians, Turks, and Portuguese has been growing day by day. There has also been increased number of immigrants from Sri Lank, India and china with most Sri Lankans seeking asylum while most Indians and Chinese are coming as students. Adapted from: Migration Information Source: Switzerland faced common European challenges. Available at http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=284 It has been shown that the number of women entering the country has been increasing each day since 2000 as compared to the number of men who has been entering the country. The population of immigrants has also been remitting a good number of some of money every year. According to the national bank, it is estimated that the remittance to the nation has been standing at more than US$2.4 billion every year. St. Gallen is one of the cantons in Switzerland which boast of a high population in the country. With a highly population of immigrant in the areas, the canton has an abundant labour that supplies all its industries. Most of immigration in the canton are so Spanish origin having settled there long time ago. The canton is well situated as an important port of entrance through the sea which makes it one of the most important starting points for immigrating in the areas. St. Galen has been one of the cantons in the country that has been racing an increased number of immigrating since they started arriving in the country. Throughout history it has been used as the entry point to the country with majority of the immigrant first settling in the canton before moving out to other areas. As a result it population of immigrants has been selling day by day and currently it has one of the highest number of immigrants in the country. Although most of immigrants are Spanish of origin, there have been consequential settlements of other people in the area. There has been increasing mixture of different cultures and it is one of the reigns that represent the true fact of the Switzerland as a nation of neutrality. Therefore the canton has a diverse population of diverse origin and this diversity is also reflected in its religious worship. However Christianity is the dominant religion in the canton but there has been a growing number of other religions as well. With such a high population of foreigners in the canton, there has been an effort to try and integrate them together. The canton has a mixture of many immigrating and therefore the integration efforts have been aimed at ensuring that they live as one in harmony with one another. There have been several other efforts that have been aimed at ensuring that there is harmonisatoi of the Christianity which is the dominant religion in the area with other growing religions as well like the rising number of Muslims and other religions. (Swissowrld.org, 2008) References Clive, C. (2004). The politics and Government of Switzerland. Palgrave Macmillan Fahrin. D. (2003). An outline of history of Switzerland. Pro Helvetia MPI, (2008). Country profile: Switzerland faces common European challenges. Retrieved from http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=284 on 8th May 2008 Riedo, R. (2008). Immigrating in Switzerland: possibilities and difficulties of integration. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1412079 on 8th May 2008 Swissowrld.org, (2008). Immigration. Retrieved from http://www.swissworld.org/en/history/the_federal_state/immigration/on 8th May 2008

Analysis of Tescos Stakeholders

Analysis of Tescos Stakeholders Tesco is a shopping mart where we can purchase our essential things. It can also be define as a global grocery and general merchandising vendor headquartered in UK. sir Jack Cohen founded Tesco in 1919, when he began to sell extra food stuff from a stall in the East End of London. Tesco first appeared above a shop in Edgware in 1929 and since then the company has grown and developed.Tesco is the third largest retailer in the world measured by income Tesco private limited corporation (PLC) is the major super mart in UK wihich has 29% of shares in market copmapred to other companies like adsa which has 17% shares in market. PLC is private limited company which has limited millstone in UK and not allow to offer its shares to public.Private. A public company does not much care about profit as it is providing the goods or service for the public. Public companies will not have to worry whether making profit or not because they are providing a service to the public. Purpose of tesco is to make money and invest and sale quality products.and provide reliable materials to consumers. Why do Tesco exist? Tesco exist to provide the goods and services to people earning money and profits from business .it provides jobs for workers Tesco provides daily need Products that customers demand like food, clothes, Home electircs,Sound and vision ,Bed and bath, Furniture and kitchen, Clothing and jewellery, Toys and gift, Baby and toddlers, Garden needs.products and services supplied at profit , at cost and below cost Tesco is getting profit by introducing new brands and also selling goods at lease.tehy are getting profit on products by supplying them to other countries and at whole sale. they can sell products by introducing off packages to customers at low prices for a specific duration which means to making them as a regular customers to gain profit in future. and also out of seasons sale which shows selling at low cost. Objectives of TESCO As TESCO is one of UK leading food retailers, with 519 stores England, Scotland and Wales.105 stores in France operated by Catteau and 44 in Hungary.Tesco meets the need of customers by low prices, product quality, choice, facilities and services to avail from home.Tesco is developing the talents workers through sound management and training practices,. Tesco maintaining its relationships with supplier by quality and price criteria. Tesco is co operating on making of food in industry .Provides good environment and protection. Ownership can be defined as Employee or executive who has the principle responsibility for a business, or projectThe public sector in this type of ownership only british people can get ownership in tesco to gain profit. Sole Traders controlled and financed by one person. least expensive form of ownership to organize. Sole proprietors receive all income generated by the business to keep or reinvest. Partnerships contains 2 -20 members who share their assets and profits from business. Public Limited Companies (PLCs) shares to the general public it contains Minimum of 2 but no maximum number of shareholders Private Limited Companies contains financed and controlled by between 2 and 50 shareholders. Franchises .A business which has bought the right to trade under established namein different cities.e.g mcdonalds,KFC. Co-operatives It contains Groups of people who enter business and share the benefits sustomers Co-operatives, Producer Co-operatives, Worker Co-operatives. Charitable trust for helping famines and collect funds from rich .and also receive funds from GOVT. P2 The Stakeholders of each Organization Stakeholder is a person, group or organization that has direct and indirect position in organization. it is affected by organizations rules, polices and decisions. internal stakeholders. They work inside the Tesco e.g employee, owners. External stakeholders: pressure groups trades unions employee government local and national communites Stakeholders in business organisation: Supplier Owners Government Creditors Customer Directors Workers Community Unions Key stakeholders in a business organization Customers. These are the people who buy products from shops ans to save lives of needy people. customers want reliable products and at low prices. Employees includes directors, owners, managers Directors: They have a direct financial stake in the business because they have taken a risk by investing in the business Managers: They are responsible for obtaining goals creating atmosphere of work among workers of Tesco, each managers has handles accounting, law marketing, sales production Suppliers: they supply products to Tesco at commercial level. They supply goods to different branches. They always be in touch with tesco to supply products. Owners: they are the business, assets holder, and pays the workers.pressure groups not put up candidates for election, but seeks to influence government policy rules. Trade unions function is discuss pay and working conditions and creates discipline among workers Employee Associations they set up pay packages and employees for resolving argument. Board of Directors Finance department Marketing sales department Production department Finance manager Accountant Marketing manager Area sales manager Sales staff Production manager Production supervisor Production workers Human resource department Human resource manager Clerical assistant ICT department Board of director is a group of people nominated by the owners of a business who have decision-making authority, voting authority specific responsibilities which in each case is separate and distinct from the authority and responsibilities of owners and managers of the business entity.Finance department is to keep control over the use of funds in the organisation i.e. the funds are using according to the planing and accord with the organisational objectives.Finance manager participates in preparation of financial reports, direct investment activities, and implement cash management strategies.Accountant helps managers to make reports, investments (savings), and tax implementations.handles profit loss details,cost production,financial statements. Marketing sales department function is to understand users requirments/needs and fulfil their needs exactly with high- quality goods and respond to a customer enquiry correctly. Sales managerSell products and services to the customer in order for the business to keep on running and become the number one retailer.they make products available for future customers and existing customers.Production Tesco is to make sure that the goods of Tesco are produced on time and is in a suitable quality for the customers.and maintain furniture.Production manager manages all kind of goods should ready at customers needs.and at given time and at exact time and standard.Production workers made goods according to the user demands and works exactly in uniform way.Human resources aim to make sure that businesses keep hold of good experienced staff and let go of poor staf they work internally in business Human resources aim to make sure that businesses good experienced staff and let go of poor staf They d eal with the workforce, planning, recruitment, training and paying issues.ICT (International Computers and Tabulators) Its main function is to check that all data of Tesco is stored properly. all computer software are working, all business websites are accessing.(tescopls.com) P4 Tesco Mission and values Planning, calculating and the passing of information form rival is called mission. Tescos mission is to earn profit and sale pure goods. and to sale goods online by using website tesco.com and public dealing in good manner to make regular customers And create significance for customers to earn their lifetime reliability. Values Values of an organization defines it standards.they show Respect to each others Try to give their best Want to be energetic and fit. Tesco strategies to become are successful international trader , To become famous business party. To be good food provider To put community at the heart of what we do. Objectives Tesco increasing customers by offering buy 1 get 1 free.Tesco offers best reasonable prices. Tesco meets the need of customers opinions regarding advance, product quality, choice, store facilities and service Tesco is the main profitable investment with progressive return. Tesco is developing the talents of its people through sound management and training practices, while rewarding them fairly with equal opportunities for all. Tesco maintaining its relationships with supplier (product makers) on strict quality and price criteria. Tesco is co operating on making of food in industry. Provides good environment and protection Strategic Planning Tesco is try to make shopping easy and comfortable.Seeking to low price to help people and so they spend less.Taking simplicity and importance to complicated markets. Smart objectives of Tesco Specific Tesco wants to make profit its sale Measurable Tesco is leading in business by its major shares in market Achievable tesco achieve its goal by increasing its customers and making profits Tesco has achieved it by good quality products Realistic tesco is third big company in world M1 Point of Views of different stakeholders Directors the business through meetings with top managers and managing stretegies for progress of tesco.Employees should work hard on making good quality products that will make profit and also increase pay and conditions of Employees and also helpful for safety, health and pension arrangements. Customers views are to getting latest brands and saving by low price products. D1 Evaluate the influence different stakeholders exert in one organization Stakeholders stand for great influence in organization. Developing countries employees make fashionable clothes and brands to exert little power over their employers to give them jobs and getting new products. Owners are the organizations main stakeholders and gain profit and pays all bills and wages to workers and remain profit shares with shareholders directors pay attention to make strategy and decisions regarding organization Government influences by law rights to change behaviour of environmental or health and safety. Employees exert main role in business profit or loss. When the economy is active they work hard and make extra products. Customers also create great influence within an organization. By purchasing products from store or online at low prices.

Use of Symbols and Symbolism in The Great Gatsby Essay -- Great Gatsby

Symbolism plays an important role in any novel of literary merit. In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbols to portray events, feelings, personalities and time periods. Throughout the narrative, Fitzgerald uses strong contrasting symbols such as West Egg and East Egg. His superior use of other predominant symbols such as color and light are also evident throughout the novel. The story begins as the narrator, Nick Carraway, describes his arrival to West Egg. One can immediately spot "new-money Gatsby and no-money Nick on one side of the bay and old-money Buchanans on the other" (Tanner x). The superiority of East Egg to West Egg is instantly apparent and has much meaning. East Egg represents the high class, the dignified and the elite. The people who live in East Egg come from wealthy family lines. In opposition to this, West Egg represents the newly rich or those with almost no money at all. There is much arrogance and disdain between these two groups as can be noted on page 16 of the novel when Jordan Baker "remarks contemptuously" on the fact that Nick lives in West Egg. The symbolism of eggs can be further explained. During one of Gatsby's parties, Nick is offered an egg. He cracks it open and finds a beccafico, a delicacy, and a treasure. Tanner remarks on this striking parallel to the "New World". If one looks at America and what it has created, does one see a "disgusting, aborted, stunted and still-born thing, fit only to be thrown away? Or a treasure, something special (...) and marvelous and rare?" (x). The Eggs in the novel represent the two parts of America: one (East Egg), materialistic, superficial and self-indulgent and the other (West Egg), which is always awaiting the coming of someth... ...ott Fitzgerald's Criticism of America." Modern Critical Interpretations: F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 11-27. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. England: Penguin, 1990. Tanner, Tony. "Introduction." The Great Gatsby. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald. England: Penguin, 1990. vii-lvi. Way, Brian. "The Great Gatsby." Modern Critical Interpretations: F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 87-108. Hack, Robert and Libby Stockstill. "Colour in The Great Gatsby." http://www.nmusd.k12.ca.us/cdmhs/gatsbycenter/roberthack&libbystockstill. November 29th 1997, 5:16pm. O'Brien, Meghan et al. "Colour Imagery in The Great Gatsby." http://www.nmusd.k12.ca.us/cdmhs/gatsbycenter/meghanobrien/gg.html. November 29th 1997, 5:23pm.

Commentary on Act 1 of the book Translations by Brian Friel :: English Literature

Commentary on Act 1 of the book Translations by Brian Friel The opening paragraph of the play Translations tells us in great detail about where the play is set. It is set in a hedge-school, which was a disused barn or hay-shed. The opening of the play makes us see that there are two means of isolation. The language binds together the community and in this play we will see how differences in language split society. Manus is teaching Sarah to speak as the play begins. He is being very patient with her and he thinks that it is important to teach her to articulate, 'Come on, Sarah. This is our secret'. When you see how Sarah is finding it hard to speak English it makes you feel that she is the symbol for Ireland's backward position. Jimmy on the other hand represents the educated civilised tradition of old Ireland. He is a scholar, however Sarah is the opposite. She is a contemporary Ireland, as she has no voice to speak out. She has no capacity for taking part in the modern world. Sarah just wants to become part of the society. The way Manus is pushing Sarah to speak, for example, 'Raise your head. Shout it out. Nobody's listening'. You feel that Manus does not want Sarah to be a nobody in the community, so he is helping her. The way that Sarah acts around Manus makes you feel that she fancies him, 'Manus hugs Sarah. She smiles in shy, embarrassed pleasure'. Jimmy is reading The Odyssey. As he is a scholar he can read books in Greek. He sees himself as a person in the story, 'Sure look at what the same turf-smoke has done to myself!' This is not very scholarship like of Jimmy as he relates the text in a very un-scholar like way to himself. He also says things that are very sexually orientated, 'if you had a woman like that about the house, it's not stripping a turf-bank you'd be thinking about-eh?' and 'she can't get her fill of men'. Jimmy asks Manus whom he would pick out of Athena, Artemis and Helen. All of these people are characters from the book Jimmy is reading. This shows that Jimmy has a very limited view and conception of what he is reading. Manus asks Sarah whom he should pick; this shows that he considers her view to be important. The way Jimmy acts in this part of the play makes you feel that he is very intellectual but he is living his life in a book, he feels he is almost a Commentary on Act 1 of the book Translations by Brian Friel :: English Literature Commentary on Act 1 of the book Translations by Brian Friel The opening paragraph of the play Translations tells us in great detail about where the play is set. It is set in a hedge-school, which was a disused barn or hay-shed. The opening of the play makes us see that there are two means of isolation. The language binds together the community and in this play we will see how differences in language split society. Manus is teaching Sarah to speak as the play begins. He is being very patient with her and he thinks that it is important to teach her to articulate, 'Come on, Sarah. This is our secret'. When you see how Sarah is finding it hard to speak English it makes you feel that she is the symbol for Ireland's backward position. Jimmy on the other hand represents the educated civilised tradition of old Ireland. He is a scholar, however Sarah is the opposite. She is a contemporary Ireland, as she has no voice to speak out. She has no capacity for taking part in the modern world. Sarah just wants to become part of the society. The way Manus is pushing Sarah to speak, for example, 'Raise your head. Shout it out. Nobody's listening'. You feel that Manus does not want Sarah to be a nobody in the community, so he is helping her. The way that Sarah acts around Manus makes you feel that she fancies him, 'Manus hugs Sarah. She smiles in shy, embarrassed pleasure'. Jimmy is reading The Odyssey. As he is a scholar he can read books in Greek. He sees himself as a person in the story, 'Sure look at what the same turf-smoke has done to myself!' This is not very scholarship like of Jimmy as he relates the text in a very un-scholar like way to himself. He also says things that are very sexually orientated, 'if you had a woman like that about the house, it's not stripping a turf-bank you'd be thinking about-eh?' and 'she can't get her fill of men'. Jimmy asks Manus whom he would pick out of Athena, Artemis and Helen. All of these people are characters from the book Jimmy is reading. This shows that Jimmy has a very limited view and conception of what he is reading. Manus asks Sarah whom he should pick; this shows that he considers her view to be important. The way Jimmy acts in this part of the play makes you feel that he is very intellectual but he is living his life in a book, he feels he is almost a

Vmware Tools

TOPIC: VMWARE TOOLS Introduction: Virtualization reduces IT costs while increasing the efficiency and utilization of existing assets. So it is becoming more popular among IT companies. VMware is one of the companies which supplies products for datacenter virtualization is leading the pack. VMware’s ESX/ESXi is one of the enterprise-level virtualization product offered by VMware, Inc. ESX is a component of VMware Infrastructure, it adds management and reliability services to the core server product. This is one of the widely used tools in Server Virtualization. ) Architecture: VMWARE ESX (white Paper): This white paper provided by VMware Inc has the details for all the underlying components in ESX framework. It explains the startup and operation process, colored figures are embedded in the document about the layers. The ESX Server architecture allows administrators to allocate hardware resources to multiple workloads in fully isolated environments called virtual machines. 2) VM ware hypervisor still king for enterprise-class workloads (News Article): This article in network world outlines the comparison between VMware with other competitors. According to research conducted by the Burton Group VMware is still the preferred virtualization vendor which meets most of the enterprise requirements, while rivals Citrix, Microsoft and Virtual Iron are trying to meet the meet the goal, VMware, is the market share leader in x86 virtualization, offers 100% of the features required to run enterprise-class, production workloads with the vSphere hypervisor. 3) VMware ESXI demo (VMware website) This demo provides the basic introduction, uses & features of VMware’s ESXI . It compares ESXI with the competitors in the market. This is created by VMware and is posted on the product website. 4) Examining VMware ESX Server This journal in DR Dobbs website outlines some of the advantages of VMware server. Columbia university students conducted an experiment in their computer science department. By using VMware, they were able to give students a flexible virtual kernel-level development environment where the operating systems are being developed, debugged, and rebooted in a shared computing lab environment without affecting other application user’s experiments. ) Application of virtualization and information integration technology in a power dispatching center This article explains how VMware ESX server platform can be utilized to manage information in a power dispatching center. The information integration is divided into five levels i. e. hardware integration, data integration, software module integration, business process integration, and application access integration and provides detailed integratio n scheme. Unfortunately the full text is not available for this article. ) Book: VMware ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers Chapter 1: System considerations This chapter provides the information regarding the installation of VMware ESX server. It gives the necessary system requirements for the VMware ESX Server for Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers in the Enterprise. . This chapter is a good place to start when you need to find out where else in the book to go look for coverage of an issue. Analysis of Research I have chosen this topic to learn and do some recommendation of VMware tools used for server virtualization to our group, so I started my research by going to VMware website, VMware ESXI demo and white paper for architecture were the two most useful sources for the research. Then I went to Penn state databases IEEE, Inspec and got the information for the news article that it has slight edge on the competitors. And from the Dobbs journal it is proven from the experiment conducted by the Columbia University that with VMware we can create, delete applications on virtual servers without rebooting the actual server. And finally the journal regarding VMware using in Power dispatch center will be a good example to recommend to our group. How documents relate to each other: The documents started with the introduction of the VMware tools and provided with architecture and demonstration of most popular VMware ESXi server. The article in network world proves that VMware Esx has slight edge over the competitors. The journals provide how VMware server works in different environments like Power Sector and University. Finally the chapter in the books gives us the existing system capabilities to install VMware tools. References: Architecture of VMWARE ESXi. Whitepaper. Retrieved January 29, 2010, from http://www. vmware. com/files/pdf/ESXi_architecture. pdf) Jon Brodkin (2009). VMware hypervisor still king for enterprise-class workloads. Network world. Retrieved January 29, 2010 Product Demo Video. Retrieved January 29, 2010, from http://download3. vmware. com/demos/esxi/VMware_ESXi. html Jason Nieh and Ozgur Can Leonard(2000). Examining VMware retrieved January 29 1010 from Dr Dobb’s Journal (www. DDJ. com) Zhang Liang (East China Grid Co. Ltd. , Shanghai, China); Ge Minhui; Bi Xiaoliang (2008). Application of virtualization and information integration technology in a power dispatching center retrieved January 29 1010 from engineering village. Source: Automation of Electric Power Systems, v 32, n 16, p 38-42, 25 Aug. 2008 Edward L. Haletky (2007). VMware ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers retrieved January 29 1010 from Safari books Online: By: Pub. Date: December 29, 2007

Intellectual Standards

Becoming a Fair-Minded Thinker Weak versus Strong Critical Thinking Critical thinking involves basic intellectual skills, but these skills can be used to serve two incompatible ends: self-centeredness or fair-mindedness. As we are learning the basic intellectual skills that critical thinking entails, we can begin to use those skills in a selfish or in a fair-minded way. For example, when students are taught how to recognize mistakes in reasoning (commonly called fallacies), most students see those mistakes principally in the reasoning they already disapprove of rather than in their own reasoning.They develop some proficiency in making their opponent’s thinking look bad. Liberals see mistakes in the arguments of conservatives; conservatives see mistakes in the arguments of liberals. Believers see mistakes in the thinking of nonbelievers; nonbelievers see mistakes in the thinking of believers. Those who oppose abortion readily see mistakes in the arguments for abortion; those wh o favor abortion readily see mistakes in the arguments against it. We call these thinkers weak-sense critical thinkers.We call the thinking â€Å"weak† because, though it is working well for the thinker in some respects, it is missing certain important higher-level skills and values of critical thinking. Most significantly, it fails to consider, in good faith, viewpoints that contradict its own viewpoint. It lacks fair-mindedness. Another traditional name for the weak-sense thinker is found in the word sophist. Sophistry is the art of winning arguments regardless of whether there are obvious problems in the thinking being used.There is a set of lower-level skills of rhetoric, or argumentation, by which one can make poor thinking look good and good thinking look bad. We see this often in unethical lawyers and politicians who are more concerned with winning than with anything else. They use emotionalism and trickery in an intellectually skilled way. Sophistic thinkers succeed o nly if they do not come up against what we call strong-sense critical thinkers. Strong-sense critical thinkers are not easily tricked by slick argumentation.As William Graham Sumner (1906) said almost a century ago, they cannot be stampeded . . . are slow to believe . . can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain . . . can wait for evidence and weigh evidence . . . can resist appeals to their dearest prejudices†¦ Perhaps even more important, strong-sense critical thinkers strive to be fair- minded. They use thinking in an ethically responsible manner. They work to empathize with the viewpoints of others. They are willing to listen to arguments they do not necessarily hold.They change their views when faced with better reasoning. Rather than using their thinking to manipulate others and to hide from the truth (in a weak-sense way), they use thinking in an ethical, reasonable manner. We believe that the world already has too many ski lled selfish thinkers, too many sophists and intellectual con artists, too many unscrupulous lawyers and politicians who specialize in twisting information and evidence to support their selfish interests and the vested interests of those who pay them.We hope that you, the reader, will develop as a highly skilled, fair-minded thinker, one capable of exposing those who are masters at playing intellectual games at the expense of the well-being of innocent people. We hope as well that you develop the intellectual courage to argue publicly against what is unethical in human thinking. We write this book with the assumption that you will take seriously the fair-mindedness implied by strong-sense critical thinking.To think critically in the strong sense requires that we develop fair-mindedness at the same time that we learn basic critical thinking skills, and thus begin to â€Å"practice† fair-mindedness in our thinking. If we do, we avoid using our skills to gain advantage over othe rs. We treat all thinking by the same high standards. We expect good reasoning from those who support us as well as those who oppose us. We subject our own reasoning to the same criteria we apply to reasoning to which we are unsympathetic.We question our own purposes, evidence, conclusions, implications, and point of view with the same vigor as we question those of others. Developing fair-minded thinkers try to see the actual strengths and weaknesses of any reasoning they assess. This is the kind of thinker we hope this book will help you become. So, right from the beginning, we are going to explore the characteristics that are required for the strongest, most fair-minded thinking. As you read through the rest of the book, we hope you will notice how we are attempting to foster â€Å"strong-sense† critical thinking.Indeed, unless we indicate otherwise, every time we now use the words critical thinking, from this point forward, we will mean critical thinking in the strong sens e. In the remainder of this chapter, we will explore the various intellectual â€Å"virtues† that fair-minded thinking requires. There is much more to fair-mindedness than most people realize. Fair-mindedness requires a family of interrelated and interdependent states of mind. One final point: In addition to fair-mindedness, strong-sense critical thinking implies higher-order thinking.As you develop as a thinker and internalize the traits of mind that we shall soon discuss, you will develop a variety of skills and insights that are absent in the weak-sense critical thinker. As we examine how the various traits of mind are conducive to fair-mindedness, we will also look at the manner in which the traits contribute to quality of thought (in general). In addition to the fairness that strong-sense critical thinking implies, depth of thinking and high quality of thinking are also implied.Weak-sense critical thinkers develop a range of intellectual skills (for example, skills of ar gumentation) and may achieve some success in getting what they want, but they do not develop any of the traits that are highlighted in this chapter. For example, some students are able to use their intelligence and thinking skills to get high grades without taking seriously the subjects they are studying. They become masters, if you will, of â€Å"beating the system. † They develop test- taking and note-taking skills. They develop their short-term memory.They learn to appeal to the prejudices of their teachers. They become academic sophists— skilled only when functioning on the surface of things. They may even transfer these abilities to other domains of their lives. But such skill development does not entail those skills that presuppose the traits we shall now examine. [pic] Figure 1. 1 Critical thinkers strive to develop essential traits or characteristics of mind. These are interrelated intellectual habits that enable one to open, discipline, and improve mental func tioning. [pic] Figure 1. 2 These are the opposites of the intellectual virtues.Our natural disposition to develop them is an important reason why new need to develop countervailing traits.. Let us turn to the component traits of the strong-sense critical thinker. After we take up each individual trait as that trait stands in relation to fair-mindedness, we will highlight the significance of the trait as a contributor to the general development of high levels of thinking. What Does Fair-Mindedness Require? First, the basic concept: To be fair-minded is to strive to treat every viewpoint relevant to a situation in an unbiased, unprejudiced way.It entails a consciousness of the fact that we, by nature, tend to prejudge the views of others, placing them into â€Å"favorable† (agrees with us) and â€Å"unfavorable† (disagrees with us) categories. We tend to give less weight to contrary views than to our own. This is especially true when we have selfish reasons for opposing views. If, for example, we can ignore the viewpoint of the millions of people in the world who live in extreme poverty, we can avoid having to give up something to help them.Thus fair-mindedness is especially important when the situation calls on us to consider views that we don’t want to consider. Fair-mindedness entails a consciousness of the need to treat all viewpoints alike, without reference to one’s own feelings or selfish interests, or the feelings or selfish interests of one’s friends, community, or nation. It implies adherence to intellectual standards (such as accuracy and sound logic), uninfluenced by one’s own advantage or the advantage of one’s group. The opposite of fair-mindedness is intellectual unfairness.It is demonstrated by the failure of thinkers to feel any responsibility to treat points of view or ways of thinking significantly different from their own by the same standards that they treat their own. Achieving a truly fair-m inded state of mind is challenging. It requires us to simultaneously become intellectually humble, intellectually courageous, intellectually empathetic, intellectually honest, intellectually perseverant, confident in reason (as a tool of discovery and learning), and intellectually autonomous.Without this family of traits in an integrated constellation, there is no true fair-mindedness. But these traits, singly and in combination, are not commonly discussed in everyday life, and are rarely taught. They are not discussed on television. They are not part of the school curriculum. They are not tested in standardized testing. Your friends will not ask you questions about them. In truth, because they are largely unrecognized, these traits are not commonly valued. Yet each of them is essential in fair-mindedness and for development of critical thinking.Let us see how and why this is so. Intellectual Humility: Having Know1edge of Ignorance We will begin with the fair-minded trait of intelle ctual humility. Intellectual humility may be defined as having a consciousness of the limits of one’s knowledge, including a sensitivity to circumstances in which one’s native egocentrism is likely to function self-deceptively. This entails being aware of one’s biases, one’s prejudices, the limitations of one’s viewpoint, and the extent of one’s ignorance. Intellectual humility depends on recognizing that one should not claim more than one actually knows.It does not imply spinelessness or submissiveness. It implies the lack of intellectual pretentiousness, boastfulness, or conceit, combined with insight into the logical foundations, or lack of such foundations, of one’s beliefs. The opposite of intellectual humility is intellectual arrogance, a lack of consciousness of the limits of one’s knowledge, with little or no insight into self-deception or into the limitations of one’s point of view. Intellectually arrogant peopl e often fall prey to their own bias and prejudice, and frequently claim to know more than they actually know.When we think of intellectual arrogance, we are not necessarily implying a person who is outwardly smug, haughty, insolent, or pompous. Outwardly, the person may appear humble. For example, a person who uncritically believes in a cult leader may be outwardly self-effacing (â€Å"I am nothing. You are everything†), but intellectually he or she is making a sweeping generalization that is not well- founded, and has complete faith in that generalization. Unfortunately, in human life people of the full range of personality types are capable of believing they know what they don’t know.Our own false beliefs, misconceptions, prejudices, illusions, myths, propaganda, and ignorance appear to us as the plain, unvarnished truth. What is more, when challenged, we often resist admitting that our thinking is â€Å"defective. † We then are intellectually arrogant, even t hough we might feel humble. Rather than recognizing the limits of our knowledge, we ignore and obscure those limits. From such arrogance, much suffering and waste result. For example, when Columbus â€Å"discovered† North America, he believed that enslaving the Indians was compatible with God’s will.He did not inwardly—as far as we know—recognize that it was only through his intellectual arrogance that he could believe he knew â€Å"God’s will. † Intellectual arrogance is incompatible with fair-mindedness because we cannot judge fairly when we are in a state of ignorance about the object of our judgment. If we are ignorant about a religion (say, Buddhism), we cannot be fair in judging it. And if we have misconceptions, prejudices, or illusions about it, we will distort it (unfairly) in our judgment. We will misrepresent it—make it appear to be other than it is.Our false knowledge, misconceptions, prejudices, and illusions stand in the way of the possibility of our being fair. Or if we are intellectually arrogant, we will be inclined to judge too quickly and be overly confident in our judgment. Clearly, these tendencies are incompatible with being fair (to that which we are judging). Why is intellectual humility essential to higher-level thinking? In addition to helping us become fair-minded thinkers, knowledge of our ignorance can improve our thinking in a variety of ways.It can enable us to recognize the prejudices, false beliefs, and habits of mind that lead to flawed learning. Consider, for example, our tendency to accept superficial learning. Much human learning is superficial. We learn a little and think we know a lot. We get limited information and generalize hastily from it. We confuse memorized definitions with concrete knowledge. We uncritically accept much that we hear and read—especially when what we hear or read agrees with our intensely held beliefs or the beliefs of groups to which we belong .The discussion in the chapters that follow encourages intellectual humility and will help to raise your awareness of intellectual arrogance. See if you, from this moment, can begin to develop in yourself a growing awareness of the limitations of your knowledge and an increasing sensitivity to instances of your inadvertent intellectual arrogance. When you do, celebrate that sensitivity. Reward yourself for finding weaknesses in your thinking. Consider recognition of weakness an important strength, not a weakness. As a starter, answer the following questions: ? Can you construct a list of your most significant prejudices? Think of what you believe about your country, your religion, your friends, your family, simply because others—parents, friends, peer group, media—conveyed these to you. ) ? Do you ever argue for or against views when you have little evidence upon which to base your judgment? ? Do you ever assume that your group (your family, your religion, your nation, your friends) is correct (when it is in conflict with others) even though you have not looked at the situation from the point of view of the others with which you disagree? Intellectual Courage: Being Willing to Challenge BeliefsNow let’s consider intellectual courage. Intellectual courage may be defined as having a consciousness of the need to face and fairly address ideas, beliefs, or viewpoints toward which one has strong negative emotions and to which one has not given a serious hearing. Intellectual courage is connected to the recognition that ideas that society considers dangerous or absurd are sometimes rationally justified (in whole or in part). Conclusions and beliefs inculcated in people are sometimes false or misleading. To determine for oneself what makes sense, one must not passively and uncritically accept what one has learned.Intellectual courage comes into play here because there is some truth in some ideas considered dangerous and absurd, and distortion or f alsity in some ideas strongly held by social groups to which we belong. People need courage to be fair-minded thinkers in these circumstances. The penalties for nonconformity can be severe. The opposite of intellectual courage, intellectual cowardice, is the fear of ideas that do not conform to one’s own. If we lack intellectual courage, we are afraid of giving serious consideration to ideas, beliefs, or viewpoints that we perceive as dangerous.We feel personally threatened by some ideas when they conflict significantly with our personal identity—when we feel that an attack on the ideas is an attack on us as a person. All of the following ideas are â€Å"sacred† in the minds of some people: being a conservative, being a liberal; believing in God, disbelieving in God; believing in capitalism, believing in socialism; believing in abortion, disbelieving in abortion; believing in capital punishment, disbelieving in capital punishment. No matter what side we are on, we often say of ourselves: â€Å"I am a(an) [insert sacred belief here; for example, I am a Christian.I am a conservative. I am a socialist. I am an atheist]. † Once we define who we are in relation to an emotional commitment to a belief, we are likely to experience inner fear when that idea or belief is questioned. Questioning the belief seems to be questioning us. The intensely personal fear that we feel operates as a barrier in our minds to being fair (to the opposing belief). When we do seem to consider the opposing idea, we subconsciously undermine it, presenting it in its weakest form, in order to reject it. This is one form of intellectual cowardice.Sometimes, then, we need intellectual courage to overcome our self-created inner fear—the fear we ourselves have created by linking our identity to a specific set of beliefs. Another important reason to acquire intellectual courage is to overcome the fear of rejection by others because they hold certain beliefs and a re likely to reject us if we challenge those beliefs. This is where we invest the group with the power to intimidate us, and such power is destructive. Many people live their lives in the eyes of others and cannot approve of themselves unless others approve of them.Fear of rejection is often lurking in the back of their minds. Few people challenge the ideologies or belief systems of the groups to which they belong. This is the second form of intellectual cowardice. Both make it impossible to be fair to the ideas that are contrary to our, or our group’s, identity. You might note in passing an alternative way to form your personal identity. This is not in terms of the content of any given idea (what you actually believe) but, instead, in terms of the process by which you came to it. This is what it means to take on the identity of a critical thinker.Consider the following resolution. I will not identify with the content of any belief. I will identify only with the way I come to my beliefs. I am a critical thinker and, as such, am ready to abandon any belief that cannot be supported by evidence and rational considerations. I am ready to follow evidence and reason wherever they lead. My true identity is that of being a critical thinker, a lifelong learner, a person always looking to improve my thinking by becoming more reasonable in my beliefs. With such an identity, intellectual courage becomes more meaningful to us, and fair-mindedness more essential.We are no longer afraid to consider beliefs that are contrary to our present beliefs. We are not afraid of being proven wrong. We freely admit to having made mistakes in the past. We are happy to correct any mistakes we are still making: Tell me what you believe and why you believe it, and maybe I can learn from your thinking. I have cast off many early beliefs. I am ready to abandon as many of the present beliefs as are not consistent with the way things are. Intellectual Empathy: Entering Opposing Views Nex t let’s consider intellectual empathy, another trait of mind necessary to fair- mindedness.Intellectual empathy is an awareness of the need to imaginatively put oneself in the place of others so as to genuinely understand them. To have intellectual empathy is to be able to accurately reconstruct the viewpoints and reasoning of others and to reason from premises, assumptions, and ideas other than one’s own. This trait also correlates with the willingness to remember occasions when one was wrong in the past despite an intense conviction of being right, and with the ability to imagine being similarly deceived in a case at hand. The opposite of intellectual empathy is intellectual self-centeredness. It is thinking centered on self.When we think from a self-centered perspective, we are unable to understand others’ thoughts, feelings, and emotions. From this natural perspective, we are the recipients of most of our attention. Our pain, our desires, our hopes are most pressing. The needs of others pale into insignificance before the domination of our own needs and desires. We are unable to consider issues, problems, and questions from a viewpoint that differs from our own and that, when considered, would force us to change our perspective. How can we be fair to the thinking of others if we have not learned to put ourselves in their intellectual shoes?Fair-minded judgment requires a good-faith effort to acquire accurate knowledge. Human thinking emerges from the conditions of human life, from very different contexts and situations. If we do not learn how to take on the perspectives of others and to accurately think as they think, we will not be able to fairly judge their ideas and beliefs. Actually trying to think within the viewpoint of others is not easy, though. It is one of the most difficult skills to acquire. Intellectual Integrity: Holding Ourselves to the Same Standards to Which We Hold Ourselves Let us now consider intellectual integrity. Intellectual integrity is defined as recognition of the need to be true to one’s own thinking and to hold oneself to the same standards one expects others to meet. It means to hold oneself to the same rigorous standards of evidence and proof to which one holds one’s antagonists—to practice what one advocates for others. It also means to honestly admit discrepancies and inconsistencies in one’s own thought and action, and to be able to identify inconsistencies in one’s own thinking. The opposite of intellectual integrity is intellectual hypocrisy, a state of mind unconcerned with genuine integrity.It is often marked by deep-seated contradictions and inconsistencies. The appearance of integrity means a lot because it affects our image with others. Therefore, hypocrisy is often implicit in the thinking and action behind human behavior as a function of natural egocentric thinking. Our hypocrisy is hidden from us. Though we expect others to adhere to st andards to which we refuse to adhere, we see ourselves as fair. Though we profess certain beliefs, we often fail to behave in accordance with those beliefs. To the extent to which we have intellectual integrity, our beliefs and actions are consistent.We practice what we preach, so to speak. We don’t say one thing and do another. Suppose I were to say to you that our relationship is really important to me, but you find out that I have lied to you about something important to you. My behavior lacks integrity. I have acted hypocritically. Clearly, we cannot be fair to others if we are justified in thinking and acting in contradictory ways. Hypocrisy by its very nature is a form of injustice. In addition, if we are not sensitive to contradictions and inconsistencies in our own thinking and behavior, we cannot think well about ethical questions involving ourselves.Consider this political example. From time to time the media discloses highly questionable practices by the CIA. These practices run anywhere from documentation of attempted assassinations of foreign political leaders (say, attempts to assassinate President Castro of Cuba) to the practice of teaching police or military representatives in other countries (say, Central America or South America) how to torture prisoners to get them to disclose information about their associates.To appreciate how such disclosures reveal a lack of intellectual integrity, we only have to imagine how we would respond if another nation were to attempt to assassinate our president or trained American police or military in methods of torture. Once we imagine this, we recognize a basic inconsistency in our behavior and a lack of intellectual integrity on the part of those who plan, engage in, or approve of, that behavior. All humans sometimes fail to act with intellectual integrity.When we do, we reveal a lack of fair-mindedness on our part, and a failure to think well enough as to grasp the internal contradictions in our tho ught or life. Intellectual Perseverance: Working Through Complexity and Frustration Let us now consider intellectual perseverance. Intellectual perseverance can be defined as the disposition to work one’s way through intellectual complexities despite the frustration inherent in the task. Some intellectual problems are complex and cannot be easily solved. One has intellectual perseverance when one does not give up in the face of intellectual complexity or frustration.The intellectually perseverant person displays firm adherence to rational principles despite the irrational opposition of others, and has a realistic sense of the need to struggle with confusion and unsettled questions over an extended time to achieve understanding or insight. The opposite of intellectual perseverance is intellectual laziness, demonstrated in the tendency to give up quickly when faced with an intellectually challenging task. The intellectually indolent, or lazy, person has a low tolerance for inte llectual pain or frustration.How does a lack of intellectual perseverance impede fair-mindedness? Understanding the views of others requires that we do the intellectual work to achieve that understanding. That takes intellectual perseverance—insofar as those views are very different from ours or are complex in nature. For example, suppose we are a Christian wanting to be fair to the views of an atheist. Unless we read and understand the reasoning of intelligent and insightful atheists, we are not being fair to those views. Some intelligent and insightful atheists have written books to explain how and why they think as they do.Some of their reasoning is complicated or deals with issues of some complexity. It follows that only those Christians who have the intellectual perseverance to read and understand atheists can be fair to atheist views. Of course, a parallel case could be developed with respect to atheists’ understanding the views of intelligent and insightful Chri stians. Finally, it should be clear how intellectual perseverance is essential to almost all areas of higher-level thinking. Virtually all higher-level thinking involves some intellectual challenges that take intellectual perseverance to overcome.It takes intellectual perseverance to learn how to reason well in math, chemistry, physics, literature, art, and indeed any domain. Many give up during early stages of learning a subject. Lacking intellectual perseverance, they cut themselves off from all the insights that thinking through a subject provides. They avoid intellectual frustration, no doubt, but they end up with the everyday frustrations of not being able to solve the complex problems in their daily life. Confidence In Reason: Recognizing that Good Reasoning Has Proven Its Worth Let us now consider the trait of confidence in reason.Confidence in reason, in the long run, is based on the belief that one’s own higher interests and those of humankind at large will be best s erved by giving the freest play to reason, by encouraging people to come to their own conclusions by developing their own rational faculties; faith that, with proper encouragement and cultivation, people can learn to think for themselves, form insightful viewpoints, draw reasonable conclusions, think clearly, accurately, relevantly, and logically, persuade each other by appeal to good reason and sound evidence, and become reasonable persons, despite the deep-seated obstacles in human nature and social life. When one has confidence in reason, one is â€Å"moved† by reason in appropriate ways. The very idea of reasonability becomes one of the most important values and a focal point in one’s life. In short, to have confidence in reason is to use good reasoning as the fundamental criterion by which to judge whether to accept or reject any belief or position. The opposite of confidence in reason is intellectual distrust of reason, given by the threat that reasoning and rati onal analysis pose to the undisciplined thinker. Being prone toward emotional reactions that validate resent thinking, egocentric thinkers often express little confidence in reason. They do not understand what it means to have faith in reason. Instead, they have confidence in the truth of their own belief systems, however flawed they might be. In many ways we live in an irrational world surrounded by many forms of irrational beliefs and behaviors. For example, despite the success of science in providing plausible explanations based on careful study of evidence gathered through careful and disciplined observations, many people still believe in unsubstantiated systems such as astrology. Many people, when faced with a problem, follow their â€Å"gut† impulses.Many follow leaders whose only claim to credibility is that they are skilled in manipulating a crowd and whipping up enthusiasm. Few people seem to recognize the power of sound thinking in helping us to solves our problems and live a fulfilling life. Few people, in short, have genuine confidence in reason. In the place of faith in reason, people tend to have uncritical or â€Å"blind† faith in one or more of the following. They often— but not always—have this faith as a result of irrational drives and emotions: 1. Faith in charismatic national leaders (think of leaders such as Hitler, able to excite millions of people and manipulate them into supporting genocide of an entire religious group). 2.Faith in charismatic cult leaders. 3. Faith in the father as the traditional head of the family (as defined by religious or social tradition). 4. Faith in institutional authorities (police, social workers, judges, priests, evangelical preachers, and so forth). 5. Faith in spiritual powers (such as a â€Å"holy spirit,† as defined by various religious belief systems). 6. Faith in some social group, official or unofficial (faith in a gang, in the business community, in a church, in a p olitical party, and so on). 7. Faith in a political ideology (such as communism, capitalism, Fascism). 8. Faith in intuition. 9. Faith in one s unanalyzed emotions. 10.Faith in one’s gut impulses. 11. Faith in fate (some unnamed force that supposedly guides the destiny of all of us). 12. Faith in social institutions (the courts, schools, business community, government). 13. Faith in the folkways or mores of a social group or culture. 14. Faith in one’s own unanalyzed experience. 15. Faith in people who have social status or position (the rich, the famous, the powerful). Some of the above are compatible under some conditions, with faith in reason. The key factor is the extent to which some form of faith is based on sound reasoning and evidence. The acid test, then, is: Are there good grounds for having that faith?For example, it makes sense to have faith in a friend if that friend has consistently acted as a friend over an extended time. On the other hand, it does not m ake sense to have faith in a new acquaintance, even if one finds oneself emotionally attracted to that individual and that person professes his or her friendship. As you think about your own thinking on the nature of different kinds of faith, and the extent to which you have appropriate confidence in reason and evidence, ask yourself to what extent you can be moved by well-reasoned appeals. Suppose you meet someone who shows so much of an interest in your boyfriend or girlfriend that you feel intensely jealous and negative toward that person.Would you shift your view if you receive evidence by a dependable friend that the person you are negative about is actually exceptionally kind, thoughtful, and generous? Do you think you could shift your view, even when, deep-down, you want your boyfriend or girlfriend to reject this person in favor of you? Have you ever given up a belief you held dear because, through your reading, experience, and reflection, you became persuaded that it was no t reasonable to believe as you did? Are you ready and willing to admit that some of your most passionate beliefs (for example, your religious or political beliefs) may in fact be â€Å"wrong†? Intellectual Autonomy: Being an Independent Thinker The final intellectual trait we will consider here is intellectual autonomy.Intellectual autonomy may be defined as internal motivation based on the ideal of thinking for oneself: having rational self-authorship of one’s beliefs, values, and way of thinking; not being dependent on others for the direction and control of one’s thinking. In forming beliefs, critical thinkers do not passively accept the beliefs of others. Rather, they think through situations and issues for themselves and reject unjustified authorities while recognizing the contributions of reasonable authority. They thoughtfully form principles of thought and action and do not mindlessly accept those presented to them. They are not limited by accepted ways of doing things. They evaluate the traditions and practices that others often accept unquestioningly.Independent thinkers strive to incorporate knowledge and insight into their thinking, independent of the social status of the source. They are not willful, stubborn, or unresponsive to the reasonable suggestions of others. They are self-monitoring thinkers who strive to amend their own mistakes. They function from values they themselves have freely chosen. Of course, intellectual autonomy must be understood not as a thing-in-itself. Instead, we must recognize it as a dimension of our minds working in conjunction with, and tempered by, the other intellectual virtues. The opposite of intellectual autonomy is intellectual conformity, or intellectual dependence.Intellectual autonomy is difficult to develop because social institutions, as they now stand, depend heavily on passive acceptance of the status quo, whether intellectual, political, or economic. Thinking for oneself almost certai nly leads to unpopular conclusions not sanctioned by the powers that be. There are always many rewards for those who simply conform in thought and action to social expectations. Consequently, the large masses of people are unknowing conformists in thought and deed. They are like mirrors reflecting the belief systems and values of those who surround them. They lack the intellectual skills and the incentive to think for themselves. They are intellectually conforming thinkers. Even those who spend years getting a Ph. D. in a field may be intellectually dependent, both academically and personally.They may uncritically accept faulty practices in the discipline as it stands, uncritically defending the discipline against legitimate critics. The result often is unwarranted human harm and suffering. One cannot be fair-minded and lack intellectual autonomy, for independent thinking is a prerequisite to thinking within multiple perspectives. When we intellectually conform, we are only able to think within â€Å"accepted† viewpoints. But to be fair-minded is to refuse to uncritically accept beliefs without thinking through the merits (and demerits) of those beliefs for oneself. Recognizing the Interdependence of Intellectual Virtues The traits of mind essential for critical thinking are interdependent. Consider intellectual humility.To become aware of the limits of our knowledge, we need the intellectual courage to face our own prejudices and ignorance. To discover our own prejudices in turn, we often must intellectually empathize with and reason within points of view with which we fundamentally disagree. To achieve this end, we typically must engage in intellectual perseverance, as learning to empathically enter a point of view against which we are biased takes time and significant effort. That effort will not seem justified unless we have the necessary confidence in reason to believe we will not be tainted or â€Å"taken in† by whatever is false or mislead ing in the opposing viewpoint.Furthermore, merely believing we won’t be harmed by considering â€Å"alien† viewpoints is not enough to motivate most of us to consider them seriously. We also must be motivated by an intellectual sense of justice. We must recognize an intellectual responsibility to be fair to views we oppose. We must feel obliged to hear them in their strongest form to ensure that we are not condemning them out of ignorance or bias on our part. At this point, we come full circle to where we began: the need for intellectual humility. To begin at another point, consider intellectual integrity or good faith. Intellectual integrity is clearly a difficult trait to develop. We are often motivated—generally without admitting to or being aware of this motivation— to set up inconsistent standards in thinking.Our egocentric or sociocentric tendencies, for example, make us ready to believe positive information about those we like and negative informat ion about those we dislike. We likewise are strongly inclined to believe what serves to justify our selfish interests or validate our strongest desires. Hence, all humans have some innate mental tendencies to operate with double standards, which is typical of intellectual bad faith. These modes of thinking often correlate quite well with getting ahead in the world, maximizing our power or advantage, and getting more of what we want. Nevertheless, it is difficult to operate explicitly or overtly with a double standard. We therefore need to avoid looking at the evidence too closely.We need to avoid scrutinizing our own inferences and interpretations too carefully. At this point, a certain amount of intellectual arrogance is quite useful. I may assume, for example, that I know just what you’re going to say (before you say it), precisely what you are really after (before the evidence demonstrates it), and what actually is going on (before I have studied the situation carefully). My intellectual arrogance makes it easier for me to avoid noticing the unjustifiable discrepancy between the standards I apply to you and the standards I apply to myself. Not having to empathize with you makes it easier to avoid seeing my self-deception.I also am better positioned if I lack a need to be fair to your point view. A little background fear of what I might discover if I seriously consider the consistency of my own judgments can be quite useful as well. In this case, my lack of intellectual integrity is supported by my lack of intellectual humility, empathy, and fair-mindedness. Going in the other direction, it will be difficult to use a double standard if I feel a responsibility to be fair to your point of view, to see that this responsibility requires me to view things from your perspective empathically, and to do so with some humility, recognizing that I could be wrong, and you, right. The more I dislike you personally, or feel wronged in he past by you or by others wh o share your way of thinking, the more pronounced in my character the trait of intellectual integrity and good faith must be to compel me to be fair. Conclusion True excellence in thinking is not simple the result of isolated intellectual skills. There are inevitable problems in the thinking of persons who, without knowing it, lack the intellectual virtues. Instead, they frequently display the traits of the undisciplined mind. To the extent one is unconsciously motivated to believe what one wants to believe, what is most comfortable to believe, what puts one in a good light, what serves one’s selfish interest, one is unable to function as a rational person.