Life of Pi Adversity on Identity Essay Example for Free

Life of Pi Adversity on Identity Essay Adversity can present itself according to a vast spectrum of severity and can have drastically different effects on individuals. When faced with adversity, people either learn to adapt to what has happened and make do with the circumstances, whereas other individuals will find themselves unable to cope with adversity and ultimately breakdown and lose their ability to carry on. Yann Martel explores, in his fantasy adventure novel, Life of P, a young boys reaction to the hardships of adversity. Piscine Patel, an adventurous tenacious young boy experiences the struggle of urviving at sea, and the calamity of coping with tragic events in his life. Yann Martel develops the idea that adversity can transform an individuals identity and play a significant role in ones life by shaping personal values, determining ones inner strengths and self worth. adventure novel, Life of Pi, a young boys reaction to the hardships of adversity. Piscine Patel, an adventurous tenacious young boy experiences the struggle ot other individuals will tind themselves unable to cope witn adversity and ultimately

Comparing James Joyces The Dead and Dubliners :: comparison compare contrast essays

An Analysis of The Dead To start in absolutely the least likely place, we have here another version of family life in Ireland (moving East, and from here through The Snapper make a unit contrasting with the previous one), with another way of picturing what the Irish take to be their insularity and closedness, their ludicrous longing for union with the supposedly superior but alien culture of "the continent", and especially that confusion and torment about sexuality which derives so directly from the Irish church's inability to reconcile desire as sin and desire as life-affirming. A fact (at least according to a major recent survey): married Catholics have better sex than other married Americans. Why? It's been suggested that you can't preach so fully the analogy between the union of man and woman with the union of Christ and his church and indeed of man with God without giving a celebratory turn to married love. But this would be inconceivable to the Irish, whose church (despite its being the dominant influ ence on American Catholicism) focuses on the ascetic and the equation of sex with sin. In a sense, because he is so firmly embedded in this tradition, struggling against it, Joyce seems both hopelessly dated and eternal: hopelessly dated because we don't have enough residue of the sense of sinfullness in our culture to have it be much of a force we have to struggle against, and eternal because it remains true for everyone that passing into adulthood (especially through adolescence) means somehow coming to terms with what is a strand of conflict between sexuality insofar as it is self-aggrandizing and aggressive and the affectional life as it is non-self-aggrandizing and other-centered and in some sense more "pure"-seeming. It is of course possible to come to good terms with this contradiction, but it is also possible to understand and be undermined by its existence, and Gabriel is a very clear instance of the person who can't really reconcile simple physical desire for his beloved wife, a 'getting close to and taking' motive, with equally simple adoration and affection for her in the grace and authenticity of her autonomy, a 'standing back and in some sense giving' motive (I read two passages from Portrait, 171, as against 99-101). So Gabriel is troubled by what strikes us awfully oddly as his moments of pure and "clownish" "lust", and

Ethical Issues in Social Research Essay

Ethics is a part of every society and is entwined in every aspect of daily living, however the meaning of ethics or what is ethical differs. Ethics is commonly associated with morality and Webster’s New world Dictionary defines ethical as â€Å"conforming to the standards of conduct of a given profession or group.† Knowing what a particular society considers ethical and unethical is what contributes to living successfully in that society. This is the same for researchers; researchers need to be aware of what is considered ethical and unethical conduct of scientific inquiry. From the time immediately after World War II until the early 1990s, there was a gradually developing consensus about the key ethical principles that should underlie the research endeavor; two events stand out as symbolic of this consensus. The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial following World War II brought to public view the ways German scientists had used captive human subjects as subjects in oftentimes g ruesome experiments. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study involved the withholding of known effective treatment for syphilis from African-American participants who were infected. Events like these forced the reexamination of ethical standards and the gradual development of a consensus that potential human subjects needed to be protected from being used as ‘guinea pigs’ in scientific research. There are several reasons why it is important to adhere to ethical norms in research. First, norms promote the aims of research, such as knowledge, truth, and avoidance of error. For example, prohibitions against fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresenting research data promote the truth and avoid error. Second, since research often involves a great deal of cooperation and coordination among many different people in different disciplines and institutions, ethical standards promote the values that are essential to collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual respect, and fairness. For example, many ethical norms in research, such as guidelines for authorship, copyright and patenting policies, data sharing policies, and confidentiality rules in pe er review, are designed to protect intellectual property interests while encouraging collaboration. Most researchers want to receive credit for their contributions and do not want to have their ideas stolen or disclosed prematurely. Third, many of the ethical norms help to ensure that researchers can be held accountable to the public. For instance, federal policies on research misconduct, conflicts of interest, the human subject’s  protections, and animal care and use are necessary in order to make sure that researchers who are funded by public money can be held accountable to the public. Fourth, ethical norms in research also help to build public support for research. People are more likely to fund research project if they can trust the quality and integrity of research. Finally, many of the norms of research promote a variety of other important moral and social values, such as social responsibility, human rights, and animal welfare, compliance with the law, and health and safety. Ethical lapses in research can significantly harm human and animal subjects, students, and the public. For example, a researcher who fabricates data in a clinical trial may harm or even kill patients and a researcher who fails to abide by regulations and guidelines relating to radiation or biological safety may jeopardize his health and safety or the health and safety of staff and students. We can’t solve our social problems until we understand how they come about, persist. Social science research offers a way to examine and understand the operation of human social affairs. It provides points of view and technical procedures that uncover things that would otherwise escape our awareness. Often, as it goes, things are not what they seem; social science research can make that clear. Social research is often seen as an intrusion to people, as it is seen as a disruption in their normal daily activities. Social research examines a society’s attitudes, assumptions, beliefs, trends, stratifications and rules. Social research obtains personal information about people, information that might not be known by the people closest to them. The information obtained can then be revealed to other people such as lawyers and doctors and in the case of lawyers this information can then be revealed to their clients; therefore social researchers like to believe that the research will help all humanity. Popular topics of social research include poverty, racism, class issues, sexuality, voting behavior, gender constructs, policing and criminal behavior. Research can be conducted using surveys, reports, observation, questionnaires, focus groups, historical accounts, personal diaries and census statistics. There are two types of research: qualitative research and quantitative research. Qualitative research is inductive, meaning the researcher creates hypotheses and  abstractions from collected data. Most data is collected via words or pictures and mostly from people. Researchers are interested in how people make sense of their lives and in the research process itself. Quantitative research is the complete opposite and most often involves numbers and set data. Quantitative data is efficient but focuses only on the end result, not the process itself, as qualitative research does. Quantitative data is precise and is often the result of surveys or questionnaires. Voluntary participation is a major principle of research ethics and the same applies to social research. Everyone participating should do so voluntary and should not be forced in any way. Participants should also be informed that there is no reward for participating in the research and they will not be penalized if they do not want to participate. Voluntary participation does however, raise scientific concerns, a major one being generalization. This is said because it is believed that only people with the same personality or same traits would volunteer to participate in a particular research therefore the results will not apply to the population as a whole. There are instances where the researcher will not reveal they are doing a research because they will not want the subjects to be affected in terms of not wanting to participate. In these instances the subjects don’t get to chose if they want to participate, therefore the researcher has to ensure that they do not bring any harm to the subjects they are studying. Harm can be defined as both physical and psychological. There are two standards that are applied in order to help protect the privacy of research participants. Almost all research guarantees the participants’ confidentiality; they are assured that identifying information will not be made available to anyone who is not directly involved in the study. The stricter standard is the principle of anonymity which essentially means that the participant will remain anonymous throughout the study –even to the researchers themselves. The need to protect the subjects has been in part to violations against subjects by medical researchers, like the experiments performed on prisoners of war by Nazi researchers in World War II. Social research should never harm the subjects, no matter if it is voluntary or not. Social researchers should ensure that their research will in no way embarrass subjects or endanger their family life, jobs or anyone else they are associated with. Social researchers have an obligation to protect their subjects, therefore they have to ask the subjects very personal questions about their behavior, income or anything else that may personal agony or harm to the subject. It is because of this that all participants must be informed of the risks involved in participating in research projects. Social researchers should also be careful when writing books or articles about their studies because the subjects often read the books or articles and if they see themselves in a negative way. The key to research whether it is, voluntary participation or avoiding harm, is sensitivity to the issues being researched and experience with applicants. Even when clear ethical standards and principles exist, there will be times when the need to do accurate research runs up against the rights of potential participants. No set of standards can possibly anticipate every ethical circumstance. Furthermore, there needs to be a procedure that assures that rese archers will consider all relevant ethical issues in formulating research plans.

What Is the True Meaning of Republicanism

The Founding Fathers of the United States of America may have declared independence from Britain in 1776, but the real work of putting together the new government got underway at the Constitutional Convention, which took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. After the deliberations ended and the delegates were leaving the hall, a member of the crowd that had gathered outside, Mrs. Elizabeth Powell, asked Benjamin Franklin, â€Å"Well, doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?† Franklin responded, â€Å"A republic, madam, if you can keep it.† Today, citizens of the United States assume they have kept it, but what, exactly, does a republic, and the philosophy that defines it—republicanism—mean? Definition In general, republicanism refers to the ideology embraced by members of a republic, which is a form of representational government in which leaders are elected for a specific period by the preponderance of the citizenry, and laws are passed by these leaders for the benefit of the entire republic, rather than select members of a ruling class, or aristocracy. In an ideal republic, leaders are elected from among the working citizenry, serve the republic for a defined period, then return to their work, never to serve again. Unlike a direct or pure democracy, in which the majority vote rules, a republic guarantees a certain set of basic civil rights to every citizen, codified in a charter or constitution, which cannot be overridden by majority rule. Key Concepts Republicanism stresses several key concepts, notably, the importance of civic virtue, the benefits of universal political participation, the dangers of corruption, the need for  separate powers within government, and a healthy reverence for the rule of law. From these concepts, one paramount value stands apart: political liberty. Political liberty, in this case, refers not only to freedom from government interference in private affairs, but it also places great emphasis on self-discipline and self-reliance. Under a monarchy, for instance, an all-powerful leader decrees what the citizenry is and is not allowed to do. By contrast, leaders of a republic stay out of the lives of the individuals they serve, unless the republic as a whole is threatened, say in the case of a violation of a civil liberty guaranteed by the charter or constitution. A republican government usually has several safety nets in place to offer assistance to those in need, but the general assumption is that most individuals are capable of helping themselves and their fellow citizens. History The word republic comes from the Latin phrase res publica, meaning thing of the people or the public property. The Romans rejected their king and formed a republic in about 500 BCE. There were three periods of republics until it finally fell in 30 BCE. Republicanism saw revivals in Europe during the Middle Ages, but chiefly in limited areas and for short times. It was not until the American and French revolutions that republicanism took more of a foothold. Notable Quotes â€Å"Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.† — John Adams â€Å"Citizenship is what makes a republic; monarchies can get along without it.† — Mark Twain â€Å"The true republic: men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.† — Susan B. Anthony â€Å"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate.† — Abraham Lincoln â€Å"In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.†Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬â€ Montesquieu Sources â€Å"Republicanism.†Ã‚  Annenberg Classroom, 4 Aug. 2017.â€Å"Republicanism.†Ã‚  North Carolina History Project.