Explain Kants Ethical theories Essay Example for Free

Explain Kants Ethical theories Essay Kant’s ethical theory is an absolute and deontological theory. This means that humans are seeking the ultimate end called the supreme good also known as the ‘summon Bonnum’. Kant says that morality is a categorical imperative, this is a duty which must always be obeyed in all possible situations. A categorical imperative is what is needed to find what is right or wrong. Kant argued that to act morally is to do one’s duty, and one’s duty is to obey the moral law. Kant also believe that there was no room for emotion. Kant believe that categorical imperative helps us to know which actions are obligatory and which are forbidden. There are three principles within the categorical imperatives these include Universal law, Treat humans as ends In themselves and Act as if you live in a kingdom of ends. Universal law is putting minority views first. If it is wrong for one person than it is wrong for everyone. An action must not be carried out unless the person believes that the same situation all people would act in the same way. Treat humans as ends in themselves is respecting a person. This means that you can never use human beings for another purpose or to exploit or enslave them, this is because humans are the highest point of creation and demand unique treatment. Act as if you live in a kingdom of ends, this means treat all with respect. Kant believed that all of these helped to create ‘maxims’. A maxim is an absolute moral statement about a universal truth. For example a maxim: Murder is wrong. Therefore it is a universal rule that murdering anyone is wrong. Kant believes that we can only be true moral agents if we are free to make our own decisions. He argues that our freedom to make rational choices is what separates us from animals. He says that is you can do something, you should be able to do something, and if you cannot do something it is unfair to be asked. E.g. it is unfair to ask someone in a wheelchair to run a marathon.

Girl Interrupted Essay -- essays research papers

GIRL, INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1993) 1. Author: Susanna Kayson was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1948 where she still lives. She is the author of books which are in some parts related to her personal experiences. She worked as a free-lance editor and proof reader until an introduction to an agent set her career in motion. Her novels: The novel that caught the agent's attention, Asa, As I Knew Him, was published in 1987 and people were very interested in it. Kaysen followed up the success of her first book three years later with her second novel, Far Afield. Kaysen's third and as far as I know last book, Girl, Interrupted has been hugely acclaimed in America and Britain. 2. Subject of the book: The book is an autobiography . It ´s about her memories of her two-year stay at McLean ´s psychiatric hospital, where she was treated for depression and Borderline Personality. With the help of a lawyer she obtained her 350 page file from the hospital. 3. Setting†¦: The story is set in the years 1967 to 1969. Mostly it takes place on the ward for teenage girls in the McLean psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, which is known for its famous clients – Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, Anne Sexton and Ray Charles. 4. Characters: Susanna Kaysen(main character): She is an 18-year-old girl, and the story is, since it is an autobiography told from her point of view. What was going wrong with her life? She tells us she decided s...

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â€Å"BP is a multinational energy business that has 92,000 employees and operates in 175 countries. When a new chief executive was recruited internally at BP (Tony Hayward), he promised to improve the company’s disappointing performance by quickly changing its culture to become more innovative and responsive to its customers. † Q: How easy do you think it is for a new chief executive to change the culture of an organization quickly?Justify your answer with reference to BP &/or other businesses that you know. The BP Company has experienced a huge explosion at its Texas City Refinery in 2005, the oil spillage in Alaska in 2006 and also the Gulf of Mexico explosion in the BP oilfield in 2010, and these occurrences have had effects on the BP’s reputation and the business performance. As a new chief executive officer, Tony Hayward was recruited in June 2007 and he took over for BP's highly-respected former CEO Lord Browne.The new CEO of BP may be able to use his own leadership or management style to change the culture of the organization and also try to help the business to grow and improve better. However, the extent to which the effectiveness of his way of leading the business and how quickly it can be for change to eh business culture are depends upon different factors. Firstly, Tony Hayward uses the democratic and paternalistic leadership style to manage the business.Hayward was describing as a typical command and control organization that is overly focused on cost-cutting and consumed with firefighting. According to the website, Hayward had shared his opinion of the culture of the business and three major points with other members of senior management. He stated that the BP is having the leadership style that probably is too directive and doesn't listen sufficiently well. The top of the organization doesn't listen hard enough to what the bottom of the organization is saying.BP has a management style that has made a virtue out of doing more for less which in some cases is okay and might work, but it needs to be managed and deployed with great judgment and wisdom, and when it isn't, the BP may run into troubles. Another thing that Hayward is trying to say is that he thinks the BP should think more about the maintenance of a piece of equipment for a longer time period but not the short term benefit like cutting the cost, for example, it is not responsible to cut budgets related to safety and maintenance without thoroughly examining the impact on the risk of a catastrophic accident.At the same time, Hayward is well known and has experiences in the organization. If the workers can get involved more to the business so that this might lead to better decision making and he also want workers to feel more secure and happy in their jobs, since he hope to make the business to become more innovative. For example, in changing situations that demand a new way of thinking or a fresh solution, stuff input can be very helpful and valu able.These management strategies may lead the business to perform better, and if the whole business is having more motivation to work which on the other words means to become more responsive to its customers and furthermore, it may enable BP to raise it reputation and gain its public’s trust again. However, on the other hand, changing the corporative culture of the business can be very difficult and in reality, it take times for the business to get used to the changes before it moves on to the other stage of better business performance. There are also some other factors that can influence the leadership style.For example, if the employees of BP are more used to the leadership style of the previous CEO, although it is believed that management strategies can significant influence the whole business, but it might still lead to a bad or worse business performance or the resistance from the employees from accepting the changes in the culture of the business. The CEO of BP may not be able to change the business culture quickly or expecting a sudden change in the innovative ability of the business, most of the strategies take time to result in the good way and become effective for the whole business.Another factor is that because for the natural of the business, like its reputation has been influence by the serious occurrences that happened before and BP had also lost some public trusts, rather than trying to change negative aspect, it might be better and easier for them to concentrate on the positive aspects of the business and how it currently operates. Some of the external factors that will influence the leader’s ability may be the economic issue like recession, for example, the rapid decisions taken at a senior level may be needed to secure the survival of the business during the recession.There are also some problems associated with the change in organizational culture. Firstly, If the establishment of the new objectives and a mission statement is not clear or is not accurately reflecting the new values and attitudes that are to be adopted, these new aspects of the business all needed to be communicated to all the employees of BP, otherwise it might lead to a demotivation of the workforce of the whole business.Secondly, if the CEO of BP is unable to change the culture of the business in the quick way because of lack of training, so they may need to train staff in new procedures and new ways of working. If the people believe in the change and understand the benefits of it, then it will become more acceptable to them. In conclusion, it is possible for a new chief executive to change the culture of an organization and have positive influences if the CEO implement the right strategies and has set the objects clear and communicate well to the whole business.However, it takes time for the BP Company to accept or get used to the changes of the business culture in a short period of time. Therefore, if the CEO is able to avoid the pos sible negative influences that might affect the change in organizational culture and the factors that might have an impact on the BP’s performance, then the new CEO may be able to help BP to improve the company’s disappointing performance and achieve its main corporate objectives in the future.

What Is Gaul in Ancient History

The quick answer is ancient France. This is too simplistic, though, since the area that was Gaul extends into what are the modern neighboring countries. Generally, Gaul is considered the home, from about the eighth century B.C., of ancient Celts who spoke a Gallic language. People known as Ligurians had lived there before the Celts migrated from more eastern Europe. Some areas of Gaul had been colonized by the Greeks, especially Massilia, modern Marseilles. The Province(s) of Gallia The Rubicon Border of Cisalpine Gaul When Celtic tribal invaders from the north entered Italy in about 400 B.C., the Romans called them Galli Gauls. They settled amid the other people of northern Italy. Battle of the Allia In 390, some of these, the Gallic Senones, under Brennus, had gone far enough south in Italy to capture Rome after they won the Battle of the Allia. This loss was long remembered as one of Romes worst defeats. Cisalpine Gaul Then, in the final quarter of the third century B.C., Rome annexed the area of Italy in which the Gallic Celts had settled. This area was known as Gaul on this side of the Alps Gallia Cisalpina (in Latin), which is generally Anglicized as the less cumbersome Cisalpine Gaul. A Gallic Province In 82 B.C., the Roman dictator Sulla made Cisalpine Gaul a Roman province. The famous Rubicon River formed its southern border, so when proconsul Julius Caesar precipitated civil war by crossing it, he was leaving provinces over which he, as a pro-magistrate, had legitimate military control and bringing armed troops against his own people. Gallia Togata and Transpadana The people of Cisalpine Gaul were not only Celtic Galli, but also Roman settlers -- so many that the area was also known as Gallia togata, named for the signal article of Roman apparel. Another area of Gaul during the late Republic lay on the other side of the Alps. The Gallic area beyond the Po river was called Gallia Transpadana for the Latin name for the Po River, Padua. Provincia ~ Provence When Massilia, a city mentioned above that had been settled by Greeks in about 600 B.C., came under attack by Ligurians and Gallic tribes in 154 B.C., the Romans, concerned about their access to Hispania, came to its assistance. Then they took control of the region from the Mediterranean to Lake Geneva. This area outside Italy, which became a province in 121 B.C., was known as Provincia the province and is now remembered in the French version of the Latin word, Provence. Three years later, Rome established a colony at Narb. The province was renamed Narbonensis provincia, under Augustus, the first Roman emperor. It was also known as Gallia braccata; again, named for the special article of apparel common to the area, braccae breeches (trousers). Narbonensis provincia was important because it gave Rome access to Hispania through the Pyrenees. Tres Galliae - Gallia Comata At the end of the second century B.C., Caesars uncle Marius put an end to those Cimbri and Teutones who had invaded Gaul. A monument to Marius 102 B.C. victory was erected at Aquae Sextiae (Aix). About forty years later, Caesar went back, helping the Gauls with more intruders, Germanic tribes, and the Celtic Helvetii. Caesar had been awarded Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul as provinces to govern following his 59 B.C. consulship. We know a great deal about it because he wrote about his military exploits in Gaul in his Bellum Gallicum. The opening of this work is familiar to Latin students. In translation, it says, All Gaul is divided into three parts. These three parts arent the already well-known to the Romans, Transalpine Gaul, Cisapline Gaul and Gallia Narbonensis, but areas further from Rome, Aquitania, Celtica, and Belgica, with the Rhine as the eastern border. Properly, they are the peoples of the areas, but the names are also applied geographically. Under Augustus, these three together were known as Tres Galliae the three Gauls. The Roman historian Syme says Emperor Claudius and the historian Tacitus (who preferred the term Galliae) refer to them as Gallia comata Long-haired Gaul, long hair being an attribute that was noticeably different from the Romans. By their time the three Gauls had been subdivided into three, slightly different ones encompassing more peoples than those named in Caesars tribal groupings: Aquitania, Belgica (where the Elder Pliny, who may have early served at Narbonensis, and a Cornelius Tacitus would serve as Procurator), and Gallia Lugdunensis (where emperors Claudius and Caracalla were born). Aquitania Under Augustus, the province of Aquitaine was extended to include 14 more tribes between the Loire and Garonne than just the Aquitani. The area was in the southwest of Gallia comata. Its boundaries were the ocean, the Pyrenees, the Loire, Rhine, and Cevenna range. [Source: Postgate.] Strabo on the Rest of Transalpine Gaul The geographer Strabo describes the remaining two sections of Tres Galliae as consisting of what is left over after Narbonensis and Aquitaine, divided into the Lugdunum section to the upper Rhine and the territory of the Belgae: Augustus Caesar, however, divided Transalpine Celtica into four parts: the Celtae he designated as belonging to the province of Narbonitis; the Aquitani he designated as the former Caesar had already done, although he added to them fourteen tribes of the peoples who dwell between the Garumna and the Liger Rivers; the rest of the country he divided into two parts: one part he included within the boundaries of Lugdunum as far as the upper districts of the Rhenus, while the other he included within the boundaries of the Belgae.Strabo Book IV The Five Gauls Roman Provinces by Geographic Location Sources Gaul The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press, 1996.Imaginary Geography in Caesars Bellum Gallicum, by Krebs, Christopher B.; American Journal of Philology, Volume 127, Number 1 (Whole Number 505), Spring 2006, pp. 111-136More Narbonensian Senators, by Ronald Syme; Zeitschrift fà ¼r Papyrologie und Epigraphik Bd. 65, (1986), pp. 1-24Provincia Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) William Smith, LLD, Ed.Messalla in Aquitania, by J. P. Postgate; The Classical Review Vol. 17, No. 2 (Mar. 1903), pp. 112-117The Patria of Tacitus, by Mary L. Gordon; The Journal of Roman Studies Vol. 26, Part 2 (1936), pp. 145-151