Operations & Service Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Tasks and Service Management - Assignment Example Direction, Legal Restriction, Layout and Design, Composition, Process Photography, Darkroom Procedures, Stripping, Plate making, Offset Ink and Paper, Bindery Operations, Offset Press Operation, Production Problems, and Occupations and Evaluation .Main is the utilization of uncommon paper for printing for M& S. Note: All corporate and limited time material (for example booklets, handouts and banners) must be endorsed by the Publications Officer, before being passed to the Print Unit for propagation. 3-5 working days ought to be took into consideration this, contingent upon the unpredictability of the activity. So as to get request from M&S,Wace Burgess need to concentrate and survey on the likely dangers and compensation for its food and honesty .It is perfect to consent to a printing administrations arrangement including the desires for the customer expressing all the conceivable configuration for orders, Costing ,Capacity planning,Utilisation,Turn around time ,Accuracy boundary, structuring procedure and kick the bucket cutting and so on .There ought to likewise be tough proviso on installment standing and punishment or alterations as far as late fulfillment of request dependent on effect of misfortune brought about by W&S. Wace Burgess ought to likewise the need to popularize the new innovation for an enormous scope and to make benefits and demonstrate its maintainability. It is critical to take note of that the Wace Burgess is seen by M&S in light of the fact that they have been fruitful in printing innovation. Presently they are confronted with another test of overseeing innovativeness while getting a major request from a significant association like M&S: a personality move from a little association to bigger association is a piece

Education :: essays research papers

From the antiquated years numerous individuals attempted to taint their insight to other people. It was not troublesome in any event, for a sub-par human advancement to comprehend that the instruction was totally fundamental, so the capitulary of training is old. Training is one of the most significant devices that a general public has. The correct usage of this apparatus is probably the best methods of guaranteeing the personal satisfaction inside a general public. The capacity to better ourselves, is perhaps the most grounded capacity of humankind. Without the steady improvement of mankind, life would be simply endurance. At its most essential degree of definition, training is just the instructing of thoughts. The beginning periods of tutoring ingrain more mentality and social aptitudes than information. The more youthful phases of an individual's life are typically the most determinable long periods of their lives. Consequently numerous simple aptitudes are instructed. As the age and expertise level of the understudy builds, more training depends on the enthusiasm of the understudy. For society to advance and exceed expectations each age must learn only somewhat more. Training has its ruins. Understudies are just encouraged what society wants to educate them. In the event that a general public doesn't need understudies to find out about a specific time of history, at that point it isn't instructed. Instruction is an apparatus to prevail throughout everyday life. The nature of instruction that an understudy gets relies on numerous issues. Perhaps the greatest contrast in instruction is among open and non-public schools. In a general public that qualities cash, for example, our own, the rich are given a superior foundation in training than a great many people. For the overall population, understudies are shown a similar material, and exceed expectations at unexpected rates in comparison to different understudies. The individuals that don't get a handle on the material for the most part fall behind and turn into the common laborers inside our general public. Those that exceed expectations become the foundation of our general public, fuelling our economy and creating thoughts inside our reality. The distinction in training isn't just isn't just the expertise that is given, yet in addition the disposition. Each individual is unique, and a few people do not have the capacity to work in a specialized field. Everybody has a spot in the public eye, and a few people will buckle down genuinely the entirety of their lives.

Malaysia Economy And Relationship Of Fiscal Policy Economics Essay

Malaysia Economy And Relationship Of Fiscal Policy Economics Essay Our examination researches the significance of monetary strategy in economy of any nation. There are a ton of factors that have relationship with monetary strategy and shows sway on affordable development. In our paper we have break down the financial approach of Malaysia (Asian nation) from 2010-2012 by referencing the past of Malaysia economy late in 1970s. Official outline Financial arrangement depicts two administrative activities by the legislature. The first is tax collection and second activity is government spending. This paper investigates the adjustment properties of monetary arrangement in Malaysia utilizing a model consolidating nonlinearities into the dynamic connection between financial approach and genuine monetary action over the development cycle. Government of Malaysia support in the economy extended further in 1980-82 as it sought after an expansionary countercyclical financial strategy planned for invigorating financial movement and continuing development to brave the impacts of the worldwide downturn. The countercyclical approach prompted twin deficiencies in the legislatures monetary position and the equalization of installments. Malaysia ran determined monetary deficiencies all through the 2000s, averaging only aboveâ 5% of GDP from 2000-05. By 2007, the monetary deficiency had fallen underneath 4%, yet with the beginning of the budgetary emergency, the breakdown in development and the following financial improvement gauges, the shortfall shot back up to 7.1% of GDP in 2009 andâ 5.8% in 2010. In 2011 and 2012 Malaysia monetary strategy will assist them with constructing better choices for provincial zones improvement and their significant salary for government income will be personal assessments. our discoveries are upheld by past writing on Malaysia economy and relationship of financial approach to different factors. Writing survey Financial approach, the administration chooses the amount to spend , what to spend , what to spend for and how to back its spending (Abel et, al ; 2001). Financial strategy is characterized as change in government expenses and buys that are planned to accomplish macroeconomics approach goals (hubbard O Brien; 2010) There are two models infer with respect to monetary approach of a nation in financial perspective. Standard Keynesian model suggest that monetary strategy ought to be countercyclical when terrible occasions hits the administration spending should increments and lower burdens by government to assist economy with spending it way out of downturn. In the event that approach producers following Keynesian model, at that point there will be business cycle a positive connection among's assessments and yield and negative connection between government spending and yield. the subsequent models charge smoothing suggest that financial strategy ought to be impartial all over business cycle and just react to foreseen changes that influence the administration spending imperatives. by following this model all relationship will basically zero Barro (1979). The harmony way to deal with monetary strategy sum up by David Aschauer (1988) and Robert Barro (1989). The macroeconomics examination impacts of financial approach on affordable development in light of the fact that monetary strategy impacts total interest, the circulation of riches and economy ability to produces administrations and merchandise. Neoclassical methodology stress on momentary impact of various instruments of financial arrangement. Also, consistent rate development is driven by exogenous factor which are elements of populace and mechanical advancement. In Asian squires the development execution perception saw as: development declined and become stale fundamentally since 1985 and government consumptions are not represses full abuse of development capability of Asian nations. Inquired about on hypothesis and observational writing shows impacts of financial arrangement factors that are government consumption programs and duties on monetary development Gerson (1998). Study centered that there is hearty positive commitment of government consumption proportion to development Caseli et, al (1996). Abdullah et, al (2008) concentrated on Pedroni Cointrgartion technique to show a since quite a while ago run connection between monetary strategy and financial development. A few investigations inspected viability of financial approach and contended in Keynesian occasions that monetary arrangement will builds discretionary cashflow promotion raise the private utilization however a few examinations accentuate that financial strategy can have non Keynesian impacts. Feldstein Giavazzi Pangano (1982) give that thought and reason that perpetual government use decrease may increment in salary , in this manner increment current utilization and total interest. Concerning Ireland and Denmark considers they found that contractionary financial arrangement may have expansionary results. Blanchard (1990) finds that the underlying obligation level has a significant impact on monetary strategy impact. Chief (1999) contends money related strategy can be compelled by financial arrangement, if monetary shortages develop sufficiently enormous to require adaptation of government obligation. This contention underline that money related arrangement isn't autonomous of financial approach choice of government. By close financial strategy holds by government we can simple run a non inflationary money related arrangement however with tireless spending shortfall spending it is absurd to expect to run a non-inflationary fiscal approach. A few specialists affirmed that there is connection between monetary arrangement and securities exchange (Arin et, al; 2009 , Afonso et, al ; 2011, silvia iqbal ;2011). As to Malaysia the connection between monetary strategy and securities exchange record broke down. This examination was finished up by utilizing co incorporation test to identify the presence of since quite a while ago run relationship and furthermore need VECM vector blunder development model for short run presence. the finding demonstrates that monetary strategy devices assumes a significant job in quickening budgetary execution in Malaysia. During the 1970s Malaysia government assumed a key job in economy. Malaysia financial matters execution was great in late 1980s just as 1990s with genuine development of 8% per annum. This development was expected to expansionary money related and monetary arrangements aggravated by FDI. Malaysia economy was in money related emergency in 1997/98 and confronted less 4% in development with quick devaluing household cash and liquidity. By adjustment gauges the genuine yield lifted a post every year of 5% 6% in 1998. As worldwide financial obliged kept on enduring the 1999-2003 spending plans kept up an expansionary position, with authoritys aware of the need to keep up obligation supportability. The countercyclical monetary strategy actualized was successful in supporting financial recuperation and continuing household request in 2001. Malaysia had the option to record a positive development rate by supporting compelling financial approach. Government consumption in Malaysia was allotte d for 2 significant purposes specifically activity purposes and improvement purposes. Activity designs are for overhauling and improve profitability just as for long haul financial development. The biggest part of working use is remittances, endowments, supplies and administrations. By improving sponsorships is to diminish of weight of society to poor and disservices gatherings. Apportioning spending plans for advancement reason to update rustic zones and low salary family units which have noteworthy job in supporting development. The administration improvement consumption development is quicker than working which is 7.1 % contrast with 8.5% for advancement uses. the primary wellspring of government income is charge assortment and non-charge income to fund its use to progress for prospect of nation too. The annual expense is significant duty in Malaysia (financial report service of money 2010-2011). In September 2011 the Malaysia FICO score slipping from A+ to A by giving a dismal sign. The Malaysia doesn't have track record of rehearsing financial control, as in two a decades ago the Malaysia gas had government spending shortfalls even in great occasions of development. Malaysias constantly enormous government speculations, spreading over 10 years, are a rating limitation. In 2011 the subsequent quarter was miserable one for Malaysia as assembling division development pace of 2.1% against development pace of 5.5% in the primary portion of 2011. Assembling division was managing in drooping requests for Malaysia sends out from the US, Japanese and Europeans markets. All around development was required to drop by 3.1% for 2011 and china was by 0.2%, under all circumstance Malaysia choice to build endorsements for assembling venture of MYR 16.4 million. For second quarter of 2011 and it is smelling when contrasting with second quarter of 2010. Malaysia anticipated a development pace of 5-6% for 2011 however it was 4-5% in 2011. The outcomes of absence of financial control will surface should the worldwide economy get ugly. First casualty will be government shortage that is begun from 2008 emergency in Malaysia. Around then obligation to GDP proportion was 54%. Following the solid extension in 2011, the development of both private utilization and speculation is anticipated to relax in 2012, as both salary and capital use in the outside related areas of the economy are influenced by the more slow worldwide development. 2012 spending plan of Malaysia economy will bolster private utilization. The open part will stay strong with higher capital consumption by both government and non money related open venture NFPEs on 2012. Financial strategy in 2012 is outfitted towards animating local monetary movement and offering help to the monetary change plan. A test for the Government in 2012 is to keep offering help to local interest by pointing the debilitating outer segment while guaranteeing that the financial position stays economical. In such manner, more prominent accentuation has been set in the 2012 Budget on creating development through private division speculation and utilization. RM2.5 billion is allotted in the 2012 Budget under the PPP Facilitation Fund to offices the private division in starting different reactant ventures. Furthermore it wills Introduction of different assessment impetuses to encourage the improvement of high-sway ventures I

Women in Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Ladies in Psychology - Essay Example Karen Horney kept up extra perspectives on kids and the beginning of uneasiness, giving her regard in the mental network. This undertaking depicts the foundation of Karen Horney and features her numerous commitments to brain science. Karen Horney (1885-1952) experienced childhood in Hamburg, Germany to progressively princely, upper-working class guardians with a Protestant foundation. Horney’s father was a profoundly strict man and a boat skipper while her mom was an increasingly liberal scholar who elevated Horney to prevail in clinical school (Smith, 2007). This was during a period in the mid twentieth Century when ladies had not yet accomplished the option to cast a ballot, making Horney’s appearance in clinical school in 1906 a grand occasion, particularly with her emphasis on contemplating Freud’s perspectives on analysis (Eckardt, 2005). In the 1920’s, Horney started to challenge Freud’s perspective on manliness and womanliness, particularly in zones of sexual turn of events and sexual nature. She started to reprimand Freud’s point of view in which he accepted that ladies felt second rate compared to men since they didn't have a penis (Eckardt). Horney felt this was an uneven viewpoint, loaded with manly narcissism, which reliably made predisposition against ladies during analysis. After some time, Horney redeveloped Freud’s see on female sexuality and made another format by which ladies are surveyed: One in which the nonappearance of a penis no longer turned into the apparent establishment of women’s inconveniences. As it, depended on the women’s testimonial developments happening during this timespan, Horney figured out how to free ladies when being dissected for mental investigation as more than just the result of manly jealousy. Sigmund Freud established the framework for a considerable lot of the perspectives on the time with respect to tension and the improvement of constructive character qualities. Throughout the years, Karen Horney redeveloped the perspective on tension by proposing that nervousness isn't

Decentralisation of Retailing Essay

Decentralization is the procedure wherein the populace, retail and industry moves from urban CBD’s to the external city. An away strip mall is a gathering of shops and offices that are found away from a town’s CBD. This development will have positive and negative effects on both the urban region and the external city, where the away focuses are manufactured. The decentralization of retailing and different administrations is going on the grounds that In request to sell products, shops should be found where individuals can get to them effectively and its seen as simpler to go to an away mall than go to the CBD of a city. A bit of leeway of this incorporates the social favorable position is that there are a lot increasingly free vehicle parking spots at away focuses, though in a CBD leaving is normally elusive and when it is discovered it is far away from the shops. This urges customers to go to the away strip malls as it is either progressively helpful, or less expensive. This additionally urges families to go as the shops and offices are much nearer to the vehicle parking spots and their youngsters and the old have less separation to walk. A monetary preferred position is that as a ton of shops and offices open, more employments will open up for the neighborhood individuals. This would help the neighborhood it would bring down the measure of individuals guaranteeing profits by the administration. This would likewise emphatically affect the administration on the grounds that they’d get more cash from charges and need to pay out less in benefits. Another social preferred position is that there is an assortment of shops that are across the board zone. This advantages the individuals who go there on the grounds that they won’t need to spend quite a while strolling to various shops. Likewise because of the entirety of the offices in the region, it makes a day out increasingly charming in light of the fact that the clients have progressively accessible exercises, for example, films, coffeehouses and now and again smaller than expected golf. There are additionally numerous weaknesses of away strip malls. A weakness to the economy and condition is that the away strip malls remove clients from the CBD, which would prompt a few shops being compelled to close. This frequently prompts the downtown area getting run down. This would hurt the earth since it would look unappealing and it turns into a misuse of green space. The conclusion of these shops additionally would imply that many individuals would lose their positions, which implies that the administration would get less cash through assessments and would even lose cash if the jobless individuals went on benefits. A financial drawback is that alongside the shops in the CBD, the little businessesâ that are close the away strip mall will endure and conceivably be compelled to close. This would likewise prompt individuals losing their positions and would imply that the legislature get less cash through expenses. A social inconvenience is that the development of the middle may agitate a few occupants, because of the significant levels of clamor and the inescapable street clog. An ecological inconvenience is that the strip mall could be based on green-belt land. Likewise the development could demolish natural life environments. Another social inconvenience is that the crime percentage in the CBD will increment as it turns out to be more run down and individuals lose their positions. This will give the territory an awful notoriety, bringing down the odds of further speculations from the legislature and furthermore bringing down the odds of more individuals purchasing houses there, implying that les s cash goes into the economy. The decentralization of retailing and different administrations additionally has positive and negative effects on the downtown area. A negative effect is that urban hardship could happen. Urban hardship is the point at which the way of life in a urban zone drops because of the territory getting run down. This could happen to the region in light of the fact that the shops lose clients to the away strip mall. This makes the shops in the CBD close and the individuals who worked there become jobless, at that point these individuals are compelled to guarantee profits by the administration, which implies that the legislature don’t have the cash to put resources into the CBD. This at that point prompts an expansion in wrongdoing, which makes the region look unmistakably increasingly unappealing and gives it a poor notoriety. A portion of the shops in the CBD are additionally incapable to contend with the away strip mall since they can’t offer free stopping, though the middle can. This free stopping can impact where the clients go. In any case, a positive effect is that the zone has significantly less vehicles going through it, which prompts little clog and little clamor and air contamination. This would guarantee that nature of the zone would be less contaminated then what it would be if the shops were as yet fruitful. It likewise makes the zone much increasingly quiet for local people who live there. I firmly concur with this announcement on the grounds that the above shows a portion of the positive and negative effects it can have on urban territories, which are significant effects so consequently, out of tow strip malls are influencing the CBDs from numerous points of view.

Next Steps for Admitted Students, Fall 2019 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

Next Steps for Admitted Students, Fall 2019 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog First, another congratulations  to you on being accepted to Columbia SIPA! I hope you celebrated this achievement â€" it was a competitive applicant pool â€" and are now ready to go over a few things that every newly-admitted student should know. Top takeaways for you: Check the Welcome Portal â€" a lot. Even if you’re not sure if you’ll end up here yet.  Honestly, the Welcome Portal has everything you need regarding next steps. If you don’t want to read two iterations of this information, I would recommend the Welcome Portal. Submitting your official documents and transcripts. This probably applies to you and is a new policy for SIPA. Check your Status Page to avoid delays in registering for classes at SIPA. Money, deposits and financial aid. Check the Welcome Portal, even if you’re not sure where you’ll end up yet. The Welcome Portal has everything you need regarding next steps.  Even if you’re still deciding where you’ll be for the next few years, the Welcome Portal provides information to help you make that decision: about accepting your offer, upcoming deadlines, student housing information, and special events and webinars, including Faculty QAs and Financial Aid advice. The Welcome Portal also breaks down the following information about official transcripts, test scores, and other items that require a few extra steps for you to ensure you can start your school year off with no delays. (For conditional admitted students: Some applicants were admitted on the condition that they take additional quantative preparation courses, or to enroll in ALP courses for the summer/fall, prior to enrolling at SIPA. Your overall application and achievements are admirable, and we believe you’ll be better equipped for success at SIPA by completing this coursework. Please check the Welcome Portal of the specific requirements and deadlines for these conditions.) Submit your Official Documents â€" This is really important! When you review the Welcome Portal, you’ll see a section that outlines upcoming deadlines for the Application Checklist materials, also known as official documents. These are hard deadlines for the Admissions Office to receive your official documents, mainly transcripts and test scores. I suggest you triple-check your Status Page to make sure all official Transcripts and Test Scores have been received by our office. If we don’t get these official documents by August 20, you will not be able to register for classes. In the past few years, at least 90% of our accepted students did not submit all of their official documents to our office. This might be because you just haven’t submitted it because it wasn’t required until now. Another possibility is that items are sent to the wrong address or not delivered correctly, or for some reason the document submitted is not considered “official.” For example, even if you opened and scanned your official transcript from your college registrar, we cannot consider it “official” because it has technically been altered. Check your Status Page The last thing you want is a delay to starting off your school year, and  that is easily avoided by checking in with the Status Page. This is where you’ll go to review your Application Checklist. Even though you’ve been accepted, there are a few items on the checklist that we need to finalize your academic record before August 2019. And if your record isn’t finalized, you won’t be able to register for classes during orientation. Don’t be that person! Distinguishing if you’ve submitted your official vs unofficial documents can be confusing, so I’ll walk you through how to check this on your Status Page. When you look at your Status Page, you see a green checkmark that indicates what we’ve received. Hover over this checkmark to see the pop-up text that will indicate if this item was “Received,” or we’ve only “Received Copy.” An example of an official received item â€" hovering over the green checkmark shows a popup of Status: Received. However, this applicant’s popup states “Status: Received Copy” next to their PTE Score Report. This means that their official test score has NOT been received by the Admissions office. (We’re sorry about this, we know it’s a hassle, but it’s a quirk of the system that we’re working with here.) “How do I send in my official transcripts and test scores?” All of this information is in the Welcome Portal (seriously, check it out if you haven’t already), but: Official transcripts and test scores must be on file by August 20, 2019. International students who won’t have conferred degrees until after the deadline should email us and we’ll make a note on their account. There are extra requirements for students who attended Chinese institutions and students who attended a non-U.S. university. Specific instructions for all of this are, again, in the Welcome Portal. A note on official test scores: If you truly know you sent us your official scores but we haven’t received them, there may be a workaround from re-ordering your test scores.  Chances are your application name and email address are not recorded the same as the name and email address you registered to take the GRE/GMAT or TOEFL/IELTS/PTE with a few months ago. Thus, we couldn’t match the exam to your account because of the mismatch. If that’s the case, contact the testing center and confirm your full name, date of birth and email address associated with your account. You’ll need to send us that information, along with the batch/cycle number and test registration number, for GRE and TOEFL scores; the appointment number and identification number for GMAT scores; or send us the official score report for IELTS/PTE scores. Money, Deposits, and Financial Aid Your enrollment deposit: You have until the date on your admission letter to accept your enrollment offer AND pay the $2,000.00 USD admission deposit. This deposit ultimately goes towards your tuition bill. While you don’t have to accept and pay the deposit at the same time, your deposit payment must be paid in full at once (so no partial payments). (UNIs will be generated within 1-2 weeks.) Financial Aid and Fellowships: If you received a scholarship or fellowship, you will have received a separate notification letter about your funding along with your letter of admission. (Early-action candidates had to wait until now to learn about their funding status.) All students, whether funded their first year or not, will be able to apply for second-year funding. Most of this funding is in the form of  assistantships for second-year students  who succeeded in their first year of studies. (You’ll learn more about these opportunities during the spring semester of your first year.) We also encourage you to visit the Financial Aid page for more information about funding your education, which includes a database of external funding opportunities. Tuition, Fees, and Billing:  Columbia University releases an annual estimated cost of attendance, which  you can view for the 2019-2020 year here. Your tuition bill will be generated closer to the start of the academic term. You also have the option to set up a payment plan or coordinate your payments with a third-party sponsor. For more information on that process,  browse the Student Financial Services website. (Note: The Office of Admissions Financial Aid is not involved in this process.) Contact Us If you need anything give us a call or send an email. If you’re an admitted student with specific financial aid  or fellowship inquiries, please email them with a descriptive and informative subject line to  sipa_finaid@columbia.edu. Admissions questions can continue to go to  sipa_admission@columbia.edu  or  sipa_new@columbia.edu. You should also follow us on Instagram @Columbia.SIPA  to share your admissions story and connect with future classmates! And once again, congratulations to our admitted students!

Social Media Affects on Mental Health - Free Essay Example

With over 2.34 billion users worldwide, social media has readily become a massive platform for a variety of uses such as advertising, entertainment, and communication (Statista, 2018). The number of users is expected to continue to grow to 2.95 billion within the next two years (Statista, 2018). It is reported that North America is the densest with social media usage climbing over a 66 percent and over 80 percent of teenagers use a cell phone on a regular basis (Statista, 2014). Daily time consumption through social media is also on the rise going from an average of 96 minutes back in 2012 to 118 minutes in 2016 (Statista, 2014). With the ever growing number of individuals on social media and the daily time spent on it, we question the mental health effects it has on its users. One issue heavily linked to the internet and social media is online bullying; over half of teenagers have been bullied online and half of these individuals have had this occur to them on more than one occasion (Bullyingstatistics, 2015). Around 20 percent of these young people experience cyberbullying regularly, which is no surprise considering 81% of these teens believe that bullying online is easier to get away with than it is doing in person (Bullyingstatistics, 2015). To make matters more complicated only one out of ten victims will ever inform an adult about their abuse (Bullyingstatistics, 2015). The effects of online bullying is rather unfortunate; victims of bullying are two to eight times more likely to consider committing suicide. Apart from direct online bullying, social media was linked to experiencing negative mental health outcomes even with seemingly non harmful usage. Studies showed a less moment to moment happiness and less satisfaction in life (Kross, 2013). It also showed that any comparison made regardless of whether its looking up to or looking down on someone resulted in the individual feeling worse than before they started. There was also a connection made between envy and depression in facebook use and depressive symptoms (Steers, 2014). Social media appears to be a breeding ground for negative feelings regardless of how we feel prior to being on it. Analysis showed that people who reported usage of more than seven platforms had a three times more risk of having depression and anxiety compared to those two had a maximum of two platforms (Zagorski, 2017). In addition, we saw an increase in major depressive episodes from 8.7% in 2005 to 11.3% in 2014 amongst the younger population (Lin, 2016). Its not to say that the internet is the sole reason for this increase in depression, however research proves that it may be a major contributing factor especially since social media has integrated itself as a major part of peoples daily lives. This makes us question what we can do to stop the detrimental effects social media has on individuals. Anxiety is another mental health issue related to social media. Social media anxiety is actually this feeling of stress and distress that is caused by the usage of social media (Walker, 2018). Some causes of this anxiety include juggling multiple social media platforms at once, having a fear of missing out, comparing oneself to others, needing attention and approval from others, and the overall addiction to using the platforms (Zagorski, 2017). A persons addiction to social assurance has shown to activate parts of the brain that are activated when using drugs that cause addiction (Davey, 2016). All of these create a great deal of stress and the amount of time of electronic usage grows along with it. Social media anxiety is also closely related to the more broader term, social anxiety disorder, which is a feeling of stress/distress caused by social interactions or situations (Walker, 2018). People who exhibit symptoms of social anxiety disorder, like fear of being judged, avoiding soc ial interactions, and having low self esteem, may turn to social media use as an alternative to in-person social interaction. This usage can them stem into these mental health issues that weve talked about. Although we see many negative effects of social media use, of course there is a positive side to it as well. Social media can help people who experience loneliness, social isolation, provide motivation, social support, helps strengthen relationships both new and old, and helps us all stay connected whether its for business, family relations, or others (Naruse, 2017). One of the more important pros to social media use is the ability for us to notice signs of other peoples distress and signs of altered mental health (Naruse, 2017). An example of this would be noticing someone posting depressing statuses or pictures and maybe even noticing their vocalizing of suicidal ideations. Social media has become a platform where someone can so easily express their feelings and thoughts and we can actually use this as a way to notice signs of distress. Its also a great way to bring awareness to these problems and getting people involved in preventing things like cyberbullying. An important role we can all partake, especially as nurses, is educating ourselves about signs of mental health distress, cyberbullying, and risk for suicide as a way to aid in this new epidemic in the youth population. We may not be able to stop cyberbullying or prevent this population from using the internet, but providing support to those experiencing the effects of social media and creating a safe environment for them to come to for help and guidance is a great way to prevent youth from advancing to something like suicide. They need to know that it is safe for them to report any signs of altered mental health and safe to report cyber bullies as well. Most importantly, awareness is the key to helping this population. With social media being a relatively new introduction into our society, the negative effects of its usage has become a new problem and evidently, has become an epidemic. Its effects range widely from altered relationships to altered mental health status and risk for suicide. The number of users are growing every year and being that 80% of those are teenagers, we will begin to see more of the youth population related to mental health disorders (Statista, 2014). Social media has become a new cause for disorders and suicide and unless we become more educated on the matter and how we can aid the youth population, the problem will continue to spread. More research and investigation needs to be conducted on this growing prevalence of social media to truly understand the detrimental effects and discover ways to prevent and treat this. What we can do as nurses is provide youth and their families with information needed to make informed decisions about their health and notice any signs of soc ial media effects in not only themselves but their peers as well.

Why Rumor Is Defined By The New York Stock Exchange

Rumor is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as â€Å"an unverified or unconfirmed statement or report circulating in a community.† In the financial community, rumors have an effect on the direction of markets. The New York Stock Exchange in the United States is the epitome of how rumors can impact trade. The fluctuation of stock and commodity (raw material) prices on a daily basis is, in part, due to the daily news cycle. Although reports by news companies are supposed to be factual, statements made can be unverified. Because of the large scale of social media, anyone can make up rumors that can go viral. Stock traders rely on the news to determine what stocks they will buy or sell. News reports include important information such as: new product developments, company restructures, commodity reports, and scandals. Because of the rapid news, trading on the stock market happens very fast and it gets chaotic. As the buyers and sellers interact their process sets the stock p rice. The news effects the stock price because if a positive story circulates, there will be more buyers for a stock, which will raise the stock price; if a negative story circulates, there will be fewer buyers, which will lower the stock price. This constant process can either earn a big payday or be a total loss. Because of the money that people stand to either make or loose, rumors have an effect on the way individuals behave on the stock market. To better understand how rumors work within the financialShow MoreRelatedHostile Takeovers vs. Friendly Takeovers4927 Words   |  20 PagesThis project report provides comprehensive information about corporate structures; focusing on friendly and hostile takeovers, introducing them through definitions and some witty examples and finally ending with intriguing discussion and conclusions. Why do companies embrace the idea of merger and acquisition in the first place? 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Nonhuman Animals - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 32 Words: 9627 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Early Modern Perspectives on the Moral Status of Nonhuman Animals: Descartes, Kant, and Bentham The trajectory of our anthropocentric thinking on the moral status of nonhuman animals has its roots in classical antiquity and has been guided along by the relatively unchallenged assumption that cognitive inferiority is a relevant measure of moral inferiority. The ancient Stoics and Epicureans, for example, were notoriously dismissive of the commonalities between human and animal nature, and their doctrines are equally emphatic on drawing the moral dividing line at the distinctiveness of human reason. The Stoic and Epicurean doctrines differ in principle on what they define as the source of justice, but the implications for animals are essentially the same: nonrational beings possess merely instrumental value for the sake of human ends and are categorically excluded from the sphere of moral consideration. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Nonhuman Animals" essay for you Create order Although we modern types have occasion to distance ourselves from the unenlightened views of remote thinkers, our current attitudes toward animals have been shaped by an unfortunate history of anthropocentric thinking of which we are scarcely aware. In this connection, forming a clear conception of the overall spirit of early modern perspectives on animals is aided by considering them against the essential background of their philosophical antecedents. The focus of the present chapter is to demonstrate that early modern thinkers argue against animals on grounds that suggest a basic commitment to the criteria originally set down by the Stoic and Epicurean orthodoxies. What should hopefully become apparent in the pages to follow, then, is the ease with which even the greatest of minds succumb to the prejudices of a prevailing ideology. Introduction One reason to deny that we have moral obligations to animals is to maintain that animals are not conscious and therefore have no well-being or interests to take into account. One such denial was developed by Ren Descartes, whose strict dualism and mechanistic view of nature led him to conclude that because animals lack language, they must be biological machinesdevoid of any mental awareness whatsoever. In my discussion of Descartes, I draw attention to two important points. First, despite recent attempts to exonerate Descartes from the charge of holding such an implausible view, I will show that his estimation of animals as insensate automata is made clear and unequivocal by his writings. Second, I challenge a certain conventional wisdom surrounding Descartes, which holds that his principal move against animals is based on his conviction that animals are incapable of feeling pain. Descartes did not begin by looking for reasons to deny animal consciousness and pain; rather, he was dri ven to this conclusion by his reflections on certain philosophical problems that arose between his mechanistic science and Christian convictions. Descartes bases his commitment to the moral inferiority of animals most decisively on the application of his dualist ontology to the Stoic principle of oikeiosis, according to which nature exists for the sake of its rational componentsthe gods and human beings. Descartes conception of animals as pure mechanism, coupled with his fundamental conviction that human beings, as rational souls, have a moral imperative to render themselves the lords and possessors of nature, is entirely in keeping with the anthropocentric spirit of Stoic cosmology.[1] Another reason to deny that we have moral obligations to animals is to maintain that animals warrant our moral concern only insofar as their welfare is indirectly related to the interests of human beings. In other words, we may have duties regarding animals, owing to some human interest involved, but because animals lack the relevant property that would render their interests morally significant, such duties are never discharged out of a direct concern for the animals themselves. The moral system developed by Immanuel Kant, according to which rational autonomous agents are the only kinds of beings to whom we owe direct moral obligations, holds that animals, as things, have only relative value and exist merely as means to human ends. In addition to critiquing Kants account of indirect duties, I draw attention to those elements of his moral system that reflect an implicit commitment to the core assumptions of Epicurean contractualism. I conclude with the suggestion that, despite these unfortunate elements, the second formulation of Kants categorical imperative can be revised to render his system amenable to the inherent value and moral personhood of nonhuman animals. One thinker for whom the Stoic and Epicurean doctrines had little implication for the moral status of animals was Jeremy Bentham, the chief architect of the Humane Treatment Principle, which states that we have moral obligations we owe directly to animals not to cause them unnecessary suffering. Bentham holds that sentience, rather than the capacity for abstract reasoning or language, is a sufficient condition for having ones interests taken into account in the moral assessment of the consequences of our actions. The failure of previous thinkers to figure animal interests into the utilitarian calculus, according to Bentham, degrades animals into the class of things.[2] The major shortcoming of Benthams position, however, stems from his belief that it is not whether we use animals, but how we treat them in the course of that use that should command our ethical curiosity. In my discussion of Bentham, I argue that the aforementioned classification of animals that his theory purports to reject is nonetheless retained by his uncritical acceptance of the property status of animals. I also argue that Bentham is mistaken is his assertion that because animals lack an autobiographical sense of self-consciousness and are therefore subject to a lesser range of psychological afflictions, they cannot have an interest in their continued existence. In this connection, I draw attention to the insights of Plutarch, who, as an outspoken critic of the Stoics, defended the idea that sentienceproperly understood as a means to an endnecessarily implies that animals have a basic interest in both the quality and duration of their lives. Mechanistic Science and Cartesian Substance Dualism Descartes beliefs concerning the mental life and moral status of nonhuman animals arose, in part, from a combination of his mechanistic science, his Christian convictions, and his strict dualism. Often regarded as the father of modern philosophy and chief architect of the scientific revolution, Descartes wrote during a time when the mechanistic view of the natural world was beginning to overturn the unquestioned authority of Aristotelian scholasticism. According to mechanistic science, the workings of the physical universe are governed by the same mechanical principles that govern a clock. If you want to understand an object and explain how it works, you simply break it down into its constituent parts, analyze its properties, and conduct a series of experiments. One problem faced by this view is that consciousness, by its very nature, does not seem to fit very comfortably into a purely mechanical world. Added to this difficulty is the influence of Christian doctrine, which holds tha t human beings are not merely physical but are invested by God with immaterial, immortal souls. If the implication is that human beings are mere machines, then mechanistic science is faced with the problem of circumventing the heretical view that human and animal nature are of the same ontological kind, and that the human mind or soul (Descartes uses these terms interchangeably) has its genesis in the potentiality of inert matter. The dualist view of nature that Descartes develops seeks a solution to the problem of locating human consciousness in a wholly materialistic universe. According to this view, there are two ontologically distinct and irreducible kinds of substances in the world, namely, physical bodies and immaterial minds, and that human beings are composite entities consisting of a mind and a body. Human beings may have a close association with their corporeal bodies, but they are not identical to their bodies; rather, as embodied entities created in Gods image, humans are identifiable with the immaterial souls that constitute their consciousness, thought, and rational nature. By identifying the soul with consciousness, Descartes avoids the reduction of human existence to pure mechanism and provides for the coherence of the soul after bodily death.[3] The human body and the material world it occupies is only a transitory stage in the immortal souls journey to eternal bliss in the afterlife. In keepi ng with the terms of Christian doctrine, Descartes declares in a letter addressed to Plempius that his theory not only distinguishes human from animal nature but provides a better argument against the atheists and establishes that human minds cannot be drawn out of the potentiality of matter.[4] Descartes strict dualism creates a sharp and unbridgeable gap between the human soul and natural world, thereby ensuring humanitys privileged position over the rest of brute creation. Thoughtless Brutes If consciousness is strictly identifiable with the human soul, what are the implications for animal nature? In a letter addressed to the Marques of Newcastle, Descartes explicitly rejects the notion that animals possess souls: it is more probable that worms, flies, caterpillars and other animals move like machines than they all have immortal souls.[5] To even talk about animals as besouled beings is a serious misnomer, since their souls are nothing but their blood.[6] Descartes assertion that animals lack consciousness because they lack immaterial souls does not provide an adequate reason in support of his position, however, since it merely appeals to his religious convictions. Descartes most explicit and systematic denial of animal consciousness relies on the application of the principle of parsimony, commonly referred to as Occams razor, which states that the most reasonable and preferred explanation is the one that provides the simplest account of observable phenomena under the fewest possible assumptions. An adequate scientific theory of animal nature, then, will not deny any facts regarding animal behavior, but will successfully predict and intelligibly explain those facts under the fewest assumptions possible. If we have two competing theories that explain an equal range of facts, but which differ according to the number of assumptions they make, parsimony demands that we accept the simpler of the two. Since it is possible, in Descartes estimation, to explain animal behavior without positing any mental awareness, such an explanation provides us with the preferred account of animal nature. The fact that animal behavior can be explained adequately in terms of mechanical processes and without reference to internal episodes such as consciousness or thought makes it unnecessary to attribute any mental awareness to animals whatsoever. The commonsensical belief that animals are conscious beings is a prejudice to which we are all accustomed from our earliest years.[7] In a letter addressed to Reneri, Descartes expresses great confidence in his denial of animal consciousness, hypothesizing that if a human being raised in isolation from animals (and stripped of any anthropomorphic prejudices concerning their behavior) was suddenly confronted by one, he would no doubt conclude that animals were automatons made by God or nature.[8] Despite appearances, then, animals lack any sort of conscious awareness. Animal nature is governed only by mechanical principles, since it is nature which acts in them according to the disposition of their organs, in the same way that a clock, consisting only of wheels and springs, can count the hours and measure time more accurately than we can with all our wisdom.[9] Indeed, animals are organic clocks, complex clocksclocks created by Godbut clocks all the same. Descartes reduction of animal nature to pure mechanism is best understood in terms of the stimulus-response explanatory model that we normally apply to inanimate objects. Suppose I were to provide a stimulus by running an electrical current through a wire that is attached to a bell. The bell rings. Did the bell-wire apparatus have a subjective experience? Doubtful. We can adequately explain the causal chain that led to the ringing of the bell without attributing a mental life to the apparatus. Similarly, the stimulation of the various humors and spirits coursing through an animals bloodstream can cause mechanically induced behavioral responses that we normally associate with pain, fear, hunger or excitement; however, absent further evidence, we have no grounds for making the inference that animals consciously experience these states. Insensate Brutes If animals lack consciousness, can they still have sensations? Can they still feel their pain, hunger, excitement, and so forth? According to the terms of Descartes strict dualism, the mind, as an immaterial substance, is a thing which thinks, and a thing which thinks understands, affirms, denies, imagines and has sensory perceptions.[10] These conscious intentional states are different ways of thinking, and they all have their source in the rational human soul.[11] Human thought is governed by the operations of the soul, so that not only meditations and acts of will, but the activities of seeing and hearing and deciding on one movementalso depend on the soul.[12] In a letter addressed to Henry More, Descartes acknowledges that animals are certainly alive and have sensations, provided that the former is regarded as consisting simply in the heat of the heart, and the latter insofar as it depends on a bodily organ.[13] These passages should dispel any lingering doubts concerning Descar tes unequivocal denial of animal sentience. Animals are purely mechanical and corporeal, completely lacking in thought; they have no experiential or perceptual capacities whatsoever. Although human and animal bodies are essentially the same, the reason why human beings feel pain and animals feel none is that human reactions to sensations are associated with the immaterial mind and are therefore accompanied by inner conscious experiences, whereas animal bodies under similar circumstances experience nothing but the mechanistic motion of the various humors and spirits that stimulate the corporeal organs effected. This is the case because animals, being no different from clocks or bell-wire apparatuses, are wholly incapable of thought. On this assumption, then, human sensation exists solely in the thinking mind and is different in kind from animal sensation. We have been misled by our anthropomorphic prejudices to draw analogies between human and animal nature and to make the erroneous inference that animal automata are sentient beings with subjective lives. The textual support for Descartes unequivocal denial of both animal consciousness and pain is abundant and unm istakable. Speechless Brutes Descartes underlying assumption that the faculties of abstract reasoning and language constitute the outward marks of the mental and therefore provide the essential distinction between human and animal nature is made apparent in an exchange with two of his critics, Pierre Gassendi and Julien Offay de La Mettrie, both of whom challenge the explanatory power of the mechanistic view when applied to animal nature. Gassendi raises the objection that animals not only experience some awareness but exhibit a kind of reasoning that is peculiar to their species.[14] The differences between human and animal nature are primarily differences of degree, not kind. In response, Descartes mostly reiterates his conviction that none of the outward behaviors of animals lead him to posit mind or reason animals; that animals sometimes act in accordance with reason rather than through or for it is entirely consistent with his hypothesis.[15] Reason is a universal instrument that enables the human agent to respond to the contingencies of life with complex and novel behavior; animal machines, in contrast, act not through reason but from the disposition of their organs.[16] La Mettrie challenges Descartes by arguing that the mechanistic view casts us into a greater skeptical bog than Descartes realizes.[17] Since the physiological processes in virtue of which humans and animals react to various stimuli are essentially the same, parsimony demands that we explain human nature by applying the same mechanistic principles we use to explain animal behavior. Of course, the implication that human mental life consists of nothing more than the mechanical motion of animal spirits in the human nervous system is absurd. If La Mettrie is correct, the mechanistic explanation is self-defeating; it undercuts its own authority and proves itself inadequate as the most reasonable explanation of human and animal behavior. Descartes comments in Discourse V anticipate this objection to his reasoning. The main reason why the mechanistic explanation of behavior applies to animals but not to human beings is because humans exhibit one behavioral characteristic that is most expressive of an inner mental life: a developed and communicable language. Language is the faculty in virtue of which human beings can communicate their detailed thoughts and experiences of pain to one another, whereas animals are incapable of arranging various words together and forming an utterance from them in order to make their thoughts understood.[18] Although animals may produce gestures and utterances that function to express their reactions to various stimuli, and although magpies and parrots have speech-organs that can mimic our language, declarative speech, which is unique to humans, is fundamentally different in kind. For Descartes, the absence of declarative speech in animals is explainable only in terms of the absence of ani mal thought. Since the faculties of abstract reasoning and language are coextensive with the possession of the rational soulthe source of consciousness and sensationand since animals exhibit neither faculty, they must, on Descartes account, be mindless machines. The difference between Descartes estimation of animal nature and those of his critics who attribute mind to animals does not arise from any disagreement regarding the observable facts of animal behavior; rather, Descartes commitment to mechanistic science and his strict dualism return us to the principle of parsimony and his hypothesis that animal nature, understood as pure mechanism, provides the most sensible and impartial explanation of the facts. If Descartes is correct that animals are no different from inanimate objects, then inquiring into their moral status would be pointless; therefore, we should briefly consider whether his view of animal nature is the least bit plausible by contemporary standards. First, we have no reasonable grounds for assuming that the capacity for declarative speech is a necessary condition for consciousness; to argue otherwise, in light of what we now know, simply begs the question. Second, the implication that human infants lack minds prior to acquiring a language borders on the perverse. Indeed, any argument that proposes otherwise must intelligibly explain how infants come to learn a language. Third, we have good reasons to believe that animal consciousness obtains independently of the ability to use language. The obvious structural similarities between humans and animals, coupled with evolutionary theory and a wealth of ethological evidence, demonstrates that we have no reason to lack confiden ce in our inference that animals are sentient beings. Reason over Passions and Lordship over Nature The standard interpretation of Descartes principal move against the moral status of animals can now be summarized as follows: since animals lack language, they cannot be conscious; since they lack consciousness, they cannot feel; and since they cannot feel, they cannot have sensations, including pain; animals are mindless machines, and their cries are nothing more than mechanically induced responses to aversive stimuli. In a letter addressed to Henry More, Descartes remarks that my opinion is not so much cruel to animals as indulgent to mensince it absolves them from the suspicion of crime when they eat or kill animals.[19] Accordingly, we are morally justified in using animals without any concern for the pain we might be causing them and can perform all sorts of hideous experiments on them in order to advance our scientific knowledge. Descartes vivid descriptions of vivisection on live animals, and the enthusiastic tone with which he recounts his findings, suggest not only that he p erformed such experiments, but did so without any moral qualms whatsoever.[20] But however advantageous the reduction of animal nature to pure mechanism might have been for such purposes, the standard interpretation is wrong to imply that Descartes bases his commitment to the moral inferiority of animals most decisively on his belief that animals are incapable of feeling pain. As previously stated, Descartes was driven to this conclusion by his reflection on certain philosophical problems that arose between his mechanistic science and strict dualism, and his reduction of animal nature to pure mechanism is one attempt at a solution. Although the standard interpretation correctly traces the line of reasoning for Descartes denial of animal pain, his emphasis on moral maturation in The Passions of the Soul, coupled with his uncritical acceptance of the Stoic criterion of reason, form the fundamental basis for his principal move against the moral status of animals. One key passage in the Passions of the Soul reveals a glimpse of Descartes conception of morality: I see only one thing in us which could give us good reason for esteeming ourselves, namely, the exercise of our free will and the control we have over our volitionsit renders us in a way like God by making us masters of ourselves.[21] To qualify as a being of moral worth is to have the self-determination to overcome ones bodily passions, which, in turn, requires the sophisticated conceptual ability to bring ones volitions in alignment with what rational principles demand. The possession of the rational soul is what enables human beings to supplant their passions, contemplate the divine, and pursue moral truths.[22] The ontological status of humans as embodied rational souls is directly related to their superior moral status, since their nature most resembles the perfected nature of God in whose image they were created. Irrational animals, in contrast, as pure mechanism or corporeality, are of the lowest order of being and are not worthy of moral respect. Since every man in indeed bound to do what he can to procure the good of others, and since one who is of no use to anyone else is strictly worthless, it follows that animals are categorically excluded from the moral community and may be used as mere means for human ends. This is so because all and only human beings, by virtue of their free-will, can gain complete mastery over their passions and promote the general good. By circumscribing human reason as the moral boundary against which everything else is rendered worthless, Descartes view is entirely in keeping with those of his philosophical forebears. Human beings have the prerogative to manipulate nature and exploit animals as resources to promote the general welfare.[23] Descartes is explicit in his conviction that it is incumbent on human beings, as moral agents, to render themselves the lords and possessors of nature, which is the chief good of human life.[2 4] Stoic Oikeiosis The parallelism between Descartes mastery of nature ideology and Stoic cosmology is considerable, indicating that his commitment to the criterion of reason as a necessary condition for moral worth is but another instance of a tradition of anthropocentric thinking that hearkens back to classical antiquity. Both Descartes and the Stoics subscribe to a kind of perfectionism according to which the purpose of the moral life is to perfect ones soul and exercise ones reason to the fullest extent possible. The Stoics developed their doctrine of the logos, whereby nature advances in hierarchical degrees toward human rationality and its contemplation of the divine, and according to which animal nature, situated far below this pinnacle, occupies a fundamentally inferior place in the cosmic scheme. The logos is a rational cosmic principle that only beings capable of reasoning have the ability to contemplate. Irrational animals, in contrast, whose lives are oriented exclusively on self-preservat ion and whose natures are ruled by the passions, take no part in the logos. This fundamental asymmetry between human and animal nature entitles human beings to use animals to satisfy their material needs. Both Descartes and the Stoics appeal to a conception of divine providence, according to which God, or the gods, created the world for the sake of human beings. Irrational animals, like any other resource, have merely instrumental value for the satisfaction of human ends. Just as the Stoics declare that our mastery over nature furthers its teleological design, so Descartes declares that rendering ourselves the lords and possessors of nature fulfills our God-ordained prerogative to advance the sciences, especially medicine, for the sake of the general good.[25] The Cartesian conception of the cosmos and our place in it, like the Stoic conception, views humanity as fundamentally discontinuous with the natural orderas quasi-divine agents thrust into an alien medium. Descartes remark in The Passions of the Soul that all and only rational beings are worthy of esteem reflects the Stoic principle of oikeiosis, a process whereby human beings come to regard one another as kin and equal recipients of justice in virtue of their shared rational nature. We can extend justice only to those beings with whom we share kinship relations, and since no beings apart from humans possess reason, it follows that we have no moral duties to animals whatsoever. Kants Deontology The main project of Kants Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals is to develop a clear understanding of our ethical duties by establishing a supreme moral principle as the basis for morality. Principles based on empirical considerations, such as self-interest or the best aggregate consequences, cannot provide a secure foundation for morality, since they are dependent on particular situations and have only limited applicability. The supreme principle must be a priori in the sense that it must obtain independently of experience, be based solely on the concepts of reason, and command obedience from rational agents at all times in all places. Moral principles are universally valid only if they are based on the intrinsic authority of a priori concepts that all and only rational beings can ascertain. With these stipulations in mind, Kants criteria for moral duties can be summarized as follows: the moral quality of an action is judged not according to the actions consequences, but accordi ng to the motives that caused the action; therefore, an action is moral if and only if it is undertaken with pure motives in mind; that is, from a sense of duty and respect for the moral law alone. The general formula that best meets these criteria is the categorical imperative, which states that we should: act in such a way that we could will that the maxim of our action become a universal law.[26] The second formulation of the categorical imperative states that one should act in such a way that he treat humanity, whether in his own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means.[27] Rational agents violate the categorical imperative when they apply a standard to their own actions that they would not endorse as a universal law for the actions of everyone else. They must not treat other rational agents as mere means to their own purposes, but acknowledge their independent value as ends-in-themselves. Willing, Autonomy, and Inherent Value Kants perspective on the moral status of animals is based most decisively on his conception of the faculty of willing: a rational being has the power to act according to his conception of laws; i.e., according to principles, and thereby has he a willthe derivation of actions from laws requires reason.[28] Having a will is what enables rational agents to choose courses of action in pursuit of those predetermined goals that render them citizens in the kingdom of ends. Both humans and animals have desires that compel them to action, but only rational agents, by means of the freedom of their will, can withhold their desires and bring general principles to bear in considering their maxims. The ability of rational agents to stand back at a reflective distance from their situations and universalize the maxims of their actions in accordance with the categorical imperative forms the basis of their autonomy and inherent dignity: Every rational being exists as an end in himself, not merely as a means to be arbitrarily used by this or that will..beings whose existence depends not on our will but on nature have, nevertheless, if they are not rational beings, only a relative value as means and are therefore called things..rational beings are called persons inasmuch as their nature already marks them out as ends in themselves.[29] Kants conception of personhood identifies a category of morally considerable beings who have inherent value as ends-in-themselves. Since all and only human beings have an autonomous will, it follows that all and only human beings are persons. By drawing the moral dividing line at the faculty of reason, Kant follows in the tradition of reducing animals to the status of thingsas mere means to the satisfaction of human ends. Indirect Duties to Animals In the Lectures on Ethics, Kant explicitly rejects the notion that animals warrant our moral concern in any straightforward sense; rather, animals are morally considerable only insofar as their welfare is indirectly related to the interests of human beings. Kant is not implying that we should never figure animals into the moral assessments of our actions, but he does make it clear that our duties regarding animals are never discharged out of a direct concern for their interests: If a man has his dog shot, because it can no longer earn a living for him, he is by no means in breach of any duty to the dog, since the latter is incapable of judgment, but he thereby damages the kindly and humane qualities in himself, which he ought to exercise in virtue of his duties to mankind. ..when anatomists take living animals to experiment on, that is certainly cruelty, though there it is employed for a good purpose, because animals are regarded as mans instrumentsour duties toward animals, then, are indirect duties toward humanity.[30] Kant acknowledges that animals are sentient beings with interests of their own, but because they lack self-consciousness and are incapable of making moral judgments, they exist merely as a means to an end. That end is man.[31] Any restrictions regarding our proper use and treatment of animals come into existence only when our actions carry adverse effects for other rational agents. To better understand Kants account of indirect duties and its implications for the moral status of animals, consider some examples of our duties regarding public and private property. I have a moral obligation not to deface the memorial statue in your town square, since doing so might upset you and offend public sentiments. I also have a moral obligation not to destroy your car, since doing so would violate your property rights and thereby do you harm. According to Kant, our indirect duties regarding animals come into existence for precisely the same reasons. I have a moral obligation to refrain from harming your pet, since doing so would damage your animal property and exhibit those traits of character that society does not wish to promote. I cannot directly wrong your pet, however, anymore than I can directly wrong your car. Both are merely things, according to Kant, so I have not failed in my duties toward either; rather, I have harmed you, or harmed society, or degraded my own mo ral character. By mistreating animals for fun, I incline myself toward violence in my dealings with others humans. Although there can be little doubt that fostering kindness toward animals cultivates moral character, Kants indirect duty theory ultimately denies any meaningful moral status to animals. Incoherence and Marginal Cases There is an uneasy tension between Kants explicit denial of our direct duties toward animals and his circuitous attempt to grant them something like a moral standing. This tension indicates that he finds something deeply wrong with the notion that we can treat sentient beings like inanimate objects, but he is committed to the idea that only rational agents warrant our direct moral concern. Indeed, the moral distinction he draws between what is inherently wrong and what is cruel seems arbitrary rather than rationally grounded. If animals, as things, are not the objects of our moral concern, then how is our mistreatment of them any more cruel than kicking inanimate objects? Kant claims that such behavior is cruel because it displays those traits of character that society disvalues and discourages. This is incoherent. We cannot simultaneously hold in any meaningful way that animals are our resources and that our mistreatment of them has moral consequences for human beings. Furthermore, a convincing argument could be made that the enjoyment we derive from eating animals is as cruel as the enjoyment we derive from forcing them to fight one another. On the assumption that there is no morally relevant distinction between the two, Kants indirect duty theory turns out to be nothing more than an endorsement of the status quo. The restrictions we impose on the proper use and treatment of animals are generated by whatever society happens to regard as an unacceptable form of animal exploitation. Kants theory cannot have it both ways: either the mistreatment of animals is immoral because it wrongs animals directly, or such mistreatment raises no ethical concerns whatsoever. The fact that Kant even addresses the problem of animals suggests that he sees something deeply disturbing in the notion that we can completely disregard their interests, but because his moral theory presupposes that animals are things, he is unwilling to concede that we can wrong them in any straightforw ard sense. Another difficulty faced by Kants theory concerns the question of how moral standing is to be extended on an equal basis to marginal cases, such as human infants and the mentally impaired, who lack rationality and are incapable of moral choice. The Argument from Marginal Cases can be schematized as follows: 1. If we have no direct moral obligations to animals, then we have no direct moral obligations to marginal cases. 2. We do have direct moral obligations to marginal cases. 3. Therefore, we do have direct moral obligations to animals. Opponents to the argument from marginal cases can attempt to refute it in two ways. First, they can deny premise (1) by arguing that all and only human beings possess some property (reason, self-consciousness, language, etc.) that renders their interests directly morally considerable; however, it is not the case that all and only human beings possess these properties, nor is it clear why these properties should be considered morally relevant. Second, opponents can deny premise (2) by maintaining that marginal cases are not directly morally considerable and may be treated as we currently treat nonhuman animals. Virtually no one accepts this conclusion, and for those few who do, I doubt there is much I could offer them by way of persuasion. When we harm an infant or mentally impaired human, we have failed in our moral duties, not because we have frustrated the interests of their caretakers, but because we have wronged them directly by degrading them to the status of things. Some oppone nts claim that when the actual number of marginal cases is realized, it is not so counterintuitive to conclude that the remaining individuals have no moral status. I reject this view. The number of marginal cases has no direct bearing on the moral matter. The claim that harming marginal cases is of vanishing moral significance because they are few in number is both unconvincing and unpleasant. It is a refusal to acknowledge the problem. Once the argument from marginal cases is appreciated, Kants account of our indirect duties to animals turns out to be a serious flaw in his theory. Epicurean Contractualism In her book The Three Frontiers of Justice, Martha Nussbaum states that the social contract tradition conflates two questions that are in principle distinct: by whom, and for whom, are societys basic principles of justice designed?[32] Having dispensed with any concept of pre-political rights, the tradition has created a general image of society as a contract for mutual advantage and personal gain.[33] I will now attempt to demonstrate the following two points: although Kant rejects the contractualist conception of morality, his theory reflects an implicit commitment to its core assumptions in connection with the moral status of animals; second, I will diagnose the categorical imperative as suffering from the same conflation quoted above and venture to provide a viable alternative. The contractualist conception of morality as wholly conventional and grounded in calculating self-interest is one that Kants theory categorically rejects. Fundamental for Kant is the conviction that our duties be discharged without any considerations of mutual advantage or personal gain. Contractualists do not undertake their actions from a sense of duty and respect for the moral law alone; rather, the only significance contractualists attach to mutual agreements, and to social justice generally, is how effectively they advance their interests. Indeed, if the situation between two parties is so asymmetrical as to disallow mutually advantageous cooperation, contractualism places no constraints on the stronger party from dominating the weaker. Kantian agents elevate themselves above the state of nature when they embrace the demands of morality unconditionally and discharge their duties without consideration for what they stand to gain from the outcome. When Kant considers the place of animals in his theory, however, the conclusion he reaches returns us to the state of nature that the kingdom of ends seeks to overcome. By applying a different standard to ourselves when the objects to which our actions are directed are beings with whom we cannot procure some mutual advantage, we violate the categorical imperative by accepting the self-serving terms of Epicurean contractualism.[34] Rethinking the Categorical Imperative Epicurean contractualism and its philosophical successors assume that the subjects for whom the basic principles of justice are designed are strictly identifiable with the contracting parties who design the principles. The principles of justice are designed to secure the interests of those subjects whose capacities lie within normal range with those of the contracting parties (rational beings). Contractualism thereby conflates the devisers of the principles with the objects to which the principles ought to apply. The categorical imperative suffers from a similar conflation. Kant confuses the subjects of the categorical imperative with the objects to which the categorical imperative ought to apply. Despite this considerable flaw, Kants moral theory still provides the firmest foundation for the basic right of all sentient beings not be treated exclusively as means to an end. In particular, I suggest the following revision for the second formulation of the categorical imperative: always act in such a way that you treat sentience, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means. Personhood therefore identifies a category of morally considerable sentient beings who possess value in their own right. Benthams Utilitarianism In An Introduction the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Bentham presents his greatest happiness principle as the correct standard for determining the moral quality of our actions in every situation. The happiness principle holds that our moral choices are right or wrong according to the consequences of our actions alone, and that we should choose that action which results in the greatest happiness for all those individuals whose interests are affected by the outcome.[35] Since pleasure is inherently good, and since pain is inherently bad, whatever motives we may have for our actions are judged only according to the consequences they produce. The moral quality of an action, therefore, is determined by its utility alone. In a pivotal passage confined to a footnote, Bentham outlines the basis for the Humane Treatment Principle, which establishes that we have moral obligations we owe directly to animals not to cause them unnecessary suffering: What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or, perhaps, the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as more conversable animal, than an infant of a day, a week, or even a month old. But suppose the case were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?[36] In contrast to previous thinkers, Bentham holds that sentience (the capacity to experience pain and pleasure) is the only characteristic that is necessary for having ones interests taken into account in our moral reflections. He rejects the view that language and abstract reasoning are morally relevant, since neither faculty is linked to suffering. The notion that animals should be excluded from the moral community simply because they are not rational is arbitrary and degrades animals into the class of things. In recognizing the odious link between human slavery and our mistreatment of animals, Bentham distinctly has in mind the principle of equal consideration, which demands that we treat like cases alike and balance their interests accordingly unless there is a morally sound reason not to do so.[37] Self-Consciousness and Continued Existence Benthams position on the moral status of animals signaled a historical turn against the traditional prejudice that only rational beings warrant our direct moral concern; however, in the same passage in which he claims that the capacity for suffering is the moral baseline for inclusion in the utilitarian calculus, Bentham draws considerable limits on the extent to which the lives of animals ultimately matter: If the being eaten were all, there is very good reason why we should be suffered to eat such of them as we like to eat: we are the better for it, and they are never the worse. They have none of those long-protracted anticipations of future misery which we have. The death they suffer in our hands commonly is, and always may be, a speedier, and by that means a less painful one, than that which would await them in the inevitable course of nature. If the being killed were all, there is very good reason why we should not be suffered to kill such as molest us: we should be the worse for their living, and they are never the worse for being dead. But is there any reason why we should be suffered to torment them? Not any that I can see.[38] Lacking the capacity for abstract reasoning, animals have no sense of identity over time and possess a mental awareness that is confined to a continuous present. They have no recollections of their past and no aspirations for the future. In short, they cannot have an interest in their continued existence. They are wholly indifferent to the durations of their lives and care only for how well they are treated by human beings. When we kill animals for food and other uses, we do them a favor of sorts, since we provide for their needs in the short-term and spare them the harms that await them in nature (it evidently did not occur to Bentham that the domesticated animals we routinely exploit were not removed from the wild but were bred by human beings). Since animals have no interest in remaining alive, we may use them as we use any resource, provided that the suffering we impose on them is minimized. For Bentham, the moral question turns not on whether we can use animals, but on how we sh ould treat them. There are some serious flaws in Benthams assumption that because animals cannot desire, anticipate, or plan for their future, they cannot have an interest in their continued existence. Although science cannot give us a definitive answer on the precise nature of animal mentation, some of the behaviors we observe in animals cannot be adequately explain without reference to something like long-term desires. However, for the moment, let us suppose that Bentham is correct; that is, let us suppose that no animals apart from human beings have the sophisticated conceptual ability to desire, anticipate, or plan for their future. The conclusion Bentham draws from this consideration is that animals cannot have an interest in their continued existence; rather, they can only have an interest in avoiding unnecessary suffering. In the discussion to follow, I give three reasons for why I believe Bentham is mistaken. The first reason concerns the nature of what it means to have an interest. One common understanding of interests appeals to the close connection between desires and interests. In other words, if I have a desire to remain alive, then it follows that I have an interest in remaining alive. Animals, in contrast, cannot desire or anticipate the future; therefore, animals cannot have interest in remaining alive. We might call this the desire-based theory of interests. Fortunately, there is another common way of understanding interests, call it the recognition-based theory of interests, that makes no appeal to desires or aspirations. If Jane has an interest in x, we normally acknowledge that Jane desires x; however, we do speak of some things being in Janes best interests, whether she desires those things or not. In other words, we typically recognize that an individuals life, bodily integrity and mental well-being are in his or her best interests, even if these things are not desired by them. Similarly, our pets may not possess the sophisticated conceptual ability to desire or plan for their futures in the sense that we do, but, all other things being equal, we still typically recognize that it is in their best interest to remain alive. The recognition-based theory demonstrates that interests can obtain independently of and are not necessarily derived from desires. Having an interest in ones continued existence does not necessarily require that one have the ability to understand calendars and contemplate future events. One immediate objection that might be raised is that the recognition-based theory of interests lands us into a slippery slope. If all it takes for something to have morally considerable interests in the sense I have articulated it is our recognition, then certainly plants have an interest in remaining alive, and even cars have an interest in remaining well-oiled. But no one would maintain that plants and cars warrant our direct moral concern; therefore, the recognition based-theory is indefensible. This objection misses one key distinction between animals, plants, and inanimate objects: animals have an experiential welfare in virtue of being sentient. To be a sentient being is to be the subject of an experiential welfare that can be enhanced or frustrated by pleasures, afflictions, and deprivations. Sentience is the minimal prerequisite for having interests at all. If a being is not sentient, then there is nothing to take into account. Plants and cars are things. Keeping in mind the recognition-based theory of interests, consider the following example, which expands on the preceding point. John suffers from a condition known as transient global amnesia. [39] He has no recollection of his past and no thoughts about his future. He is mystified by his own reflection. John lives in a continuous present. However peculiar Johns condition might seem, virtually no one would maintain that he has no interest in remaining alive, or that it is morally acceptable to exploit him for whatever purpose we see fit. Although Johns condition may justify differential treatment in some situations, we would not be justified in treating him exclusively as a means to our ends. We recognize that John has an interest in his continued existence, even though he is incapable of desiring or planning for the future. Third, consider a line of argument advanced by Plutarch. We have good reasons to believe that sentience, by its very nature, logically implies having an interest in remaining alive, since nature, which they rightly say, does everything with some purpose and to some end, did not create the sentient creature merely to be sentient when something happens to itthere are in the world many things friendly to it, many also hostile.[40] Plutarch understands that sentience is not an end-in-itself, but is a means to the end of remaining alive. Sentience logically implies the possession of some perception, hearing, seeing, imagination, and intelligence, which every creature receives from Nature to enable it to acquire what is proper for it and to evade what is not.[41] Sentient animals use their sensations to escape those situations that threaten their lives and pursue those situations that enhance their lives. What Bentham fails to acknowledge is that not all harms hurt. Death is the greatest p ossible harm that one can inflict on the experiential welfare of any sentient being because it forecloses all opportunities for satisfaction, and that is why sentient beings have a basic interest in both the quality and duration of their lives. Gary Francione, who also views sentience as a means to an end, advances a contemporary version of Plutarchs argument: Sentience is not an end-in-itself; it is a means to the end of staying alivesentience is what has evolved in order to ensure the survival of complex organism. To deny that a being who has evolved to develop a consciousness of pain and pleasure has no interest in remaining alive is to say that conscious beings have no interest in remaining conscious.[42] Regardless, common sense tells us that if an animal struggles against a threat to its life and pursues situations that enhance its life, then that animal does desire to remain alive, even if that desire cannot be expressed or thought about through human language. The Property Status of Animals Although Bentham changed our moral thinking about animals and urged the enactment of animal welfare laws, such as anticruelty statutes, that attempt to regulate our use and treatment of animals, the operation of those laws have failed to provide any meaningful protection for animal interests. The human treatment principle, which incorporates the principle of equal consideration, and which requires that we balance the supposed conflicts between human and animal interests to determine whether their suffering is necessary, is rendered meaningless by the fact that welfare laws presuppose the property status of animals. The balancing choice to be made between human and animal interests is illusory, since their fates have already been predetermined by their property status. Animals are commodities that we own in the same way that we own inanimate objects, and they have no value aside from that which their property owners choose to given them. To say that some humans regard their pets as me mbers of their families is to say that they regard them as having a higher than market value, pure and simple. Since animals are regarded as human property, their interests may be disregarded whenever it is in the interests of the property owner to do so. To the extent that Benthams theory asks whether the pain and suffering we impose on animals is necessary, the inquiry is limited to whether the particular use is in compliance with the customs and practices of property owners who, we assume, will not inflict more pain and suffering on than is required for the purpose.[43] Our infliction of suffering on animals raises moral and legal concerns only when it does not conform to our socially accepted forms of institutionalized animal exploitation. Although Benthams theory expresses its disapproval of the unnecessary suffering of animals, virtually none of our uses of animals, for reasons of pleasure, amusement, and so forth, can be characterized as necessary in any meaningful sense. The animal welfare laws that were intended to protect animal interests have managed only to facilitate our exploitation of animals in a more socially acceptable and economically efficient way. From both a logical and practical standpoint, then, Bentham is fundamentally mistaken in his conviction that the principle of equal consideration can apply to animals even if they are our property. Benthams theory simply cannot provide meaningful protection for animal interests. Conclusion The grounds on which early modern thinkers argue against the moral status of animals represent a continuity and adherence to the traditional prejudices of the Stoic and Epicurean doctrines. Descartes inherits from his Stoic and Christian forebears the idea that the world exists for the sake of its rational componentsan idea which informs the terms of his strict dualism as regards the moral status of animals. By conflating the authors of the categorical imperative with the objects to which the categorical imperative ought to apply, Kant inherits the core assumptions of the contract tradition that his theory purports to reject. Bentham comes close to meriting animals a meaningful moral status, but his criterion of self-consciousness and indifference to the property status of animals reflects his adherence to the underlying assumption that cognitive inferiority is a relevant measure of moral inferiority. Combining the utilitarian view that moral status comes from sentience with the rev ised version of the second formulation of the categorical imperative provides the firmest foundation for our duties of justice toward animals. Seeing this mission through will require shifting the paradigm away from treatment and toward the abolition of their property status. References Bentham, Jeremy. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. New York: Hafner/MacMillian, 1948. Descartes, Rene. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Edited by John Cottingham et al. 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984-1991. Francione, Gary L. Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000. -Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Kant, Immanuel. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. Translated by James W. Ellington. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1981. -Lectures on Ethics. Edited by Peter Heath and J. B. Schneewind, translated by Peter Heath. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Nussbaum, Martha C. Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, and Species Membership. Belknap Press: Mass, 2006. Plutarch. Moralia Volume XII. Trans. Harold Cherniss and William C. Helmbold. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995. Porphyry. On Abstinence from Killing Animals. Trans. Gillian Clark. New York: Cornell University Press, 2000. Regan, Tom. The Case for Animal Rights. 2nd ed. University of California Press, 2004. Steiner, Gary. Anthropocentrism and its Discontents: The Moral Status of Animals in the History of Western Philosophy. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. [1] Descartes, Rene. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Edited by John Cottingham et al. 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984-1991, (I: 142). [2] Bentham, Jeremy. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. New York: Hafner/MacMillian, 1948, p. 310. [3] Descartes, Rene. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Edited by John Cottingham et al. 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984-1991, (I: 141). 3 Ibid, (III: 62). [4] [5] Ibid, (III: 366). [6] Ibid, (III: 362). [7] Ibid, (III: 365). [8] Ibid, (III: 99). [9] Ibid, (I: 141). [10] Ibid, (II: 19). [11] Ibid, (III: 56). [12] Ibid, (III: 54). [13] Ibid, (III: 366). [14] Ibid, (II: 189). [15] Although many animals show more skill than we do in some of their actions, yet the same animals show none at all in many others; so what they do better does not prove that they have intelligence, for if it did then they would have more intelligence than any of us and would excel in anything. It proves rather that they have no intelligence. Ibid, (I: 141). [16] Ibid, (I: 140). [17] Regan, Tom. The Case for Animal Rights. 2nd ed. University of California Press, 2004, p. 9. [18] Descartes, Rene. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, (I: 140). [19] Ibid, (III: 366). [20] Ibid, (III: 80-2). [21] Ibid, (I: 384). [22] Ibid, (I: 348). [23] Ibid, (I: 145). [24] Ibid, (I: 142-3). [25] By morals I understand the highest and most perfect moral system, which presupposes a complete knowledge of the other sciences and is the ultimate level of wisdom. Now just as it is not the roots or the trunk of a tree from which one gathers fruit, but only the ends of the branches, so the principal benefit of philosophy depends on those parts of it which can be learnt last of all (I: 186). The philosophical fruits of the metaphorical tree are mechanics, medicine, and morals, which, for Descartes, are taken to be coextensive. Humanitys technological imperative to gain complete mastery over nature for the sake of scientific progress has an unmistakable moral dimension. [26] Kant, Immanuel. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. Translated by James W. Ellington. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1981, p. 36. [27] Ibid, p. 36. [28] Ibid, p. 29. [29] Ibid, p. 35 [30] Lectures on Ethics. Edited by Peter Heath and J. B. Schneewind, translated by Peter Heath. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 212-13. [31] Ibid, p. 212. [32] Nussbaum, Martha C. Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, and Species Membership. Belknap Press: Mass, 2006, p. 16. [33] Ibid, p. 14 [34] Now if people had been able to make a contract with other animals, as with other human beings, not to kill and to be killed indiscriminately by us, it would have been fine to push justice to that point, because it would tend to safety. But since it was an impossibility for that are not receptive to reason and share in law, this method could not be used to secure our advantage in respect of safety from other animate creaturesthat is why the only way to achieve such safety as is possible is to take license which we now have to kill them. Porphyry. On Abstinence from Killing Animals. Trans. Gillian Clark. New York: Cornell University Press, 2000, (1.12. 6-7), p. 36. [35] Bentham, Jeremy. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. New York: Hafner/MacMillian, 1948, p.1. [36] Ibid, p. 310. [37] Francione, Gary L. Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000, p. xxv. [38] Ibid, p. 310. [39] Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008, p. 144. [40] Plutarch. Moralia Volume XII. Trans. Harold Cherniss and William C. Helmbold. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995, (960E), p.329. [41] Ibid, (960E), p. 329. [42] Francione, Gary L. Introduction to Animal Rights, p. 157. [43] Ibid, p. 36.