Young Goodman Brown. Theme of your choice of good and evil Research Paper

Young Goodman Brown. Theme of your choice of good and evil - Research Paper Example The puritan beliefs that man was inherently sinful tend to be biased against society in favor of their own self-righteousness out of grace. Through the story of Goodman, Hawthorne criticizes the hypocrisy of the Puritan liturgy by creatively designing Goodman’s journey to self-discovery through personal reevaluation that ultimately ends in the loss of his own faith. Goodman as the protagonist of the story is a universal character, typical of every other man in the universe (Hawthorne 561). This story is strikingly a dark romance story in the period of American Romanticism because it depicts sad and dark events; moreover, in this story, Hawthorne deals with the theme of Good and Evil as two opposing forces in society. The basic argument is that man is constantly faced with the internal conflict about his personal belief, and this is because of the struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. Hawthorne affirmatively states that the forces of evil are so strong tha t one is more likely to stray from the path of righteousness to the path of evil and darkness. Man being inherently sinful, he has  to defeat evil by remaining steadfast in his faith, but this is not often easy as we see through Goodman’s woes that lead to him losing his faith; he encounters the devil who is in his own resemblance (Hawthorne 554). The major characters of this story have been given names that suggest a deeper meaning than the surface one, in a deliberate fashion that supports the theme of Good and evil. Goodman for instance points out that the said character is a good man, pure in actions and free from evil. As such, Goodman appeals to the reader as a sympathetic character who has fallen victim of circumstances;  Faith  on the other hand  metaphorically represents his religious beliefs, through which he hopes to attain eternal life.  He believes in her earthly purity and innocence and later in the story,  it emerges that she also represents his per sonal faith. It is faith that keeps Goodman from indulging in evil; this is captured aptly through Goodman’s encounter with the devil in the forest where he excuses his lateness by the delay caused by his wife Faith. This highlights his internal conflict that is informed by man's  general predisposition to evil, and his religious beliefs that prohibit him from freely doing evil. Once Goodman learns that his wife is lost, his personal faith is lost too, and Goodman is totally lost from the righteous path. Apart from the Characters, the setting of the story has been used to highlight the theme of Good and evil in a manner that evokes greater significance in the plot of the story; thus, Hawthorne’s choice of a dense forest setting was purposeful and not merely coincidental. Forests have largely been associated with darkness and dangerous malevolence that could befall any unsuspecting person. Goodman alludes to this myth when he gets a notion that there could be evil beh ind every tree in the forest waiting to attack an innocent individual. In this regard, the forest setting symbolizes evil in its pure form with its deep secrets and darkness that portents mystery. By agreeing to walk in the forest, Goodman starts being compromised in his whole being as he begins to doubt his beliefs in the knowledge he already had about his forbiddance from the forest area. Goodman’s gradual walk deeper into the forest metaphorically represents his gradual straying from good to evil. Deeper into the forest, there is dense darkness that totally blinds Goodman’s eyesight thus highlighting the fact that his morality is getting darker and darker by the moment as he continues to walk in the fo

My parents divorce and the lessons i learned Essay

My parents divorce and the lessons i learned - Essay Example In fact I feel that it was only because of me that they didn't do it till then. I was not able to accept their divorce and was depressed. In school I tried to avoid mingling with others and always found ways to separate myself. I always felt that happiness was only for those who had a good family. I feel that just one incidence of my parents divorce was a major disaster in my life and had taken away all my happiness. They were also lacking love and affection from their families and I found that they hardly bothered about such things. They took me into their friend circle and I started to enjoy their company. Though I realized that their association would spoil my health and would cause me a lot of harm, I still went along with them. In their parties there was boozing, drugs and all other negative things one can think off. Though I started boozing with them I never tried drugs, as I had sense that once I get into such activities I will never have a comeback. It was when I turned 18 that I had a good friend who could bring me back to the real life and show me that there is still a lot of love and happiness in the world. I love her and she also loved me. We started to like each others association and found that we are made for each other. But since I had not seen my parents in love, I always had a fear in my mind that if I get married to her I may not be as happy as I am now. So for years we were t ogether without getting married. Once I v

Essay of william Essay Example for Free

Essay of william Essay Scepticism about technological determinism emerged alongside increased pessimism about techno-science in the mid-20th century, in particular around the use of nuclear energy in the production of nuclear weapons, Nazi human experimentation during World War II, and the problems of economic development in the third world. As a direct consequence, desire for greater control of the course of development of technology gave rise to disenchantment with the model of technological determinism in academia. Modern theorists of technology and society no longer consider technological determinism to be a very accurate view of the way in which we interact with technology, even though determinist assumptions and language fairly saturate the writings of many boosters of technology, the business pages of many popular magazines, and much reporting on technology. Instead, research in science and technology studies, social construction of technology and related fields have emphasised more nuanced views that resist easy causal formulations. They emphasise that The relationship between technology and society cannot be reduced to a simplistic cause-and-effect formula. It is, rather, an intertwining', whereby technology does not determine but operates, and are operated upon in a complex social field (Murphie and Potts). In his article Subversive Rationalization: Technology, Power and Democracy with Technology, Andrew Feenberg argues that technological determinism is not a very well founded concept by illustrating that two of the founding theses of determinism are easily questionable and in doing so calls for what he calls democratic rationalization (Feenberg 210–212). Prominent opposition to technologically determinist thinking has emerged within work on the social construction of technology (SCOT). SCOT research, such as that of Mackenzie and Wajcman (1997) argues that the path of innovation and its social consequences are strongly, if not entirely shaped by society itself through the influence of culture, politics, economic arrangements, regulatory mechanisms and the like. In its strongest form, verging on social determinism, What matters is not the technology itself, but the social or economic system in which it is embedded (Langdon Winner). In his influential but contested (see Woolgar and Cooper, 1999) article Do Artifacts Have Politics?, Langdon Winner illustrates a form of technological determinism by elaborating instances in which artifacts can have politics. Although The deterministic model of technology is widely propagated in society (Sarah Miller), it has also been widely questioned by scholars. Lelia Green explains that, When technology was perceived as being outside society, it made sense to talk about technology as neutral. Yet, this idea fails to take into account that culture is not fixed and society is dynamic. When Technology is implicated in social processes, there is nothing neutral about society (Lelia Green). This confirms one of the major problems with technological determinism and the resulting denial of human responsibility for change. There is a loss of human involvement that shape technology and society (Sarah Miller). Another conflicting idea is that of technological somnambulism, a term coined by Winner in his essay Technology as Forms of Life. Winner wonders whether or not we are simply sleepwalking through our existence with little concern or knowledge as to how we truly interact with technology. In this view it is still possible for us to wake up and once again take control of the direction in which we are traveling (Winner 104). However, it requires society to adopt Ralph Schroeders claim that, users don’t just passively consume technology, but actively transform it. In opposition to technological determinism are those who subscribe to the belief of social determinism and postmodernism. Social determinists believe that social circumstances alone select which technologies are adopted, with the result that no technology can be considered inevitable solely on its own merits. Technology and culture are not neutral and when knowledge comes into the equation, technology becomes implicated in social processes. The knowledge of how to create and enhance technology, and of how to use technology is socially bound knowledge. Postmodernists take another view, suggesting that what is right or wrong is dependent on circumstance. They believe technological change can have implications on the past, present and future.[6] While they believe technological change is influenced by changes in government policy, society and culture, they consider the notion of change to be a paradox, since change is constant. Media and cultural studies theorist Brian Winston, in response to technological determinism, developed a model for the emergence of new technologies which is centered on the Law of the suppression of radical potential. In two of his books – Technologies of Seeing: Photography, Cinematography and Television (1997) and Media Technology and Society (1998) – Winston applied this model to show how technologies evolve over time, and how their invention is mediated and controlled by society and societal factors which suppress the radical potential of a given technology.

Exploring The Illusion Of Conscious Will Philosophy Essay

Exploring The Illusion Of Conscious Will Philosophy Essay The experience of conscious will can be defined as the feeling that we are doing things, that we consciously cause our actions. However, this feeling may not be an accurate interpretation of what is happening in our minds, brain and bodies as our actions are produced. If we had access to a variety of information we could uncover the mechanisms that activate our behavior and we could explain why we are acting in a specific way. However, another way to explain our actions is that we consciously willed what we are doing. There is a confliction between the ideas of conscious will and psychological mechanism, having never been reconciled in a proper way. One solution for bridging the gap is that the explanation given from the mechanistic approach is preferred for scientific purposes, but that the persons experience of conscious will is very convincing and important to the person and must also be examined and be understood as well. Conscious will can be perceived in two ways. First, we can assume conscious will as the experience of consciously causing an action. This feeling of voluntariness or performing an action on purpose can be considered as an indication of conscious will. Secondly, we can think of conscious will as a force of mind, in other words, as the causal link between our minds and our actions. One might infer that this two interpretations of conscious will are corresponding to the same thing but it turns out that they are completely distinct and we are often tend to confuse them. This confusion is considered as the source of the illusion of conscious will. By examining conscious will as an experience it is concluded that will is a feeling. In other words, will is not consider as a cause or a force by itself but the personal conscious feeling of such causing and forcing. Also, this experience of willing an action is accompanied by a feeling of doing, which is an internal force that certifies genuinely that one has produced the action. Experiences of conscious will can only be confirmed by self- reports. The problem is that self- reports are not always corresponding with some other external evidence of the experience. There are several examples in which the experience of will does not seem to accompany actions that appear to be willed by other external factors. Considering the alien hand syndrome which is a neuropsychological disorder patients typically experience one hand as acting independently, in its own conscious intention. In this case there is a problem classing the alien hands movement as willed or unwilled. On the one hand the a ctions that are performed by the alien hand are seemed to be willful while on the other hand the person states that these actions are not consciously willed by himself. Another example in which the feeling of involuntariness is observed is hypnosis. People in this case feeling that their actions are happening to them rather than they perform the actions themselves. The only difference between hypnosis and alien hand syndrome is that in the second case the person cant predict what the hand will do but in hypnosis conscious will is lacking even though the person knows that the action is present. Considering these examples it is useful to draw a distinction between action and the sense of acting willfully. There are four basic conditions of human action. In the first two conditions we can observe the expected correspondence between the action and the sense of acting willfully. More specifically there is no controversy when a person does something and feels also that he is doing it or w hen a person is not doing anything and feels he is not. However, the case in which the person does not have the feeling of will when there is in fact action encompasses the examples of the alien hand syndrome and hypnosis. These instances can be classed as automatisms and draw a distinction between action and the sense of acting willfully. Another special case that highlights this distinction is the illusion of control. This term was used in order to describe instances in which people have the feeling that they perform an action when they actually dont do anything. This illusion of control can be observed in the interactions between humans and machines or when someone is rolling a dice or flip a coin in a specific way hoping to influence the outcome. Examining these two last conditions it is concluded that the action and the feeling of doing are not coexist inevitably. This might happens because the process of mind that produce the experience of will is different from the process of mind that produce the action itself. As it was mentioned before will is not only considered as an experience, but also as a force. Wegner states that conscious experience is an immediate perception of ones conscious mind causing an action. From this point of view will is considered as a quality of power that resides in the person and causes his or her actions. There are two fundamental problems arising from this concept. First, conscious will is considered as an entity that explains a variety of thing but nothing can explains it. In this way this entity cannot be examined in a scientific way because assuming that will is a force that causes a persons actions is like saying that God is causing an event. This is a barrier to any other explanation because it is not predictable what will is going to do as it cannot be said what God is going to do either. Secondly, the assumption that will is a force that resides inside the person creates further objections. As Hume pointed out causality is not an attribution inhering in obj ects. Another thing that was stated by Hume is that it cannot be seen causation in something, but must only be inferred from the constant relation between cause and effect. Causation is not a characteristic that is nestled in objects but an event. Thus it cannot be assumed that causation is an attribution of persons intention. It cannot be observed that an action is caused by ones conscious intention but it can only be inferred from the relation between the intention and action. One reason why people confuse the experience of will for a causal mechanism is because they try to make sense of themselves as causal agents. Most humans perceive themselves and the other people as entities that acting independently in order to achieve a future goal. The concept of causal agency is very important for people because it helps them understand in a deeper sense human action. Humans are considered to be agents that are acting in purpose and they have the capacity to discern their goals consciously in advance of action. Thus the experience of will seems to be a causal agent. People perceive their own minds as systems that have mental causing properties, as causal agents and in this way they need to accept that the experience of conscious will is real. 2. Theory of Apparent Mental Causation What are the mechanisms that give rise to the experience of conscious will? Why do people feel like they are doing things? Wegner states that the experience of consciously willing an action is departing when people interpret their own thought as the cause of their action. In this sense conscious will is experienced independently of any actual relationship between ones thoughts and actions. This perception of will usually arises when people think themselves before the action takes place and that produces the sense of agency. In other words people seem to see themselves as the authors of an action when they perceive relevant thoughts about this specific action in advance and in this way they tend to infer that their mental processes caused this action. However will is not perceived as s force that causes action but as a conscious experience that depicts weakly the actual causal connection between the persons cognition and action. In this way, there is a fundamental distinction between mental process and the perception and the verbal report of that process. The mental process does not reveal the person any further information about the mechanism of this process and in this case it may be that the person uses prior causal theories to explain his or her own psychological functions. The conscious will may depart from a theory that was formed in order to explain the constant relationship between thought and action. But many scientific findings support that conscious will does not reflect the real causal relation. In fact brain events are those that determine intention and action while conscious intention itself cannot cause action. According to many studies the feeling of will is not tied inevitably to voluntary action and so must be considered as a distinctive phenomenon. Wegner propose a model of mental system that explains how people end up having the experience of will which is consistent with various empirical findings. According to this model, there are a series of events that end up to a voluntary action. In this network conscious thought and action are activated by unconscious mental processes which are may be linked to each other. But the path that gives rise to the experience of will is not actual but apparent. More specifically, when someone believes that his conscious intention caused the voluntary action he is experiencing a sense of will, that he willfully caused the action. The problem is that the perceived conscious will is not always corresponding with the actual mechanisms that connect the thought and the action. In other words, the experience of conscious will is not an indication of the actual relation between the mind and the action. What is truly might be happening is that conscious will arises from a causal illusion, from a third variable that interferes. As it can never be drawn with certainty that A causes B because there is always exist a variable C that cause both of them, in the same way it is not certain that ones thought cause his actions because there are unconscious mechanisms that produce both of them. Wegners theory proposes that experience of will is arising when people infer that their thoughts have caused their actions, whether this inference is true or not. According to this people tend to infer that thought causes action when the principles of priority, consistency and exclusivity are fulfilled. First, the thought must be appear in consciousness prior to the action (priority) secondly, it should be consistent with the action (consistency) and finally there must not be other potential causes of the action (exclusivity). Studies have shown that the perception of causality is based on these principles in order to be established a relationship between the cause and the effect. In fact, these principles do not depict an actual causal relation because the perceptions of causality that are based on these principles arise from reality. In a nutshell, the theory of apparent mental causation assumes that the experience of consciously willing our actions is a construction. When a thought appears to be prior and consistent with the action and exclusive of any other alternative causes this construction produces the feeling that we are the authors of this action. However, this feeling is just an inference that our thoughts cause our action, not a direct perception of this causal relationship. 3. Why do we have the illusion? Why do people occupied with experience of intention if it is no causally effective? As we mentioned before conscious will departs from the interpretation that our thoughts cause our actions. In this way, apparent mental causation is produced by an interpretive mechanism that is completely different from the mechanistic process that forms the real mental causation. Thus, the experience of will is considered to be an indication that mind determines our actions, is the way that mind illustrates their functions to us, not their real functions. These prior thoughts that people have are not intentions that cause things but previews of what we may do. Wegner states that conscious will is the minds compass. More specifically is the experience that alerts our minds when actions are present and that these actions are the products of their own agency. Therefore the will is an indicator that informs us about the way we operate, does not cause our actions. Will also serve another purpose, is it a feeling that gives us information about our understanding of our own agency. In other words, it is an emotion of authorship and functions as a guide to ourselves and marks out our own functions. It informs us about who we are and what we are able to do. Finally, the most important thing is that will cultivates feelings about our responsibility for our actions and our sense of morality and guilt. 4. Empirical evidence Is free will exists? What is causing our actions? Libet (1999) had taken an experimental approach in order to give conclusive answers to these questions. In his empirical study, he found that free voluntary actions were preceded by the readiness potential RP, that is a specific electrical shift in the brain, that starts 550ms before the action. The awareness of the intention to act comes 350-400 ms after RP begins but 200ms before the action. Therefore, the processing of the voluntary acting was initiated unconsciously. In this way it can be drawn that if the brain initiate this voluntary action before conscious intention is appeared then consciousness is too difficult to be the cause of the action (Blackmore). However, the conscious processing can control the result if it veto the action and that confirms that free will cannot be excluded. It is supported that free will is not able to initiate a voluntary action but it can control it (Libet, 1999). Libet experiments had raised many philosophical and methodological problems. First of all, he has been critised Mele(book) tried to interpret Libet findings in an alternative way. According to him there is a crucial distinction between the concepts of deciding and intending on the one hand and other states such as wanting on the other hand. Libet uses the terms of intending, urging, wanting, deciding, willing alternatively without making any discrimination among them. In particular, in order to explain how does a specific intention for an action arises in the subjects he strongly claims that the brain decides to initiate or at least to prepare to initiate the act before there is any reportable subjective awareness that such a decision has taken place. Therefore, Libet believes that decisions are causing our actions and that this electrical shift that happens in our brains seems to be correlated with the causes of our actions because they precede of the muscle motion by approximately half a second. In this way the brain made the decision 500ms earlier before the subjects become aware of that. B ut this can lead to contradiction because decisions cannot be made without being conscious of them. According to Mele, deciding to do something is completely distinct from having an urge or wanting to do something. One might want to produce an action but finally not decide to do it. In this way it is more plausible that brain produces urges rather than decisions because urges correspond to an unconscious processing. Thereafter, this unconscious urges helps the decision to be generated in order for the act to be produced. As Libet point out the conscious self can control or permit or veto the final motor action by deciding to do so and in this case the decision to initiate the action is more direct from the unconscious urge that initiated the whole process. In this way the conscious self that is intending and deciding still has a causal efficacy.(mele) Trevena and Miller (2009) disproved Libets core assumption that the electrophysiological shifts of the brain that prepare the action, that are present before the subjects are consciously aware of making the decision to move, is not evidence that voluntary action is initiated unconsciously. It is also concluded that these signs are not related only with the preparation of the movement. In the experiment that it was conducted the researchers compared the electrophysiological sign before a decision to move with signs before a decision not to move and they found that there were no significant differences between the signs in the two conditions. In this way these signs are not in charge of preparing these movements. Thus, Libet findings dont prove that voluntary actions are initiated unconsciously.

Photography Ideology Society

Photography Ideology Society For many years now sociologists, critics, and writers have been intrigued with the idea of photography and interested in the concept of ideology itself, as well as what ideologies have been or can be presented as using photography or visual representations. Both photography and ideology are strongly linked to sociological theories, philosophical theories and even psychological theories, but how is their relationship conceived? What has been discovered about how ideologies are presented within a photograph? And are they inevitable? Firstly when talking of the term photography, in disassembling it to its simplest form it is the process of recording pictures by capturing light on a light sensitive medium. This invention was believed to be extraordinary, as it was believed that there would be a bright future ahead of this invention based on the fact that moments could be captured in a single photograph. While photography goes far back to the 1820s, the word ideology was created and introduced by count Antoine Destutt de Tracy in the late 18th century. De Tracy defined his concept of ideology by simply stating that it is a science of ideas, it can be seen as a way of looking at things in terms of common sense or ideology in everyday society, through a normative thought process. The philosopher Michael Foucault wrote: ‘Ideology is a way of life for society In simple terms to define the word and to state that ideology was all around life in everyday society. Famous Sociologist and founder of Marxism, Karl Marx talked of ideology being an instrument of social reproduction in order for the elites to remain in control of masses, he states: ‘The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch of the ruling ideas which is ruling material force of society as at the same time is ruling intellectual forces Marx Engels, (1845) Marx and Engels states that the ideologies of society that are everywhere come from the ruling classes (which refers to those with power i.e. ‘the bourgeoisie) that they believe submit ruling ideas from the ruling material force of society which also rules the main academic or intellectual force. This could be applied to photography and its relation to ideology, their theories suggest that Marx and Engels would argue that mainstream photography could be produced to represent ideological ideas in order to benefit the elites. Another significant sociologist, Louis Althusser, (1969) looked at ideology and stated that there was an ideological state apparatus, he wrote: ‘Ideology, always exists in an apparatus and its practice and practices, this existence is material This may suggest that in terms of photography according to Althusser it can be seen as an ideological practice, as photography can also be seen as a practice and our our values, desires and preferences are all part of what he calls the idealogical state apparatus. And in summary if a photographer is capturing our values, desires and preferences in photographs this must mean that what is being reflected are our idealogical values, desires and preferences. It was not until photography began to be related to social exploration that photography became a form that could be discussed in a socially theoretical manner and could be related to concepts of ideology, when ideologies began to be identified in early photographs of war. In the beginning the story of photography began with just its technology. Writer Eugenia Parry Janis cited in ‘History of photography: the state of research wrote: ‘The story of photography would be the history of its technique This continued and it wasnt until the 1930s that photography became thought of as art. The model of photographic history as the history of its technical refinement continued to the twentieth century, nationalist overtones were most obvious in the 20s and 30s, as French and then German historians rendered increasingly factorial and self-serving versions of photographys first hundred years states R. Douglas Nickel, (2001). Photography gradually became reflective of society, but in the 1980s and 90s photography associated with social history, cultural history and theory. This evidently came after the work of Marx Engels, Althusser or (Barthes specifically on the concepts of photography itself and its concern with ideology in particular. Marxs work was Based on the notion of ideology, specifically, the idea that photography is not a medium of mere class of imagery but a commodity subject to the invariable distortions and ‘False consciousness that Marxist theorists state characterise throughout the super structural products of bourgeoisie culture. Marx also states that ‘capitalism traffics in photography is taken as pure ideology, an empty vessel of conduct for transaction of power relations. He states that picture photography is unconsciously ideological. Photography and sociology in particular have always had a strong relation and one of the most profound theories around photography is its ideology or its visual culture. When talking of ideology in a photograph one is talking of its sociology or the sociological theory around it that sociologists and writers have followed and researched. Photography and sociology have approximately the same birth date, and are both considered similar in terms of their work exploring society writer Rosenblum cited in ‘Photography and sociology writes: ‘Different kinds of photographers work in different institutional settings and occupational communities, which effect their product as an essential setting in which sociologists work effects theirs Rosenblum, (1973) In working in a particular place or community with particular surroundings, the community around sociologists affect the work they produce and it is the same aspect for photographers, in photographing a certain concept they are producing a photograph that is subject to its environment therefore it is unavoidable that ideologies would be projected. Becker, (1974) elaborates on this aspect, he states that the constraints of settings in which photographers did their work affected how they went about it, their habits of seeing, the pictures they made and when looking at society what they saw, what they made of it and the way they presented their result. Photography is somewhat seen as an exploration of society like said before, it can be used to find the reality of ways of life or hide them, and most importantly reflect ideologies within society like many writers argue. However another use photographs can have is telling the News, this has become increasingly important over many years, as they are used as a social exploration through photographic news journalism. Marxists would argue that some pictures or drawings in the news would be used to submit ideologies one example of this is the famous war picture featured in news papers which was used to recruit soldiers and had a soldier on it stating ‘I want YOU for U.S army. This picture was used to persuade young men to join the army to form an ideological opposition to defend ones country. Photographic journalism was around as far back as the civil war as Mathieu Brody and Horan (1955) photographed it, it was also largely utilised by the 1960s during the civil rights movements. Today photographic journalism can be used to form certain political ideas a simple example of this would be using the numerous pictures of leaders such as George Bush or Gordon Brown looking professional and dressed in a suit, this would provoke ideologies of civilised and democratic leaders whilst showing a leader such as many pictures of the late Yassire Arafat in an unprofessional looking position wearing his traditional head scarf would provoke ideas of a less professional man. Another example of ideology used in photographic journalism today would be pictures of young and thin looking models on the front magazines such as ‘vogue or ‘cosmopolitan which expose the ideal way a young lady should look in todays society. It is argued that some photographs have been based on political ideologies, it is evident that photography has a strong relationship with the concept of ideology, since the sociology of photography was explored, writers such as Roland Barthes explored this specifically in his work on mythologies to be precise which I will later explore. Writer Hadjincolau, (1978) cited in ‘the theory of ideology: bringing the mind back in Sates that a visual ideology is presented with both instances or exemplars of the system of representation in use (individual pictures) and with explicitly formulated rules of the system for example drawing manuals. In talking of the way ideology effects society and its subjects or products, Roland Barthes, (1957) in mythologies wrote: ‘The whole of France is steeped in this anonymous ideology: our press, our cinema, our theatre, our popular literature, our ceremonies, our Justice, our diplomacy, our conversations, our remarks on the weather, the crimes we try, the wedding we are moved by, the cooking we dream of, the clothes we wear, everything, in our everyday life, contributes to the representation that the bourgeoisie makes for itself and for us of the relationships between man and the world. One obvious ideological photograph that Barthes writes about is one of French imperialism, it is one of a black bow wearing military garments and appearing to salute the French flag on the cover of a French magazine named ‘Paris Match. It attempts to represent an ideological image that shows a French unity based on serving under the French flag and under France despite the ethnic origin or that fact that boy may be from a French colony. Barthes writes about his interpretation of this image in particular he famously wrote: ‘I am at the barbers, and a copy of Paris-Match is offered to me. On the cover, a young Negro in a French uniform is saluting, with his eyes uplifted, probably fixed on a fold of the tricolour. All this is the meaning of the picture. But, whether naively or not, I see very well what it signifies to me: that France is a great Empire, that all her sons, without any colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her flag, and that there is no better answer to the detractors of an alleged colonialism than the zeal shown by this Negro in serving his so-called oppressors. I am therefore again faced with a greater semiological system: there is a signifier, itself already formed with a previous system (a black soldier is giving the French salute); there is a signified (it is here a purposeful mixture of Frenchness and militariness); finally, there is a presence of the signified through the signifier. This photographs critique is linked to the concept of realistic vs. idealistic when talking of its visual culture. Photographs such as this reflect the ideal that French powers would have ideally liked to reach ain the 1950s, however even in contemporary France these issues are still evident and are reflected within visual culture. There is still a fairly clear divide between the French by origin and those from current or previous colonies. Pictures like these are produced everyday even today and as Marx Engels, Althusser, and Foucault would argue, those in power use the mechanism of photography as a way of fabricating ideology through visual art forms. However from time to time films such as Mathieu Kossivitz ‘La Haine (1995) reveals the reality rather then the ideal of societies such as the French society. La Haine produces some documentary like visuals and photographs that depicts the reality of French societies which disassembles the ideologies in dealing with contemporary issues such as integration, social exclusion, unemployment, or inequalities through visual imagery. This film was so successful and reflective of French society that French politicians and then president Jack Chirac organised a special viewing of the film within parliament. In discussing this, these issues only confirm that what we see from a picture like the one on Paris Match is constructed of semiological systems that reveals signifieds that have already been framed, which shows a clear signified from a signifier according to Barthes. Barthes mythologies also states that ideological pictures like the Paris Match cover were a signifying function created by a sum of signs that resulted in a myth. Relative to the Paris Match photograph Stuart Hall (1997) cited in the article ‘Illustrate and critically discuss the way in which semioticains problematise the concepts of representation by Roderick Munday,Hall states that the minority groups, or what he describes as people who are different in any way from the norm are frequently exposed to what he calls â€Å"binary forms of representation†. Examples of these are as he states them/us, black/white, good/bad, and ugly/attractive. He also states that minority groups or people who are in any way different are also expected to be both contraries at the same time. This is applicable to the Paris Match photograph as for example he is wearing uniform usually typically representative of white French boys yet he is black. It can be seen as a continuation or reemphasis of the traditional sense of representation as symbolising an abstract idea. An example of this is the representation of black people, and the possibility of them being viewed as the representation of white peoples ideas about them. One example of this is cited in Roderick Mundays essay and is a photograph of Linford Christie after winning gold at a major competition as an athlete in Barcelona 1992. As a result of this picture the British press could only focus on him wearing a tight athletic running suit and the apparent size of his genitals. This was an influence of ideological ideas and perceptions that black men in particular had large genitals. The ideology that black men had large genitals had been formed over a long period of time; Antonio Gramsci would argue has become a hegemonic belief, which means a popular belief amongst the majority or a hegemonic and ideological belief. One may be subject to thinking that if ideological ideas can be made about a photograph such as this, it can be made about any other photograph. When looking at this picture, like Althusser states a major ideological state apparatuses which is the media choose to ignore, they opt to sideline other representations within the photograph and focus of an a racial ideology. This suggests that as this is included in mainstream media many would have been familiar with this article and this could have influenced their views. However postmodernist critics state that individuals are not extremely influenced and can identify their own views, they argue that individuals are not that dependant or taken advantage of. Despite this argument in conclusion the British media chose to ignore the fact that he is holding a British flag and the representation of it, or the fact that his body language reflects his success his power and success or appreciation for the supporting crowd. Other work done on this subject is that of writer kobena Mercer, Mercer studied photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe that revealed photographs of what appears to be genitals of black man and their particular emphasis on their large size. Mercer wrote: ‘Mapplethorpe is serving a colonial fantasy, the sexual idealisation of the racial other Mercer, (2002) One photograph that Mapplethorpe produced was one that revealed a black man in a workers suit, with emphasis to his genital area exposed, from this photograph one could assume that the ideal is that he has large genital before the fact that he is just a working man. Mercers critic of his photographs argues that rather then taking the black man as a person Mapplethorpe is feeding the racial ideal. Amongst famous ideological photographs is photographer Joe Rosenthals 1945 Iwo Jima flag-raising photograph of for American soldiers raising the American flag symbolising the ideology of American nationalism, American power, and American spirit. One could analyse this image in the way that Roland Barthes does in a systematic way to uncover its meaning and ideology. Roland Barthes ‘rhetoric of the image states that there are three messages we need to ‘skim off. The three messages include the linguistic code, the coded iconic message, and the non coded iconic message. He looks at these three messages when analysing the ‘Panzani advert. When looking at the flag raising picture the first message is not evident within the picture as the picture does not contain any text therefore we must continue to the second message, the coded iconic message, this message looks at coded aspects which enable us to immediately identify just the pure image or any unconscious messages that have iconic significance. When looking at the ‘discontinuous signs as the coded iconic messages in Rosenthals image as Barthes calls them, the first instance the image represents is the notion of four soldiers who were currently engaged in a battle that ended in victory. The euphoric values within this photograph are firstly the idea of fresh success in winning the battle and celebration that will occur prior to doing so. The signifier for the signifier is the raising of the flag, one of the other signifiers the second signifier is the American flag itself representing ‘americanicity rather then ‘italianicity as Barthes describes in the Panzani advert. Another signifier would be the uniforms of the soldiers which would signify the immediacy of being in a battle and the equality amongst the soldiers. The third message, the non-coded message involves just looking at the objects in the image and the messages without codes or as Barthes describes this as ‘The literal Message or describing the simple structure of the image and the objects. The obvious non-coded messages within this photograph would simply be the soldiers themselves raising the flag in unity, and the American flag it self. The image has been one of the most famous iconic American images in history and has been reproduced countless times on, postcards, stamps, frames, and posters. The image is the representation of an American ideal, and of the fighting spirit of its soldiers that American forces talk off often. It also indicates the ideal of American power and how strong America is. However one of the reasons why I chose this picture as many believe that Rosenthal must have posed the figures in the photograph stating that he had told the soldiers to re-enact the flag raising for a second time. Rosenthal stated that this was not the case as he had first missed the first flag raising by soldiers but then naturally captured the second raising of a larger flag. Weather these allegations were correct or not, this may indicate a possibility that this ideological image used photography to submit certain ‘un-conscious American ideologies and ideas of patriotism weather done naturally or not. We may conceive that photography is being used to accomplish certain ideologies from the relationship that photography has with ideology. Discussing photography throughout its time and its strong connection with sociology in exploring society, it is clear that there have always been social ideologies and that photography has always been linked to them in one way or another, whether promoting them or challenging them, they are still used today. In simple terms we may conceive that photography just reflects most of societys ideas. This therefore insinuates that we may conceive of the relationship between photography and ideology as inevitable, this is exemplified in Roland Barthes analysis of the photograph showing the Panzani advert in the ‘Rhetoric of the image whenHe states that the advert promotes ideals of what he describes is ‘italianicity or the perfectly balanced meal based on what Italians eat. Therefore I ask weather it is possible to develop a photograph without some ideologies as Barthes states in his work on Mythologies, ideologies are all around us; in cinema, News papers, magazines and even the weddings we go to or the clothes we wear. Certain ideologies within any given photograph may represent a different ideal. I argue that even the least typical ideological photograph is an ideal of the ‘un-ideological photograph, or the ideal of an image opposite to an image seen as ideological. Even a photograph of mountains of sand in the desert photographed by photographer by Ansel Adams provokes ideas of Arabian nights, an Arabic camel walking to the beat of its humps, or Arabic Saharan way of life. This may be because we un-consciously relate ideas that are already set out for us as such as media or education Althusser would argue. Therefore weather or not we choose to use typical of un-typical ideals within a photograph to benefit our society and teach our society in the right way is up to us. Bibliography 1, Kobena Mercer ‘Reading racial Fetishiam: the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe in eds. Evans Hall (1999) Visual culture: he reader London: Sage, open university 2, Becker, H. S. (1974) Photography and Sociology. Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication 1, 3-26. 3, Paris Match French ideology, Google images www.google.com accessed: 03/04/08 4, Lewis, W. (2005) ‘Louis Althusser and the Traditions of French Marxism Lexington books, 2005 5, Marx and Engels: The German Ideology Part I: Feuerbach. Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01b.htm 6, Robert Mapplethorpe, Google images www.google.com accessed: 03/04/08 7, Joe Rosenthal: raising the flag, Google images www.google.com accessed: 04/04/ 8, Roland Barthes Rhetoric of the image in ed Wells, L (2003) The photography reader London, New York: Routledge 9, Barthes, Roland, Mythologies, London: Vintage, 2000 10, Trevor Pateman, ‘The Theory of Ideology: Bringing the Mind Back In http://www.selectedworks.co.uk/theoryideology.html accessed:02/04/08 11, Linford Christie: Google image www.google.com accessed: 04/04/08 12, Hall, Stuart (Editor) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, London; Sage Publications, 1997 13, Roderick Munday ‘Illustrate and critically discuss the ways in which semioticians problematise the concept of representation. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/ram0207.html accessed: 04/04/08 14, photography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography accessed: 03/04/08 15, Roland Barthes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes accessed: 03/04/08 16, Berger, John, Ways of Seeing, Hardmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd., 1972 17, Roland Barthes, Panzani Advert: www.google.com accessed: 02/04/08 18, Ansel Adams gallery, http://www.anseladams.com/ansel-adams-photography.html accessed: 04/04/08

Servant Leadership vs the Common Core Essay -- Servant Leadership

If one wanted to look at a prime example of the practice of Servant Leadership, a person doesn’t have to look very far. It is found in every school in the form of teachers and educators. But recently implemented reforms like the Common Core have stymied teachers in their role of servant leaders. Servant Leadership is defined as a leadership that is based on serving others altruistically. Servant leaders put the wellbeing of their followers ahead of their own needs in order to see them grow to their fullest potential. The leader makes sure that their followers grow as persons, become wiser, healthier, freer, and more likely to become servant leaders themselves (Northouse, 2013). Behaviors that are at the core of Servant Leadership are integral to the teaching occupation. Being able to conceptualize allows a teacher to address problems creatively, which is necessary in teaching students of differing cultures, intellectual abilities and emotional maturity levels. Emotional healing speaks for itself; teachers, by nature of their job, have to be available for their students and provide them with support. Teachers do put their students first, often spending their own money (not their district’s money) on supplies that many students wouldn’t be able to have otherwise. Helping students grow and succeed is one of the core goals to teaching and ethical behavior is taught by teachers being an example of how to behave. Empowerment builds confidence for students to think and act on their own and by doing all of these things, teachers give back to the community when the students join the community as young adults, and as they become leaders themselves. Bu t in order to be able to perform all of these behaviors, teachers have to have th... ...ls. While there are many proponents and critics of the Common Core based on educational standards alone, from a leadership standpoint, the Common Core is detrimental. References Frequenty Asked Questions. (2014). Retrieved from Common Core State Standard Initiatives: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/frequently-asked-questions/ Minasian-Sommers, L. (2014, June 1). Common Core will harm education. Telegram & Gazette, p. A 13. Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Strauss, V. (2014, January 18). Everything you need to know about Common Core — Ravitch. Retrieved from The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/18/everything-you-need-to-know-about-common-core-ravitch/ Townsend, S. (2014, January 30). Common Core is too rigid. Times Union.

Plight of Women in Song of Solomon, Life of a Slave Girl, and Push Essa

Plight of Black Women as Double Minorities - Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Song of Solomon, Push      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Typically minority groups are thought of in the context of race; however, a minority group can also consist of gender and class. The struggles facing a minority group complicate further when these different facets of minority categories are combined into what is sometimes called a double minority. Throughout American history, African American women have exemplified how being a double minority changes the conditions of being a minority. In Reminiscences by Frances D. Gage of Sojourner Truth, for May 28-29, 1851, a speech by Sojourner Truth is recalled where she poses the question-"Ain't I a woman" (Lauter 2049). Truth speaks for women's rights in this speech, but her question becomes more interesting when applied to African American women because they move from being a double minority to a single minority with this statement. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Song of Solomon, and Push demonstrate in their African American female characters the impact of havin g a double minority status.    In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs depicts her struggle as an African American woman during slavery. As a female slave in her master's house, she was subject to her master's sexual advances. Jacobs explains her feelings about her master's desires and the struggle of female slaves in the following comments:    The felon's home in a penitentiary is preferable. He may repent, and turn from the error of his ways, and so find peace; but it is not so with a favorite slave. She is not allowed to have any pride of character. It is deemed a crime in her to wish to be virtuous. p. 363    Thi... ...n American female writers are much more popular today than their male counterparts. Perhaps Sojourner Truth should not have posed the question, "Ain't I a Woman," because that still implies that the only move up for African American women is from a double minority to a single minority (Lauter 2049). Perhaps the real question is-Ain't I a Human?    Works Cited Gage, Frances D. "Reminiscences by Frances D. Gage of Sojourner Truth, for May 28-29, 1851." Paul Laufer, ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature, vol 1, 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. Jacobs, Harriet Ann. "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." Henry Louis Gates, Jr., ed. The Classic Slave Narratives. New York: Penguin Group, 1987. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: Penguin Group, 1977. Sapphire. Push. New York: Vintage Contemporaries/ Vintage Books, 1996.