Monday, January 27, 2020

Why do I really need knowledge?

Why do I really need knowledge? Knowledge is defined as â€Å"justified true belief†[1]. This means that knowledge is any justified belief that can be proven to be true. The question ‘The whole point of knowledge is to produce both meaning purpose in our personal lives.’ will be the basis for my essay. This statement claims that as we gain knowledge, we gain meaning and purpose that affect our personal lives, which is to say, we find the answers we were looking for and also a thirst to know more. However, I do not believe that, when we gain knowledge, it affects everyone around us. My mother is a banker, the knowledge she has gained, not only helps her, but mainly impacts on others around her, because with that knowledge she has started her own bank. Whenever we gain knowledge, we also gain answers and more questions. In the Oscar Pistorius case, police investigators wanted to establish why he killed his girlfriend (meaning) and whether it was even him that killed his girlfriend (purpose).[2] I n this case, meaning is linked to intent, because there needs to be a reason for it and purpose is linked to opportunity, because there needs to be a way. When we gain new knowledge we feel better aware and more curious about our surroundings. That is to say, we learn to give ourselves meaning and purpose and in turn affect others, there are many cases where this is proven. Isaac Newton can be an example, when he first wondered about gravity he was sitting under a tree when an apple fell on his head. It was then that he wondered what force made things fall. He sought to find meaning to why the objects always fell back to earth, so he began experimenting on different objects, using reason, he used the resulting knowledge he got from his observation to determine that anything that goes up must fall down to the ground[3]. These discover he made were later called the laws of gravity and since they have many uses. It has become common sense since people now know to be cautious when deali ng with high places. When I was little, I picked up my baby sister from her crib while she was sleeping, when my mother found me with my sister dangling by a foot, she screamed. This is because she knows the fundamentals about gravity and that if my sister fell, she would’ve been hurt. Isaac Newton also developed the laws of motion, which states that an object in motion will continue to stay in motion until and external force is acted on it[4]. The laws of motion are used in different fields like car manufacturing, car testing, aeronautics, These laws also have provided a basis for many creations, for example, parachutes, trampolines, diving boards, etc. When a person is driving and suddenly sees someone or something on the road in front of them, they immediately hit the brakes, as they know that if they kept going, they would collide with the person/thing in front of them, causing damage to the person/thing, or to themselves/their car. Also, when they hit the brakes, an opposing force is acted on the cars forward motion, which in turn stops the car from moving. Two summers ago, I was riding a bike in my cousin’s house really fast. I wanted to slow down so I could get off the bike, but I mistakenly pressed the brakes, the bike stop abruptly and I was thrown out of the seat, I flipped over the handlebars and landed on my head. This is how the laws of motion would apply, because I hit the brakes, the bike stopped, but I didn’t stop, so that was why I flew off. When Isaac Newton discovered these laws, it was not for any higher reason than just to learn the answers for the why’s and the what’s of knowledge, in this, he had gained the meaning, but he still had no intention of gaining a purpose for his life from this, it was later, that other people found the meaning and purpose in the knowledge that he had discovered. Medical professionals (doctors, dentists, veterinaries, etc.) who have learnt medicine, anatomy, biology, etc. they used the knowledge they learnt to achieve a meaning of understanding how animal and plant bodied work, and the purpose of using that knowledge to help examine, treat or cure any injuries or illnesses within the body. My sister told me that she wants to become a pediatrician; she can only gain this knowledge for the purpose of helping children. Whenever there is a terrorist attack, whether Boko Haram, ISIS, Al Qaeda, investigators always researches everything, not only the terrorists attacking, but the victims being attacked, this is so that they can stop more attacks from happening. This is because if they can understand why a place was attacked (meaning), then it would be easier to stop other attacks in other locations (purpose). In economics, perfect competition is described as a situation where firms in an industry are relatively small in stature, have perfect knowledge of each other and are price takers[5]. This is mainly theoretically though as it cannot be practically implemented due to a wide range of unknown and inconstant variables. Although it is proven that this situation cannot exist, economists use the theory of perfect competition to determine the effect on the economy if it were to be practiced. This example is different because there is no real life scenario to go with it, but it still boosters the main point as the economists that theorized this scenario used whatever experimentation they had to come to the conclusion that it cannot exist, that is to say that the economists gained meaning from this experiment and the purpose of proving or disproving other economic scenarios. A monopoly is a situation where by a single firm has control over an entire industry, so they enjoy economies of scale and have price setting abilities[6]. In Nigeria, there are four main telecommunications companies; MTN, Airtel, Glo Etisalat, these four are individually owned by private firm. In Ethiopia, there is only one telecommunications company that is government owned. The Nigerian companies not only offer variety, but they also have an unrestricted service plan, meaning there are no limitations or restrictions to the use of the service, this is because their main aim of these firms is to make profit. The consumer can simply switch from one service provider to another if that customer is unsatisfied with their current service plan provider. The Ethiopian company is the only provider, so there is no need for any variety of services, they do not need to offer special plans or promotions or discounts because there is no competition for the company, there will also be heavily mo nitored and restricted use of the services because the main aim of the company is not to make profit, but to promote citizen optimization as they see fit, meaning that they will not allow any misuse of the service plan. There is also the fact that even if the customers are not satisfied with the service, there is nothing that they can do because they cannot change their service plan there is only one telecommunication company in the country. Here I have given two economic scenarios, the one in Nigeria is monopolistic competition, and the other in Ethiopia is a monopoly. In the first scenario, we can tell that there will be excess consumer satisfaction by the choice of four different service plans and the unrestricted access. However, in the second scenario, there would be excess dissatisfaction by the inability of choice, and the heavily restricted access. From my perception of these two scenarios, I can reason that the Nigerian telecommunication system is better because if offers t he right of choice and other benefits as opposed to the Ethiopian telecommunication system which would only offer on choice with no special benefits and at whatever price the government sets. Here is an example of how we can gain meaning but not purpose, because if someone can gain the knowledge of the monopoly of the Ethiopian telecommunications company, they can now understand why people would want to move from Ethiopia to Nigeria, but they will have nothing to do with this knowledge. The only reason for acquiring any form of knowledge would be to gain both meaning and purpose in our lives because once we have the knowledge, we understand how it involves up, meaning, and what we set out to accomplish with it. References: google. theory+of+knowledge. n.d. website. 22 November 2014. ib-theory-of-knowledge-website. n.d. Webpage. 22 January 2015. theoryofknowledgestudents.com. n.d. webpage. 2 December 2014. Blink, Jocelyn and Ian Dorton. Economics Course Companion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. 1 [1] The philosopher Plato’s definition of knowledge [2] Oscar Pistorius murder investigation [3] Newton’s first law of gravity [4] Isaac Newton’s first law of motion [5] Theory of perfect competition [6] Theory of monopoly

Sunday, January 19, 2020

The Spanish-American War :: Spanish-American War Essays

THESIS : â€Å" The United States didn’t want to get involved in the Spanish-American War, but was dragged into it due to yellow journalism, they wanted to control the seas, and wanted complete control over Cuba.† For 113 days during the summer of 1898, the United States was at war with Spain. Neither the president of the United States, nor his cabinet, nor the the queen of Spain, nor her ministers wanted the war wanted the war. It happened eventhough they made their best efforts to prevent it. It happened because of ambition, miscalculation, and stupidity; and it happened because of kindness, wit, and resourcefulness. It also happened because some were indifferent to the suffering of the world’s wretched and others were not (O’Toole 17). By winning the war the United States proved the the rest of the world and to itself that it could and would fight against foreign nations. For many years, world power had been concentrated in the countries in Europe. Nations such as Great Britain, France, Germany, and Spain had the most influence in global affairs. But a shift in power was gradually taking place as the United States matured. The young nation gained wealth and strength. Its popul ation grew immensely, and many people believed it would become a major world power (Bachrach, 11) Spain was one of the many European countries that had territory in the United States. Spain controlled mostly some islands off the coast of Central America. The most important of these were Cuba and Puerto Rico. The United States was led to believe that the Spanish mosgoverned and abused the people of these islands. In fact, Spain did overtax and mistreat the Cubans, who rebelled in 1868 and again in 1895. Thus, the American people felt sympathetic toward the Cuban independence movement. In addition, Spain had frequently interfered with trade between its colonies and the United States. Even though the United States had been a trading partner with Cuba since the seventeenth century, Spain sometimes tried to completely stop their trade with Cuba. In Spain doing so, this sometimes caused damage to U.S. commercial interests. The United States highly disagreed with Spain’s right to in terfere with this trade relationship. (Bachrach, 12) The United States was also concerned that other trading and commercial interests were threatened by the number of ships and soldiers Spain kept in the area. If the United States had to fight a war with Canada or Mexico, these Spanish forces could quickly mobilize against the United States. The Spanish-American War :: Spanish-American War Essays THESIS : â€Å" The United States didn’t want to get involved in the Spanish-American War, but was dragged into it due to yellow journalism, they wanted to control the seas, and wanted complete control over Cuba.† For 113 days during the summer of 1898, the United States was at war with Spain. Neither the president of the United States, nor his cabinet, nor the the queen of Spain, nor her ministers wanted the war wanted the war. It happened eventhough they made their best efforts to prevent it. It happened because of ambition, miscalculation, and stupidity; and it happened because of kindness, wit, and resourcefulness. It also happened because some were indifferent to the suffering of the world’s wretched and others were not (O’Toole 17). By winning the war the United States proved the the rest of the world and to itself that it could and would fight against foreign nations. For many years, world power had been concentrated in the countries in Europe. Nations such as Great Britain, France, Germany, and Spain had the most influence in global affairs. But a shift in power was gradually taking place as the United States matured. The young nation gained wealth and strength. Its popul ation grew immensely, and many people believed it would become a major world power (Bachrach, 11) Spain was one of the many European countries that had territory in the United States. Spain controlled mostly some islands off the coast of Central America. The most important of these were Cuba and Puerto Rico. The United States was led to believe that the Spanish mosgoverned and abused the people of these islands. In fact, Spain did overtax and mistreat the Cubans, who rebelled in 1868 and again in 1895. Thus, the American people felt sympathetic toward the Cuban independence movement. In addition, Spain had frequently interfered with trade between its colonies and the United States. Even though the United States had been a trading partner with Cuba since the seventeenth century, Spain sometimes tried to completely stop their trade with Cuba. In Spain doing so, this sometimes caused damage to U.S. commercial interests. The United States highly disagreed with Spain’s right to in terfere with this trade relationship. (Bachrach, 12) The United States was also concerned that other trading and commercial interests were threatened by the number of ships and soldiers Spain kept in the area. If the United States had to fight a war with Canada or Mexico, these Spanish forces could quickly mobilize against the United States.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Personal Recount Essay

Megan did not have a bright attitude towards school. She was always not looking forward to studying because she has problem coping in school. Whenever they bring in a new topic, she sighs heavily knowing she would take a long time to understand it even though it is considered an easy topic to the rest of the class. She was always positioned last in class and having a mere fifty-five percent and below for her percentage in exams and tests. Her position in level is one of the bottom few. She did not like being in a school filled with intellegent students. Her teacher, Mrs Tay, had asked the class to prepare a short speech to say in front of the class on what they want to be when they grow up and what are they are going to do to achieve their goal. Most of the students had said that they want to be a doctor, a lawyer, a banker or even an Army Sergent. Many of them had bright futures waiting for them. They all wanted to complete their Masters and futher their education abroad. When it came to Megan’s turn, she look down into her script nervously and read out her speech. She was hesitant to speak the truth but she decided that she should not be embarrased as she too has embitions. She wanted to be a veternarian to help cure sick and needy animals as she had once lost her dog in a car accident. Many of her classmates were shocked. They did not expect a weak student to have high embitions. After speaking out, her classmates shouted from their seats, saying she can do it. Mrs Tay gave words of encourangement which made her delighted. After class, Megan went up to Mrs Tay. She asked her if she could have one-to-one sessions with her to help her. Mrs Tay gladly took her under her wings. As months pass and her PSLE finishing, Megan made an increasing improvement. She was now confident in her work, partake in class work and volunteer to help others. Teachers were saying among themselves that she has changed into a positive and outspoken person unlike before. She was the role model of many students in her school. When the day of the results of the PSLE came, Megan was confident. She knew she had done her best regardless of her aggregate. Mrs Tay passed to her her certificate and it shows A for most of her subjects. Megan jumped for joy and many of her friends went up to her to congratulate her. Her effort paid off. If she had not shared her embitions, she wouldn’t be excelling in her subjects.

Friday, January 3, 2020

Internet and the Music Industry - 1092 Words

Internet and the Music Industry Cassandra Utz University of Phoenix In our society today, there is a growing number of consumers using the Internet as a main source for music. The smaller music companies are having to come up with new and different ways to use the Internet to increase their sales. The music companies can drive there sales because so many people are previewing songs online by downloading it first. The artists are also able to capitalize on their music via the Internet. The Internet is capable of reaching all types of people all over the world. The music industry has been made†¦show more content†¦The bigger companies like Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Song BMG Music Entertainment, etc., have the big dollars to promote all of their artists. Because the Internet has caught on, all of the music companies can promote everyone. Even the little companies can do this. Hopefully, the music industry will look at this as a blessing in disguise for the underground labels. Looking at this in the short-term of thing s, downloading music could hurt the music industry and their profits. However, later down the line, it will eventually benefit them. In a study done by Ipsos-Reid, it shows that 81% of the public that download music, often spend at least the same on records or even more than they did before downloading music from the Internet. The record industry must concentrate on offering value to the user and adapt to the publics needs (Vives, 2004). The music industry should try to realize that the ideas behind free downloads can benefit them. They should do what they can to market more from it, rather than turning their noses up at the technology behind it. 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