The ability to think clearly is the result of the biochemical processes that occur in the brain cells. To ensure that these processes do not fail, a lot of things are required — from a sufficient amount of energy to a negligible dose of some element, without which the brain can not do.

Many times a day we talk and think about ourselves, but we rarely ask questions that are hidden behind an obvious and seemingly understandable “I.” What does determine how we think, what do we feel, how we perceive ourselves and what we are capable of? Are our possibilities are predetermined by nature? At the epicenter of this conflict is the brain that controls our entire life. This is one of the most complex systems in the universe: it is able to learn, grow and think about itself. Continue reading →

Due to the globalization process, the emergence of an integrated world social system, the destruction of the “old” system, the absence of a “new” morality can strongly influence the moral values ​​of an individual. The value structure of a society is extremely complex, and its elements have different effects on the dynamics of the development of society — they either consolidate social processes or revolutionize them.

Morality in public life is one of the ways and means of adapting individuals to living in the particular society, combining the freedom of the individual with social necessity, as well as responsibility. The set of moral values resolves the contradiction between personal and social needs. Historically, morality is primary in the process of human socialization. It enters the individual’s inner world, and for its functioning, man’s power over himself is enough. The essence of morality is that people realize the necessity of the specific behavior, which corresponds to a certain social behavioral type, while they rely on personal beliefs and public opinion (Brownlee et al.). Continue reading →

Introduction

Historically, religion and philosophy were often intertwined in human life. At the same time, they served as a source of knowledge and self-discovery of human beings. Basically, the major religions and philosophical schools offer a unique view on human relationships with God, their freedom, enlightenment, true self and many other important aspects that were extremely interesting and mysterious for people. On the other hand, each religion and philosophy has its own particular ideas that make its ideas different from others. This is why, on analyzing various religions and philosophies, it is possible to reveal the extent to which the views on such problems as relationships between humans and God, discovering true self, enlightenment and others. Continue reading →

Immanuel Kant is a very influential western philosopher whose studies and researches have had a great impact on the development of western philosophical thought. It is difficult to meet a person who would not know the expression Categorical Imperatives that make the basis of the Kant’s teaching. Kant has developed an ethical system of his own mostly presented in his two works – The Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals and The Critique of Practical Reason. Search for universal and supreme principle of morality was on the focus of his attention. Finally, the universal moral law (Categorical Imperative) was found as a basic law that can apply to complex and changing situations.

Kant distinguished imperative as command, dictating particular actions. He defines several types of imperatives. He presents hypothetical imperative as opposition to moral or categorical ones. In general, he defines hypothetical imperative as imperative, which is formed in conditional form and focus on the final result. Thus the person knows that some actions will bring desirable result – happiness, and behaves accordingly. Foe example, “if I learn the poem, I will get a good mark”. All in all, the desire to be happy is not of great value and it can not be the measure for morality. Kant opposes hypothetical imperatives to moral ones as hypothetical imperatives do not contain universal truths and are based on subjective considerations. He states that there can be no general happiness, because people desire different things and they understand happiness in different ways. Hypothetical imperative is defined by personal liking and preferences and can not be called a universal moral principle. (Kant, 1964) Continue reading →

Dear Mr. X,

I am writing to you to express my gratitude and admiration for your help. I am inexpressibly fascinated by your sponsorship of my ward and want to thank you for your assistance in such a difficult period in the life of our country. It is even more important because you are currently living in the UK and, nonetheless, you remained faithful and devoted to the basic principles, beliefs, and traditions of our beloved Motherland. I am impressed by your asceticism and readiness to help the land of your origin and your ex-compatriots, regardless the great distance that lies between us.

I am also happy that you have managed to achieve such a great success in the United Kingdom and gained an important and influential social position that helps you to lead such a modest lifestyle. I firmly believe that our Ghanaian traditions have played an extremely important role in your rise and progress in the UK. I hope you agree that our traditional values based on principles of devotedness to our history, our past, and our culture. Apparently, you sustain your spiritual connection to the land of your ancestors and have never been lost in the modern world full of new technologies and inventions that change the human life completely. Continue reading →

If Friedman’s book and the concepts he introduces taken as an axiom, it seems like global vocational competition is going to be getting tougher and tougher with every subsequent graduation. Friedman uses the economic argument that business production is going where wages and resources are cheaper. (Friedman, 2006) However, this is dependent on skill levels (education) and transportation (getting goods, once produced, to markets). He presents history as if it began in his lifetime and the presentation is in an ethnocentric manner as if all things western are universal.

He allocates much less space to the digital divide or the uneven spread of globalization, even within countries. Friedman writes of globalization 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 in software shorthand to educate his audience on the different eras of globalization. Here he positions Globalization 1.0 being the launch of exploration for the new worlds; Globalization 2.0 being the expansion of the multinational enterprise; and finally, today is the era of Globalization 3.0. (Friedman, 2006) But does this analysis trace the beginnings of globalization? Continue reading →

It is well-known that processes of both perception and attention differ soundly depending on individual abilities of every person. Moreover, these methods have a significant impact on learning ability. Therefore, for every group of people there exists an optimal way to aid the attention and perceptive processes of each member. In the current paper, I want to analyze the role of my abilities and experiences within a Learning Team consisting of four members.

As for our team contains several individuals, the process of creating an appropriate learning environment must address a perception of auditory stimuli and related experiences for every member. To identify my threshold and comfort levels for acoustic stimuli, I analyzed my experiences in appropriate situations. To receive the most accurate information, I conducted both the dichotic listening and the “cocktail party” phenomenon examining. The results of these surveys allowed me to get somewhat precise data on the subject. Continue reading →

Sharon Olds starts this poem with a rhetorical question, which can be foreshadowed by the following questions. Imagine two curious, eager and vivacious lovers, passionately kissing, touching, and playing with one another in a wonderland of seduction.

What kind of couple did you imagine? Is the couple married, dating, or did they just meet for some casual sex? According to Sharon Olds, as evidenced by her poem entitled “Sex Without Love” (1942), sex without love is an abomination. Olds uses many literary techniques in order to further the symbolism and imagery in her poem, such as simile, metaphor, diction, and connotation and to a lesser extent, alliteration (consonance and assonance). Olds, in her poem, poses a intriguing age-old question and offers a subjective and stimulating response, in which the act of sex is supposed to be accompanied with the feeling of love. Olds communicates her values mainly with vivid and ironic imagery by introducing traditionally beautiful settings before adding an unattractive twist. Continue reading →

There is a German proverb that says “A great war leaves the country with three armies – an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.” It’s hard to find better words for describing the First World War. The twentieth century started with an event that caused colossal effect on further faith of the humanity. World War I took millions of lives, destroyed thousands of families and crippled enormous amount of human souls. And, of course, it affected economical and territorial state of each country involved. The consequences concerned everyone and everything. Every nation has its own unforgettable memories of that war. But what caused the war itself? What made this horrible international conflict happen?

There are four major factors that led to the war: nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and the alliance system. All these factors created a strong tension between major European powers and the assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 was enough reason to start a war. Even though the alliance system was the primary cause that triggered the war there were many other issues that led to the situation when the war was unavoidable. Continue reading →

The problems of inequality and poverty are among the most heatedly discussed and topical questions of the XX century. The abundance of developing countries (many of which had appeared on the world map due to social upheavals and coup d’état, or, which is worse, as a result of revolutions – whether peaceful or not) had resulted in the aggravation of the inequality problems.

The term “inequality” is a complex issue that consists of numerous aspects of life – standard provisioning, medical care, education, conditions of work, gender, freedom of choice, etc.

But just being aware of a problem does not solve it, neither do the debates. Only proactive economic programs of poverty and inequality elimination would change the actual matter of facts.

The existing programs are far from being perfect, taking into consideration the fact that, by now, there even are no universal methods of measuring the levels of inequality. The list of most popular instruments of measurement includes the functional and size distribution, Lorenz curves, Gini coefficient, the Kuznets’s inverted-U hypothesis, the headcount index, total and average poverty gap, and the Human Poverty Index. These are the measures most commonly used nowadays. They are probably not ‘ideal,’ because most of them disregard many essential aspects of life and principles of income distribution, and are too generalizing.

The two most commonly used principles of calculating the inequality levels – the size and the functional measures of income distribution – are the basis for further calculations and analysis.

The first one is the most popular among the economists based on the total amount of income received by an individual or a household, disregarding the source of the benefits (employment – industrial sources are neglected as well, interests, rents, gifts, inheritance, etc.). The incomes of different individuals arranged in a general (descending) consequence, and then divided into several groups (sized one-fifth (quintiles) or one-tenth (deciles)). The proportions of the national income distribution determined for each team, and the inequality level is defined. Other methods, for example, the Lorenz Curve helps to analyze the income statistics in a more graphic and evident manner. The numbers of income recipients (in cumulative percentages) are plotted on the horizontal axis (entirely is equal to 100%), while the vertical axis represents the share of total income received by each percentage of the population (also cumulative to 100%). The figure is a square bisected by a diagonal line is drawn from the origin to the upper right corner, and the curve that depicts the actual share of income in the society (the more it curves away from the diagonal (the more significant the bend and the closer it is to the bottom horizontal axis), the higher degree of inequality represented. The curve depiction enables to use another coefficient – Gini concentration ratio – a correlation of the area between the diagonal and the Lorenz curve divided by the total area of the half-square in which it lies (ranges from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (great inequality)).

The functional distribution deals with the income received by different factors of production (land, labor, capital). But this theory is not flawless, as it does not take into consideration the nonmarket forces (e.g., power, collective bargaining, a personal advantage in lobbying, etc.).

The headcount index is a ratio calculated as a fraction of those, whose incomes are below the poverty line, to the total number of population.

The poverty gap represents an amount of income needed to raise those, who are below the poverty line, up to it. The total poverty gap is the amount of money per day it would take to bring every poor person in an economy up to our defined minimum income standards. The average poverty gap is the correlation of the TPD to the headcount index.

The Human Poverty Index (developed by UNDP) is based on considering the level of three necessary deprivations (of life, primary education, and general economic provisioning).

Simon Kuznets’ inverted-U hypothesis suggested that the distribution of income will tend to worsen in the early stages of economic growth, but at later stages, it will improve. Kuznets illustrated this hypothesis in the form of the graph, and, having studied the conditions of economic growth in some developing countries, found empirical evidence of it. But further studies of developing countries did not wholly support it.

Measuring inequality and poverty is a susceptible case because there is no perfect instrument to do it. The subjectivity of the matter is doubled by disregarding certain aspects of income distribution and excessive generalization. The choice of the measuring device depends upon the needs of the analysis and essence of the studied problem. The more aspects are taken into consideration – the more precise and helpful is the measurement. And this will enable to solve the problem of widespread poverty – a real challenge to the civilized society we want to live in.

Sources:
Todaro, M.P. and Smith, S.C., (2006) Economic Development, 9th edition, Pearson, Addison – Wesley.