Business functions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Business functions - Essay Example They become partners for running the business efficiently. For starting a partnership business all the partners needs to sign different legal agreements. By this the partners contributes money, divides profit and design different business operation or activities which will be under their control. Partnership business can be of medium size or big. The owners of this business are not personally liable for any business losses or credit. Private limited company or business is a voluntary organization. This type of business can have more than one owner but not more than fifty. This business has proper legal existences. For starting a private limited company the owners have to undergo through different legal formalities. The business has to be registered under company act. Shareholders of these companies are its owners. For performing its business activities private limited company has to follow different legal rules and regulation of the country where it is operating its business. The company whose shares are sold and purchased in stock market is known as public limited company. Any people can purchase and sell share of public limited company. This type of company strictly follows legal rules and regulations of business. The company needs to disclose its financial position to its investors for determining the value of its shares. Public limited company can or cannot be listed in stock exchange. Many people are the owners of this type of company. In unlimited liability business, the owner of company has unlimited liability of all debts and credits of business. Another name of unlimited liability company is private unlimited company. It is hybrid type of business which can be run with or without share capital. The shareholders of unlimited liability company have too many non limited obligations for meeting business requirements. The partners or shareholders of this company accept all these unlimited liabilities to avoid double taxation

Alzheimer’s disease Essay Example for Free

Alzheimer’s disease Essay Alzheimers disease is a neurological disorder in which the death of brain cells causes memory loss and cognitive decline. A neurodegenerative type of dementia, the disease starts mild and gets progressively worse. Alzheimers is the most common form of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimers disease accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. Alzheimers is not a normal part of aging, although the greatest known risk factor is increasing age, and the majority of people with Alzheimers are 65 and older. But Alzheimers is not just a disease of old age. Up to 5 percent of people with the disease have early onset Alzheimers (also known as younger-onset), which often appears when someone is in their 40s or 50s. Alzheimers worsens over time. Alzheimers is a progressive disease, where dementia symptoms gradually worsen over a number of years. In its early stages, memory loss is mild, but with late-stage Alzheimers, individuals lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment. Alzheimers is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Those with Alzheimers live an average of eight years after their symptoms become noticeable to others, but survival can range from four to 20 years, depending on age and other health conditions. People with Alzheimer disease also develop deposits of stuff (protein and fiber) that prevent the cells from working properly. When this happens, the cells cant send the right signals to other parts of the brain. Over time, brain cells affected by Alzheimer disease also begin to shrink and die. Lots of research is being done to find out more about the causes of Alzheimer disease. There is no one reason why people get Alzheimer disease. Older people are more likely to get it, and the risk gets greater the older the person gets. For instance, the risk is higher for someone who is 85 than it is for someone who is 65. And women are more likely to get it than men. Researchers also think genes handed down from family members can make a person more likely to get Alzheimer disease. But that doesnt mean everyone related to someone who has it will get the disease. Other factors, combined with genes, may make it  more likely that someone will get the disease. Some of them are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Down syndrome, or having a head injury. ‘ Citation Page www.medicalnewstoday.com www.alz.org

Failure of the Student Loan Market

Failure of the Student Loan Market A college degree is more than the culmination of learning processes. It is a credential that functions as a good, but in a unique way because it allows the holder to compete more powerfully in the labor market. At the same time, accessing this good requires specific financial instruments in the form of grants, financial aid, awards, federal benefits, and of course, loans. The student loan market, as this essay will show, is a market failure. The supply of college degrees is insufficient compared to the supply of loans for college and costs; there is an information asymmetry with these financial products because many seeking to buy them are not aware of the risks (e.g., the lack of consumer protection, the likelihood that they will not graduate); further, the more loans are sold, the more the value of the good people use them to get (i.e., a college or graduate degree) will decline. All of these factors point to the student loan market as a market failure. Short of dramatic remedies t hat might make education inaccessible for all but the 1%, one of the best policy-related solutions to this dismal problem might be to make holding a loan less painful for those who are trying to repay it. Why is the student loan market an issue, and why does it exist in the first place? The ways that Americans finance their postsecondary education hold insight into the answers. As college costs have risen far faster than the rate of inflation (Lieber, 2009), and as the middle class’ buying power has declined, most people have been unable to finance their educations out of their own pockets. For generations, many college students in America have taken on loans to finance college and postgraduate education due not just to the assumption that this will have a positive return on investment (ROI), but also because of the perception that student loan repayment offers a generous tax deduction. However, as college costs skyrocket (Abel & Deitz, 2014) and jobs evaporate to the point where increasing numbers of people question its value (Taylor et al., 2011), more people are asking questions about student loans and who really benefits. Muddying the water still further is the role of 26 U.S. Code  § 221, which stipulates the details that govern the student loan interest deduction, including its maximum deduction and the modest cost-of-living increase that may increase this maximum, in addition to details regarding definitions and the roles of dependents in calculating this deduction (Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, 2017). In general, an individual is eligible for this deduction if, and only if, he or she took out a qualifying educational loan, if they paid interest on the loan (as opposed to fees, principal only, or another arrangement), and if the individual’s modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is no more than $80,000 if filing as an individual or $160,000 if filing as a married couple (Aranoff, 2015; Internal Revenue Service, 2017). However, these deductions may seem overly modest, given that as of 2013, the average college graduate was leaving school with more than $35,000 of debt (Ellis, 2013). Increasing numbers of people are taking out enormous sums to finance college or graduate school, and fewer are able to pay these off in time, leading to cascading economic problems when they are unable to buy homes, when they put off having children, or in many cases, simply default on the loans. Information asymmetry is also a critical component of this market and of its failure. Especially for those who are first in their family to attend college, or who otherwise have no personal experience with higher education and its marketing techniques, the appeals of predatory for-profit schools are almost irresistible. These high-pressure schools use sales techniques to get students to agree to attend, helping them apply for loans but failing to give them adequate information about the risks involved (to say nothing of the low value of a for-profit degree). The people selling the loan products have information that the purchasers do not. In some larger theoretical or symbolic sense, the very information asymmetry is something that people want to overcome through their pursuit of a college degree. Regardless, the student loan crisis is widely considered to be more highly concentrated among those attending two-year schools. Economists have noted that there is a serious potential for an economic crisis to occur if many default on student loans, though the lack of collateralization, as was prevalent in the housing bubble, may contain the damage – but may also nonetheless cause severe declines in middle-class purchasing power (Looney & Yannelis, 2015). The authors of one study stated, â€Å"†¦it is interesting to compare the default out-comes of borrowers who took out subprime mortgages compared with those who took out student loans to attend for-profit colleges. Both types of borrowers tend to have poorer-quality credit records, and the returns to their investments were dependent on macroeconomic factors beyond their control—house prices in the case of subprime mortgages and wage growth in the case of student loans† (Looney & Yannelis, 2015, p. 81). This passage hints at the interconnected nature of mortgages and student loans, including the ways that student loan borrowers are disadvantaged by the situation and by the informational asymmetry. The repayment systems for student loans, meanwhile, also represent market failures in a strong way. A 2008 paper explored the ways in which various proposed loan forgiveness programs effectively constituted a secondary tax (Dynarski, 2008, pp. 19–20). The author concluded that even though college costs rise and student loan borrowers remain in debt for a very large amount of time, the degree itself is still worthwhile. However, â€Å"†¦ there is a mismatch in the timing of the arrival of the benefits of college and its costs, with payments due when earnings are lowest and most variable. Ironically, this mismatch is the very motivation for providing student loans in the first place† (Dynarski, 2008, p. 26). The market failure is apparent from the way that this mismatch occurs, and the ways in which information asymmetry surrounds much of the loan buying process. Dynarski also offers a discussion of the ways that the federal repayment programs such as Pay as You Earn and Income Based Repayment, as well as hypothetical programs such as Pay It Forward (state-based, income-based programs that allow low earners to pay very little while high earners pay much more) constitute taxation, which segues into the larger policy discussion: The student loan interest deduction and the ways in which it can be remedied to better address this market failure. Because of the widespread perception that student loan debt is good debt, and because of the ways that this tax code provision is built on some complex assumptions about supply and demand, it is clear that there is a market failure. The deduction assumes that the supply of college graduates will be smaller than the supply. It assumes that the cost of living will only increase modestly, and critically, it does not calculate the increases in college costs or the ways that they far outpace inflation. In other words, it assumes that the demand for college loans will outpace the supply of people taking them out and repaying, when the opposite is true. It also assumes that the economic demand for college graduates will be higher than the supply, to the point where incentivizing people to get an education is necessary to get highly skilled workers. However, the economy is no longer in need of these credentials, or perhaps college has become so watered-down that people with degrees are seldom finding the kinds of jobs they dreamed of. In any case, many people with college or even advanced degrees are not experiencing the return on investment that they had anticipated. At present, the student loan interest deduction is generally capped at $2,500 annually (Internal Revenue Service, 2017). For those who are repaying very significant loans, including for graduate school, professional school, or simply for attending high-cost, predatory schools, this deduction does not make a significant difference. More people than one may initially believe struggle with student loans of $100,000 or more (Kantrowitz, 2012), so the tiny tax deduction is often laughable. Especially because of the market failure that has itself promoted the situation, the government should intervene to increase the tax deduction. The mismatch between the good and its benefits facilitates the market failure of the student loan interest deduction (Dynarski, 2008, p. 26). Even for those who have a modest amount of student loans and for whom the interest deduction would be significant, an informational asymmetry means that many who qualify for this deduction do not even take it, since around 19% are not even aware of what deductions they might quality for (Student Loan Hero, 2016). Revising the system so that, for example, student loan interest and principal are both deductible, could reduce the failure of the market. Improving information about student loans, as well as how to take advantage of the tax deduction, could also go a long way towards reducing the information asymmetry that dominates the market. The failure of the labor market to adequately absorb college graduates, especially with wages that cause their debts to decrease over time, combined with the informational asymmetry that disadvantages some people more than others, means that there is a serious issue; one potential remedy would be to improve the student loan interest deduction. The student loan system is a market failure, and the tax deduction has also failed to live up to promises because of the temporal mismatch. It has failed to account for the realities of college costs, the realities of the labor market, and the realities of economic life for young people. The policy is a market failure and needs to be changed. Some ways to improve it could be to increase the maximum deduction, to increase the MAGI ceiling at which the deduction is phased out, or to implement widespread loan forgiveness since doing so might add more liquidity to the consumer economy, which would in turn help the economy to grow. Forcing colleges and universities to guarantee student loans could also be another solution to the problem of student debt, ensuring that widespread debt default has less of an effect on the overall economy than it did during the housing bubble.   References Abel, J. R., & Deitz, R. (2014). Do the Benefits of College Still Outweigh the Costs? Current Issues in Economics and Finance, 20(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/DOI: , Aranoff, A. (2015). Student Loan Interest Deduction: What You Need to Know | HuffPost. Retrieved October 17, 2017, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/aryea-aranoff/student-loan-interest-ded_b_7486888.html Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. (2017). 26 U.S. Code  § 221 Interest on education loans | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute. Retrieved October 16, 2017, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/221 Dynarski, S. M. (2008). An Economist’s Perspective on Student Loans in the United States (No. 5579). Munich. Ellis, B. (2013). Class of 2013 grads average $35,200 in loans, credit card debt. Retrieved November 1, 2017, from http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/17/pf/college/student-debt/ Internal Revenue Service. (2017). Topic No. 456 Student Loan Interest Deduction. Retrieved October 15, 2017, from https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc450/tc456 Kantrowitz, M. (2012). Who Graduates College with Six-Figure Student Loan Debt†¯? Washington. Lieber, R. (2009, September 5). Why College Costs Rise, Even in a Recession. The New York Times, p. B1. Looney, A., & Yannelis, C. (2015). A crisis in student loans?: How changes in the characteristics of borrowers and in the institutions they attended contributed to rising loan defaults. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, (Fall), 1–89. https://doi.org/10.1353/eca.2015.0003 Student Loan Hero. (2016). 19% of Americans Don’t Know What Student Loan Tax Benefits They Can Claim. Retrieved November 1, 2017, from https://studentloanhero.com/press/19-percent-americans-dont-know-student-loan-tax-benefits/ Taylor, P., Parker, K., Fry, R., Cohn, D., Wang, W., Velasco, G., & Dockterman, D. Is College Worth It†¯? (2011).

How Humans and Robots are Presented in Blade Runner Essay -- Papers Bl

How Humans and Robots are Presented in Blade Runner "Blade Runner" is a science fiction film set in Los Angeles in the year 2019. Nuclear war had just ended which caused large-scale devastation such as dramatic climate change, genetic change and all animals on earth becoming extinct apart from artificial ones. The Tyrell Corporation developed the artificial animals, which also happen to be the creators of Androids (Artificial beings) which the film is based on. The film "Blade Runner" revolves around the Nexus 6 series of Androids these androids were built to do the hard, tiresome jobs on off-world colonies. Using androids was a big advantage for the humans of this time because they never get tired so can work non-stop. The problem with replicants is that they are super-humans, intelligent and very omniscient and could over-power the humans at any time. After an incident where many humans were killed on an off world colony by Nexus 6 they were made illegal on Earth. Rick Deckard the main character in the film prowls the steel and microchip jungle of 21st century, LA. He is a Blade Runner stalking genetically made criminal replicants. His assignment: Kill them. Their crime: wanting to be human. The story of "Blade Runner" is familiar to countless fans but few have seen it like this because the version I was studying was the directors cut so we see Ridley Scott's own interpretation of his sci-fi classic. This version omits Deckard's voice-over and develops in greater detail the romance between Deckard and Rachael and removes the uplifting finale. The result is a heightened emotional impact. The new scene (unicorn vision) sug... ...at their lifespan has been shortened. At this point we know they have feelings and a love between two people is a strong force. Whatever they are a being of such high potential is a terrible thing to waste. Overall director Ridley Scott is suggesting that to be human you have to have feelings and emotions (which the robots have) and to be able to empathise with others. If you do not possess those qualities then you are not a true human, Deckard, Tyrell and the two Policemen are shown not to have feelings nor emotions when they "retire" a robot or are they the "real" humans. The qualities of human-ness are shown most shockingly by Roy Battye when he saves Deckard instead of taking revenge. But Deckard's character shows development in that he learns to empathise with the replicants and falls in love with Rachael.

Forward the Foundation Chapter 16

6 Hari Seldon was fighting off melancholy. He was lectured in turn by Dors, by Raych, by Yugo, and by Manella. All united to tell him that sixty was not old. They simply did not understand. He had been thirty when the first hint of psychohistory had come to him, thirty-two when he delivered his famous lecture at the Decennial Convention, following which everything seemed to happen to him at once. After his brief interview with Cleon, He had fled across Trantor and met Demerzel, Dors, Yugo, and Raych, to say nothing of the people of Mycogen, of Dahl, and of Wye. He was forty when he became First Minister and fifty when he had relinquished the post. Now he was sixty. He had spent thirty years on psychohistory. How many more years would he require? How many more years would he live? Would he die with the Psychohistory Project unfinished after all? It was not the dying that bothered him, he told himself. It was the matter of leaving the Psychohistory Project unfinished. He went to see Yugo Amaryl. In recent years they had somehow drifted apart, as the Psychohistory Project had steadily increased in size. In the first years at Streeling, it had merely been Seldon and Amaryl working together-no one else. Now ** Amaryl was nearly fifty-not exactly a young man-and he had somehow lost his spark. In all these years, he had developed no interest in anything but psychohistory: no woman, no companion, no hobby, no subsidiary activity. Amaryl blinked at Seldon who couldn't help but note the changes in the man's appearance. Part of it may have been because Yugo had had to have his eyes reconstructed. He saw perfectly well, but there was an unnatural look about them and he tended to blink slowly. It made him appear sleepy. â€Å"What do you think, Yugo?† said Seldon. â€Å"Is there any light at the end of the tunnel?† â€Å"Light? Yes, as a matter of fact,† said Amaryl. â€Å"There's this new fellow, Tamwile Elar. You know him, of course.† â€Å"Oh yes. I'm the one who hired him. Very vigorous and aggressive. How's he doing?† â€Å"I can't say I'm really comfortable with him, Hari. His loud laughter gets on my nerves. But he's brilliant. The new system of equations fits right into the Prime Radiant and they seem to make it possible to get around the problem of chaos.† â€Å"Seem? Or will?† â€Å"Too early to say, but I'm very hopeful. I have tried a number of things that would have broken them down if they were worthless and the new equations survived them all. I'm beginning to think of them as the achaotic equations!† â€Å"I don't imagine,† said Seldon â€Å"we have anything like a rigorous demonstration concerning these equations?† â€Å"No, we don't, though I've put half a dozen people on it, including Elar, of course.† Amaryl turned on his Prime Radiant-which was every bit as advanced as Seldon's was-and he watched as the curving lines of luminous equations curled in midair-too small, too fine to be read without amplification. â€Å"Add the new equations and we may be able to begin to predict.† â€Å"Each time I study the Prime Radiant now,† said Seldon thoughtfully, â€Å"I wonder at the Electro-Clarifier and how tightly it squeezes material into the lines and curves of the future. Wasn't that Elar's idea, too?† â€Å"Yes. With the help of Cinda Monay, who designed it.† â€Å"It's good to have new and brilliant men and women in the Project. Somehow it reconciles me to the future.† â€Å"You think someone like Elar may be heading the Project someday?† asked Amaryl, still studying the Prime Radiant. â€Å"Maybe. After you and I have retired-or died.† Amaryl seemed to relax and turned off the device. â€Å"I would like to complete the task before we retire or die.† â€Å"So would I, Yugo. So would I.† â€Å"Psychohistory has guided us pretty well in the last ten years.† That was true enough, but Seldon knew that one couldn't attach too much triumph to that. Things had gone smoothly and without major surprises. Psychohistory had predicted that the center would hold after Cleon's death-predicted it in a very dim and uncertain way-and it did hold. Trantor was reasonably quiet. Even with an assassination and the end of a dynasty, the center had held. It did so under the stress of military rule-Dors was quite right in speaking of the junta as â€Å"those military rascals.† She might have even gone farther in her accusations without being wrong. Nevertheless, they were holding the Empire together and would continue to do so for a time. Long enough, perhaps, to allow psychohistory to play an active role in the events that were to transpire. Lately Yugo had been speaking about the possible establishment of Foundations-separate, isolated, independent of the Empire itself serving as seeds for developments through the forthcoming dark ages and into a new and better Empire. Seldon himself had been working on the consequences of such an arrangement. But he lacked the time and, he felt (with a certain misery), he lacked the youth as well. His mind, however firm and steady, did not have the resiliency and creativity that it had had when he was thirty and with each passing year, he knew he would have less. Perhaps he ought to put the young and brilliant Elar on the task, taking him off everything else. Seldon had to admit to himself, shamefacedly, that the possibility did not excite him. He did not want to have invented psychohistory so that some stripling could come in and reap the final fruits of fame. In fact, to put it at its most disgraceful, Seldon felt jealous of Elar and realized it just sufficiently to feel ashamed of the emotion. Yet, regardless of his less rational feelings, he would have to depend on other younger men-whatever his discomfort over it. Psychohistory was no longer the private preserve of himself and Amaryl. The decade of his being First Minister had converted it into a large government-sanctioned and -budgeted undertaking and, quite to his surprise, after resigning from his post as First Minister and returning to Streeling University, it had grown still larger. Hari grimaced at its ponderous-and pompous-official name: the Seldon Psychohistory Project at Streeling University. But most people simply referred to it as the Project. The military junta apparently saw the Project as a possible political weapon and while that was so, funding was no problem. Credits poured in. In return, it was necessary to prepare annual reports, which, however, were quite opaque. Only fringe matters were reported on and even then the mathematics was not likely to be within the purview of any of the members of the junta. It was clear as he left his old assistant that Amaryl, at least, was more than satisfied with the way psychohistory was going and yet Seldon felt the blanket of depression settle over him once more. He decided it was the forthcoming birthday celebration that was bothering him. It was meant as a celebration of joy, but to Hari it was not even a gesture of consolation-it merely emphasized his age. Besides, it was upsetting his routine and Hari was a creature of habit. His office and a number of those adjoining had been cleared out and it had been days since he had been able to work normally. His proper offices would be converted into halls of glory, he supposed, and it would be many days before he could get back to work. Only Amaryl absolutely refused to budge and was able to maintain his office. Seldon had wondered, peevishly, who had thought of doing all this. It wasn't Dors, of course. She knew him entirely too well. Not Amaryl or Raych, who never even remembered their own birthdays. He had suspected Manella and had even confronted her on the matter. She admitted that she was all for it and had given orders for the arrangements to take place, but she said that the idea for the birthday party had been suggested to her by Tamwile Elar. The brilliant one, thought Seldon. Brilliant in everything. He sighed. If only the birthday were all over. Dors poked her head through the door. â€Å"Am I allowed to come in?† â€Å"No, of course not. Why should you think I would?† â€Å"This is not your usual place.† â€Å"I know,† sighed Seldon. â€Å"I have been evicted from my usual place because of the stupid birthday party. How I wish it were over.† â€Å"There you are. Once that woman gets an idea in her head, it takes over and grows like the big bang.† Seldon changed sides at once. â€Å"Come. She means well, Dors.† â€Å"Save me from the well-meaning,† said Dors. â€Å"In any case, I'm here to discuss something else. Something which may be important.† â€Å"Go ahead. What is it?† â€Å"I've been talking to Wanda about her dream-† She hesitated. Seldon made a gargling sound in the back of his throat, then said, â€Å"I can't believe it. Just let it go.† â€Å"No. Did you bother to ask her for the details of the dream?† â€Å"Why should I put the little girl through that?† â€Å"Neither did Raych, nor Manella. It was left up to me.† â€Å"But why should you torture her with questions about it?† â€Å"Because I had the feeling I should,† said Dors grimly. â€Å"In the first place, she didn't have the dream when she was home in her bed.† â€Å"Where was she, then?† â€Å"In your office.† â€Å"What was she doing in my office?† â€Å"She wanted to see the place where the party would be and she walked into your office and, of course, there was nothing to see, as it's been cleared out in preparation. But your chair was still there. The large one-tall back, tall wings, broken-down-the one you won't let me replace.† Hari sighed, as if recalling a longstanding disagreement. â€Å"It's not broken-down. I don't want a new one. Go on.† â€Å"She curled up in your chair and began to brood over the fact that maybe you weren't really going to have a party and she felt bad. Then, she tells me, she must have fallen asleep because nothing is clear in her mind, except that in her dream there were two men-not women, she was sure about that-two men, talking.† â€Å"And what were they talking about?† â€Å"She doesn't know exactly. You know how difficult it is to remember details under such circumstances. But she says it was about dying and she thought it was you because you were so old. And she remembers two words clearly. They were ‘lemonade death.'† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Lemonade death.† â€Å"What does that mean?† â€Å"I don't know. In any case, the talking ceased, the men left, and there she was in the chair, cold and frightened-and she's been upset about it ever since.† Seldon mulled over Dors's report. Then he said, â€Å"Look, dear, what importance can we attach to a child's dream?† â€Å"We can ask ourselves first, Hari, if it even was a dream.† â€Å"What do you mean?† â€Å"Wanda doesn't say outright it was. She says she ‘must have fallen asleep.' Those are her words. She didn't say she fell asleep, she said she must have fallen asleep.† â€Å"What do you deduce from that?† â€Å"She may have drifted off into a half-doze and, in that state, heard two men-two real men, not two dream men-talking.† â€Å"Real men? Talking about killing me with lemonade death?† â€Å"Something like that, yes.† â€Å"Dors,† said Seldon forcefully, â€Å"I know that you're forever foreseeing danger for me, but this is going too far. Why should anyone want to kill me?† â€Å"It's been tried twice before.† â€Å"So it has, but consider the circumstances. The first attempt came shortly after Cleon appointed me First Minister. Naturally this was an offense to the well-established court hierarchy and I was very resented. A few thought they might settle matters by getting rid of me. The second time was when the Joranumites were trying to seize power and they thought I was standing in their way-plus Namarti's distorted dream of revenge. â€Å"Fortunately neither assassination attempt succeeded, but why should there now be a third? I am no longer First Minister and haven't been for ten years. I am an aging mathematician in retirement and surely no one has anything to fear from me. The Joranumites have been rooted out and destroyed and Namarti was executed long ago. There is absolutely no motivation for anyone to want to kill me. â€Å"So please, Dors, relax. When you're nervous about me, you get unsettled, which makes you more nervous still, and I don't want that to happen.† Dors rose from her seat and leaned across Hari's desk. â€Å"It's easy for you to say that there is no motive to kill you, but none is needed. Our government is now a completely irresponsible one and if they wish-â€Å" â€Å"Stop!† commanded Seldon loudly. Then, very quietly, â€Å"Not a word, Dors. Not a word against the government. That could get us in the very trouble you're foreseeing.† â€Å"I'm only talking to you, Hari.† â€Å"Right now you are, but if you get into the habit of saying foolish things, you don't know when something will slip out in someone else's presence-someone who will then be glad to report you. Just learn, as a matter of necessity, to refrain from political commentary.† â€Å"I'll try, Hari,† said Dors, but she could not keep the indignation out of her voice. She turned on her heel and left. Seldon watched her go. Dors had aged gracefully, so gracefully that at times she seemed not to have aged at all. Though she was two years younger than Seldon, her appearance had not changed nearly as much as his had in the twenty-eight years they had been together. Naturally. Her hair was frosted with gray, but the youthful luster beneath the gray still shone through. Her complexion had grown more sallow; her voice was a bit huskier, and, of course, she wore clothes that were suitable for middle age. However, her movements were as agile and as quick as ever. It was as if nothing could be allowed to interfere with her ability to protect Hari in case of an emergency. Hari sighed. This business of being protected-more or less against his will, at all times-was sometimes a heavy burden. 8 Manella came to see Seldon almost immediately afterward. â€Å"Pardon me, Hari, but what has Dors been saying?† Seldon looked up again. Nothing but interruptions. â€Å"It wasn't anything important. Wanda's dream.† Manella's lips pursed. â€Å"I knew it. Wanda said Dors was asking her questions about it. Why doesn't she leave the girl alone? You would think that having a bad dream was some sort of felony.† â€Å"As a matter of fact,† said Seldon soothingly, â€Å"it's just a matter of something Wanda remembered as part of the dream. I don't know if Wanda told you, but apparently in her dream she heard something about ‘lemonade death.' â€Å" â€Å"Hmm!† Manella was silent for a moment. Then she said, â€Å"That doesn't really matter so much. Wanda is crazy about lemonade and she's expecting lots of it at the party. I promised she'd have some with Mycogenian drops in it and she's looking forward to it.† â€Å"So that if she heard something that sounded anything like lemonade, it would be translated into lemonade in her mind.† â€Å"Yes. Why not?† â€Å"Except that, in that case, what do you suppose it was that was actually said? She must have heard something in order to misinterpret it.† â€Å"I don't think that's necessarily so. But why are we attaching so much importance to a little girl's dream? Please, I don't want anyone talking to her about it anymore. It's too upsetting.† â€Å"I agree. I'll see to it that Dors drops the subject-at least with Wanda.† â€Å"All right. I don't care if she is Wanda's grandmother, Hari. I'm her mother, after all, and my wishes come first.† â€Å"Absolutely,† said Seldon soothingly and looked after Manella as she left. That was another burden-the unending competition between those two women. 9 Tamwile Elar was thirty-six years old and had joined Seldon's Psychohistory Project as Senior Mathematician four years earlier. He was a tall man, with a habitual twinkle in his eye and with more than a touch of self-assurance as well. His hair was brown and had a loose wave in it, the more noticeable because he wore it rather long. He had an abrupt way of laughing, but there was no fault to be found with his mathematical ability. Elar had been recruited from the West Mandanov University and Seldon always had to smile when he remembered how suspicious Yugo Amaryl had been of him at first. But then, Amaryl was suspicious of everyone. Deep in his heart (Seldon felt sure), Amaryl felt that psychohistory ought to have remained his and Hari's private province. But even Amaryl was now willing to admit that Elar's membership in the group had eased his own situation tremendously. Yugo said, â€Å"His techniques for avoiding chaos are unique and fascinating. No one else in the Project could have worked it out the way he did. Certainly nothing of this sort ever occurred to me. It didn't occur to you, either, Hari.† â€Å"Well,† said Seldon grumpily, â€Å"I'm getting old.† â€Å"If only,† said Amaryl, â€Å"he didn't laugh so loud.† â€Å"People can't help the way they laugh.† Yet the truth was that Seldon found himself having a little trouble accepting Elar. It was rather humiliating that he himself had come nowhere near the â€Å"achaotic equations,† as they were now called. It didn't bother Seldon that he had never thought of the principle behind the Electro-Clarifier-that was not really his field. The achaotic equations, however, he should, indeed, have thought of-or at least gotten close to. He tried reasoning with himself. Seldon had worked out the entire basis for psychohistory and the achaotic equations grew naturally out of that basis. Could Elar have done Seldon's work three decades earlier? Seldon was convinced that Elar couldn't have. And was it so remarkable that Elar had thought up the principle of achaotism once the basis was in place? All this was very sensible and very true, yet Seldon still found himself uneasy when facing Elar. Just slightly edgy. Weary age facing flamboyant youth. Yet Elar never gave him obvious cause for feeling the difference in years. He never failed to show Seldon full respect or in any way to imply that the older man had passed his prime. Of course, Elar was interested in the forthcoming festivities and had even, as Seldon had discovered, been the first to suggest that Seldon's birthday be celebrated. (Was this a nasty emphasis on Seldon's age? Seldon dismissed the possibility. If he believed that, it would mean he was picking up some of Dors's tricks of suspicion. Elar strode toward him and said, â€Å"Maestro-† And Seldon winced, as always. He much preferred to have the senior members of the Project call him Hari, but it seemed such a small point to make a fuss over. â€Å"Maestro,† said Elar. â€Å"The word is out that you've been called in for a conference with General Tennar.† â€Å"Yes. He's the new head of the military junta and I suppose he wants to see me to ask what psychohistory is all about. They've been asking me that since the days of Cleon and Demerzel.† (The new head! The junta was like a kaleidoscope, with some of its members periodically falling from grace and others rising from nowhere.) â€Å"But it's my understanding he wants it now-right in the middle of the birthday celebration.† â€Å"That doesn't matter. You can all celebrate without me.† â€Å"No, we can't, Maestro. I hope you don't mind, but some of us got together and put in a call to the Palace and put the appointment off for a week.† â€Å"What?† said Seldon annoyed. â€Å"Surely that was presumptuous of you-and risky, besides.† â€Å"It worked out well. They've put it off and you'll need that time.† â€Å"Why would I need a week?† Elar hesitated. â€Å"May I speak frankly, Maestro?† â€Å"Of course you can. When have I ever asked that anyone speak to me m any way but frankly?† Elar flushed slightly, his fair skin reddening, but his voice remained steady. â€Å"It's not easy to say this, Maestro. You're a genius at mathematics. No one on the Project has any doubt of that. No one in the Empire-they knew you and understood mathematics-would have any doubt about it. However, it is not given to anybody to be a universal genius.† â€Å"I know that as well as you do, Elar.† â€Å"I know you do. Specifically, though, you lack the ability to handle ordinary people-shall we say, stupid people. You lack a certain deviousness, a certain ability to sidestep, and if you are dealing with someone who is both powerful in government and somewhat stupid, you can easily endanger the Project and, for that matter, your own life, simply because you are too frank.† â€Å"What is this? Am I suddenly a child? I've been dealing with politicians for a long time. I was First Minister for ten years, as perhaps you may remember.† â€Å"Forgive me, Maestro, but you were not an extraordinarily effective one. You dealt with First Minister Demerzel, who was very intelligent, by all accounts, and with the Emperor Cleon, who was very friendly. Now you will encounter military people who are neither intelligent nor friendly-another matter entirely.† â€Å"I've even dealt with military people and survived.† â€Å"Not with General Dugal Tennar. He's another sort of thing altogether. I know him.† â€Å"You know him? You have met him?† â€Å"I don't know him personally, but he's from Mandanov, which, as you know, is my sector, and he was a power there before he joined the junta and rose through its ranks.† â€Å"And what do you know about him?† â€Å"Ignorant, superstitious, violent. He is not someone you can handle easily-or safely. You can use the week to work out methods for dealing with him.† Seldon bit his lower lip. There was something to what Elar said and Seldon recognized the fact that, while he had plans of his own, it would still be difficult to try to manipulate a stupid, self-important, short-tempered person with overwhelming force at his disposal. He said uneasily, â€Å"I'll manage somehow. The whole matter of a military junta is, in any case, an unstable situation in the Trantor of today. It has already lasted longer than might have seemed likely.† â€Å"Have we been testing that? I was not aware that we were making stability decisions on the junta.† â€Å"Just a few calculations by Amaryl, making use of your achaotic equations.† He paused. â€Å"By the way, I've come across some references to them as the Elar Equations.† â€Å"Not by me, Maestro.† â€Å"I hope you don't mind, but I don't want that. Psychohistoric elements are to be described functionally and not personally. As soon as personalities intervene, bad feelings arise.† â€Å"I understand and quite agree, Maestro.† â€Å"In fact,† said Seldon with a touch of guilt, â€Å"I have always felt it wrong that we speak of the basic Seldon Equations of Psychohistory. The trouble is that's been in use for so many years, it's not practical to try to change it.† â€Å"If you'll excuse my saying so, Maestro, you're an exceptional case. No one, I think, would quarrel with your receiving full credit for inventing the science of psychohistory. But, if I may, I wish to get back to your meeting with General Tennar.† â€Å"Well, what else is there to say?† â€Å"I can't help but wonder if it might be better if you did not see him, did not speak to him, did not deal with him.† â€Å"How am I to avoid that if he calls me in for a conference?† â€Å"Perhaps you can plead illness and send someone in your place.† â€Å"Whom?† Elar was silent for a moment, but his silence was eloquent. Seldon said, â€Å"You, I take it.† â€Å"Might that not be the thing to do? I am a fellow sectoral citizen of the General, which may carry some weight. You are a busy man, getting on in years, and it would be easy to believe that you are not entirely well. And if I see him, rather than yourself-please excuse me, Maestro-I can wiggle and maneuver more easily than you can.† â€Å"Lie, you mean.† â€Å"If necessary.† â€Å"You'll be taking a huge chance.† â€Å"Not too huge. I doubt that he will order my execution. If he becomes annoyed with me, as he well might, then I can plead-or you can plead on my behalf-youth and inexperience. In any case, if I get into trouble, that will be far less dangerous than if you were to do so. I'm thinking of the Project, which can do without me a great deal more easily than it can without you.† Seldon said with a frown, â€Å"I'm not going to hide behind you, Elar. If the man wants to see me, he will see me. I refuse to shiver and shake and ask you to take chances for me. What do you think I am?† â€Å"A frank and honest man-when the need is for a devious one.† â€Å"I will manage to be devious-if I must. Please don't underestimate me, Elar.† Elar shrugged hopelessly. â€Å"Very well. I can only argue with you up to a certain point.† â€Å"In fact, Elar, I wish you had not postponed the meeting. I would rather skip my birthday and see the General than the reverse. This birthday celebration was not my idea.† His voice died away in a grumble. Elar said, â€Å"I'm sorry.† â€Å"Well,† said Seldon with resignation, â€Å"we'll see what happens.† He turned and left. Sometimes he wished ardently that he could run what was called a â€Å"tight ship,† making sure that everything went as he wished it to, leaving little or no room for maneuvering among his subordinates. To do that, however, would take enormous time, enormous effort, would deprive him of any chance of working on psychohistory himself-and, besides, he simply lacked the temperament for it. He sighed. He would have to speak to Amaryl.

Criticaly evaluate the claim that conscience is dictated Essays

Criticaly evaluate the claim that conscience is dictated Essays Criticaly evaluate the claim that conscience is dictated Essay Criticaly evaluate the claim that conscience is dictated Essay Essay Topic: Claim Of Value For example, you can describe two different situations to a six year old, one of which is someone lying and a minor bad consequence arising, the other is someone accidentally causing a very negative consequence. For a six year old, the latter case would make mummy more cross because their understanding is that something is bad because it hurts or upsets people. Ask an older child, and they will accurately say that a parent would be more cross with the child who told a lie. Pigged is showing that conscience is something we learn as we grow and develop. This theory seems to contradict Newsmans ideas. Newman was an intuitionist, believing that conscience is the voice of God. He believed that when faced with a moral decision, we get a sense of moral direction from God, which we can either listen to or ignore. Conscience is an ability to detect the right course of action. For Newman, following the conscience was more important than listening to the teachings of the Pope. In this way, we do not learn what is right or wrong from our parents or from religious leaders or scriptures. Conscience is a law that speaks to the unman heart, a law written by God. Piglets view may seem more accurate, as it is possible to observe and validate it. However, many people do not like the implications of accepting this view. Pigged is not claiming that there is any moral truth, he does not believe in objective morality or absolute rules. Whilst a person might develop respect for others whichever society they are brought up in, other aspects of morality will vary according to your upbringing. The percentage of people who feel guilty is higher in Christian households. For many Christians, there are absolute moral rules. Catholics would argue that feeling guilt is a sign from God that you have done something wrong. When challenged to explain how children develop, a follower of Newman might claim that a younger child cannot sense Gods direction clearly, and it is our ability to hear Gods voice that develops as we grow. Freud was a strong critic of religion. The guilt which people feel is merely a result of events in our childhood and the disapproval of society. This explains why different societies have different values. In Islam, a man may marry four wives this idea would be repugnant to many Christians. For Freud, the superego exists in our subconscious and reflects negative experiences, and in a healthy person the ego, our conscious personality, is in control and overrides the guilty conscience. For Freud, conscience is not taught as such, it develops subconsciously. Many people criticism this view of the conscience. It is very negative, yet our conscience can be useful in preventing us from doing things that harm ourselves or others. Many psychologists agree with Freud that conscience develops subconsciously, but reject the idea of the conscience as an entirely negative hinge. Aquinas had a very different view of the conscience, and would have totally rejected Frauds notion of a negative subconscious superego. He was not an intuitionist, and would not have agreed with the idea of conscience as the Voice of God. Instead, he believed we have a God-given faculty of reason. Humans are inclined to do good and avoid evil. He called this Synthesis. In a way, then, this is the antithesis of Freud, a positive, subconscious will to do what is right. With this subconscious ability, we can grasp the basic purposes of human life to survive, evolve, reproduce, learn, worship God, live in a civilized society. For Aquinas, the first part of the conscience was this subconscious grasp of the Primary Precepts. The next part of the conscience was what he called conscientious, which is the rational ability to distinguish between different courses of action,conscience is far from being the voice of God, but neither is it learnt. We may learn to use our moral Judgment more effectively, but conscience is the dictate of reason. Conscience is a God given ability, not something learnt and not the Voice of God. Critics of Aquinas say that if e was right, we would all reach the same conclusions about what is right or wrong. For example, we would all agree about whether it is right for two men to get married. However, people disagree strongly about this question. For many Christians, they believe that our ideas of right and wrong should come from the Bible, which they may believe is the word of God. Conscience for them is something learnt. Others believe that being Christian means having an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They may believe that Gods Spirit living inside us is the voice of God. Butler believed that Aquinas was right to see reason as supreme. He agreed that our conscience should have ultimate authority over our actions. If conscience were something learnt, if it was taught to us, then where would its authority come from? Peoples consciences would develop differently according to where they live and how they were brought up. Butler would have been much happier thinking of conscience as the voice of God. His position was much closer to Aquinas. He saw conscience as our natural guide, the guide assigned to us by the Author of our nature. For Butler, our natural instincts re to look after ourselves. We also have a desire to help others, and it is the consciences Job to weigh up these two opposing interests of self-love and benevolence. For Butler we have a God-given ability to Judge what is right or wrong, similar to Newsmans voice of God, but rather than being a voice it is a faculty to reason, a lot like Aquinas. For all three, seeing conscience as coming from God gives conscience a supreme authority over our actions. This allows for objective morality, for universal principles that all people should follow. This could lead to belief in universal human rights, a rejection of torture and arbitrary arrest, important ideas in the current discussions around the ethics of war. If the conscience were merely taught, there would be no source of moral authority, no objective standard by which to make declarations about inalienable rights. From had a theory of the conscience that was similar to Frauds, an authoritarian conscience that made us do things as a result of guilt or the fear of displeasing others.