Metaphysics

Use in modern perspective. Focus on how it relates to happiness

Difference: humanist + side of human related to sex and aggression

• Which statement about Freud’s theory of personality is FALSE?
• The most important aspects of personally development are finished by age 6
• The ego continues to develop as you grow
• The id is present at birth
• The ego must balance the demands of the id and super-ego
• The id is entirely unconscious.
• The ego is entirely conscious

Difference: ego – super ego

• Ego: the eye since of self, intelligence ore rational
• Super ego: (over-eye) develop early on Demand of your culture, what your culture (good boy or girl) should or shouldn’t do.

Ex: good person won’t have sex In this defense mechanism, an individual acts in a manner opposite to their true desires or motives.

Displacement

You displace your anger on something or someone else Projection Instead of admiting it to yourself you accuse everyone else of it

• Reaction formation.
• Regression.
• Using a baby talk.
• Denial Act as if something isn’t happening .
• Defense mechanism do exist.
• He’s probably wrong about people se it by unconscious.

There are many reasons that contribute to our attraction to others. One of the best predictors in selecting and developing interpersonal and romantic relationships is

• Mere exposure effect
• Is why proximity is such a good predictor
• Just seeing them won’t influence it as much as the other one
• Personality characteristics
• Commonalities in parental behavior
• Physical proximity
• How close you live to each other
• They are there and you get to know them, b/c they live close to you
• What is familiar is more appealing then what isn’t
• Age Defense mechanisms are enacted by the id the ego
• The super-ego
• Both the ego and the super ego
• Both the id and the super-ego

In love we experience feelings of euphoria, intimacy, and intense sexual attraction, in love, we experience affection, trust, and concern, for a partner’s well-being.

Passionate, companionate

• Companionate deals with oxytocin
• Passionate deals with dopamine (like with drugs)

Research has consistently demonstrated five core components of personality. Which of the following is not one of the Big Five personality traits?

• Agreeableness
• Extraversion to neutral
• Openness to experience
• Narcissism – to neutral

Which of the big 5 is associated with school and work success? (along with predicting IQ)

Consciousness

What do obedience to authority and a tendency to reciprocate other’s favors have in common? Norms (unwritten standards for behavior or how people will react to one other) Differ from culture to culture No one is going to sit u down tell you Ex: you will obey an officer (or people in position of authority) When your friend does really well on a test, he says it’s b/c he is smart. If he fails, he says it’s b/c the test was really hard. This is an ex of which of the following? Extraversion Denial Sublimation

Self-serving bias

We have a general good look of our self Look at outside reason why we didn’t do so well. repression The tendency for people to engage in explains why some people prefer negative evaluation over positive ones and also seek mate who view them poorly.

Traits allow us to predict behavior in specific situations. Only over time, not in situations Intelligence is not a personality trait According to the people  aggress when their goals are thwarted. Researches have discovered a gene associated w/ serotonin availability in the frontal love. This gen is also related to the personality trait of neuroticism The Zimbardo prison study has been cited as an example that: negative situation pressures often outweigh personality traits.

When ppl in angry mobs, they may not be aware of their own standards of behavior. This may be due to: Reciprocal altruism. This is in the ex of who is going to come forth to do the work When someone needs help & it isn’t clear if it’s a emergency When there is a crowd- people act like it’s fine then u assume it’s fine too When u are by yourself, u don’t have reference of others so u r more likely to help Deindividuation Group polarization

These studies have made Important contributions not only n the area of development psychology but Its vital application on educational psychology as well. Jean Piglet, renowned Swiss psychologist, noted that the developmental process consisted of a cycle. The child’s intellectual organization and insight will mature in to several stages of cognitive development: The first stage of Piglet’s cognitive developmental stages Is the seniority stage. This Is usually experienced at birth to two years old.

The memory Is confined to Immediate experiences, and It Is at this period where the child builds his or her first cognitive framework (Queen, 2002). The second stage Piglet’s work is the operational stage and usually occurs between the ages 2 to 7 years old. There is greater use and assimilation of mental images. The images are not well organized. The child begins to understand and apply greater vocabulary and simple syntax. One of the important learning events at this stage Is “object permanence” and symbolic representation.

Also, the Infant begins to develop an Intuitive way of thinking -? which is defined as the operational thought (Queen, 2002). The third stage defined by Piglet is the concrete operational period. This is usually manifested at around the ages of 7-11 years old. The child begins to develop a more logical way of thinking. The child can observe relationships or associations and can classify people, objects and events. This allows the child to solve problems more effectively, and is able to appreciate reversibility.

However, the child could only solve problems that are observable and real. Their language at this time Is purposeful and efficient (Queen, 2002). The fourth and final stage In Placers cognitive development is called the formal operations period which is experienced around the gees of 1 1 years to adulthood. It is at this stage where the child develops an abstract and deductive reasoning process. A child could create a hypothesis and methodically use different strategies to find the cause of the problem, evaluate, re-evaluate, and even refine solutions to the problem.

At this point, Intelligence coincides with adult human levels. Although there would be no more new cognitive framework developing after this stage, however, the ability of the mental process and deductive reasoning may still advance as the person matures. Piglet also noted that the exact age of onset of each of the stages are different for each person, but the order of sequence of the stages do not changed. It is also possible for the child to mix the characteristics of the four stages (Queen, 2002).

Another Important theory that has contributed In cognitive development was by Weights (1978) discussed the use of signs to introduce a link between a stimuli and a response. For instance, tying a knot on a string would serve as a reminder for something. By this, Weights was able to restructure the thought and behavior process where cognitive development was formed by a “culturally-based recess” (Kooky, 1978; Geek and Urban, 1994). Weights implies that colonization is essential in influencing a child’s cognitive growth.

The social framework involves the interpersonal relationship between the child and the child’s family and culture: The maturation of the child’s language skills, both verbal and written, will all be based on his cultural influences. Weights was also able to point out that cognitive growth is defined by the “zone of proximal development” – this is the distance between the level of development shown by the child’s ability to problem-solve on his win and the level of potential development shown by the child’s ability to problem- solve with assistance by other people. Augusto, 1978; Geek and Urban, 1994) This would eventually lead to the moment where the child would be able to problem-solve on his own by searching for his own resources and utilizing them to lead to his own resolutions. With the knowledge of the basic nature and stages of cognitive development discussed by Piglet and Weights, educators in particular, were able to grasp a deeper understanding on how children develop and learn. Piglet discussed cognitive placement in a biological point of view: the mental capabilities of a child are restricted to a certain level at a particular age.

For example, a toddler may only know the value of coins he possesses by the number of coins he has not by how much it is worth. (Wood, 1998). Like Piglet, Hoosegows theory also says that a more mature cognitive function could result to a more complex yet logical and abstract use of language: the older the child gets, the more developed his mental functioning are and this is shown by having a better grasp and use of language skills. This is where the similarities of the two theories end.

Unlike Piglet’s biological perspective, Weights focused on a historical-cultural perspective. Hoosegows main objectives were “to understand the nature, evolution, and transmission of human culture” (Wood, 1998). Hoosegows main argument on cognitive development is the impact or the importance of “colonization” on the child’s cognitive growth. The social interaction serves as a stimulus for the child’s cognitive growth. A child will learn, understand, and apply the cultural language and the cultural norms of the society if he is regularly exposed to such (Wood, 1998).

Piglet’s view on social interaction is Just as important, but rather than having social interaction as a stimulus for cognitive growth, Piglet sees social interaction as more of a means to introduce a cognitive conflict for the child: when a child is exposed to a view that is different from his logical process, the child has to attempt to seek an equilibrium between the child’s view and to understand the new view, this conflict is usually seen at the concrete operations.

When the formal operation sets in, the child would get a better grasp and would be able to accept and reach a faster logical equilibrium for the new social view. Piglet’s developmental stages begin with the individual then to the society; while Hoosegows developmental approach is opposite – it starts with society, then to the individual (Oregon, 1999). At -par with-age tools in the student’s curriculum.

For example, aware of Piglet’s concrete operational stage: the child’s ability to learn would be greatly effective if the technique was hands-on enabling the child to have direct experience (Queen, 2002). In Hoosegows theories, formal learning must be mixed with social interactions or active discussions of the students and the teachers where there is guidance or assisted-discovery to lead the child to eventually do the task on his own.

Both theories have greatly stressed the value in the approach or method of learning rather than the results of what have been learned; and the essentials of actively involving the student in learning. However, Hoosegows guided-learning approach far differs from Piglet’, since the latter’s theory views that the student is more of a “solitary explorer” (McMullen, 2006). By creating class activities that would best-fit the child’s level of cognitive maturity, the child is encouraged to find solutions on his own McMullen, 2006).

Psychologists who accept the model tend to seek universals and do not believe there are Individual differences in behavior.

Multiple Choice

Your Score:

Your Answer : neuroscience

Correct Answer : neuroscience

The Choices Were: neuroscience cognitive humanistic behavioral Psychologists who believe in are most likely to attempt to understand diversity in ethnic background as an influence on behavior.

Multiple Choice

Your Answer : Individual differences

Correct Answer : Individual differences individual differences free will determinism universal principles del tend to look for the uniqueness of every individual.

Multiple Choice 1 1. Pets

Your Answer : humanistic

Correct Answer : humanistic psychodrama

Although their interests are diverse, psychologists share a common

Multiple Choice I I. Opts

Your Answer : Interest In mental processes and behavior.

Correct Answer : interest in mental processes and behavior. Interest in mental processes and behavior. Concern for applying their knowledge to social situations. Interest in the study of animal behavior. Respect for the ideas of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. The scientific study of s the primary focus of psychology.

Multiple Choice I 1 . Opts

Your Answer : behavior and mental processes

Correct Answer : behavior and mental processes behavior and mental processes how people live and work paranormal experiences people with psychological disorders

In explaining human behavior and mental processes, psychologists try to achieve all the following goals EXCEPT

Multiple Choice | 1. Pets Your Answer : manipulation.

Correct Answer : manipulation.

• Description.
• Prediction.
• Explanation.
• Manipulation.

The primary difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist is that Multiple Choice | 1. Pets

Your Answer : psychiatrists are physicians who specialize in psychological disorders.

Correct Answer : psychiatrists are physicians who specialize in psychological disorders.

The Choices Were: psychologists have more formal education than do psychiatrists. Psychiatrists are physicians who specialize in psychological disorders. Psychologists are more likely than psychiatrists to have a Used degree. Psychologists are unlikely to have education beyond the bachelor’s degree. Currently, there are dominant perspectives in psychology.

Multiple Choice I Correct Answer : five one five nine hearten A psychologist who adopts the perspective would be interested in how cells in the nervous system transmit information to each other.

Multiple Choice | 1. Pets DRP. Reams is a psychologist who is working to develop a drug treatment for Parkinson disease. Knowing nothing else about DRP. Reams, with what perspective in psychology do you think she would closely identify?

Multiple Choice | 1. Pets Your Answer : neuroscience

Correct Answer : neuroscience neuroscience DRP. Anthony is a psychologist who researches the hereditary influences of schizophrenia.

Knowing nothing else about DRP. Anthony, with what perspective in Your Answer : neuroscience Which psychological approach is most closely associated with Sigmund Freud?

Multiple Choice 1 1. Pets

Your Answer : psychodrama

Correct Answer : psychodrama “Slips of the tongue” and dreams are seen by psychologists as revealing the unconscious mind’s true beliefs or wishes.

Multiple Choice 1 1. Pets Those who identify with the psychodrama perspective emphasize

Multiple Choice

Your Answer : unconscious rather than conscious causes of behavior.

Correct Answer : unconscious rather than conscious causes of behavior.

The Choices Were: unconscious rather than conscious causes of behavior. Observable behavior rather than mental processes. Mental processes of which the person is aware, rather than those that are hidden from awareness. Intentional rather than unintentional actions. Which perspective asserted that psychology should focus solely on observable behaviors that can be objectively measured?

Notes

Definition of Psychology:

Psychology: the science of behavior and mental processes

Science: approach to knowledge based on systematic observation

Behavior: directly observable and measurable human actions

Mental processes: private psychological activities that include thinking, perceiving, and feeling

Theories: tentative explanation of facts and relationship in sciences :

1. Describe: the information gathered through specific research helps psychologists describe psychological phenomena more accurately and completely.
2. Predict: psychologists are able to predict future behavior.
3. Understand: behavior and mental processes when we can explain why they happen.
4. Influence: psychologists hope to go beyond description, understanding, and prediction to Influence behavior in beneficial ways.

Introspection: the process of looking inward at one’s own consciousness Structuralism: the 19th century school of psychology that sought to determine the structure of the mind through controlled introspection.

Gestalt psychology: the school of thought based on the belief that human unconsciousness cannot be broken down into Its elements

Gestalt: an organized or unified whole

Phi phenomenon: the perceptions of apparent movement between two stationary stimuli J. Henry

Olsson: is the best known for his studies of the sensations of heat and cold. He discovered that we feel cold when one kind of nerve ending in the skin is stimulated, and we feel warm feel intense heat only when both the warmth and cold receptors in the skin are stimulated at the same time.

Functionalism: the 19th century school of psychology that emphasized the useful functions of consciousness

Cognition: mental processes of perceiving, beveling, talking, remembering, knowing, deciding, and so on. Cognitive processes, such as perception, memory, and thinking Hermann Banishes: he memorized lists of information and measured his memory for them after different intervals of time. He invented an entirely new set of meaningless items for his experiment called nonsense syllables such as KEBAB and MUG. Mary Whiten Calking: was a prominent teacher and researcher who was a leader in research on memory. She developed a method to study memory that differed from Banishes. She also pioneered the scientific study of dreams. Alfred Bines (Psychometrics): the useful functions of conscious mental processes in a very different but very practical direction. He developed a way to measure intelligence.

Psychometrics: the perspective in psychology founded by Bines that focuses on the measurement of mental functions Behaviorism: the school of psychology that emphasizes the process of learning and the measurement of overt behavior Social learning theory: the viewpoint that the most important aspects of our behavior re learned from other persons in society, family, friends, and culture

Unconscious mind: all mental activity of which we are unaware

Motives: internal states or conditions that activate behavior and give it direction

Psychoanalysis: the technique of helping persons with emotional problems based on Sigmund Fraud’s theory of the unconscious mind

Humanistic psychology: the psychological view that human beings possess an innate tendency to improve and determine their lives by the decisions they make

Neuroscience perspective: the viewpoint in psychology that focuses on the nervous yester in explaining behavior and mental processes

Coloratura perspective: the theory of psychology that states that it is necessary to understand one’s culture, ethnic identity, and other coloratura factors to fully understand a person Culture: the patterns of behavior, beliefs, and values shared by a group of people ancestors Ethnic identity: each person’s sense of belonging to a particular ethnic group Gender identity: one’s view of oneself as male of female

Cultural relativity: the perspective that promotes thinking of different cultures in elate terms rather than Judgmental terms Coloratura factors in the history of psychology: Laurel Promote and Elizabeth Scarborough, Leonard Crasser, and Ellen Kismet have helped change our view of the role of women in the history of psychology by reminding us of some key facts. In the early days of psychology, it was extremely difficult of the most qualified women to obtain admission to graduate programs, when they receive training; they were rarely offered teaching position at the male- dominated institutions that they had the best equipped laboratories.

Basic Areas of Modern Psychology:

1. Biological psychology: study the ways in which the nervous system and other organs provide the basis for behavior.
2. Sensation and perception: how the sense organs operate and how we interpret incoming sensory information in the process of perception
3. Learning and memory: the ways in which we learn and remember new information, new skills, new habits, and new ways of relating to other people are studied in this problem solving
4. Cognition: with intelligent action: thinking, receiving, planning, imagining, creating, dreaming, speaking, listening, and problem solving
5. Developmental psychology: with changes that take place in people during their life p, as they grow from birth to old age 6.
6. Motivation and emotion: the needs and states that activate and guide behaviors, such as hunger, thirst, sex, the need of achievement, the need to have relationships with others. The nature of the feelings and moods that color human experience is also a topic of this specialty
7. Personality: focuses on the more or less consistent ways of behaving that heartier our personalities
8. Social psychology: the influence of other people on our behavior: the behavior of people in groups, mobs, or organizations; interpersonal attraction and intimate relationships; and attitudes and prejudice toward others
9. Coloratura psychology: focus on ethnic and cultural factors, gender identity, sexual orientation, and related issues.

Applied Areas of Modern Psychology:

1. Clinical psychology: try to understand and treat emotional problems and correct abnormal behavior
2. Counseling psychology: help people with personal or school robbers and with career choices
3. Industrial and organizational psychology: focuses on ways to match employees to Jobs, to train and motivate workers, and to promote Job satisfaction and good relationships among workers
4. Educational and school psychology: is concerned with the ways children learn in the classroom and focus on the ways in which pressures, conflicts, hardships, and other factors contribute to poor health. To prevent health problems such as heart disease by teaching people to relax, exercise, control their diets, and stop high risk behaviors, such as smoking.

Each individual has unique memory for oneself shared with no one else in the world. Such memory makes one different from others. Therefore I am curious to know what memory is. Right now I am Just a bundle of “memories” in my mind and body. Psychology defines it as a process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. But is memory limited to the define domain? If so, how do millions of atoms that could be flying through the cells randomly stay to gather in a double helix structure in order to create a DNA molecule in a way so that it is unique to every vying creature on earth?

It is difficult to explain this without knowing how memory truly works. Memory must be evolving at a much deeper level,perhaps even from the physical level and could manifest into chemical, biological and psychological levels. Perhaps physics has an explanation. Memory could be more fundamental than physics, and as a result memory can help us understand physics better. This notion may drastically transform the way we have been looking at physical aspects of the universe. This shift In thought among physicist is because of their Inability to explain the random nature of elementary articles.

KM (Quantum mechanics) the most successful theory In physics, can Just give us the probability to find a particle In a given location and time. The Idea that nature Is inherently probabilistic–that particles have only Likelihood, until they are observed– Is directly Implied by the standard equation of KM. This Is the central problem In KM. Element rejected this Idea by saying, ” I am convinced God does not play dice”. He believed there must be some hidden variable or property of the particle that gives rise to such weird behavior.

After nearly 100 years, a few physicist are at the verge of proving that there could be hidden variables associated with elementary particles. They call It “path memory”, because particles seems to carry the ‘memory” of the path they have traveled and the Interaction they have undergone along the path. Therefore two electrons that are Identical In terms of all known physical properties need no react to an experiment the same way because their path memories can be different. I can now say that atoms carrying unique combination of path memories stick together to form my DNA, defining who I am.

Memory could be the basis and rolling of everything-Who knows, one day we might even prove that “empty space” Itself can hold memory. MEMORY By Capricorn been looking at physical aspects of the universe. This shift in thought among physicist is because of their inability to explain the random nature of elementary KM (Quantum mechanics) the most successful theory in physics, can Just give us the probability to find a particle in a given location and time. The idea that nature is inherently probabilistic–that particles have only likelihood, until they are observed– s directly implied by the standard equation of KM.

This is the central problem in KM. Einstein rejected this idea by saying, ” I am convinced God does not play dice”. Hidden variables associated with elementary particles. They call it “path memory”, the interaction they have undergone along the path. Therefore two electrons that are identical in terms of all known physical properties need no react to an experiment together to form my DNA, defining who I am. Memory could be the basis and origin of everything. Who knows, one day we might even prove that “empty space” itself can

 Utilitarianism is the most well-known consequentiality theory of ethics. The most prominent advocates of utilitarianism are John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) and Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832). The guiding principle of utilitarianism is the assumption that eventual goal of all human activity is happiness. Experience is the determinant of concept of right and wrong in utilitarianism.

Two types of Utilitarian ethics are

1) Act Utilitarianism and

2) Rule Utilitarianism.

A Utilitarian’s definition of ‘good’ is ‘whatever provides the greatest total happiness’. By this definition, the right action in any case can be calculated by determining the probable consequences of each course of action. The action most likely to bring about the most happiness, or cause the least unhappiness, is the right action in each case. Utilitarianism deals with probable consequences because it is usually complex, if not impossible, to establish the accurate results of any particular action.

Rule Utilitarianism questions the assumption of act utilitarianism that all good is equal. The common practice of throwing Christians to lions for entertainment of crowds of thousands in Ancient Rome is cited as an example. Act Utilitarianism would assign higher weight to pleasure of thousands over suffering of few Christians, thus declaring that practice moral. Since momentary pleasure of the Romans cannot possibly equal the pain of loss of life, Rule utilitarianism concludes that all good or values cannot be equal.

The difficulties arising from putting Utilitarianism into practice include the measurement of happiness. Who is to decide whether or not the pleasure experienced by a sadist outweighs the victim’s suffering? Also, act utilitarianism can justify many actions that are usually thought immoral. For example, publicly hanging someone would deter crime and thus provide happiness, but one must question the morality of such an action. Also read utilitarianism and business ethics essay

Virtue Theory

Virtue Theory is base on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and is therefore also referred to as neo-Aristotelianism. Unlike utilitarians who focus on rightness and wrongness of each action, virtue theorists concentrate on character and are concerned about individual’s life as a whole. Their fundamental question is, ‘How should I live?’ they answer this question as, ‘cultivate the virtues’ in order to flourish as a human being.

Aristotle believed that everyone wants to flourish, or accomplish eudaimonia. Eudaimonia has application in whole life, not just in particular states one might find himself in from time to time. According to Aristotle, certain ways of living facilitate human flourishing, just as certain ways of tending a tree will lead it to blossom.

A virtue for Aristotle is an inclination to act desire and feel in particular ways in appropriate situations. It is a quality of an exemplary person, worthy of imitation. One can gain virtuous characteristics with knowledge and experience. As per virtue theorists, virtues such as generosity and courage are needed by any human being to live well. For Aristotle, the virtuous individual is someone who has harmonized all the virtues and can be a role model. The source of virtue is rationality, the ability to reason, which is uniquely human.

A difficulty with this theory is to decide which behavior, desire and feelings are to count as virtues. On which ground something gets a designation of virtue, is unclear. If a virtue theorist decides to accept only those ways of behaving, which are commonly considered virtuous in a particular society, as virtues, then there is little chance of changing that society on moral grounds¹.

Analysis of case ‘Poverty and Pollution’ using Utilitarian Approach

Brazil’s “valley of death” is believed to be the most polluted place on earth. The primary and most important stakeholders in the state of environment of that valley are undoubtedly the inhabitants of the area. All other stakeholders, including the government, industrialists, economists and environmentalists have secondary importance and therefore must have lesser influence in the fate of the valley. Utilitarian approach ignores this distinction and bases its calculation solely on the principle of greatest happiness. So we must give equal importance to all primary and secondary stakeholders in this analysis.

The situation offers these alternative courses of action.

1) Ignore the disastrous environmental damage and thus health hazards of inhabitants in the area and continue polluting or

2) arrange for removal of inhabitants from the area and continue to operate factories thus ignoring the pollution and environmental damage or

3) Invest in greener technologies to reduce pollution, requiring huge capital injection without much return to industrialists in tangible, cash terms.

The second alternative will cause betterment of inhabitants, but will not cause them to be happy. Although a rational alternative, utilitarianism fails to choose this option solely because it has no appeal in terms of happiness. Inhabitants will have job concerns; industrialists will lose easily accessible labor, and environmentalists will continue to criticize pollution.In the first scenario, we know that the inhabitants are not concerned by their health vulnerability and actually advocate the presence of polluting industry for the sake of sustaining income.

This may be due to lack of awareness about the conditions they are surviving under. So, their happiness will be caused by the continuation of industry, although this happiness is not synonymous to actual betterment. This scenario satisfies the need of industrialists and economists too, leaving only the environmentalists and to a lesser degree government in an unhappy state.

The third alternative will only cause happiness to environmentalists, with industrialists being very unhappy at investing in technologies that have no tangible return to them. Inhabitants will be better off, but their happiness is questionable.

A utilitarian will therefore advocate letting the state of affairs stay as they are. Generalizing this assesment, we must conclude that in a utilitarian perspective, through moving the polluting industries to third world countries in areas where inhabitants are only concerned about wages and employment, we can cause most happiness. This approach only leaves environmentalists unhappy, developed populations will get their cleaner environment, with pollution moving to populations that prefer other basic needs.

Analysis of case ‘Poverty and Pollution’ using Virtue Theory

Virtue theorist will not place his argument based on right or wrong course of action in this situation. Neither will he consider the consequences of alternative courses of actions on the stakeholders. A virtue theorist will base his argument on the values of human society and determine the value appearing to be the most virtuous will be preferred. In this case, which human virtues and goals are colliding? Here the virtues of pursuit of progress, development, a healthy and rewarding human body, and the clean environment we live in are at stake.

Progress is the fundamental goal of all human endeavors. It requires compromises and sometimes sacrifices of other desires. These sacrifices include the luxury of spending time doing things we enjoy rather then working regularly to make our lives better. Progress also demands utilization of natural resources to convert them into useful products, thus taking from Mother Nature. The cost of giving back to Mother Nature in order to sustain development and progress must be evaluated against the cost of depleting resources. Similarly, finding alternatives to polluting industries has the potential to slow down our pace of progress, and sometimes the alternatives to pollution that we find do not justify the sheer costs of implementing them.

The argument is further compounded by the fact that the developed nations have polluted the environment for decades without much consideration to the harmful affects. Now that we understand the damage we have caused, is it fair to ask still developing nations to sacrifice their progress pace so that the world can address the damages to the environment that are mainly the responsibility of developed, not developing nations?

The virtue theorist must therefore find a balance between progress and the value of human health. To him, it is immoral to let poor populations suffer damages caused by pollution. If alternatives exist, they must be explored. A virtue theorist cannot place different values on different human lives as the economist Lawrence Summers so crudely does.

We are informed in the update to the case that due to aroused population and government support, pollution was successfully brought down to acceptable levels. This is more in line with the standpoint of a virtue theorist who will advocate rational steps to be taken for the most virtuous scenario to prevail. Therefore, in this case, a harmonious balance between the virtues of progress, environmental care, and healthy life was successfully achieved in the end.

 References

Warburton, Nigel. Philosophy – The Basics. 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 2003. 48-57. Print.

In this part of discussion, I expound on the notion of the learning organisation. I look at the meaning of leaning and meaning of organisation and then interrelate the two terminologies to establish as to whether there is such a thing as the leaning organisation. This is followed by the discussion of the origin and development of the concept. I shall then offer a thoughtful analysis and critique of the concept. Learning “Leaning is the process of acquiring new knowledge, understanding and insight. ” (ULMC Module Pg 2. 1). This process generates change in the way we do and look at things.

Learning inevitably creates change. We have always learnt that change is a factor of life and that everything is in a continuous state of motion. In fact Heraclitus one of the early Greek philosophers noted “you can never step in the river twice” (ibid 2. 1). What this implies is that we don’t necessarily have to initiate change. It happens anyway. However, learning is a factor that facilitates this change. Again in some situations we have little control on learning because things simply happen to us and they force us to learn.

We are all the time confronted by situations, circumstances that force us to see, understand what we normally ordinarily would not have intended to happen. Actually the bible reflects this in the book of Ecclesiastes that for everything under the sun there is a time…. This is an emphasis that we have very little control if any on most of the inevitable things that happen in day today realities. The principle of change was also echoed by one of the medieval philosophers Soren Kikkerggared with his theory of predetermination later with Charles Dawin and the evolution theory.

Soren argues that “in time and space, everything is predetermined” Ed Kierkegaard, 1954, 152). With such expose and understanding then our concern as mangers is the relevance and connectedness of leaning and change to organisations. In the words of John Walter, president of AT ; T the world famous telecommunication company, stated, “when the pace of change outside the organisation becomes greater then the pace of change inside the organisation, the end is near”. His remarks summarise and emphasises the need for learning and change in organisation.

Learning Organisational What is an organisation? Mike Wills defines it as “a group of people who work together” (Will. Mike, Management, 2001, 25). Kao defines it as “a company, corporation, firm, enterprise or institution, or part or combination thereof, whether incorporated or not, public or private, that has its own functions and administration. For organizations with more than one operating unit, a single operating unit may be defined as an organization. ” Kao, J. J 1989, 35). What is a learning organisation?

There are many definitions of the learning organization but the one I like based on Pedler, Burgoyne and Boydell is: ‘A learning organization is an organization that facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself to achieve superior competitive performance. ‘ (Pedler, M Boydel, T and Burgoyne, J 1988, 18) Origin of the concept There is nothing new about the learning organisation. Indeed the whole concept is an absurdity. The idea can be traced as back as 1930’s when people started writing aggressively about management.

Management consultants especially driven by the zeal to always find something novel to say about management came up with all vocabularies that never existed before to describe the systems s and processes which existed with in organisations. In Schumpeter’s terms we call this innovation. This thinking can be traced in the following developments. The learning curve effects- discovered in the 1930’s & 1940’s by Kondratieff and Schumpeter. Ideas about emergent strategy in a trial and error business where you learn from mistakes.

Ideas about kaizen (continuous improvements) and empowerment- derived from the studies of the Japanese manufacturing firms e. g. quality circles Neo human relations writers like Chris Argyris and his notion of “double loop learning- learning how to learn. 1970’s Reaction to studies of cooperate excellence in the American firms by peters and waterman- chump-to-chump cycles and the icarus paradox. Note that all these ideas about the learning organisation leaves one question unsatisfactorily answered. Can organisations really learn? Organisations by their nature imply stability, predictability, and control.

On the other hand leaning implies change, questioning, and conflict as stipulated in Wick and Westerly – organisational learning 1996. The term organisational learning was popularized by Peter Senge” leaning organisation the fifth discipline 1990 and David Gavin – building a leaning organisation 1993 among others.

Senge explained a leaning organisation as a place where “… people continuously expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expensive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspirations are set free and where people are continually learning how to learn together” (ULMC Module Pg 2.2) while Senge’s definition is centred on the people within an organisation to be the learning agents, Gavin’s emphasis was centred on the organisation as an entity capable of learning. He defines a learning organization as “… an organisation skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge and at modifying it behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insight. (Ibid 2. 3). As we shall latter see in the analysis this paradox leaves a gap in understanding the concept of learning organisations.

Is it the organisation that learns or it is the individuals within the organisation who are rational beings that can make choices as to their fate within the organisation? According to Senge organisations that are capable of learning from their experiences do better than those organisations that simply adopt to their environments. They take advantage of rapidly changing conditions. Their strategies are sufficiently open ended to allow for the unexpected. So that their capabilities of organisational learning can deal with external rapidly changing situations.

A leaning organisation is an organisation of change as put by Lampel that “a learning organisation undertakes periodic examination of systems, routines, and procedures to examine whether they still perform the needed functions and should be retained. New technology, new knowledge and new practices often allow organisations to redesign routines to make them efficient and effective” Lampel, 2002, 214. Senge’s view on this [position is of emergent disciplines which according to him lead to the innovation of the learning organisation.

in using the term “disciplines” Senge is refereeing simultaneously to ways of understanding and ways of doing. He is referring to bodies of theory, which have developed over time. Accordingly therefore, a discipline is a developments path to greater proficiency. (ULMC, R5). Senge proposes five disciplines or theories which may have developed separately and probably a collective effort of different people. These include, systems thinking, personal masterly, mental models, building a shared vision and team working.