Cultural Awarenesss for the country of Germany Essay - 1

Cultural Awarenesss for the country of Germany - Essay Example However, practices such as the shaking of hands, mode of dressing, feeding habits and religious practices represent cultural practices. Consequently, these practices are not inborn; thus, they have to be developed based on various influences upon a person’s life. Culture is Social. This represents another characteristic of culture. It implies that culture cannot be isolated or individualized (Levine 6). Thus, culture is a collective and societal affair that involves socializing and interacting with different sets of people and communities. As a result, such interaction may result in the emergence of new cultural practices; thus, reinforcing the fact that culture is learnt and not inherited. Moreover, in regards to the sociological context, culture has to be shared. Hence, the beliefs, values and morals are shared by a group of people. Culture is Transient. This refers to the fact that culture has always been transferred from one generation to another. Accordingly, this can be achieved through various processes. For instance, children are able to learn numerous cultural traits from their parents through imitation (Philpott 206). This explains why those children who are brought up in abusive families often end up leading similar lives in their adulthood. Consequently, other modes of transmission of culture include use of language, poetry, literature and various forms of art. Culture is Continuous and Cumulative. This is owed to the fact that culture exists in a progressive state. Consequently, this phenomenon of culture changing with time contributes to its cumulative nature (Philpott 206). This is owed to the fact that human beings have the tendency to discover new inventions with the lapsing of time. Consequently, this results in the development of new cultural skills and knowledge; thus, creating a cumulative cultural process. For instance, during its

Utility and Demand Theory Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Utility and Demand Theory - Term Paper Example   Marginal utility is an important concept when analysing the demand theory, marginal utility refers to the additional utility derived from the consumption of one extra unit of a good.  Ã‚  From the above chart and table it is evident that total utility increases but at a decreasing rate, this is because there is a decline in the marginal utility or the additional utility gained from the consumption of one extra unit of a good.The utility theory is based on a number of assumptions and they include the following: I. Consumers aim at maximising their utility level. Consumers will prefer more of a good than less. When we have good Y and X the consumer will prefer X to Y or Y to X.IV. If the consumer prefers Y to X, and that he or she prefers X to K then the customer prefers Y to K.V. The consumers experience diminishing marginal utility when the number of units of a good increases  The number of units of goods consumed will be determined by the level of income, the level of income will determine the maximum number of units that can be purchased and therefore this aids in the development of a budget line. The opportunity cost will also determine the number of units consumed of a good, and finally, the number of units consumed will be determined by the level of utility derived. (Neumann, J, 2000)Given two goods Y and X and given that the price of X = 10 and price of Y = 15, also given that the level of income is 150 then the budget line will be determined as follows.

How does the Islamic religion influence Islamic law Essay

How does the Islamic religion influence Islamic law - Essay Example From the birth to the death, the Muslims across the globe hear the holy sounds of Quran. The holy Quran is regarded as the guide for the lives of all the Muslims across the globe. All Islamic principles and ethics are embedded in it. The finer aspects of Islam and the Islamic Law are ingrained in the holy Quran. The spread of the Islam in this world has been phenomenal. Starting from the cities of the Makkah and Madinah in the Arabian world, the message of the Islam spread at lightning speed. Within 100 years since the death of the Prophet Mohamed, the messages of Islam spread to three continents of the world. In the Western world, the ordinary believe is that that region of Islam has spread at electrifying pace through bloody wars. But this is not true. The sheer appeal of the new Islam religion enticed people to believe in Islamism. The unflinching belief in the existence of One God and the strong emphasis and trust upon His divinity led to large numbers of people embracing Islam. Another important feature of the Islam was that it never adopted the policy to forcefully covert people to Islamism. Even in the modern times, in many Muslim dominated areas in the world, the people of other religions like the Jews and the Christians continued to follow their own religious ideologies.2. Whatsoever, the Islams spread at a rapid pace. The Turks accepted Islamism peacefully. Besides this, many Malay-speaking people and many people in the Indian subcontinent embraced Islamism. Even in many countries in the African and the South American continent, which were under the powerful colonial rulers of the Europe, the Islamism continued to flourish3. It is estimated that the Muslim population throughout the world is in the range 0.7 to 1.8 billion. Nearly one-fourth of the people in the world are adherents of Islam whereas 33% of the world population follows Christianity—by far the largest religion in the world. Given the rising number of followers of Islam, it is estim ated that Muslim will be the largest religion in the world by the middle of the twenty first century4. Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nigeria are the most populous Muslim nations. Of the total Muslims in the world, 25% live in the Middle East. In the US, around 6 million people are Muslims5. Living in a multicultural society brings together people from all religious practices, cultures and religions. The impact of law is seen by the different behaviors of people and the consequences they face for their actions. For instance the controversies surrounding headscarves worn by students in Turkish educational institutions and death sentence imparted to women owing to illegal sexual liaisons raise questions in our mind with respect to the origin of such measures or consequences. For the Islamic countries adherence to the Islamic law is important for the social progress in these nations. The administrations are compelled to encounter a disaster of identity and finds its politic al legitimacy challenged such that they will have to alter the principles and the legal structure within the Islamic frame6. The government feels the pressure of incorporating tenets of the Islamic law into the system and therefore some Muslims recommend the realization of the Sharia or the â€Å"Islamization of prevalent law†. The term ‘sharia’ is an Arabic phrase for ‘track’ or ‘road’. â€Å"The term itself actually derives from the noun ‘shara’a’, which reflects the idea of ‘a system of divine law’†7. Susie Steiner (2002), the author of the article ‘

Strategic Plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Strategic Plan - Research Paper Example However, a good amount of investment can increase the profitability and revenues from the company products. It is a very old company in the processed food market that is the reason due to which people are used to buy their products as in their daily use groceries. The possible risks to the company and its products which is due to the unavailability and lack in marketing strategies are highlighted in the report. In addition, the suggested recommendations and contingency plans will help investors to understand the opportunities, possible solution plans and implementation strategies. Need to hire more employees for promotional activities and requirement for more budget investment is highlighted in this report. However, the maximum revenue generation and profit maximization opportunities are visible in this report for investors. It is because the B&G foods Company already have a good brand image and people are found of using its products. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the current strategies of the B&G Foods Inc. and suggest improvement in their strategic planning. It will help to propose investors to invest in the project to maximize the sales and profits. In addition, by providing the details about the current strategies, company background and other details of the strategic plan of the company, it will be easy to attract the investors about the trustworthiness of the B&G Company. The focus for strategic planning will remain on the recommendations to the board or venture of the capital firm to obtain approval for funding of the suggested plan. The selected company from Russell 2000 Index is B&G Foods, Inc. It is the distributor, manufacturer and seller of shelf-stable food products and household products in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. The Bloch and Guggenheimer founded B&G in 1996, and it is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. B&G grew its business by building large retail and food service within the

Arguments upon the American dream Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Arguments upon the American dream - Essay Example As stated by renowned American author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, in the novel ‘The Great Gatsby’, the American dream is the pursuit of happiness. Every American man has been trying his best in order to do better and earn more by getting a better job. In the novel, the protagonists, or the members of the family try their best to achieve as many possessions as they can as well as acquire wealth and make something of themselves. They each have a dream of their own and try their level best to achieve the status of a rich person. In the modern day and age as well, most Americans share the same dream and have tried their best to climb up on the wealth ladder in order to be able to have a higher purchasing power so that they can earn a higher status for themselves in society and be able to demand for more products. (The American Dream - F. Scott Fitzgerald) However, this very dream has been denounced according to the American people, commonly known as the Whites, because of the influx of a large population that has been setting and establishing itself within America, for a very long time. The Whites feel prejudice within their hearts against immigrants for the sole reason that they feel that the other people have been taking their jobs away and have thus, in the process, taken away their ‘American dream’. Because of this, the Whites are not being able to fulfil their desires due to the shortage of jobs and employment opportunities as well as seats in educational institutions, schools and colleges. The White race within the confines of the United States has also been shifting over the years because of migrations by people from different countries, belonging to different races. According to a number of reports, over the years, the shift has been so much that half of America consists of the Whites now and the rest of it consis ts of people belonging to other races, mostly the Blacks and the Browns. (Government Census) A race is a line of people measured on the basis of their skin colour; there are a number of people that are ‘racists’ or those that discriminate on the basis of a person’s skin colour and do not offer him jobs or educational opportunities because of the same reason. For a long time, White people have been known to be racists because there has been a history of them discriminating against people belonging to other races. Today in America people belonging to other races have been facing this problem very harshly and are finding it difficult to survive there. The Whites simply mention that they are forced to take these steps in order for them to be able to retain their jobs and other opportunities and not have everything being given away to other people. Being racist is a bad thing because discrimination on any ground is not a civil action to carry out. However, for the mos t part, there is a certain amount that the country might lose out on by losing a White majority because a vast amount of industrialization has been brought about by the Whites. They have been able to contribute a great amount to the world of modern information and technology with the help of the advent of the internet as well as other global communication facilities. They have set the bar for the

Descartes Meditation Essay Example for Free

Descartes Meditation Essay 1. If Descartes’s aim is to find certainty, why does he proceed by doubting as many things as he can? He feels that as long as he goes on believing his old beliefs, laziness and habit will block him from receiving any truths. He feels that if he regards his beliefs in the same way as he does any falsehoods he can remain unbiased when judging information and only then will he receive real truths. 2. What reason does he give for doubting that the senses give knowledge? That a man asleep can have a realistic dream that he is having the same experiences as a man thats awake. 3. What does the experience of â€Å"dreams† show us concerning the senses? He talks about how real dreams appear even though they are proven to be deceiving. And if one can be deceived in a dream by all of their senses can they not also be deceived in reality by some supernatural demon. He says hypothetically that God may not have created earth, shapes, etc. and everything that we sense could be a form of deception. 4. Why can he doubt even that 2=3 = 5. He talks about the fact that he sometimes doubt others who claim to have the most perfect knowledge. And if that can be the case for them cant it also be possible for him to be wrong about â€Å"obvious† truths. Also, if one may feel that if Gods goodness would stop him from being deceived SOME of the time, wouldnt it stop him from being deceived ALL of the time since he is clearly deceived some of the time. Basically he is acknowledging the fact that he could be wrong.

Marxs critique of classical political economy

Marxs critique of classical political economy Classical political economy was a concept that dominated social thought within the nineteenth century; the development of such a period constituted a decisive stage within the attempt to understand the economic framework that essentially became relied upon for defining the basis of society. However Marx considered that the basis of the political economy ignored the prevalent relationship between elements of human alienation and exploitation that he argued derived from the inequalities caused by the condition of the capitalist political economy. When considering this further, Marx therefore relied upon an essential critique of the political economy in light of not only the previously mentioned relationship but similarly numerous other influential dynamics within the economy, as a consequence Marx continued to establish his critique of the economic system throughout his works in an attempt to ascertain true communism as a positive expression for the basis of society. The main concern when considering classical political economy is the regard of society as being a composition of various classes that functioned on the basis of economic purpose. Marx however recognised that in reality the theories surrounding classical political economy were unable to understand the significance of the economic purpose of the working class and the experienced struggle that consequently rooted itself within society. Marx therefore argued that the failure of classical political economy to separate human nature from the superficial construct of the economic class system possessed a dominant influence upon the ignorance of the proletarian class and the consequent focus upon the bourgeois class prevalent within society. Marx witnessed the inhumanity and irrationality surrounding human life and criticised it profusely in that the accepted capitalist economic system prevalent at the time considered it to be a natural occurrence with the progression of the economic system. As a consequence, Marx posited a class struggle between the proletarian and bourgeois economic classes, a struggle inherent and therefore inevitable within the capitalist, industrial society. With the increasing development of capitalism, class struggles became generalised across the economic system, Marxs critique consequently deemed class struggle as originating in the process of production and he therefore continued to argue that the conflict prevalent derives from the class antagonism of labour power. As a consequence of the class struggle the proletarian economic class were inevitably forced to sell their labour to achieve capital to survive and as a consequence Marx criticised that the capitalists had every intention of exploiting the labourers for maximum effectiveness within the production process, Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks. (Marx: 1990: 257). To theorise how the aforementioned exploitation became the routine within classical political economy Marx criticised how capitalism employed a standard, recognised framework by which the bourgeois minority monopolised the labouring majority in order to gain the most efficient means of production. When considering the previous criticisms of exploitation the influence upon human nature must also be recognised; it can be philosophised that Marx recognised that humans are fundamentally natural producers as he defined labour as mans self-confirm ing essence (Marx: 1833) and Marx therefore implemented a critique towards the evident distortion capitalism roots within human nature. It could be argued that the evident exploitation alienates the labourer from not only the act of production but similarly distances them from the products of their labour and as a consequence it has been argued that the alienation present becomes a process in which humanity progressively transforms into a stranger in a world created by labour (Swingewood: 2000). Furthermore, Marx continued to route his critique of the classical political economy within the establishment and understanding of the capitalist division of labour and its consequent exploitation and oppression of the proletarian economic class. Marx recognised that the division of labour within the economy succeeded in the efficient formation of profit and value and essentially agreed with Smith in that labour was the only real resource that constituted a productive economy yet his fundamental criticism was based upon the consequent exploitation of the labourer and their constant struggle within the economic system. Marx recognised within Smiths understanding of the political economy that he initially instigated an analysis of the capitalist mode of production. However, Marx continued to characterise that Smith in fact pays no concern to the operation of the inner foundations of the economic system and instead criticises Smith for merely recognising the immediate external and super ficial extraction of the benefits resulting from the successful implementation of the capitalist mode of production. When considering Smiths perspective further it becomes immediately evident that he accepted the proletarian struggle deriving from the economic division of labour as inconsequential and therefore argued that the exploitation was in fact the most successful method of capitalist production, consequently it could be argued that Smith degraded labourers to an abstract commodity within the production process as opposed to a living being. Furthermore, Marx criticised that Smith accepted that the desirability of the high productivity rate within his theory of the division of labour outweighed the evident exploitative costs, Political economy regards the proletarian like a horse, he must receive enough to enable him to work. It does not consider him, during the time when he is not working, as a human being (Marx: 1969), the consequent exploitation of the value of the labourer s contribution represented a qualitative increase in productivity within the production process and therefore an increase in profit for the bourgeois economic class regardless of the abhorrent conditions under which labourers are forced to work. It is therefore apparent as to Marxs justification behind his critique; Marx argued that Smiths dominantly capitalist perspective failed to initially recognise and therefore appreciate the standard of conditions that the proletarian labourers are forced to accept as adequate. Within the prevalence of the capitalist mode of production it can be considered that another fundamental element concerning the political economy is the recognition of the influence that the division of labour possesses upon the economic system. As a consequence of this, Ricardo proposed the Labour Theory of Value in an attempt to further understand the influence of labour value upon capitalist production techniques. The aforementioned theory proposes that the recognised value of goods is directly proportional to the extent of labour required throughout production. However, it is argued that Marx criticised that Ricardos thesis was essentially incomplete when considering the capitalist political economy as it disregards the exploitive nature of the income distribution between the bourgeois and the proletariat economic classes. Marx continued to criticise the capitalist mode of production as he connotes that the exchange value of goods was in fact deserved by the worker as opposed to the autocratic rule of the capitalist, however, as a consequence Marx proposed the concept of surplus value as a critique of the capitalist political economy. For Marx, the dominant increase in productivity resulted from the competitive and exploitive nature of the capitalists strife to obtain the maximum surplus value, or profit, possible from goods; it could therefore be argued that the surplus value obtained derives from the essentially unpaid labour appropriated by the capitalists within political economy. When considering the presentation of the aforementioned critique philosophised by Marx, his attempt to provide a solution for the criticisms of the political economy must also be examined. It could be argued that throughout his entire critique his desire to ascertain a sense of true communism within society evidently underpinned his justification behind his arguments. Marx essentially fought for the recognition of labour as an important factor within the capitalist production process; he proposed that through the implementation of true communism society could achieve and withhold a beneficial economic system Communism deprives no man of the ability to appropriate the fruits of his labour. The only thing it deprives him of is the ability to enslave others by means of such appropriations. (Marx: 2002) Marx continued to portray how communism would in turn regard the importance of the whole of society as opposed to the bourgeois minority. He consequently urged for the removal of the ineq ualities he continually criticised throughout the political economy and continued to justify such criticisms through arguing that the complete abolition of private property would equate to the removal of inequalities and eventually the elimination of the class struggle. Furthermore, it must be recognised that the political economy was premised upon the notion of private property and material ownership and when considering this further Marx argued that private property wasnt an explanation captured within the essence of human nature but rather a superficially constructed consequence of the political economies regard for the stratification of the economic class system. Ultimately, Marx argued for the free expression of everyone within society and the consequent desirability that rooted itself within his argument for communism as it was reliant upon the recognition of human freedom within the production process. In conclusion it is evident that the basis for Marxs critique of political economy is reliant upon the implications of the negative relationship established between the abstract regard of labour and the consequent human alienation present within the capitalist economic structure. Such critique continued through to his perspective of Smith and Ricardo and the apparent recognition Marx felt toward the evident disregard for the proletarian economic class. Ultimately it has been argued that Marxs desire for true communism, particularly when concerning the freedom of human nature, has established that the dominant criticism throughout the evaluation of classical political economy is the concept of the exploitive nature of the capitalist mode of production and the implications for inequalities that are established within society as a consequence of such a struggle.