Emma by Jane Austen Essay

Lionel Trilling’s essay on Emma begins with the starling observation that in the case of Jane Austen, â€Å"the opinions which are held of her work are almost as interesting and almost as important to think about, as the work itself† (47). The comment is especially surprising in view of the essay’s origin as an introduction to the Riverside edition of Emma: rather than take readers straight into the novel, Trilling ponders the impossibility of approaching it in simple literary innocence, because of the powerful feeling generated by the name Jane Austen. Almost half a century later, opinions of Austen have multiplied as fresh issues have arisen to divert and divide subsequent generations of readers. Literature Review Austen’s skill in writing lies in her ability to describe the life of her characters and their surroundings in great detail – she is able to write of the world in microcosm. It is a feature of her style that there are few references to people or events outside the village in which her stories are set. This reflects the lifestyle of the day when transport was difficult and communication limited. Austen often writes about marriage and, in particular, the position of women in marriage. Genteel women did not work and they rarely acquired their own money through marriage or inheritance. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was expected that marriage was for life. Austen’s gentle and leisurely style reflects the society she often describes – a society in which walking out for a minor shopping excursion was a major highlight. Austen skillfully uses these events to explore the values of society in a satirical way. There are a number of ways in which Austen communicates with her audience. The majority of her work is written in third-person narrative, with the narrator seeing the story from all perspectives. This is also known as the omniscient narrator. She also reveals her views through the intrusive narrator, or through her characters’ dialogue. At other times her characters will unintentionally condemn themselves through their own dialogue. It is in these situations particularly that the reader experiences some of the best Austen’s satire. The majority of dialogue in Emma comes from the female characters of the text, in particular Emma. This is an important feature of Jane Austen’s style as she is more comfortable with the speech of women than men. The women are the chatterers, full or small talk, while some of the men, especially the hero, Mr Knightley, are people of few words and discuss more serious matters. Modern readers may find many of the attitudes and customs of Emma surprising or, at times, unbelievable. The novel does, however, accurately reflect the nature of English society during the early nineteenth century. Although Austen reflects the values of nineteenth-century. England, she does not always agree with these values. It is her depiction and evaluation of this society that presents us with the subtle satire that is part of her charm and success. The Irony of Emma The American critic Marvin Mudrick followed both Harding and Wilson in his views of Austen as a subversive writer. He argued that irony was her means of defense and discovery and, like Wilson; he found intimation of lesbian desire in Emma’s infatuation with Harriet. Mudrick suggests that Emma is an unpleasant heroine who is incapable of committing herself humanity. He contentiously argues that Emma’s supposed reformation is the ultimate irony of a novel that is steeped in irony (Mudrick 181). The irony of Emma is multiple and ultimate aspect is that there is no happy ending. Emma observes Harriet’s beauty with far more warmth than anyone else, she was so busy in admiring chose soft blue eyes, in talking and listening, and forming all these schemes in the in-between that the evening flew away at a very unusual rate. The irony of Emma is multiple; and its ultimate aspect is that there is no happy ending, easy equilibrium, if we care to project confirmed exploiters like Emma and Churchill into the future of their marriages. â€Å"The influential American critic Lionel Trilling gives a ‘liberal humanist’ reading of Emma which bears some resemblances to Leavis’s moral criticism, albeit in a more relaxed and urbane tone: ‘To prevent the possibility of controlling the personal life, of becoming acquainted with ourselves, of creating a community of â€Å"intelligent love† – this is indeed to make an extraordinary promise and to hold out a rare. ’ Trilling sees the novel as a pastoral ‘idyll’ to be considered apart from the real world, with Mr. Woodhouse and Miss Bates as ‘Holy fools’. But paradoxically, he argues that this most English of novels is touched by national feeling’. Emma’s gravest error is to separate Harriet Smith from Robert Martin, ‘a mistake of nothing less of national import’. Some of Trinlling’s assumptions are distinctive of his age and class (liberal, well-to-do Manhattan intellectual life of the immediate post-war era) – the extract begins with an assumption that many later twentieth-century critics would regard as cringingly sexist – but his good judgment and intelligence as a reader, together with his unbending commitment to the serious importance of literature – shine through† ( 31). The extraordinary thing about Emma is that she has a moral life as a man has a moral life. And she doesn’t have it as a special instance, as an example of a new kind of woman, which is the way George Eliot’s Dorothea Brooke has her moral life, but quite as a matter of course, as a given quality of her nature. Inevitably we are drawn to Emma. But inevitably we hold her to be deeply at fault. Her self-love leads her to be a self-deceiver. She can be unkind. She is a dreadful snob. â€Å"Mark Schorer considers the novel by closely analyzing its verbal and linguistic patterns. He argues that Austen’s language is steeped in metaphors drawn from ‘commerce and property’, and that she depicts a world of ‘peculiarly material values’, which is ironically juxtaposed with her depiction of ‘moral propriety’. Austen’s ‘moral realism’ is concerned with the adjustments made between material and moral values. Emma must drop in the social scale to rise in the moral scale. Schorer’s contention that Emma must be punished and humiliated has been condemned by later feminist critics as representative of the ‘Girl being taught a lesson’ mode of Austenian criticism. †(98) Jane Austen’s Emma, 1816, stands at the head of her achievements, and, even though she herself spoke of Emma as ‘a heroine whom no one but me will much like’, discriminating readers have thought the novel her greatest. Her powers here are at their fullest, her control at its most certain. As with most of her novels, it has a double theme, but in no other has the structure been raised so skillfully upon it. No novel shows more clearly Jane Austen’s power to take the moral measurement of the society with which she was concerned through the range of her characters. The author must, then, choose whether to purchase mystery at the expense of irony. The reliable narrator and the norms of Emma If mere intellectual clarity about Emma were the goal in this work, we should be forced to say that the manipulation of inside views and the extensive commentary of the reliable Knightley are more than is necessary. But for maximum intensity of the comedy and romance, even these are not enough. The ‘author herself’ – not necessarily the real Jane Austen but an implied author, represented in this book by a reliable narrator – heightens the effects by directing our intellectual, moral, and emotional progress. But her most important role is to reinforce both aspects of the double vision that operates throughout the book: our inside view of Emma’s worth and our objective view of her great faults. The real evils of Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself; these were the disadvantages which threatened alloy to her many enjoyments. The danger, however, was at present so unperceived; that they did not by any means rank as misfortunes with her. ’ â€Å"Duckworth’s influential book sets Austen in her historical context. In his chapter ‘Emma and the Dangers of Individualism’, he aligns Emma with that other dangerous innovator Frank Churchill. Duckworth employs binary oppositions of define Austen’s social values: conservative stability (represented by Mr Knightley) is contrasted with radical innovation (represented by Frank Churchill). The ‘open syntax of manners and morals’ is set against the ‘concealment and opacity’ of games† (79). With Churchill’s entrance, Emma is no longer the puppet-mistress of Highbury but instead becomes a marionette in Churchill’s more subtle show. Churchill’s game-playing is not to be dismissed as venial. It is symptomatic of a world in which once given certitudes of conduct is giving way to shifting standards and subjective orderings. â€Å"Marilyn Butler presents Austen as an anti-Jacobin novelist, a propagandist of conservative ideology. Butler’s study showed how the highly politicized decade of the 1790s saw a flood of novels (often by women) that were engaged in the post-revolutionary ‘war of ideas’. Butler sets Austen’s novels firmly in the camp of the anti-feminist, traditionalist ‘domestic’ novels of Mary Brunton and Jane West as opposed to those associated with reformist writers such as Mary Hays and Mary Wollstonecraft. Accordingly to this argument, in Emma Austen shows her preference for rationality and inherited moral systems over imagination and individual choice. Emma is brought to recognition of her social duty† (74). The plot to which the language harmoniously relates is the classic plot of the conservative novel. Essentially, a young protagonist is poised at the outset of life, with two missions to perform: to survey society, distinguishing the true values from the false; and, in the light of this new knowledge of ‘reality’, to school what is selfish, immature, or fallible in her. Where a heroine is concerned rather than a hero, the social range is inevitably narrower, though often the personal moral lessons appear compensatingly more acute. Nevertheless the heroine’s classic task, of choosing a husband, takes her out of any unduly narrow or solipsistic concern with her own happiness. What she is about includes a criticism of what values her class is to live by, the men as well as the women. The novel with a fallible heroine by its nature places more emphasis on the action than the novel with an exemplary heroine. But Emma is an exceptionally active novel. The point is established first of all in the character of the heroine: Emma is healthy, vigorous, and almost aggressive. She is the real ruler of the household at Harfield – in her domestic ascendancy she is unique among Jane Austen’s heroines. She is also the only one who is the natural feminine leader of her whole community. The final irony is that this most verbal of novels at last pronounces words themselves to be suspect. It has been called the first and one of the greatest of psychological novels. If so, it resembles no other, for its attitude to the workings of Emma’s consciousness is steadily critical. Although so much of the action takes place in the inner life, the theme of the novel is skepticism about the qualities that make it up – intuition, imagination, and original insight. Emma matures by submitting her imaginings to common sense, and to the evidence. Her intelligence is certainly not seen as a fault, but her failure to question it is†¦ Easily the most brilliant novel of the period, and one of the most brilliant of all English novels, it masters the subjective insights which help to make the nineteenth-century novel what it is, and denies them validity. Julia Prewitt Brown presents a compelling view of Highbury: far from being static and hierarchical, it more closely resembles a road-map of people, ‘a system of interdependence, a community of people all talking to one another; affecting and changing one another: a collection of relationships’. Brown takes issue with the Marxist critic Arnold Kettle. For Brown, the novel is seen not from the perspective of ‘frozen class division but from a perspective of living change’. Miss Bates is singled out as a crucial member of society in that she links together all the disparate ranks. Social co-operations and community are vital for protecting vulnerable single women. To ensure the harmony of the community of Highbury, ‘the life of the individual must be coordinated internally before it can function externally’ (88). Just as the structure of Emma is not causal, it is also not hierarchical. Were we to draw a picture of the novel, it would not, I believe, bring before the reader the ladder of social and moral being that Graham Hough assigns. It would look more like a road map in which the cites and towns, joined together by countless highways and byroads, stood for people. As the image of a road map suggests, Highbury is a system of interdependence, a community of people all talking to one another, affecting, and changing one another: a collection of relationships. Emma is seen as daughter, sister, sister-in-law, aunt, companion, intimate friend, new acquaintance, patroness, and bride. And each connection lets us see something new in her. Jane Nardin exmines the plight of the genteel, well-educated and accomplished heroine, whose major problem is that she has too much time on her hands. Emma interferes in the lives of others because she is bored, and has no outlet for her imagination. In contrast to Mr Knightley, who involves himself with those around him, Emma leads a life of isolation and even idleness. Marriage is Emma’s salvation because ‘as Knightley’s wife, she will enter his life of activity and involvement’ (22). Emma Woodhouse sees herself as the typical eighteenth-century heroine who uses her leisure to become an admirable, accomplished, exemplary woman, and who never suffers a moment’s ennui for lack of something to do. She plays, she sings, she draws in a variety of styles, she is vain of her literary attainments and general information, she does not the honours of her father’s house with style, and confers charitable favours on a variety of recipients – in her own eyes, in fact, she is a veritable Clarissa. But Emma’s claims to Clarissahood are hollow. Blessed – or cursed – with money, status, a foolish father and a pliant, though intelligent, governess, Emma has earned admiration too easily. A harsh view of Austen’s politics emerges from David Aers, who applies a Marxist analysis to Emma. Austen’s idealization of the agrarian, capitalist Mr Knightley nad her dismissive treatment of the disenfranchised, such as ‘the poor’, the gypsies, and even Jane Fairfax, typify her bourgeois ideology. Emma’s visit to ‘the poor’ in particular is viewed as an indication of Austen’s own capitalist values, though it should be remembered that Emma’s views are not necessarily Jane Austen’s especially as her irony is so often directed against her heroine (36). Yet while Mr Knightley is certainly Jane Austen’s standard of male excellence (without being infallible), she does present him as an agrarian capitalist, not as some kind of pseudo-feudal magnate. He is prospering well, like his capitalist tenant, Robert Martin, and yet despite his relatively modest lifestyle we are told that he has ‘little spare money’.. As a Marxist, James Thompson believes that Ausen’s novels are time-bound and historical and enact the bourgeois ideology of the period. He analyses the complexities and contradictions between the language of (public) social obligation and the ‘feeling’ of (private) individual interiority in Emma. The individual’s sense of ‘alienation’ in capitalist society turns within for ‘true authenticity’. Thompson focuses on Austen’s treatment of marriage in Emma, as a union promising ‘true intimacy’ against the threat of loneliness and solipsism (159). In contrast to Gilbert and Gubar, Claudia Johnson shows how Austen corroborates her faith in the fitness of Emma’s rule. By inviting us to consider the contrast between the rule of Emma and that of Mrs Elton. Austen is able to ‘explore positive versions of female power’: ‘Considering the contrast between Emma and Mrs Elton can enable us to distinguish the use of social position from the abuse of it’. The novel concludes not with an endorsement of patriarchy, but with a marriage between equals. Furthermore, this is shown in the ‘extraordinary’ ending which sees Knightley giving up his own home to share Emma’s and thus giving his ‘blessing to her rule’(43). In stunning contrast with Mansfield Park, where husbands dominate their households with as little judiciousness as decency, in Emma woman does reign alone. Indeed, with the exception of Knightley, all of the people in control are women. In moving to Hartfield, Knightley is sharing her home, and in placing himself within her domain, Knightley gives his blessing to her rule. â€Å"Jane Austen has been seen as a novelist who avoids the physical. John Wiltshire shows the importance of bodies in her text, and Austen’s emphasis on health and illness in Emma. Wiltshire draws upon medical and feminist theories of the body† (54-56). Through its comfortable concern with its denizens’ well-being, the novel poses series of important questions, I suggest, about the nature of health, which are put more insistently through its gallery of sufferers from so-called ‘nervous’ disorders, Not only does Isabella Knightley, as might be expected, complain of ‘those little nervous head-aches and palpitations which I am never entirely free from any where’, but even placid Harrier, even Mrs Weston, let alone Jane Fairfax, suffer from, or complain of these symptoms called ‘nerves’. But the two grand embodiments of the nervous constitution in Emma are Mr Woodhouse and Mrs Churchill and they preside, one way or another, over the novel’s action.

Behavioral Ecology of Bees Essay

Behavioral Ecology of Bees Introduction Abstract   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bees constitute one of the major plant pollinators globally. They experience adaptation for feeding on pollen and nectar. Pollination is as well defined as the process by which pollen grains are transferred between plants in reproduction. The amount of colonies (maintained by beekeepers) has gradually declined due to systematic use of pesticide, urbanization, Varroa mites, and tracheal. However, this has increased the competition of bee keeping for pollination purposes. Pollination refers to process via which transfer of pollen in plants reproduction occurs, thus facilitating sexual reproduction as well as fertilization. Pollination constitutes an essential step in flowering plants reproduction, resulting in a remarkable production of genetically diverse offspring. The general study of in-depth pollination entails various disciplines such as horticulture, botany, ecology, and entomology. Pollination was first viewed by scientists as an int eraction process (in 18th century) between vector and flower. The fact that fruiting is fertilization dependent and is as a result of pollination guarantees the importance of pollination in agriculture as well as horticulture. Pollination can either be abiotic (mediated with no other organisms involved) or biotic (organisms carry the pollen grains from the flower’s anthers to the respective part of the pistil or carpel. Beetles have emerged to be the insects that pollinated the most ancient animal-pollinated flowers; thus the syndrome pertaining insect pollination emerged before the first appearance of bees. However, bees are (specialists) pollination agents with physical and behavioural modifications that facilitate pollination, and are relatively more efficient in performing the task than other pollinating insects such as flies, beetles, pollen wasps, and butterflies. The emergence of these floral specialists has driven the angiosperms’ adaptive radiation, and, conse quently, the bees themselves (Riedl, (Johansen, & Barbour, 2006).Methodology:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   All the details availed by this research has been delicately collected from subject-related articles and in-depth analysis of various case studies.Semisocial and Eusocial bees Bees can either be solitary or live in certain community types such as for instance, the eusocial colonies (common among the bumblebees, stingless bees, and honey bees). Different types of sociality have evolved amongst the bees. In certain species, groups (of cohabiting females) may function and live as sisters; otherwise, labor division in the group guarantees them to be considered Semisocial. However, if, in spite of labor division, the group entails a mother and corresponding daughters, the group is then called eusocial. The mother serves as the â€Å"queen† while the daughters serve as â€Å"workers†. The system is said to be â€Å"primitively eusocial† if these cases are purely behavioural while, on the other hand; the system is â€Å"high ly eusocial† once the cases are found to be morphologically discrete. Nevertheless, the primitively eusocial bees constitute relatively more species as compared to the highly eusocial bees. In most cases, the highly eusocial bees are found to live in colonies with each colony having a single queen and several workers. Bumblebees are found to be eusocial, and the queen is found to initiate a nest singly. Colonies of bumblebees contain 50-200 bees at maximum population, which takes place in the duration mid-to-late summer. Bumblebees constitute one of the vital wild pollinators; however, their population has declined recently. Communal and solitary bees: Most bees are said to be solitary if all the females are fertile and inhabits own constructed nests. Solitary bees are vital pollinators whereby pollen is collected for providing the brood’s food in the nest. They are said to be oligoleges (collect pollen from a few plant species) unlike bumblebees and honey bees which ar e generalists. Monoculture and decline in bee species has made honey bee keepers concentrate on seasonally dynamic pollination areas. Fuzzy bees have an electrostatic charge thus adherence of pollen is facilitated. Bee gathering pollen grains are more efficient pollinators rather than those that gather nectar (Davies, Kreb, and West, 2012).In New Zealand, three general of native bees managed to venture into flower buds of the native mistletoe Peraxilla tetrapetala. Bellbird and Tui are some of the birds that orient the ripe bud top since cannot undergo self-opening. This results in a mechanism that causes spring-opening of the petals thus providing access to the pollen and nectar. The individual efficiency of bees determines their population value. Thus while pollination efficiency of bumblebees is high on cucurbits, the cumulative efficiency of honey bees colony is relatively greater as a result of their greater numbers. Bumblebees and honeybees use their spatial vision and color v ision to sort out tasks such as to recognize rewarding flowers especially during foraging. Cognitive factors are very significant in determining what bees see. With progressed visual experience, honey bees know much in using non-elemental processing, entailing rule learning and configurable mechanisms. Honey bees can as well learn delayed-matching-to-sample tasks, as well as the policies governing this decision-making process; exchange acquired rules between various sensory modalities. Lastly, bees can familiarize with complicated categorization tasks and also processing abilities of displaying numbers up to four (inclusive). A combination of the above evidences suggests that bees possess sophisticated visual behaviors (that fit cognition’s definition); hence simple primary bee vision models should know how various factors influence the results gained from experiments of animal behavior (Wilson, 2004). In regions where introduced honey bees have invaded, the floral resources of several plant species are used exclusively by honey bees, on the other hand, the native bees are endangered. However, native bees visit and pollinate the plant species in the regions where honey bees have not been established. In New Zealand (Heine, 1938; Thomson, 1927; Craig et al., 2000) and Tsamania (Goulson et al., 2003), similar effect has been realized as a result of invasion of honey bees. The predominance of honey bees in New Zealand will have severe plant-pollinator interactions, for instance, variations in order of gene flow in plants, native bees population decrease and boosted reproductive fitness of (invasive) exotic weeds. Pollination disruption by the invaded honey bees evident in plants grown in orchards suggests that removal of pollen by honey bees may lower pollination success in plant species such as ornithophilous plants. In addition to that, if the population of a particular bee species declines due to disease or natural cycles of parasites, a reliable and st able pollination source is provided when native bees fill the left gap. Nevertheless, native pollinators save money since they exhibit less need for imported honey bees’ hives. Sustainable management practices and reduced use of pesticides make organic farms vital participants in pollinator conservation efforts. For instance, since 70% of native bees nest underground, heavy tillage may be essential on farms where bees are needed pollinators. This benefits the growers by decreased need for rental-honey bees, greater farm biodiversity, and improved pollination services. Native bees can be relied upon by organic farmers who care for the chemical inputs (e.g., miticides and antibiotics) which are mostly used in maintenance of managed honey bees. Native bees pollinate crops when sufficient habitat is availed and bee-friendly practices of management are implemented (Kelly, 1998). Conservation of bees can be achieved via: classical biological control; existence of beneficial organis ms’ populations is practiced. Conservation biological control; habitats are provided to encourage populations of resident predatory insects. This reduces the need for pesticides and also provides extra food as well as nest habitat for bees. Resistant varieties; use of crops that are not vulnerable to pest insects reduce the use of pesticides, thus benefit both beneficial insect populations and pollinators. Native plants are the best source of bees’ food, but some garden plants are great sufficient for pollinators. Local native plants’ use; native plants are more attractive (to native bees) than exotic flowers. Choosing a wide variety of flower colors; especially purple, blue, yellow, violet and white attract bees. Diversified plants flowering all seasons; a range of pollinators (bee species), flying at varying times of the year, is supported (Holzschuh et al. 2007; Dramstad & Fry 1995). Pollinators perform several ecological obligations in natural ecosystems (th at they constitute a keystone combination in almost all terrestrial ecosystems), essential for plant reproduction as well as forming the foundation of a food web rich in energy (Kearns et al. 1998). Most bee species nest underground, digging tunnels heading to some brood cells. Honeybees and bumblebees are excluded from this phenomenon since they need a small cavity (e.g., an abandoned rodent nest) for their colony (Thomson & Kearns 2001). Feral honey bees occupy large cavities, e.g., a hollow tree (Raw & O’Toole 1999). In the temperate regions, honey bees manage winter as a colony. Within the cluster, an internal temperature of 95oF is maintained (optimal temperature for wax creation). Honey bees can forage optimally at the air temperature range 72-77oF, mostly because they exhibit physiological and behavioural mechanisms responsible for their flight muscles’ temperature regulation. Bees can be poisoned by insecticides (once they drink tainted nectar, absorb toxins vi a their exoskeleton, or when their pollen-collecting hairs trap insecticidal dusts. Movement or coverage of honey bee hives before application of pesticides cannot protect the wild bees’ scattered populations. However, during the winter season, bumblebee queens seek â€Å"winter safety† in some of the honey bee hives. Most of the bumblebees, hardly tolerate the winter season thus, are found dead as the spring season commences. In addition to that, chemical treatments of honey bees against Varroa mites saved several commercial operations and also improved cultural practices. In regions of mild climate, resistant breeds’ repopulation and Varroa resistance’s natural selection has facilitated the recovery of feral bees’ populations. References Kelly, Dave (1998). Native bees With New Tricks. New Zealand Science Monthly. Wilson, Bee (2004). The Hive: the Story of Honey Bee. London Morelle, Rebecca (2012). Extinct Short-haired Bumblebee returns to UK. Davies, N.R., Krebs, J.R., and West, S.A. (2012). An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology. 4th ed. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Print. pp. 387-388 Riedl, H., E. Johansen, L. Brewer, & J. Barbour (2006). The Potential Conservation Value of Unmoved powerline Strips for Native Bees. Biological Conservation 124:133-148. Source document

Brand equity Essay

How much a product can earn over its identical competitor by virtue of its brand, determines its brand equity. It can be a neat result of many factors like years of experience, proven track record of quality, legacy, emotional bondage and company outlook, where it adds more value to the product and thereby helps the product to score over its identical competitors. Without brand equity a product loses its competitive advantage, and for that matter some companies â€Å"measure brand equity relying on financial measures of brand performance† (Dobney, 2007). Thus Brand India should be able to score over its Asian counterpart. Figure – 3 The brand management chain (Based on Wood, 2000; Kapferer, 2004) Integration of the theoretical constructs brand equity (Aaker, 1996) and brand orientation could be instrumental in the understanding of brand value, where brand equity commands more attention as it aims for generating long-term values for the company by â€Å"understanding the conceptual basis for the value of brand and its implications† (Keller, 1993). Brand loyalty. Brand loyalty refers to the customers’ consistent preference to buy a selected brand in a particular product category, irrespective of other provocative options presented by the competitor of that brand. This situation occurs after the customers make a trial run of the brand and get convinced about the efficacy of that brand towards fulfilling certain needs of theirs and decide to buy that brand again and again. That practice â€Å"forms the habit and thus customers continue purchasing the same brand because the product is safe and familiar† (Giddens, 2002). This situation speaks of the dual responsibility of branding too, where on one hand it should influence the rationality of its prospective customers, while invoking the emotional response among them on the other. As for example, a particular meal in a restaurant might declare about a possible health benefit with the inclusion of tomato in it by saying, â€Å"lycopene in tomato lowers the risk of cancer†, thereby influencing the rationality of the customers, and at the same time it can evoke the nostalgia in customers by labelling the meal as â€Å"grandma’s special recipe†. In this strategy lies the clue of embedding medical/healthcare tourism with general tourism and Incredible India should utilize it. Figure – 4 Brand Awareness: Brand awareness is â€Å"a gauge of marketing effectiveness measured by the ability of a customer to recognize and/or recall a name, image or other mark associated with a particular brand† (Waters, 2008). Though brand awareness cannot measure the customers’ approach towards the brand, yet it is very helpful in forming a positive attitude among the target audience about the brand. Incredible India Campaign should take care of that. Figure – 5 The above diagram shows that recollection or identification ability first created ‘aided awareness in the prospective customers, which might convert into a top-of mind awareness, if the brand convinces customers either with its logistics or direct service. Thus, brand awareness can work on two folds, primarily making its way into the mind of the customer and then working on its way to achieve the recognition, where the brand first generates strategic awareness in customers, where the customers understands the distinctive qualities of the product and associates them with their need. Current campaign strategy of Incredible India lacks that finesse. Brand Value While brand loyalty proves to be a cost-saving yet effective tool to garner higher sales, brand value â€Å"reflects how a product’s name, or company name is perceived by the marketplace† (Free, 2004), which involves both target audience and the general audience. Brand value can be tangible too, in the event of a brand being sold, where extracting the value of the brand from the value provided by other, tangible, resources becomes possible (Simon, C. J. & Sullivan, M. J. , 1993, Conchar, et al, 2005). From this perspective, even the title of the campaign in discussion, Incredible India needs to be reviewed and if needed may be replaced. The name should denote the power and strength of a brand. As for example, â€Å"if Coca-Cola’s facilities Atlanta were to burn overnight, the company would still be able to start up the next day due to its brand value† (What, 1998). Therefore it is the success story of a company that earns its brand value. However, to gauge the impact of brand value, the company needs to take help of empirical research. The process might then looks like below (Persson): Figure – 6 Brand value is the outcome of consistent and successful brand building, where the action of the company would speak louder than words, besides proving its ethical standings in the marketplace. IV. 7. Brand personality Much like a human being, a brand too serves as the ambassador of the company personality, depicting its outlook and aspirations, besides its services and promises. Thus much depends on the carriage of the brand, because it is the coveted message of the company to the outer world about its activities, aims, aspirations and promises – in short, a package of total company outlook. From this angle too, the campaign in discussion needs to be reviewed. Figure – 7 A strong brand does more than it meets the eye, however, its activity should be powered towards achieving the targeted benefit out of it. For that matter, the first step towards creating a strong brand â€Å"is to identify the benefits† (Saarte, 2008). Target benefit would surely help to determine the nature of the branding, which would help the company to identify the necessary elements into branding, such as company image, the USP of its product, type of promises, and desired platforms of bonding and more. Incredible India is yet to create a clear USP to position itself. V. Conclusion/Recommendation The detailed discussion and analysis above clearly shows that Incredible India Campaign falls far too short in achieving its desired outcome and thus needs to be thoroughly reviewed and modified to meet the demand of the time and position India as a strong brand in the global tourism market. Thus this study recommends following steps towards achieving the target of building a strong Brand India in the global market: 1. Incredible India needs to review its name, packaging, price and its history and modify it concerning the current demand. 2. Ensuring that it becomes capable of Delivering the message clearly.   Confirming the credibility of the company. Connectingthe target prospects emotionally. Motivating the buyers.   Concretizing the user loyalty 3. Incredible India has to focus more on emphasizing emotional bond with UK through exploiting the earlier history of close communication. 4. It must study and research other Asian countries pros and cons in this sector to ensure that Brand India should be able to score over them. 5. It should embed medical/healthcare tourism with general tourism to generate brand loyalty. 6. Through constant, consistent, cohesive and cogent campaign, it should create the brand awareness (UK still have a poor awareness, around 30%) 7. Periodic assessment of the campaign is a must to check the brand value. 8. Campaign should get facelift periodically with a central theme of personality. Ends. References Aaker, D. A. (1996) Building Strong Brands. The Free Press, New York. ISBN 0-02- 900151-X Atithi Debo Bhava. (2004) Incredible India [online] available from http://www. incredibleindia. org/newsite/atithidevobhava. htm [accessed 4 September 2008] Bizhelp. (2008) What is Branding? [online] available from http://www. bizhelp24. com/marketing/what-is-branding-. html [accessed 4 September 2008] Brand Definition. (2008) [online] available from http://www. investorwords. com/568/brand. html [accessed 3 September 2008] Brand. (2008) [online] available from http://whatis. techtarget. com/definition/0,,sid9_gci211703,00. html [accessed 4 September 2008] Brandguru Inc. â€Å"What IS Branding? † Viewed 24 March 2008, http://www. brandidentityguru. com/popUps/whatisBranding. html Conchar, M. P. , Crask, M. R. & Zinkhan, G. M. (2005) Market Valuation Models of the Effect of Advertising and Promotional Spending: A Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 33, No. 4, 445-460. Dobney. com. (2007) Brand equity and brand value [online] available from http://www. dobney. com/Research/Brand_equity_research. htm [accessed 4 September 2008] Dolak, D. (2001) Building A Strong Brand: Brands and Branding Basics [online] available from http://www. davedolak. com/articles/dolak4. htm [accessed 5 September 2008] Dunn, S. (2008) What is Branding and Why Do You Want It? [online] available form http://www. ecomhelp. com/KB/Branding/kb_what-is-branding. htm [accessed 5 September 2008] Free Definitions: Define Brand. What is Brand? (2004) [online] available from http://www. learnthat. com/define/view. asp? id=279 [accessed 4 September 2008] Giddens, N. (2002) Brand Loyalty [online] available from http://www. extension. iastate. edu/AgDM/wholefarm/html/c5-54. html [accessed 4 September 2008] Incredible India campaign woos more Americans (2008) The Press Trust of India Ltd [online] available from http://www. accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286- 34809894_ITM [accessed on 4 September 2008] Indian Tourism’s ‘Incredible India’ Campaign (2005) Research paper [online] available from http://www. icmrindia. org/casestudies/catalogue/marketing%20communications/C LMC010. htm ] India’s rise in medical tourism (2007) News [online] available from http://www. timesonline. co. uk/tol/travel/destinations/india/article2257994. ece [accessed 4 September 2008] Kapferer. (1994) Strategic brand management: new approaches to creating and evaluating brand equity. Free Press, New York. Keller, K. L. (1993) Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. Journal of Marketing,Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 1-23. King, T. E. (2007) Incredible India? Campaign has Incredible Budget [online] available from http://www. travelmole. com/stories/1118243. php [accessed 5 September 2008] Lake, L. (2008) What is Branding and How Important is it to Your Marketing Strategy? [online] available from http://marketing. about. com/cs/brandmktg/a/whatisbranding. htm [accessed 4 September 2008] McCall, K. (2003) Marketing Angel [online] available from http://business. mainetoday.com/smallbusiness/mmm/030601. shtml [accessed 5 September 2008] O & M (2003). Incredible India [online] available from http://www. ogilvyindia. com/work/incredibleindia. asp [accessed 5 September 2008] Persson, N. Understanding of the nature and relevance of brand orientation and brand equity in B2B brand management – implications for future research. Ph. D. Thesis [online] available from http://www. nhh. no/Admin/Public/DWSDownload. aspx? File=%2FFiles%2FFiler %2Finstitutter%2Ffor%2Fconferences%2Fnff%2Fpapers%2Fpersson. pdf [accessed 1 September 2008] Saarte, L. A. (2008) Fitting It All Together. EzineArticles. [online] available from http://ezinearticles. com/? Branding—Fitting-It-All-Together&id=1043858 [accessed 1 September 2008] Simon, C. J. & Sullivan, M. J. (1993) The Measurement and determinants of Brand Equity: A Financial Approach. Marketing Science, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 28-52. UK Indian doctor sets shop in Goa for medical tourists (2007) News [online] available from http://www. newkerala. com/topstory-fullnews-14322. html [accessed 4 September 2008] Waters, S. (2008) Brand Awareness [online] available from http://retail. about.com/od/glossary/g/brand_awareness. htm [accessed 1 September 2008] What is the Value of a Brand? [online] available from http://www. csom. umn. edu/Assets/3478. pdf [accessed 31 August 2008] Why Brand Loyalty is Important? [online] available from http://www. brandloyalty- int. com/site. asp? pagina=8 [accessed 1 September 2008] Why India? (2007) Government report [online] available from http://www. medical-tourism-india. com/medical_tourism_india. htm [accessed 5 September 2008] Wood, L. (2000) Brand and brand equity: Definition and management†. Management Decision, Vol. 38, No. 9, pp. 662-669.

The Ottoman Empire golden age Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Ottoman Empire golden age - Research Paper Example The key to this great wealth and power was due to the fact that the Ottoman Empire existed upon the nexus of trade between Asia and Europe. Occupying this important chokepoint, the Ottomans were able to derive a great deal of riches based upon control and management of the trade that forever flowed between East and West. Much like the Byzantines before them, the Ottoman Empire served as a link between Europe and Asia in greatly benefited from the profits of the exchange that was perennially flowing over these geographic boundaries. This era came to be known as the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire. Although there can be many identifications and definitions for the means by which the Ottoman Empire was able to exert such powerful degree of influence, military might, and cultural dynamism, it will be the purpose of this analysis to discuss and analyze the means by which a pervasive in nearly continual process of centralisation can ultimately be understood as the defining force that allo wed the Ottoman Empire to survive and thrive for such a very long period of time. Whereas other, lesser powers, have grown powerful, wealthy, and then almost mysteriously vanished into the annals of history, the Ottoman Empire, through this process of centralization – especially during its Golden Age, was able to oversee and ensure that the continued strength and wealth that such a process had previously been able to integrate was furthered into the future.1 It can and should be noted that the process of centralisation is not a process that can be defined one dimensionally. Rather, the only one dimensional aspect of centralisation refers to the level to which a central figure in power structure oversaw, directed, analyzed, and guided nearly every decision that was made within the state/Empire.2 Accordingly, the multidimensional aspects of what centralisation necessarily implies will be discussed and analyzed as a means of integrating the reader with an understanding of how ce ntralisation was ultimately affected within the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, by identifying the level and extent to which centralisation played with regards to ensuring that the Ottoman Empire remained resilient and strong, the author will further be able to detail particular practices and unique approaches that the Ottoman Empire utilized with regards to dealing with its large, multi-religious, and multiethnic population.3 Whereas one could conceivably argue that centralisation plays an important role within the administration and direction of any empire throughout its history, the role and extent to which centralisation, and the necessity for it, played within the Ottoman Empire during the Golden Age cannot be ignored. By the very nature of empire, it is a system in which territories and peoples that are otherwise not necessarily similar to the conquering power are incorporated into the governing structure. As a function of this incorporation, the Empire is usually made relatively mo re wealthy, more populous, and more secure due to the fact that it has been able to extend its boundaries beyond the regions to which it previously laid claim to. Yet, the fundamental drawback that has been seen by a host of imperial powers within the past is the fact that the creation of a multiethnic, and oftentimes multi religious, empire

Gods Eye View Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Gods Eye View - Essay Example The need to explain religious beliefs and culture of people results in the notion of God’s eye view. In the Iliad, every action of mankind was under the influence of a god. Zeus exerts influence upon a Trojan warrior to wound Melaneus and, thus, to break the truce existing between Greeks and Troy; Poseidon intervenes in the war and protects the Greeks from slaughter (Paley, 35). Homer managed to bring out the religious culture of the Greeks and the names of their gods.An analysis of the subject-object principle is essential in order to effectively describe this concept. An examination of human experience should be done, and a conclusion made on what is subjective and objective (Trigg, 51). The notion of subject-objective principle arises from the knowledge that the world consists of objects which are seen and subjects who are mainly observers. As observers, subjects possess knowledge and they can explain any circumstance facing the community.In the Iliad, Homer plays a subject ive role. He is an observer and, therefore, he gives out an analysis of the roles of the Trojan conflict. The Greeks and the gods are the objects. Home sees them and, thus, analyses their roles in the conflict. In describing this notion, the principles of subject and object need to be put in consideration. The world, as construed in the Iliad, is governed by the gods. The Greek gods were part and parcel of the Greeks’ way of life, and this is portrayed in the Trojan War where gods fought on different sides.

Marketing foundation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Marketing foundation - Assignment Example Besides this, the product will be launched in the consumer market which will have to displayed and presented differently if it were to target the construction companies. The product’s packaging and display will be altered as per the consumers’ requirements. As there is a need for separate shower flooring which does not need to be cleaned every now and then and which does not make moulds in the ground because of water, Reece Company is giving the market a one-time solution for moulds in the shower place. Because of constant contact with water, mould is one of the biggest concerns of the consumers. Therefore, the new shower flooring must be of a premium quality. The tiles must allow easy flow of water and do not let water to accumulate on the floor. The new unique shower floor makes the water flow easier which makes it convenient for cleaning and drying it because of which, the possibility of moulds growing on the floor is minimized to the least level. A cushion layer is placed between the base and the surface which acts as a conductor of heat which prevents the tiles from getting cold. The new shower floor will be available in both small sizes and large sizes with the smallest being a standard of 8 x 10 inches, the medium size of 12 x 12 inches and the largest size of an 12 x 36 inch slab. As the product will be sold directly to the end consumer, all sizes will come in a standard pack of 10 tiles. The new shower will be called SmartSwash. The brand will be promoted in the target segment of 30 – 40 age groups who are most eligible to buy new homes or are receptive to the idea of renovation with the benefits offered by SmartSwash. After the sales, Reece Company’s outlet will arrange for transport for large customers. A supervisor who will guide the workers through with the installation will be sent to every customer. Besides

Art and Fashion - Surrealism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Art and Fashion - Surrealism - Essay Example The essay "Art and Fashion - Surrealism" concerns the surrealism in art and fashion. Schiaparelli together with Salvador Dali engaged in a symbiotic and collaborative partnership, in late 1930s. Schiaparelli’s Innovative surrealist dresses and accessories influenced by Dali’s paintings and sculptures. Schiaparelli experimented with the notion of clothing that dominates the human form, which compelled viewers to confront the primacy of fashion-as-art and the subordination of the female body. Indeed, Schiaparelli did not only transform the fashion industry but also smashed its foundations. Schiaparelli’s attraction to modernism in late 1920s and 1930s mirror in her predominant utilization of accessories, which played a critical function in her collection right from the beginning and she preferred to create a whole ensemble including jewelry, gloves, hats, and shoes. The innovations by Schiaparelli were a considerable liberation for women and attended by the introdu ction of vibrant and strong colors (exuberance and decoration), as well as themes in a collection. Schiaparelli effectively translated dominant Surrealism principles such as, an object never realizing the same function as its name or its image, into imaginative and provocative designs. In so doing, Schiaparelli generated â€Å"hard chic† fashions for unconventional-looking women. Surrealists were self-respecting artists in their own way and their works were at the center of challenging the patriarchal tradition of Surrealism. The female body was a vital tool for women Surrealists to generate a broad and varied expression of their sexuality, which cannot be limited to a single artistic medium. The Surrealists alluded to the notion of female sexuality laden with playfulness and humor.4 The contribution of Elsa Schiaparelli to the Surrealism movement is pertinent and rich as she was able to challenge conventional representations of femininity via playfulness.5 Elsa Schiaparelli was able to overcome the notion of women as objects of male consumption, and transformed the female body into a self-governing entity enriched by elegant sexual display. Elsa Schiaparelli’s designs based on key aspects such as sexuality, gender and fetish demonstrate that she generated garments, which were feminine and functional while at the same time preserving the Surrealist theme of the female anatomy as fetish.6 Discussion Schiaparelli combined the notion of classic design from the Romans and Greeks with the overriding need for freedom of movement. It was in the 1930s, which fashions designs started to be flamboyant as shoulders started to be a critical focus during the decade. During the 1930s, shoulders started to be a critical focus as heavily padded jackets for both men and women started to gain prominence. Schiaparelli can be regarded as a trendsetter in the 1930s and enjoyed a natural sensitivity towards fashion styling. Schiaparelli's legacy remains for her audaci ous improvisations that perfectly fitted with the surrealistic art dominating the period.7 Elsa Schiaparelli is well-known for her iconoclastic bravado and unlimited originality of her work. Schiaparelli contravened topical conventions within the

Wave Theories and Their Applicability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Wave Theories and Their Applicability - Essay Example This disturbance carries the energy and travels through the water from one location to another without or temporarily transporting the water on which the wind acts. It is like transfer of power or energy from one thing to another. The wind exerts the force on water to form the wave to carry its energy. Then where the wind energy comes from It's again recursive. It's not the topic of discussion in this coursework. Very high waves with long overhanging crests. The resulting foam is in great patches and is blown in dense white streaks along the direction of the wind. On the whole, the surface of the sea takes a white appearance. The rolling of the sea becomes heavy and shock like. Visibility is affected. Exceptionally high waves (small and medium sized ships might for a long time be lost to view behind the waves). The sea is completely covered with white patches of foam lying along the direction of the wind. Visibility is affected. After many years of experience and deep observations with water waves lead to the development of different wave theories. And Stokes Wave Theory is the one among them. In this theory Stokes uses the common approach of generation of waves due to the wind. The three major parameters involved in the theory and they are the waves, which are subjected to certain boundary conditions, the equations of motion and the fluid (ideal or perfect or frictionless) on which the wind acts to form the wave. ... The sea is completely covered with white patches of foam lying along the direction of the wind. Visibility is affected. 35 20 12 64-71 Hurricane Air filled with foam and spray. Sea completely white with driving spray. Visibility is very seriously affected. 40 22 WAVE THEORIES After many years of experience and deep observations with water waves lead to the development of different wave theories. And Stokes Wave Theory is the one among them. In this theory Stokes uses the common approach of generation of waves due to the wind. The three major parameters involved in the theory and they are the waves, which are subjected to certain boundary conditions, the equations of motion and the fluid (ideal or perfect or frictionless) on which the wind acts to form the wave. Nowadays there are several variations of Stokes Theory developed using the computer implementations and are called the Extension of the Stokes theory to higher orders. For example, Stokes 2nd order, 3rd order and so on. Dean's (1965) stream function theory is the theory, which uses the stream function in place of the velocity potential to develop it. Dean (1974) did a limited comparison of measured horizontal particle velocity in a wave tank with the tenth-order stream function theory and several o ther theories. Again the variations of the stream function theory developed using different numerical methods by Dalrymple 1974, Chaplin 1980, Reinecker and Fenton 1981. Stokes finite amplitude wave theory is a non-linear shallow-water wave theory and is applicable when the depth to wavelength ratio d/L is greater than about 1/8 or kd > 0.78 or Ur < 79. As waves move into shallow water, portions of the wave travel faster because of amplitude dispersion

Case study in Biomedical Engineering Ethics Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

In Biomedical Engineering Ethics - Case Study Example In the case study there is clear evidence that in that development of the TEHVs Pedia Valve as a start-up company is responding to biomedical engineering obligations. They are employing their research knowledge, skills and capabilities towards enhancement of public welfare in terms of health and safety. Considering the limitations of the current equipment in use such as bioprosthetic valves and Cadaver homograft valves such need for repeated future surgeries as well as inherent risks, the company is striving to increase safety for the patients. There are also the obligations in terms of biomedical engineering and training. They are required to comply with available guidelines in terms legal, governmental, research and ethical responsibilities. There is need to respect rights of subjects, colleagues the science community and entire public. In making the choice between the two options the company has also considered the question of training especially for the doctors and other medical personnel. To this end I think the company has complied significantly and obtained the necessary FDA approvals. There are various ethical and professional considerations applicable to the case study of Pedia Valves which the company has not ignored. A major ethical issue in the case study as has always been when it comes to using modern technology to give life to patients is the question of faith. While Pedia Valve and other likeminded companies undertake research and testing in order to innovatively enhance life, there always voices from the religious community especially who think it is the work of God to give life. There are also the ethical issues of using animals and humans as subjects for researching and testing the technology. The argument from opponents has always been that the rights of subjects are violated. In making of the decision of whether to enter the market with the first or second option, there are important issues of

Assignment about two questions Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

About two questions - Assignment Example s source code integrity must be maintained, there should be no discrimination of any kind to anyone using the software, the software must be distributed with distribution licence, the license must not be tied to a specific product, and finally, the licence must be technology – neutral. Sme of the vailabel open source software include Apache HTTP server, GNOME desktop Environment, GIMP image Editor, Firefox we browser, Android smartphone operating system, MYSQL database, PHP among others. Most of open source software are reliable. The reliability of open source software is due to the fact that all open source software are peer reviewed. This has made open source software to be to be more reliable and robust even in the most stringent conditions. The use of most open source software is safe. Once the initial source code of a particular software has been, the community of open source developers take up the project to review and correct any available bugs. This removes all security holes thus making the software more secure. Also, in cases where a security vulnerability has been identified, it’s quickly fixed by the open source community. Most of the open source software are released free of charge. The only costs that may be incurred include the customization costs and maybe the downloading costs. This makes the acquiring and the use of open source cheaper as compared to closed source software software. The availability of open source software makes it easy for one to evaluate the software. For instance, it can be assessed to determine if it has the expected requirement. For instance, just by evaluating the source code, one is able to determine if the software is secure or it has security holes. Open source software are being faced by overall disadvantage. Most of the open source software are not straightforward to use. Tis attributed to the fact that the developers of the system give less attention in the development of user interface. Nowadays, most

Room division operation managment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Room division operation managment - Assignment Example There has to be a safety policy and safety committee which can give the consultation about health and safety of the organization. The act also stress on free personal protective equipment. But the employees have to make sure that the protective equipments should not be misused. Everybody should take care of self and others responsibly 2. Â   Â   Â  To minimize risk the primary step is to identify all the factors exposed to risk. The room division management has to identify the group of guests or employees who are especially exposed to high risk. Outsiders such as contractor, visitor or just a normal person might also be at risk. That has to be considered as well. Then one has to focus on existing risk control system, even if it is not satisfactory that has to be put into practice. Then evaluation and recording of the probability of an accident occurrence has to be done. Even the worst case should also be taken into account. Stress should be given on situation where the danger is imminent. Then immediately measures and precautions should be taken. Additional risk mitigation controls should be taken in priority. 3. Â   Â   Â  A United Kingdom Act of Parliament, the Data protection act 1998 recognizes the right to privacy as a fundamental right. It is especially applicable in the case of processing personal data. The definition of personal data considers the information that can be used to recognize a living individual. Room division operation rather the hospitality sector itself has the access to a lot of personal data of all the guests. However the freedom of information act 2000 modifies this act. The information about anyone should not be passed to any third party and should be protected from any abuse. Another point is that the website or public information system must not ask for personal data. 4. Â   Â   Â  Maintenance and design is the key tool to increase guest satisfaction. Cleanliness is the first thing that the guests ask from the hotel rooms. The success

Social Class in America Essay Example for Free

Social Class in America Essay Over the course of two hours, the documentary reveals that despite our countrys deeply-held ideals of egalitarianism and fairness, our citizens are in fact subject to sharp class distinctions and often insurmountable inequalities of opportunity. For viewers and students interested in the sociology and culture of the United States, People Like Us provides an entertaining introduction to a controversial topic. It does not offer a Marxian analysis of one groups exploitation of another, nor does it celebrate the virtues of the capitalist system. Rather, this popular history presents an outspoken group of Americans from diverse locales and even more diverse socioeconomic groups: privileged New York WASPS, upwardly mobile African Americans in North Carolina, struggling minimum-wage workers in Ohio, proud Georgia rednecks, blue-collar suburbanites in New Jersey, cliquey Texas highschool students, and more. Through their portraits, People Like Us raises questions about the ways, large and small, in which Americans classify each other, how our inherited social class affects our self-perceptions and our expectations, and how race and other factors complicate an already complex arrangement of social distinctions in our society. Producers Andrew Kolker and Louis Alvarez, who have collaborated on a series of award-winning documentaries on different aspects of American culture since 1979, found People Like Us to be an extremely challenging program to make. Crisscrossing the country to interview hundreds of Americans, they discovered that many of us take our class status for granted, while many others refuse to admit that class differences exist. In making this program, Alvarez and Kolker hope to challenge viewers to rethink their assumptions about class in America and to examine how those assumptions influence their attitudes about their fellow citizens. People Like Us premiered on the Public Broadcasting System and is intended for a general audience. It is also extremely useful for educators who wish to introduce students to basic concepts about social class and bout class distinctions in the United States. People Like Us does not pretend to be the definitive documentary about class in America. But it does aim to be a catalyst for discussion and deeper study about the many different issues of class that affect our country economically, socially, and psychologically. This guide is intended to facilitate that goal. Our suggestions for discussion questions, lesson plans, group projects, theme-based activities, readings, and writing assignments are designed to help viewers explore, in the context of their own experiences and communities, the many thorny issues raised by People Like Us. II. Program Outline People Like Us: Social Class in America is 124 minutes (2:04) in length. While its always best to screen the program in its entirety, it can also be viewed in two separate, hour-long sittings: 1) Parts I and II and 2) Parts III and IV. If class time is limited, you can also show specific short segments to the class. In that case, we recommend that you pre-screen the entire show so that you understand where each segment fits into the whole. Is there a difference between class, status, and lifestyle? 2. Reconsider the question of whether the United States is a classless, egalitarian society. Elicit viewers’ impressions of the range of Americans they saw in the program. Who are the most memorable? Why? What characteristics mark each person as belonging to one social class or another? What were some of their opinions about the class structure of the United States? Were there any statements students strongly agreed/disagreed with? Broaden the discussion: Why do many Americans deny that class distinctions exist in their country? Why do many consider class to be a touchy subject? Why do classes exist anyway? What are the effects of class stratification on Americans? Does growing up in a particular class affect our self-image and our expectations in life? If so, how? 3. Tabulate results of the mini-survey and discuss findings. Ask students to define their terms and explain why they picked a particular social class. (NOTE: since some people may feel uncomfortable about answering this question, participation in this discussion can be voluntary. ) Did they select a particular class because of their parents’ income? Their own lifestyle? Education? Aspirations? Family history? Moral values or religious affiliation? Did they change their minds about their own social rank after seeing People Like Us? If so, how and why? Divide the class into groups. Ask each group to discuss the class structure of their community. Are neighborhoods mixed or segregated by class? Which classes live in which areas and go to which schools? Which groups tend to shop at which stores, worship at which religious centers, belong to which clubs? Does any one group hold the power in local government? Are there any venues where various classes intermingle? Are there any class-based issues the community is currently confronting for example, in housing, job development, or education? 4. Assign a review. Based on their notes, ask students to write a critique, favorable or unfavorable, of People Like Us. What are the programs most important ideas about class in America? Writers should include specific examples of scenes or remarks that were most/least effective in presenting these ideas. Did viewers feel that any one of the classes portrayed was favored over the other? In an introductory essay to his play, Major Barbara, George Bernard Shaw wrote: What a man is depends on his character; but what he does, and what we think of what he does, depends on his circumstances. The characteristics that ruin a man in one class made him eminent in another. Ask students to write their interpretation of this quote. What does Shaw mean? Cite an example of behavior that is considered a virtue in one class and a vice in another. For example, compare the idea of an aggressive real estate developer with an aggressive sanitation worker. Both are in business, but their qualities may be judged differently. Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’ (Washington, DC ; Morgantown, Kentucky) Begins: 01:21. 02 Running Time: 12_ minutes Getting above your raisin is a phrase you hear all the time†¦.. The notion is that you want to change social classes†¦ You try to change social classes, theres this feeling that youre forsaking the family, youre forsaking place, youre forgetting where you came from†¦and heres this real fear that if you leave, that youll become ashamed of where you came from. Dana Felty, an ambitious young woman from a working-class background in rural Kentucky, is pursuing a career as a journalist in Washington, D. C. Despite her success, Felty feels guilty about leaving her class and culture behind. As an Appalachian, shes been taught that moving up the ladder is not as important as allegiance to the community. I think that at the core of a lot of my family, it really felt like I was telling them that I was rejecting them and I was rejecting my home, and everything that had been just the essence of who we were, she says tearfully.

Abortion And The Right To Life Philosophy Essay

Abortion And The Right To Life Philosophy Essay As both Judith Thomson and Don Marquis accept, a fetus is believed to become a living human sometime before birth. While most anti-abortion and pro-choice advocates believe the morality of abortion depends largely on this issue, both Thomson and Marquis believe more moral reasoning must occur to reach a sound conclusion. Don Marquis, arguing against abortion, establishes a fetuss right to life through examining the wrongness behind killing adult humans and relating fetuses to adult humans. Judith Thomson, defending abortion, does note a fetuss right to life, but finds this right not compelling enough to forbid abortions by revealing ones lack of an obligation to provide a fetus with life. While both philosophers search deeper into human rights than the standard arguments for and against abortion do, Judith Thomson presents a more convincing argument defending abortion that exposes holes in Don Marquiss argument by revealing the dependency of fetuses and their need to be given life. To undermine the view that abortion is immoral even in cases involving rape, Thomson first suggests considering a situation where a man wakes up and finds himself kidnapped and in a hospital bed with a famous violinist. In addition to being kidnapped, the man is told that the violinist has a fatal kidney disorder and that his circulatory system was plugged into the circulatory system of the violinist. Lastly, the man is told by the hospital staff that all persons have a right to life, so although the man has a right to what happens to his body, he cannot disconnect himself from the violinist and kill the violinist. Since the man being morally required to remain plugged into the violinist for any period of time seems extremely unreasonable and unlikely, Thomson offers a legitimate challenge to the anti-abortion argument in cases of rape. Additionally, since, although the man was kidnapped, it would certainly not be immoral for the man to detach himself from the violinist, this example also has stronger implications for Thomson. As Thomson argues, the fact that ones right to life most likely does not depend on whether one is the product of rape shows that some other right must exist that either allows or neglects ones right to life. This example introduces Thomsons main defense for abortion by suggesting that merely having the right to life may not necessarily mean that the killing of that person would be immoral. Thomson demonstrates the moral gap between showing ones right to life and then concluding that killing that person is immoral by exploring what the right to life actually entails. Thomson offers two perspectives on the right to life and reveals this gap in each. In the first perspective, Thomson claims the right to life includes having a right to be given at least the bare minimum one needs for continued life (Thomson 55). To disprove this claim, Thomson creates a new situation where the only way to save someone from death would be to have Henry Fonda touch the persons forehead. Since Henry Fonda does not have any moral obligation to touch the persons forehead and save him, though the person does have a right to life, Thomson refutes an assumption important to the anti-abortion argument: that the right to life includes the right to be given life. Thomson proves a similar point in disputing a more narrow definition of the right to life. In disputing that the right to life includes the right not to be killed by anybody, Thomson returns to the violinist example. Using the claim that the violinist has a right not to be killed by anybody since the violinist has a right to life, Thomson concludes that the violinist then has a right against everybody to prevent the man from detaching himself and killing the violinist. Since it seems difficult to find any moral reasoning that obligates the man to remain attached to the violinist, Thomson here offers evidence against a more general claim that happens to underlie almost all arguments against abortion: the claim that right to life guarantees the right not to be killed by anybody. Offering an opposing argument to Judith Thomson, Don Marquis attempts to challenge Thomsons argument by relying on a fetuss right to life. To demonstrate this right and what it means, Marquis evaluates the reasons behind the wrongness of killing adult humans. In conclusion, Marquis claims the wrongness of killing an adult human is the loss of all the activities, projects, and experiences that would have comprised the adults personal life. Marquis shows the validity of this claim by ensuring that this idea supports our natural inclinations, such as that killing is one of the worst crimes and that killing animals is also wrong, and by considering and then discrediting other theories. Although Judith Thomson would seemingly agree with this sound theory regarding the immorality of killing adults, she would certainly find fault with the premises and the ultimate conclusion Marquis draws: that abortion is prima facie an immoral act. To come to this conclusion, Marquis presents the idea that the future of a standard fetus includes a set of experiences, projects, activities, and such which are identical with the futures of adult human being and are identical with the futures of young children (Marquis 31). He continues the reason that is sufficient to explain why it is wrong to kill human beings after the time of birth is a reason that also applies to fetuses, and this leads to his conclusion. As Thomson notes in her article, a key distinction between both the futures and the actual lives of adults and fetuses lies in the fetuss dependence on the mother for its livelihood. As Thomson proves through her violinist example and Henry Fonda example, any persons right to lif e, interpreted by Marquis to mean the right for a human not to have the value of his future taken from him and interpreted by Thomson either to be given the basic means to live or the right not to be killed, does not obligate anyone to provide life to that person according to any of these meanings. Since fetuses are not capable of having any type of livelihood without someone giving them the basic necessities to live, it follows that a mother may morally be allowed to abort her fetus if she does not desire to give the fetus life. While Thomson and Marquis may seemingly agree that ones right to life, regardless of its interpretation, ensures that one has the right to be allowed to live, Thomson proves that this right does not include the right to be given life, which is so essential for a fetus to live. Since Marquis focuses on the right to life of adults, who usually do not need a right to be given life, his argument lacks the distinction Thomson makes between a right to life and a right to be given life. Since Marquiss argument holds that the fetuss right to life obligates the mother to provide her fetus with life, Marquis would seemingly believe the man connected to the violinist in Thomsons example would be equally obligated to provide the violinist with life. Marquis may argue that the relationship between the man and the violinist is different than the relationship between a mother and fetus, but, as Marquis argues in his own work, he would then need to justify how the purely biological characteristics of motherhood is morally relevant. In presenting arguments for and against abortion, Judith Thomson and Don Marquis both acknowledge humans right to life, but ultimately interpret this right differently. While Marquis connects a fetuss possession of the properties that make killing adult humans wrong to abortion being immoral, Thomson focuses on a fetuss dependence on someone else and ones lack of an obligation to provide for others. As Thomson implies, one does not have an obligation to provide for another unless one chooses to, and only after that point is ending the provisions immoral.

The elementary forms of religious life

The elementary forms of religious life The elementary forms of religious life Introduction: Through his critical look at the most primitive religion, his epistemological inquiries into the genesis of thought, and his attempt to theoretically account for the functional and universal nature of all religions, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life has proven to be a seminal work both in the academic study of religion, sociology and social theory. Arguing ultimately that religion is the symbolic expression of society and social experience, Durkheim revolutionized the academic study of religion with his original and insightful approach.[1] I will begin with a brief recap of the argument laid out in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, which will be followed by a discussion of the implications it has on the study of religion. Finally, I will discuss some of the major critiques of his theoretical approach and argument. Argument: Durkheim believes that in order to explain religion, we must identify its most primitive form (3). The fundamental elements which are found in primitive religion are closer and more related to the initial motives that caused religious actions (9). These elements provide the objective content through which we can understand all religions (7). Religion is defined as a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart by prohibitions-beliefs and practices that unite adherents to a single moral community called a church (46). The most elementary form must satisfy this definition. For Durkheim, the two leading conceptions of the most elementary form of religion were animism and naturism. They attempt to explain what causes man to experience the sacred. Animism claims man experiences the sacred because of the misinterpretation of his dreams. This misinterpretation generates the notion of souls that are part of a separate reality (61). Naturism claims man feels a sacred reality because of the extraordinariness of natural phenomena (68). These theories suggest that mans idea of the sacred is a delirious interpretation because there is nothing inherently sacred about man or nature (76). However, it is a basic postulate of sociology that a human institution cannot rest on error or falsehood or it could not endure (4). This means that any conception of an elementary religion must account for the sacred as a real force. Durkheim goes on to assert that there must be a religion even more primitive then animism and naturism which is able to explain where the force of th e sacred actually comes from. This religion is totemism (77). Totemism is most evidently found in primitive Australian tribes. The most important feature of these tribes is their division into clans (88). Each clan has a totem, which is its distinguishing feature. The totem is represented in the form of a plant or animal to which the clan has a special relationship. This totem, which is the identity of the clan, also has a religious character because of its prominent use in religious ceremonies (96). This totem is central to the clan because things are classified as sacred and profane in relation to the totems religious character (96). The negative cult of totemism uses prohibitions and taboos regarding the totem to keep the sacred and profane separate (221). For instance, there are prohibitions on eating the totemic animal except during religious rituals. Also, women and uninitiated are prevented from coming into contact with sacred objects. These prohibitions are necessary because of the contagiousness of the sacred (237). Sacred objects are contagious because they confer sacrality to the things they touch. This suggests that some type of force resides in sacred objects. This force, or mana, was the object of the clans worship, not the animal or plant of the clan (147). The positive cult of totemism uses ritual to put man in organized contact with this sacred force (221). In these rituals clan members gather together in large numbers. This is in contrast to the ordinary and monotonous experience the clan member has in which he exists more or less independently from others. When all the clan members come together their proximity generates a kind of electricity that quickly transports them to an extraordinary degree of exaltation (162). This collective effervescence takes man outside himself to the point that he feels he has been transported into a special world entirely different from the ordinary (164). When he calms down from this excitement he is left to believe that he exists in two completely separate realities: his daily life and his religious life (164). These two realities are essentially the profane and the sacred respectively. To understand how this collective effervescence gets its power we must understand the way in which the categories o f knowledge are constructed by society. For Durkheim, one leading theory of knowledge was empiricism which claims man constructs the categories of knowledge of time, space, genus, cause, number (etc.) exclusively from his individual experience (15). This is not valid because it does not explain how people from the same culture have identical notions of time and space, etc. The second leading theory, apriorism, solves this problem by claiming man inherits the categories of knowledge from a divine reason existing prior to his experience (16). There is no proof this divine reason exists. Moreover, it does not explain why the categories of thought vary within cultures. This implies, for Durkheim, that man gets his categories from society (13). Further evidence suggests this is the basic category of knowledge. Genus, the notion that similar objects belong to the same group, can be modeled from mans experience of his relationship to society. After all, a genus is indeed an ideal yet clearly defined grouping of things with intern al bonds analogous to the bonds of kinship (114). There were as many divisions of space as there were divisions of clans within the tribe (13). In addition, man had a sense the clans were all interdependent and formed a unified whole the tribe. It is this reason why mans classifications represented a complete set of categories through which everything could be accounted. The categories of knowledge are the most basic types of collective representations and are informed by the collection of individual representations. However, when these individual representations are translated into collective representations they take on a new character: going from personal to impersonal. These collective representations outlive the individuals which contributed to them and gain a high degree of depth and complexity. They form a framework for reason that is infinitely richer and more complex then that of the individual and goes beyond the range of empirical knowledge (18). These categories establish the reality of society that is sui generis, or completely unique. Man is unable to think without using the concepts he inherits from his society. This means man naturally transcends himself when he thinks and when he acts. He elevates himself beyond his individual experience and into the collective reality of society. When man feels the sacred from the collective effervescence it is this social reality he experiences. It is his feeling of being part of something greater than himself. When man feels this force he is unable to attribute a concrete cause, so he represents it externally through objects which he considers sacred. These sacred objects are at the heart of religion and ultimately express society. Implications and Critique: Essential to Durkheims theory is the dichotomy between the sacred and profane and how the practices relating to his religious categories effect the social world. Of further importance is his argument that (contrary to other theories of religion that argue it being centered around magic, superstition or a philosophical error) religion is a real social fact. As such, he argues: Our entire study rests upon the postulate: that this unanimous feeling of believers across time cannot be purely illusory we admit that these religious beliefs rest upon a specific experience whose demonstrative value is, in one sense, not one bit inferior to that of scientific experiments, though different from them (312). In regards to the elementary religion Durkheim studies, he concludes that it is the religious activity that allows individuals within the tribe to understand themselves as collective. Further, it is the religious activity that serves to symbolize the social order with the totemic figure as an objective representation of their own society. Through the conscious repetition of various myths and rituals, a real sense of social unity and collective sentiments for tribal members was fostered (through the collective effervescence). This, in turn, works to strengthen and continually reestablish the social connections within the group. As an institution, understanding religion as having the authority to both command and garner compliance and awe is a unique concept in and of itself. Understanding religion as the symbolic expression of society is an original and path-breaking idea that has deeply influenced several academic fields and the direction of scholarly thought. As religion is a social fact, the objective entity behind religious symbolism and ritual can thus be understood as society (and not God). While I will return to this point, one must note that this idea would be intensely controversial for the religionist, as it implies that the individual participating in rituals is (at the very root) mistaken with regards to the objective phenomenon he is worshiping. When considering what Durkheim has done for the theoretical approach to defining and explaining religion, we can see his original approach to the social nature of religion as most telling. Before Durkheim, theoretical approaches to religion mainly focused on the individual and his understanding and philosophy of life or the interpretation of his reality (such as that of Otto, James or other phenomenologists). Durkheims work further shed light on the social role religion plays in organizing societies. By claiming that religions (a)ll are true in their own fashion and all answer though in different ways to the given condition of human existence Durkheim steered clear of questions of absolute truth (and theistic definition) which is ultimately beneficial for those interested in the comparative study of religion. While Durkheims theory has been one of the most influential in the study of religion, it has been susceptible to various criticisms. For instance, while he worked to counteract previous theories and positivistic approaches to religion, one can see such elements in his own definition. If Durkheim is indeed right, then the individual participants in rituals and religious ceremonies are mistaken, since the actual object of worship is something other than they are aware of. If we listen to Durkheim, we must believe that his scientific methods (and his particular methodology/theoretical approach) is on a higher plan with regards to accuracy, as it his methods which clarify the actual object of worship for the believer. Thus, the main theory of Durkheim has been attacked by those who believe he is reducing religion to something other than it is by claiming that it is the symbolic expression of society. This criticism inevitably leads to ones that are aimed at attacking Durkheims neglect for the subjective value of religious experience. In Durkheims theoretical view, the individual subjective experiences with sacred reality is only important with regards to its social utility (with respect to the feelings the collective effervescence engenders). This type of approach is in direct opposition to a theorist like Otto or James. With regards to his evidence for the most primitive form of religion (and his general belief that one could understand a complex phenomenon by finding and examining the phenomenon in its simplest form) is also quite questionable. As illustrated by the analyses of Clifford Geertz, one must note that it is difficult enough to interpret ethnographic findings when one is deeply immersed in the society. Since Durkheim himself did not participate in the ethnographic study (and never actually witnessed the culture), suspicious immediately rises (particularly as his argument hinges on the material). In The Interpretation of Cultures, Geertz states: The notion that one can find the essence of national societies, civilizations, great religions, or whatever summed up and simplified in so-called typical small towns and villages is palpable nonsense. What one finds in small towns and villages is (alas) small-town or village life. If localized, microscopic studies were really dependent for their greater relevance upon such a premise -that they captured the great world in the little- they wouldnt have any relevance (Geertz, 1973). The representations of religion can be seen as collective representations expressing a collective reality. Durkheimian thought points to the social nature of religion. While there are some criticisms, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life has proven to be immensely influential, both with regards to the theory of religion as well as a variety of other fields. In Geertzian terminology, then, one can see that Durkheim may be imposing his own contextual period (culture, history, scientific method) wrongly. How is Durkheim interpreting this evidence and is he correcting them with regards to his more advanced worldview? Conclusion: [1] If religion generated everything that is essential in society, this is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.

The Lies My Teacher Told Me and People’s History of the United States E

There is a logical saying in society one should take to heart; that line being, â€Å"Don’t believe everything you read.† Just because a text is written and published does not means it is always accurate. Historical facts, similar to words whispered in the child’s game, â€Å"telephone,† are easily transformed into different facts, either adding or subtracting certain details from the story. James Loewen, in The Lies My Teacher Told Me, reveals how much history has been changed by textbook writes so that students studying the textbooks can understand and connect to the information. In Howard Zinn’s, People’s History of the United States, the author recounts historical tales through the point of view of the common people. Mainstream media, as proven by Loewen and Zinn, often pollutes and dilutes history to make the information sound better and more easily understood for the society. First of all, the accounts of Zinn and Loewen are quite different that what textbooks and mainstream media tell children. As mentioned previously, Zinn’s People’s History of the United States conveys the narrative of the travels of Columbus and the beginnings of slavery and racism through the eyes of the common or native people. This point of view enlightens the reader, who most likely believes that Columbus was a good and benevolent American hero, to that fact that Columbus â€Å"sailed the ocean blue† out of greedy and self-glorification. In reality, Columbus caused pain, suffering, and death because of his greedy; he captured natives for their ability to perform hard labor and information on where to find riches, primarily gold (Zinn, Ch. 1). The heroic adventures, as portrayed in society, melt down to be the acts of a greedy man who sought glory for himself b... ... and food we had an equal share† (Ch. 4, A3). White servants, although for the most part did receive all the aspects of the portion of the contract referring to time in service, they received the bare minimum of the necessities. Clearly then, one can see the necessity to read/see more then one perspective on historical events is crucial. One cannot rely on one description alone because the information may or may not be the complete truth. The author may leave out, embellish, or be uninformed of certain details, which leaves the reader at a disadvantage is he/ reads only one passage. Works Cited Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. Second. New York, New York: Touchstone, 1997. Print. Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United State. Fifth. New York, New York: Harper Collins, 2010. Print.

The Speeches of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments, Solitude of Self, and Home Life :: the women’s movement

The Speeches of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, â€Å"Declaration of Sentiments†, â€Å"Solitude of Self†, and â€Å" Home Life† Not long ago, in the nineteenth century, the words that our forefathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence, â€Å"that all men were created equal,† held little value. Human equality was far from a reality. If you were not born a white male, then that phrase did not apply to you. During this period many great leaders and reformers emerged, fighting both for the rights of African Americans and for the rights of women. One of these great leaders was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton dedicated her entire life to the women’s movement, despite the opposition she received, from both her family and friends. In the course of this paper, I will be taking a critical look at three of Stanton’s most acclaimed speeches â€Å"Declaration of Sentiments†, â€Å"Solitude of Self†, and â€Å" Home Life†, and develop a claim that the rhetoric in these speeches was an effective tool in advancing the movement as a whole. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born November 12, 1815, in Johnstown, New York. She was born unto a conservative, Presbyterian family of considerable social standing. Her father, Judge Daniel Cady, was considered to be both a wealthy landowner and a prominent citizen with great political status (Banner 3). Stanton was one of seven children, 6 of which were girls, to be born to Daniel and Margaret. Growing up in the period that she did, Elizabeth was very fortunate to receive the outstanding education that she did since it was not as important to educate daughters as it was sons. She overcame that boundary when she began attending Johnstown Academy. She was the only girl in most of her classes, which was unheard of in those days. Even when females did attend schools, they were learning about â€Å"womanly† things, like how to run a household, not advanced math and science courses, like she was in. She then went on to further her education at a very prominent educational institu tion, Emma Willard’s Troy Seminary. After that she studied law with her father, who was a New York Supreme Court Judge. It is through this training that her awareness was raised about the discrimination that women were subjected to. In 1840, Elizabeth married an abolitionist organizer named Henry Stanton, much to her family’s dismay.

Basic Algebraic Properties of Real Numbers

Basic Algebraic Properties of Real Numbers The numbers used to measure real-world quantities such as length, area, volume, speed, electrical charges, probability of rain, room temperature, gross national products, growth rates, and so forth, are called real numbers. They include such number as , , , , , , , and . The basic algebraic properties of the real numbers can be expressed in terms of the two fundamental operations of addition and multiplication. Basic Algebraic Properties: Let and denotes real numbers. (1) The Commutative Properties (a) (b)The commutative properties says that the order in which we either add or multiplication real number doesn’t matter. (2) The Associative Properties (a) (b) The associative properties tells us that the way real numbers are grouped when they are either added or multiplied doesn’t matter. Because of the associative properties, expressions such as and makes sense without parentheses. (3) The Distributive Properties (a) (b) The dist ributive properties can be used to expand a product into a sum, such as or the other way around, to rewrite a sum as product: (4) The Identity Properties (a) (b)We call the additive identity and the multiplicative identity for the real numbers. (5) The Inverse Properties (a) For each real number , there is real number , called the additive inverse of , such that (b) For each real number , there is a real number , called the multiplicative inverse of , such that Although the additive inverse of , namely , is usually called the negative of , you must be careful because isn’t necessarily a negative number. For instance, if , then . Notice that the multiplicative inverse is assumed to exist if . The real number is also called the reciprocal of and is often written as .Example: State one basic algebraic property of the real numbers to justify each statement: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) If , then Solution: (a) Commutative Property for addition (b) Associative Property for addition (c) Commutative Property for multiplication (d) Distributive Property (e) Additive Inverse Property (f) Multiplicative Identity Property (g) Multiplicative Inverse Property Many of the important properties of the real numbers can be derived as results of the basic properties, although we shall not do so here. Among the more important derived properties are the following. (6) The Cancellation Properties: a) If then, (b) If and , then (7) The Zero-Factor Properties: (a) (b) If , then or (or both) (8) Properties of Negation: (a) (b) (c) (d) Subtraction and Division: Let and be real numbers, (a) The difference is defined by (b) The quotient or ratio or is defined only if . If , then by definition It may be noted that Division by zero is not allowed. When is written in the form , it is called a fraction with numerator and denominator . Although the denominator can’t be zero, there’s nothing wrong with having a zero in the numerator. In fact, if , (9) The Negative of a Fract ion: If , then