12 Angry Men Characters/Props/Literature Terms Flashcard

12 Angry Men Characters/Props/Literature Terms

Why We Needed to Invade Iraq essays

Why We Needed to Invade Iraq essays Invasion of Iraq is not just to satisfy the selfish quest of getting a tight grip over one of the biggest supplier of one of the most important commodity the oil. America invaded Iraq not also because it just wanted to acquire the area and use it as one of the US territories. The fact is USA felt compelled to invade Iraq for humanitarian purposes. "Our generational commitment to the advance of freedom, especially in the Middle East, is now being tested and honored in Iraq. That country is a vital front in the war on terror, which is why the terrorists have chosen to make a stand there. Our men and women in uniform are fighting terrorists in Iraq, so we do not have to face them here at home...President George W. Bush State of the Union address, quoted in Kurdish Life, 2005 It is already known fact that Saddam Hussein had been leading Iraq for the longest time, one could ever imagine. His form and style of governance had triggered a big debate even from the United Nations. He and his country was so powerful that Iraq was alleged to be one of the home bases of terrorists. More so, the US had gathered information and proofs that Iraq had been one of the countries where weapons of mass destruction are created and kept. No one asked the US to initiate peace to and from the countries all over the globe. No body from Iraq called or begged for George W. Bush to interfere and save them from tyranny. Lastly, no one asked the US to destroy or prevent anymore possible manufacture of the weapons for mass destruction. It was a self-declared action of the US to interfere and take a lead along with its allied countries. The US has made it as its own responsibility to somehow ensure that the people wherever they may be, Americans or non-American - are kept safe and protected from any signs of terrorism, hardships and/or destruction. It should be noted that US is one of the countries who is always there to hel...

Module 5 Case Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Module 5 Case - Assignment Example (Drury, 2004) These divisions are obligated to transact amongst themselves, the costs are decided by using a transfer. Even though the transfer prices may not differ much from the market prices, one of the divisions or the company as a whole in such a transaction go at a loss The buying divisions may buy for more than the principal market price or the selling division can sell below the market price, hence affecting their performance. This can either result into a loss or gain in any or all of the divisions. The company can also make a profit or a loss (Tully, 2012) Table1 of Supply Division C Quantity Manufactured Quantity supplied Current supply Price per unit Total Cost Proposed supply Price per unit Total Cost Supplier C part 101 2,000 3,000 $900 $2,700,000 2,000 $900 $1,800,000 Supplier C part 201 500 1,000 $900 $900,000 500 $1,900 $950,000 From the table 1: Division C will experience a loss, since it, supply of Part 101 reduces from a volume of $2,700,000 to $1,800,000. The tra nsfer price is $2,000 while the market price for this part 101 is $900. Even though the total volume of supply of part 201 to Division B indicates a slight drop from the transfer price. The overall transaction for this division is a loss. Table2 for Buying Division A Quantity Bought Current purchase Price per unit Total Cost Proposed Purchases Price per unit Total Cost Supplier C part 101 3,000 $900 $2,700,000 2,000 $900 $1,800,000 External Supplier part 101 1,000 $900 $900,000 2,000 $900 $1,800,000 The buying division A will be in profit, because the price for the part A is $900. This price is less than the transfer price of $1,000. Even though the quantity supplied by Division C has reduced, they have increased their purchase volume from the external supply from 1,000 units to 2,000 units Table three for buying division B Quantity Bought Current Purchases Price per unit Total Cost Proposed Purchase Price per unit Total Cost Supplier C part 201 1,000 $900 $900,000 2,000 $900 $1,800 ,000 External Supplier part 201 1,000 $900 $900,000 1,500 $1,900 $2,850,000 Division B is a buying division will be in profit if the proposal is implemented. This is driven by two factors: they will have to buy more units both from division C and Externally at a price less than the transfer price. The transfer price is put at $2,000 while the market price for part 201 is $1,900. Profit will be $4,650,000-$1,800,000 =$3,250,000 Table 4 External Supplier Current supply Price per unit Total Cost Proposed supply Price per unit Total Cost Supplier part 101 to A 3,000 $900 $2,700,000 2,000 $900 $1,800,000 Supplier part 201 to B 1,000 $900 $900,000 1,500 $1,900 $2,850,000 From the above data, the company will make a loss since the overall increase in the external supply of both parts. The internal supplier namely the division C is disadvantaged in the new proposal. The total supply by this division will be a total 2,500 units, while external supplier will bring in 3,500 units. Division A: Buying division or downstream Part 101 Transfer cost = $1,000 Current Operation Units bought currently = (3,000 units from supplier C + 1,000 units from External supplier) = 4,000 units Unit cost = $ 900 Total cost = $ 900 X 4,000 = $36,000

Commercial Banking in the 1980's Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Commercial Banking in the 1980's - Essay Example was relatively fragmented in nature as there were different and often contradictory laws that were put in place to basically govern the commercial banking sector of the country. This era of fragmented laws however, allowed banks to remain profitable as under regulations they were specifically given the different products and services to sell rather than allowing them freely to engage themselves into activities that were more speculative in nature. This was also due to the fact that a mismatch between the different regulatory environments of the country allowed commercial banks to basically insulate themselves against the different economic shocks as their overall scope was limited through these regulations. For example, under special legislative process, banks were given the monopoly over certain products such as checking accounts which basically restricted other financial institutions to float any such product. Further, the legislations also allowed the banks to avoid direct competi tion as there were restrictions on the inter-state opening of the branches. It is also critical to understand that the banks were specifically restricted to offer interest rates on the checking accounts thus restricting them to engage into price wars and keep themselves under restricted conditions so as to basically allow all the banks to operate at even terms. The era before 1980s was therefore an era which basically restricted the encroachment of other institutions to take over the role of banks thus allowing banks to compete among themselves rather than competing with a variety of other financial institutions thus increasing the overall competition within the industry. The era after 1980s and up to 1999 was an era which made a swift transition from the above sets of regulations and as such the overall position enjoyed by the banks were taken over and as a result many banks failed and insolvencies increased. This has been the result of gradual changes in the regulations which

Plato Short Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Plato Short Paper - Essay Example ‘The Republic’ which is an influential philosophical book was written by Plato in which he spoke many of his ideas on the nature of knowledge and reality. The theory of forms unravels the fact on how do we evolve the knowledge. According to Plato, our knowledge is mere recollection of the forms that we have seen prior to our birth and the knowledge on the immaterial realities cannot be obtained through our bodily experiences. The pertinent aspects of theory of forms are briefed in the ensuing part of this paper. Forms are the ideas which are not the material world of change and the things that we experience through our senses are particular things not abstract things. For instance, we see a flower and we understand that it is beautiful. This beauty is referred to a particular flower but we do not see ‘beauty’. We understand that there are many beautiful flowers. In the view of Plato, if there are many beautiful flowers there will be a common factor that is shared by all the beautiful flowers. Therefore, there must be a thing known as ‘beauty’ which is not visible and experiential to our senses. So, there is a universal idea of beauty that is shared by all the beautiful things and this is the core idea of the form. Plato postulates the theory of metaphysics of forms describing that form has existence independently on the particular things. For example, beauty exists independently on the beautiful things but beautiful things share the beauty in common. There are some essential properties for the forms in the view of Plato. They are self predication, independence from particulars, perfection, permanence and simplicity. Self-predication means that form is simply beautiful independent of particular things, but particular things are beautiful since they share the universal beauty. Independence from particulars means that the form has its own essence, and therefore, the form does not need time and space for its

Ethical Theories In Human Rights Philosophy Essay

Ethical Theories In Human Rights Philosophy Essay underlying the currently influential business and management theories. Ethics may be viewed as the study of human conduct with an emphasis on determination of right and wrong (Fraedrich and Ferrell, 1992). Together with this, it is the assumption that management must adhere to a narrow version of positivism that excludes any reference to intention (Ghoshal, 2005). According to (Mallor et al., 2010), for centuries, religious and secular scholars have explored the meaning of human existence and attempted to define a good life. Ethical theories and principles are the foundations of ethical analysis because they are the viewpoints from which guidance can be obtained along the pathway to a decision. The four ethical theories according to the text are rights theory, justice theory, utilitarianism, and profit maximization. The rights theory covers a range of ethical philosophies that holds that certain human rights are important and must be respected by other society and her rights. Rights are also considered to be ethically correct and legitimate given that a large or ruling population endorses them. Few rights theorists are stringent deontologists, and one of the few is the 18th century philosopher by name Immanuel Kant and his theory is known as the Kantianism. Kant viewed humans as moral actors that are free to make choices and he also believed that humans are able to judge the morality of any action by applying his famous categorical imperative. One of his formulations of the categorical imperative is Act only on that maxim whereby at the same time you can will that it shall become a universal law. The meaning of it is that we judge an action by applying it universally. The most important strength of rights theory is that it protects fundamental rights, unless some greater right takes precedence. A major criticism of the rights theory deal with the near absolute yet relative value of the rights protected, making it difficult to articulate and administer a comprehensive rights theory. The Justice theory which came into limelight by John Rawls in 1971 when he published his book entitled: A theory of Justice, the philosophical underpinning for the bureaucratic welfare state. He reasoned that it was right for governments to redistribute wealth in order to assist the poor and the destitute. Furthermore, Rawls expressed this philosophy in his Greatest Equal Liberty Principle: each person has an equal right to basic rights and liberties. He further limited the principle with the Difference Principle: social inequalities are acceptable only if they cannot be eliminated without making the worst-off class even worse off. Rawlss justice theory has application in the business context which requires decision makers to be guided by fairness and impartiality. The strength of Rawlss justice theory lies in its basic premise, the protection of those who are least advantaged in society. The ethical dilemma for managers is to determine the fair rules and procedures for distributing outcomes to stakeholders. Managers must not give people they like bigger raises than they give to people they do not like, for example, or bend the rules to help their favorites. On the other hand, if employees want managers to act fairly toward them, then employees need to act fairly toward their companies and work hard and be loyal. Similarly, customers need to act fairly toward a company if they expect it to be fair to them-something people who illegally copy digital media should consider. The criticism that justice theory with the rights theory is that it treats equality as an absolute, without examining the costs of producing equality, including reduced incentives for innovation, entrepreneurship and production. Utilitarianism entails a decision maker to maximize utility for society as a whole. Maximizing utility means achieving the highest level of satisfactions over dissatisfactions which means that a person must consider the benefits and costs of her actions to everyone in society. A utilitarian will take action only if the benefits of the action to society outweigh the societal costs of the action. There are two types of utilitarianism, act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism judges each act separately, assessing a single acts benefit and its cost to societys members. Rule utilitarianism judges actions by a rule that over the long run maximizes benefits over cost. The strength of utilitarianism as a guide for ethical conduct is that it is easy to articulate the standard of conduct; which coincides with values of most modern countries like the USA who is capitalist in nature by focusing on total social satisfactions, benefits, wealth and welfare. In general under ca pitalism, the interests of shareholders are put above those of employees, so production will move abroad. This is generally regarded as being an ethical choice because in the long run, the alternative, domestic production might cause the business to collapse and go bankrupt. If this happens, all of the companys stakeholders will suffer-not just its employees. According to the utilitarian view, the decision that produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people is best. In this case, that means outsourcing the jobs. The criticism of utilitarianism is that it is difficult to measure ones own pleasures, pains, satisfaction and dissatisfaction, let alone those of all of societys members. Profit maximization as an ethical theory requires a decision maker to maximize a businesss long-run profits within the limits of the law. This has been based on the laissez faire theory of capitalism first expressed by Adam Smith in the 18th century and more recently promoted by economists such as Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell. Profit maximization is closely related to utilitarianism, but it varies essentially in how ethical decisions are made. Profit maximization optimizes total social utility by narrowing the actors focus, requiring the decision maker to make a decision that merely maximizes profits for himself or his organization. The strengths of profit maximization results in ethical conduct because it requires societys members to act within the constraints of the law and a profit maximizer, therefore, acts ethically by complying with societys mores as expressed in its laws. The criticism of profit maximizer is that if profit maximization results in an efficient allocation o f societys resources and maximization of total social welfare, it does not concern itself with how wealth is allocated within Society. An ethical theory that was not found in the text is that of rationalism, which this ethical theory focuses mainly on norms. The moral rationalism is that in which the decisive factor of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive, and it has its major proponent in Emmanuel Kant (Llano, 2002). Mr. Kant attempted to change our everyday, clear, rational knowledge of morality into philosophical knowledge. He went after a technique of using practical reason to reach conclusions which are able to be useful to the world of experience. Kant is also known for his theory that there is a single moral obligation which he called the Categorical Imperative, and derived from the perception of duty. He further stated that these moral norms must be obeyed in all situations and circumstances if our behavior is to observe the moral law. In a way to improve corporate governance and corporate social responsibilities, according to Mallor et al., 2010, one can modify the corporate governance model to educate, motivate, and supervise executives and thereby improve corporate social responsibility. Corporate governance is the structure used to direct and manage business and affairs of the company towards enhancing prosperity and corporate accountability. Corporate critics however did propose a wide rang of cures, all of which have been implemented to some degree and with varying degrees of success. Ethical codes: Ethic codes in a way have been adopted by many large corporations and several industries to guide executives and other employees. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act required that a public company discloses whether it has adopted a code of ethics for senior financial officers, and to disclose any changes in the code or waiver of the codes application. The codes can be viewed in two ways; one sees the codes as genuine efforts to foster ethical behavior within a firm or an industry while others view regards them as thinly disguised attempts to make the firm function better, to mislead the public into believing the firm behaves ethically, to prevent the passage of legislation that would impose stricter constraints on business, or to limit competition under the veil of ethical standards. Better ethical codes make clear that the corporation expects employees not to violate the law in a mistaken belief that loyalty to the corporation requires it. These kinds of codes work best, however, when a corporation also gives its employees an outlet for dealing with a superiors request to do an unethical act. Ethical instruction: Some corporate organizations require their employees to enroll in classes that teach ethical decision-making. The idea is that a manager trained in ethical conduct will recognize unethical actions before they are taken and deter herself and the corporation from the unethical acts. Majority of corporations in this present day express their dedication to ethical decision-making by an ethics officer who is not only responsible for ethical instruction, but also in charge of ethical supervision. The ethics officer tends to be a mentor or sounding board for all employees who face ethical issues. Greater Shareholder Role in Corporations: As shareholders are the vital stakeholders in a corporation in a capitalist economy, several corporate critics argue that businesses should be more attuned to shareholders ethical values and that shareholder control of the board of directors and executives should be increased. Evidence suggests that sources of ethical dilemmas will continue to increase. To understand this assessment, it will be useful to look at four categories of conditions influencing ethical behavior: global, social, organizational and individual. Global: A variety of global conditions affect our lives and our society; many are well-known to all of us. They include the increasing influence of cultural values substantially different from those of our Anglo-Saxon heritage; impacts of a complex global economy on local economic structures; and our rapidly increasing technological capacity to communicate and interact with the global community. Within the past few years we have watched the beginning of the development of a new world order that will be substantially different from our sense of world order developed over the last half century. Among the implications resulting from this picture, two are especially important: (1) we as a people no longer have a secure sense of our role in the world or our control over it; and (2) it has become increasingly acceptable, and even logical, to admit that we simply dont know what the appropriate response is. This era of rapid change has an indirect but important influence on our sense of ethi cal appropriateness. Social: A more direct source of ethical conflicts is social change. Change has been so rapid that some have argued that we have lost our sense of values or that we must seek better mechanisms to resolve value conflicts. This line of reasoning is incorrect for several reasons. First, value conflicts (and, therefore, ethical dilemmas) reflect our social and cultural fabric. Second, stakeholders have a relatively easy time gaining access to our policy making system; therefore, value conflicts are very visible and, frequently, cause our problem-solving process to forge slow, painful compromises. These processes continue to represent one of the great comparative advantages of our society and should not be changed without sober reflection. Organizational: Thirdly, we are witnessing rapid change in the nature and role of the public organization and concepts about administrative behavior. Organizational values are vital influence on the majority of us; thus far our organizational lives are becoming increasingly participatory, open, communicative and interactive. While I believe that the decline of organization hierarchy is among the more positive aspects of our society, it also signals a decline in another source of behavioral guidelines. Individual judgment, group dynamics and social interactions are replacing traditional rules of behavior dictated by the organization. We are also facing increasing conflicts between the bureaucratic ethos and the democratic ethos (Hejka-Ekins, 1998). The bureaucratic ethos includes such traditional organizational standards as efficiency, competence, loyalty and accountability. Individual: lastly, ethical anxieties are caused by changes at the individual level. In particular, individualism and materialism are at the present celebrated within major social institutions and have become a dominate ethos of the baby bust generation. Self-indulgence, greed, self-interest, and privatism are accepted components of the ethos of this generation (Frederickson, 1982). In order to improve the ethical climate of an organization, management must effectively communicate proper ethical behavior throughout the organization. Wimbush and Shephard (1984: 637-647) reported that businesses annually spend an estimated $40 billion on the ethical behavior problems. Thus, pointing to the fact that ethical dimension of employees behavior has a clear impact on the profitability of the company. It is generally accepted that customer satisfaction is one of the most important factors in successful business strategy. Although a company must continue to develop, alter and adapt products to keep pace with customers changing desires and preferences. It must also seek to develop long-term relationships with customers and its stakeholders. By focusing on customer satisfaction, a company continually deepens the customers dependence on the company, and as the customers confidence grows, the firm gains a better understanding of how to serve the customer so the relationship ma y endure. Successful businesses provide an opportunity for customer feedback, which can engage the customer in a cooperative problem solving. As is often pointed out, a happy customer will come back, but a disgruntled customer will tell others about his or her dissatisfaction with a company and discourage friends from dealing with it. When an organization has a strong ethical environment, it usually focuses on the core value of placing customers interest first. An ethical culture that focuses on customers incorporates the interests of all employees, suppliers, and other interested parties in decisions and actions. Employees working in an ethical environment support and contribute to the process of understanding customers demands and concerns. Ethical conduct towards customers builds a strong competitive position that has been shown to affect business performance and product innovation positively.

Our Perceptions of Purpose in Nature :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Our Perceptions of Purpose in Nature "It will be objected that the book deals too much with mere appearances, with the surface of things, and fails to engage and reveal the patterns of unifying relationships which form the true underlying reality of existence. Here I must confess that I know nothing whatever about true underlying reality, having never met any..for my own part I am pleased enough with surfaces- in fact they alone seem to be of much importance." -Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire The primary distinction between humans and the rest of the natural world is our sense of consciousness and self-consciousness. We have very different perceptions and filters than any other organism on the planet. Language, for example, enables "story tellers" to communicate and interpret their surroundings. However, there are limitations to relying on language as a primary tool for both internal and external dialogue- the verbal definition of things can often differ vastly from how they actually are. Words have cultural connotations and if the story teller is not careful, a meaning or significance that he did not intend will be assigned to the subject. Equally dangerous is the instance where a story teller actively searches for meaning in the natural world and uses language to clarify and articulate it. The roots of self-consciousness go as far back as the origin of humankind. Choice, morality, altruism, and a sense of purpose do not exist in a vacuum, they are as much the products of an evolutionary process as our physiological features. Until approximately 10,000 years ago, the only organisms to exist could be classified as "model builders," meaning they are able to anticipate external change but do not have language or a sense of self. "The Game of Life" is a good example of the factors which determine the behavior of model builders, and nature in general. There are certain biological constants which limit the possible outcomes, but there is, in fact, no purpose or intentionality to the patterns which emerge. Edward Abbey explains this phenomenon in his novel Desert Solitaire- "I am not attributing human motives to my snake and bird acquaintances. I recognize that when and where they serve purposes of mine they do so for beautifully selfish reasons of their own." (25) "Story tellers," on the other hand, though part of nature as well, have much more complex factors to guide their actions- including emotions, consciousness, and language.