This paper reviews Minxin Pei's article "The Paradoxes of American Nationalism" and discusses the two paradoxes Pei has identified regarding American nationalism.
1,900 words (approx. 7.6 pages), 1 source, 2002, $ 71.95
Abstract Nationalism in the United States is somewhat a blurred idea in the political arena. In the article "The Paradoxes of American Nationalism" Minxin Pei identifies two paradoxes of American nationalism at a general level and at the policymaking level. First, the United States is a highly nationalistic country but it is not regarded as nationalistic. Second, on a similar count policymakers in the United States have a very poor appreciation of the power of nationalism.
Abstract This paper describes Kierkegaard's basic paradox between Reason and Passion and its ultimate expression. The paper explains that this is the attempt to describe the existence of God, which is the name he gives for the Unknown. The paper illustrates how according to Kierkegaard, it is impossible for human Reason to know or describe the Unknown, yet it is the ultimate goal of Reason. The paper shows how this is what creates the paradox.
From the Paper "The 19th century Dutch philosopher Sen Kierkegaard believed that paradox was integral to a philosopher or thinking man, because it created passion and without both of those, philosophy and thought was meaningless. This created a paradox for the serious philosopher, because reason being a matter of thought and intellect is the opposite of passion, being of feelings and emotions. He believed that paradox created passion, but without passion the thinker could not be inspired to create his philosophy, but that at some point there would be a "collision" of Reason and passion, and that this would be the undoing of one or both of them, because it is in the nature of the paradox of Reason and passion to try to destroy each other. Kierkegaard said, "The supreme paradox of all thought is the attempt to discover something that thought cannot think.""
An analysis of the paradox of character and fate in Sophocles' "Oedipus the King", John Skot's "Everyman" and Calderon de la Barca's "Life is a Dream".
1,575 words (approx. 6.3 pages), 3 sources, 2005, $ 62.95
Abstract The paper examines three noteworthy plays and points out how fate and especially human character are often paradoxical entities. It focuses on Sophocles' "Oedipus the King", John Skot's "Everyman" and Calderon de la Barca's "Life is a Dream". The paper emphasizes how the noble qualities of King Oedipus' character, when taken to excess, lead him to ruin. It also reviews how it is the virtue of Good Deeds, a "companion" forsaken by every man throughout his life, which paradoxically allows every man to find his salvation."
Abstract This paper discusses a phenomenon of groupthink gone out of control known as "The Abilene Paradox." The author combines a review of Jerry B. Harvey's essay of the same name with a detailed analysis of the phenomena. The paper examines the symptoms of the paradox and the need for effective leadership within an organization to avoid it. The paper also discusses the need for organizations to make free expression part of their culture, so that individuals feel comfortable challenging ideas. The writer summarizes Harvey's goal, suggesting that even within the most comfortable organizational culture, no worker loses his or her essential individuality or personal sense of responsibility to ethics and truth.
From the Paper "At the heart of the paradox, however, is another paradox. On one hand, to prevent a bad group decision from going through, effective leadership is needed. A leader must resist the pressures to go along with the group and speak up, contrary to 'going with the flow,' that a change is needed. However, to gain a sense of what is the right decision, all members of the organization must have some input, and channels of communication must be kept open, so that everyone can volunteer evidence about the real situation, not just ideas that confirm management's assumptions."
Abstract This paper discusses the environment and its relationship with technological progress. The author uses figures, numbers and statistics to demonstrate the environmental paradox, the faulty thought that things are worse than they were before, when in fact they are getting better. The author also looks briefly at future advances in technology such as cloning and genetic engineering and argues for the far-reaching advantages it will provide the human race and environmental science.
From the Paper "In this paper I set out to prove the environmental paradox. The world is getting better and better every day, we live in the greatest time the human race has ever had ? and people say it's going to the dogs. I would like to end this paper with a quote from P.J. O?Rourke: ?Things are better now than things have been since men began keeping track of things. Things are better than they were only a few years ago. Things are better, in fact, than they were at 9:30 this morning, thanks to Tylenol and two Bloody Marys.? (O?Rourke, p. 2) "
Abstract The paradoxical intention technique is an existential psychotherapeutic method, which works primarily through verbally induced processes. In view of its method and its anthropology it can be defined as a phenomenological and person-oriented psychotherapy, its aim being to bring the person to make (mentally and emotionally) free experiences, to induce authentic decisions and to bring about a truly responsible way of dealing with life and the world.
Abstract This paper explains that Nicod's criterion of confirmation is one of the most important evidences around which the "Ravens' Paradox" revolves. The author points out that the "Ravens' Paradox" itself seems to revolve around two elements. The first is that the observation of a purple cow really has nothing to do with the generalization of the statement "all ravens are black", and the second is that such an observation also proves that "all ravens are white". The paper concludes that Hempel's solution to the problem resides in the fact that he manages to fit in both Nicod's criterion and the equivalence condition by introducing probabilities.
Table of Contents
Nicod's Criterion of Confirmation and the Equivalence Condition
The Paradox of the Ravens
From the Paper "Carl Hempel was the first to publish the paradox of the ravens in Theoria, a Swedish periodical, in 1937, and ever since, the paradox has been a source of numerous controversies. In his paper, Hempel concludes that the generalization of a simple statement, such as "all ravens are black" can be confirmed by another simple observation, such as that of a purple cow. The observation of a purple cow would, in Hempel's opinion, increase, even slightly, the probability that all ravens are black. Briefly summarizing his paradox, Professor Hempel notes that the statement "all ravens are black" is logically equivalent to the statement that "all non-black objects are not ravens" (this is a true logical equivalence). Therefore, finding a purple cow weakly confirms the statement that all ravens are black, because it confirms its logical equivalent that all non-black objects are not ravens."
Abstract This paper explains that most of the information known about Zeno, who explained and developed the philosophical system of his mentor Parmenides, is based on the writings of Plato and from other works by Aristotle. The author explains that Zeno wrote forty different paradoxes based on the assumptions of plurality and motion. The paper relates that Empiricists' doctrine, which states that knowledge must be the result of experience, sees Zeno's doctrine as a form of Monism and therefore the paradox's on motion and pluralism fail as a philosophical theory.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Who was Zeno?
Zeno's Paradoxes Empiricism
Compare the Empirical Argument with Zeno's Paradoxes Conclusion
From the Paper "Zeno's argument regarding the idea of not being able to exist without magnitude revolves around adding a thing with no magnitude to something else does not make the receiving thing larger and subtracting a thing of no magnitude will not make the receiving thing smaller. This then entails that since the magnitude-less items do not make things bigger or smaller then the thing of no magnitude most be nothing. Although Zeno's pluralism here is perplexing at the least, his ideas of motion are even more complicated."
Abstract This paper explains that Immanuel Kant's "Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals" focuses on the study of morality and tries to give a clearer understanding of moral principles so that people can learn to avoid the distractions offered against true morality, claiming that "a free-will and a will subject to moral laws are one in the same." The author argues that, although Kant's linking of morality and freedom is not paradoxical on the shallow level, on the deeper level, Kant is defying his separation of determinism and free will with his ideas on rationality, which is indeed paradoxical. The paper relates that the way to disprove this paradox would be to show that all moral questions have been answered in the same way, which is not possible, because different cultures have different moral beliefs.
From the Paper "The first paradox in the above quote is easily explained away with look into Kant's ideas of imperatives. Kant supposed all rational beings act in obedience to objective principles determined by practical reason, act in accordance to a law. However, a rational being will also have subjective impulses--desires and inclinations that may contradict the dictates of reason. So we experience the claim of reason as an obligation, a command that we act in a particular way, or an imperative. Such imperatives may occur in either of two distinct forms, hypothetical or categorical."
Abstract The paper analyzes the problems described in the Abilene Paradox, how the theory applies to the writer's own behavior and how he can correct problems within group-orientated environments. The writer therefore shows how the Abilene Paradox is an important lesson in management communication that will be useful in everyday life and in future work experiences.
Outline:
Analysis of Abilene Paradox Analysis of My Behavior
Solutions for the Problem
Analysis of Group Experience
Different Ways to Look at Confrontation
Conclusion
From the Paper "Communication is one of the most important management skills and it is a key factor for making a team or an organization successful. The Abilene Paradox, developed by Jerry Harvey, deals with the common phenomenon of miscommunication in group collectives. More precisely, the Abilene Paradox pertains to the inability to manage agreement which, in turn, leads to a group's or an organization's failure. Although agreements as well as disagreements can be a problem in decision making, the former case may be more challenging than the later case because of the nature of human beings."
Abstract This paper reviews Orwell's "1984", examining how paradox and irony contribute to the general sense of anxiety in the novel. The paper shows how from the names of the Party institutions to doublethink, "1984" is full of paradoxical statements about Oceania and the oppressive regime of Big Brother.
From the Paper "The Party's attempts to control language and thus control the basic building blocks of thought are first evident in the ironic Party institution names. The Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Love, and the Ministry of Plenty are anything but truthful, peaceful, loving, and abundant. In fact, their newspeak names more accurately sum up the institutions? objectives: minitrue, minipax, miniluv, and miniplenty represent the miniscule amount of these proposed virtues. Orwell, through Winston, explicitly refers to the paradoxical names: ?the Ministry of Peace...concerned itself with war,? (p. 3). The Ministry of Love's building is windowless, loveless, and impenetrable, its walls hide a prison that contradicts the concept of love."
Abstract This paper discusses how with the publishing of his new special theory of relativity in 1905, Albert Einstein revolutionized the way scientists understood physics, rewriting the paradigm for describing the processes that affect our world. In particular, it looks at how one of the consequences of the theory of relativity is the so-called 'twin paradox', a thought experiment proposed by physicists analyzing the effects of consequences of the theory on a pair of twins, with one twin traveling at or near the speed of light while the other remains 'stationary' on Earth. The paper focuses on a simple scenario in which the traveling twin, at the moment of synchronizing his atomic watch with his Earth-bound counterpart, reaches his near-light cruising speed, and comes to zero-speed at the moment of the final watch measurement when back on earth. The time it takes him to turn around and start his trip back, however, will be taken into account. Finally, for purposes of simplicity, the paper follows the models set forth by many of the popular explanations of the twin paradox by giving each of the twins a name.
From the Paper "Prior to Einstein, classical physicists like Galileo and Newton formulated complex and elaborate equations that they used to describe the laws of the universe. Gravity was an all-important force that operated at a distance on objects. Distance and time were fixed variables. The movement of one object was always relative to the position of another object, as has been demonstrated by countless examples involving a train passenger and an observer on a platform. If a passenger drops an item to the floor of a train, the item will land in a direct line below where he dropped it, with no horizontal movement. Now, if the train is moving at 10ft/second, and the passenger drops the item, an observer on the platform would see something different. "
Abstract This paper examines the book "Global Paradox' written by John Naisbitt which focuses on the business side of the globalization of the economy. It discusses how he states that the more powerful the smaller states become the greater will be the power to communicate in one language, culture and niches which also give the individual more power to influence economic consumption over the government. It looks at how he takes a deeper analysis of the powerful social and economic trends at work that are practiced within today's international community with an emphasis on the theme of technology.
From the Paper "The reason why smaller organizational units are gaining greater power is because technology has made the individual entrepreneur the key player in the global economy. Naisbitt suggests that in a globalized economy the market niche becomes smaller and smaller, which as a result of its size favors flexibility, and focuses on specialized work in the company. Opposing popular thought, the author feels that that big companies in the long run will have to break up to become "confederations of small, entrepreneurial companies in order to survive" (p. 50). This will become imperative in the survival of the company when networks of strategic alliances are built to help small and middle-size companies produce the products to match a certain quality and market requirements anywhere at any time. This is what is called franchising."
Tags: technology, government, trends, international, community
Abstract We seem to care about fictional characters even when we know they do not really exist. Why? The following paper discusses the philosophy of aesthetics in relation to the paradox of fiction and seeks to find a possible solution.
Abstract This paper discusses how the movie, "Fight Club", is bound up in one great paradox and how this sense of paradox is bound up in the very narrative. It looks at how the first two rules of Fight Club are that you must not talk about Fight Club, but the club's very existence and growth depends on the fact that everyone breaks that rule. It examines how nothing is quite as it seems in this movie, and much of the intensity and power of its message is bound up in those uncertainties. It also analyzes how three central paradoxes guide this film: the paradox of production, the paradox of power, and the paradox of patriarchy.
From the Paper "One of the most basic questions posed by Fight Club is as to why men have allowed corporate culture to symbolically castrate them, to rob them of their free will and their internal experiences, and the fullness of their personhood. In essence, why hasn"t there been a revolution" Tyler's answer is fear -- he suggests that only by overcoming fear of the pain and destruction (through facing that fear in the fighting ring), and in fact embracing that aspect of live, one is free to start that revolution. It's an extreme answer, of course, from an extreme individual. However, the question has been asked by many others who are far more academic and calm than Tyler. Early Marxist theory claimed that class oppression should result in widespread class-based revolution."
