Abstract This paper explains that, in "Uncle Tom's Cabin", employing the gothic genre as the epitome of evil that slavery can bring, Stowe rewards the bad Christian with a full life and the good Christian with a miserable end. The author points out that Uncle Toms die and those who ignore the Bible, like Cassy, are rewarded; The Christian laws that Stowe urges one to practice are inverted. The paper relates that, while this inversion does seem contrary to her purpose, it is the horror of this scenario that works with her main argument against slavery: Christianity and the keeping of slaves are antithetical.
From the Paper "Throughout his stay on Legree's plantation, Uncle Tom keeps his faith in God, and his death is the result. Singing a Methodist hymn, Tom is interrupted by his new master who declares on page 384, "I have none o' yer bawling, praying, singing niggers on my place...I'm your church now." Even when threatened for his religious beliefs, Tom doesn't abandon them, constantly turning to his bible for relief from hardship he faces. Later, after a long period of habitual suffering, Tom ponders whether, "it was vain to serve God, that God had forgotten him." In the end, such questioning makes Tom's Christian conviction even more pronounced, for it serves as a catalyst for his spiritual visions."
Abstract This paper explains that there are numerous religious traditions within Christianity, which vary by culture, diverse beliefs and sects; during the past two millennia, it has been grouped into three main branches, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism. The author points out that, in spite of the belief that violence is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus, Christian adherents have persecuted, tortured and killed other for refusing to believe in their type of Christianity. The paper states that no other being has had such a profound influence on civilization as Jesus of Nazareth, who influenced emperors, kings, politicians, and the common man and in whose name, wars have bee fought, shrines have been built and prayers have been believed to be answered.
From the Paper "There were two main communities of Christians, the Jewish Christians who were those Jews and Gentile converts, and the Hellenistic Christians who were those who were more influenced by the Greek-speaking world and believed the central message of Christianity could be represented in ways more appropriate for Gentiles (Christianity pp). Tertullian, one of the first great writers of Christianity, while addressing a Roman governor said that as "for the Christians of Cathage that just yesterday were few in number, now they 'have filled every place among you - cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palaces, senate, forum - we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods.'"
A look at the British philosopher, Jeremy Bentham's famous work " Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation" in which he details his theory of Utilitarianism.
Abstract This paper discusses Bentham's views on natural rights and how at first sight Utilitarianism seems to be antithetical to the idea of basic rights and whether it justifies the deprivation of an individual's basic rights to serve the interests of the greatest numbers. It also explains how the theory of utilitarianism would justify respect for certain rights, and discuss the difference between rule-utilitarianism and act-utilitarianism.
From the Paper "Jeremy Bentham believed in applying empirical methods, rationalism and deductive arguments to the development of moral and legal theories. At the outset of his Principles of Morals and Legislation he has identified the basis of the principle of Utility on which the Utilitarianism has been founded?pain and pleasure, and calls them the two "sovereign masters" of mankind. The principle of utility, on which most of Bentham's work is based, has been explained by him as: ?Any action that promotes happiness of an individual or lessens pain is right while any action that increases pain or decreases happiness is wrong.? He further explains that the happiness of the individual is the same as the happiness of the community since the community is nothing but the sum total of individuals. Another key element in Bentham's theory of Utility is the concept of the happiness for the greatest number?and his belief that the happiness for the greatest number of people is quantifiable. He has also expanded his theory to include the acts of not only the individuals but that of the government as well, and because of his interest in law, the scope of his work included the legislative and judicial reforms."
An examination of Herman Melville's use of the color white to convey negative thoughts and emotions: antithetical to common cultural connotations which associate white with such positive concepts as purity and holiness.
Abstract This paper analyzes Melville's innovative manipulation of the color white. The primary concerns include the unsettling effect of a monster "wearing white" and what may have been Melville's attack on racism. Careful attention to syntax, diction and literary style serve as the intellectual support for these ideas.
From the Paper "From a very young age, popular media teaches us that we can spot the good guys from a mile away, based solely on their entirely white costumes. This small piece of conventional wisdom presents a serious problem for Moby Dick's readers, as Herman Melville shrouds his title character, the vicious, homicidal whale in the color traditionally reserved for heroes. Without a close reading of the text, the simple fact that the whale is associated with white might be enough to convince the reader that he is in fact the hero of the story. However, this is not the case, as close reading of the text suggests only Moby Dick's fundamental "naturalness" as well as the whale's ability to serve as a metaphor for the color, and, in turn all of those things for which the color itself serves as a metaphor. The effects of Melville's decision to employ the whale in such a way are numerous, spanning from the simple, unnerving juxtaposition of the color's purity with the whale's monstrosity, to a complex, subtle condemnation of racism."
Abstract The following paper examines how the Amish are known to live non-resistant lives, and follow the teachings in the Bible in a literal sense. The writer takes a look at their detachment from the world outside Amish communities and discusses how this detachment is practiced through simple living, a trait notable of the Amish people
From the Paper "In the 1690's, they broke away from their organization, the Swiss Mennonites, and created a new group in the leadership of Jacob Amman (from which the word, "Amish" originated). In the year 1727, went to America to escape "religious prosecution" in their homeland Switzerland during the Swiss Protestant Reformation. The Amish were being persecuted during that time because they are Anabaptists, people who do not believe in infant baptism (Amish people are baptized only when they reach the age of 18). Aside from the United States, the Amish also went to Central America and Canada. At present, there are large communities of Amish people living in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, and Illinois "
Abstract A paper which calls for an abolishment of insanity defense in the legal systems due to it being antiquated and illogical. The author of the paper argues that the insanity defense poses two antithetical schools of thought ? psychiatry and the law ? against each other and they do not complement each other: rather, they devour one another. The paper uses several court cases to illustrate its argument.
From the Paper "The insanity defense extrapolates this argument and allows a man who points a gun at another man, pulls the trigger and kills him to go free if lawyers and psychiatrists can convince the jury that he was insane at the time of the act. The accused need not be insane during the trial or even immediately after the act; he only need be insane during the act itself. It all comes down to deciphering what was in the accused's head at a particular moment in the past. ?These defendants go free because some lawyers and some psychiatrists are willing to manipulate juries and the criminal justice system precisely in those areas where judgment is most difficult: where judgment is based upon imagining what was in a person's mind when he committed an act.? (Winslade 2) The jury must decide in some states only one thing: did he do it? This determination will encompass both whether ? in a traditional sense ? he did it, and also whether he didn"t do it because at the time he performed the crime, he was insane and therefore didn"t legally do anything. He didn?t have actus reus. Other states use a bifurcated system in which the fact-finder determines whether ? insanity aside ? the man is guilty, and then whether he was insane at the time. If he was insane at the time, he was not guilty."
Tags: Daniel, M?Naghten, Durham, psychiatric, testimony, actus, reus, mens, rea
An examination of the respective world views of Muslims in the Middle East and both Muslims and non-Muslim Africans in sub-Saharan Africa (mainly Sudan).
Abstract This paper looks at the respective world views of Muslims in different parts of the Arab world, focusing on religion, art and politics. It discusses how except in Israel, Islamic culture dominates the Middle East experience and a good deal of Asian experience besides and it is programmatically antithetical to the West. It shows how the northern, Arab Sudanese are historically inclined toward nationalism, adapting colonialist governance and public works structures to its purposes and united by Islam. It outlines the basic ideas informing each culture's world view as well as how it compares to the European world with a view toward identifying the differences in the way the groups characterize the found universe and human experience within it.
From the Paper "The northern, Arab Sudanese have historically inclined toward nationalism, adapting colonialist governance and public works structures to its purposes and united by Islam. The south comprised a tribalist black population variously following animism, Christianity, and Islam and resisting both Arab nationalist and cultural identity and the public-service projects that went with it (Spodek 728). Meanwhile the country is horribly impoverished and illiterate; five percent of all land in the country is arable, but two-thirds of all workers are agricultural ("Republic"). Result: intermittent but persistent civil war warfare since independence from Britain in 1956."
Abstract As this review will demonstrate, Herodotus' approach to the writing of history is absolutely antithetical to the "journalistic" style of modern times: instead of being concise, he is exhaustive; in place of a "linear" argument, Herodotus' work is characterized by "circular" storytelling and digression.
Abstract This paper examines how one of the central "problems" Ernest Hemingway struggled with as an author was the question of how it was possible for an artist to be a man, as Hemingway defined true masculinity, and, at the same time, still function as an effective artist and writer. It looks at how, at the time, art was associated with femininity, partly because it enabled the reader to escape from real life and the real world into the constructed world of fiction and how war and the outer, outdoors life of a man was associated with what was good, masculine, and thus antithetical to being an artist in the traditional sense. It explores how Hemingway managed to bridge this perceived ideological gap by lauding heroes, such as Cayetano of ?The Gambler, The Nun, and the Radio,? who are stalwart in the face of pain, yet who still find a means of escape from the overwhelming shadow of reality.
From the Paper "Hemingway stated that he used his style to convey a truth to the reader, but truth was not synonymous with reality. Another, more perspicuous critic of the Hemingway style Alfred Kazin noted that, in Hemingway,? death might yet be recorded in the sentient flesh?as intimate a sensation as eating, drinking, and lovemaking. But the "true sentence" could be recognized only if it had the right cadence and the tease of subtlety in some culminating word,? that conveyed truth rather than reality ?straight up.? Kazin stated that Hemingway used his style, not to be realistic, but rather ?Hemingway wanted to unsettle the reader just enough to make him sit up and notice a different way of saying things....? a different way, but not necessarily a more "realistic" or true-to-life way of seeing things."
Abstract This paper explains that Marquis de Sade was renowned as a libertarian atheist who took the foundations of the Enlightenment, such as equality, pleasure, and freedom of self-thought, to its limit to create his own, seemingly wayward, taxonomy. The author points out that, in "The Philosophy of the Bedroom," de Sade uses a subjective and argumentative tone to assert his opinions and justifications of his antithetical beliefs on sacrilege, calumny, killing, and theft. The paper relates that de Sade's arguments are founded on a very extreme and over-rationalized viewpoint of theft, and his simplistic and idealistic propositions are not supported with any checks or balances.
From the Paper "The assertive language used leaves the reader deceivingly convinced that de Sade's own opinions and thoughts are certainly flawless. However, no matter how influencingly crafted de Sade's propositions are, they still only remain his own thoughts. Whilst the Enlightenment period valued the questioning of the presuppositions that form the basis of our own lives, there was not an encouragement to act unlawfully. This is where two of the Enlightenment thinkers, Immanuel Kant and de Sade, differed. De Sade tended to act upon his radical beliefs, and was jailed for doing so. Kant on the other hand, was not in favor of revolution until there was a consensus through public reason."
Abstract This paper presents a technical analysis of the tale,"A Ghost Story" by Mark Twain, referring to the Gothic elements of the first part of the tale and also to its antithetic end. The paper provides descriptions and explanations of the vocabulary used and its purpose, as well as an analysis of sound patterns throughout the story. The paper also looks at Mark Twain's style and the development of humour in his work.
From the Paper "The sounds of the story are numerous. It starts with a profound "silence" which only broken by the sound of the wind and the rain. But even those "diminish to a tranquil patter". The noises "subside" and "die" or "leave no sound". This corresponds to the narrator falling asleep. While the imagery is connected with the night, the mood of the night is transmitted by the sound, or the lack of sound, to which the darkness seems to be the background. From the very beginning, the sounds are not human. But then, the first strange noises that the narrator hears are those of "stealthy footsteps creeping", "the rattle of chains", "mysterious whisperings", "sighs" and "breathings". All this makes the reader aware that something bizarre and out of the ordinary is happening. At the same time, those sounds are in constant movement, many of them have an "ing" form - the noise of the "dragging of a heavy body", "throwing down of the body", "clanking of chains" etc."
Abstract This paper explores the different ways in which al Queda terrorism shatters the key presuppositions of liberal democratic societies. It looks at how societies marked by the war on terror are likely to redefine citizenship and political community in ways antithetical to the maintenance of liberal democracy.
From the Paper "The perpetual fear of arbitrary terrorist violence can only amplify these morbid sentiments and the disintegration of civic life which occurs in crime ridden areas offers an instructive example of the effects which free floating fear and anxiety can produce. Fear has an unmistakeably atomising logic, in such climates freedom, frequently conceptualised as a risk in itself, invariably loses ground to the imperative of security; Bigos description of the war on terror as a state of mind captures a very real dimension of it. Equally certain, however, are the profound institutional changes that accompany this change; the war on terrors implications for civil-military relations point towards a radical departure from the structure normally associated with constitutional states. US military planners have been somewhat more prescient than their civilian counterparts in drawing out the logic of this development, and the effects of the blurring boundaries between war-peace civilian-combatants were cogently laid out in the doctrine of Fourth Generation Warfare."
Abstract This paper explains that, although many management styles have been proposed and adopted for the management of correctional facilities, variations in the elements involved--the inmates, the public, the staff, the governmental bureaucracy and the manager himself or herself--make the institutions unique and thereby the management style must be individualized. The author points out that the duty of management is to define clearly institutional objectives in precise terms, which makes it clear to correctional workers and other facility staff what has to be done, makes choices rational, permits the attachment of rewards and deprivations to performance and prevents any role redefinition and goal distortion. The paper relates that the value of bureaucratic supervision and surveillance has been questioned in many work settings because it is (1) inimical to individuals working together in a concerted group effort, (2) dissonant with individual's quest for self-awareness, (3) obstructive to individual's attempts to expand and extend their potential and (4) antithetical to contemporary realities.
From the Paper "The difference in the form that bureaucratic surveillance and supervision takes has been attributed to characteristics of the bureaucrats involved. While this may be true, managers can make a contribution in their willingness to relinquish managerial responsibility. There exists inferential evidence that the intrusion of bureaucratic tentacles into the domain of managerial activity is due not just to the willing acquiescence of the manager. The manager's task goes beyond the prevention of the intrusion of bureaucratic tentacle into his domain. Policy enunciation defines the parameters of managerial activity. It places constraints on what the manager of an institution can do. At the same time it implicitly specifies areas of activity that a manager could possibly profitably explore."
Abstract This paper defines Medea as the anti-hero of the anti-monomyth. The author traces the stages of the myth of Medea and parallels them with the stages in a typical monomyth. By drawing the parallels, the author is able to show that the Medea myth is a parody of the standard monomyth, showing the phases play out in a manner that is antithetical to the typical monomyth.
From the Paper "Joseph Campbell might well turn over in his grave to hear Medea's final murder of her children described as an example of the monomyth. Certainly, if one were to take into account other moments of Medea's life and her adventures with the Argonauts, it would be possibly --though difficult-- to make such an argument seriously. However, arguing that Medea's tale as told by Euripides is an example of the monomyth at work seems rather blind to the fact that the hero cycle is meant to be about the exaltation, rather than the denial, of life. The problem may be as simple as the fact that Medea is female. Many critics have noted that, "Joseph Campbell is widely acclaimed for his conception of the hero's journey. However it addresses only half the population by excluding females," (Johnson) and that as such a different schema may be necessary for approaching a woman's experience. Medea is not a hero-she is the goddess or temptress without whose aid a hero neither rises nor falls."
