The weaknesses of the Ontological argument give support to Atheism. Discuss this statement Essay Example for Free

The weaknesses of the Ontological argument give support to Atheism. Discuss this statement Essay Anselm’s ontological argument described in part (a), was refuted in his own lifetime, by Gaunilo, who demonstrated in a reduction ad absurdum of his own, that if the logic of the argument were applied to things other than God, it led to invalid conclusions. Gaunilo didn’t identify any specific fault with the argument, but argued that something must be wrong with it, because if there wasn’t anything wrong, then we can use its logic to prove anything, which we may have no reason to believe to be true. For instance, Gaunilo argued that it’s possible to construct an argument in the exact same form as the ontological argument, that claims to prove the existence of the perfect island: this island must exist for if it did not then it would be possible to conceive of an island greater than that island than which no greater can be conceived, which is absurd. Therefore, if the ontological argument works, then the argument for the existence of the perfect island must work too. They are both logically similar, so they stand, or fall together. However, the argument for the island is clearly spurious, as we have no reason for this ‘perfect island’ to exist. Unless a theist can point to some relevant difference between his argument for the existence of God, and Gaunilo’s argument for the existence of the perfect island, the theist will have to abandon the ontological argument for the existence of God, as well as Gaunilo’s, because if one fails, then they both do, as they are so similar. This weakness of the ontological argument adds fuel to the fire for atheists through Gaunilo putting forward his argument for the existence of the perfect island as an objection to the ontological argument. He knew that they would both fall, which shows that neither argument works which further supports atheists. Another weakness of the ontological argument which gives support to atheists is Immanuel Kant’s objection to it: Existence is not a Predicate. Fundamental to both Anselm’s and Descartes’ form of the ontological argument is that existence is a predicate, an attribute or a quality that can be possessed or lacked. These qualities for example, may or may not belong to a thing or being and their presence or absence is part of our understanding and apprehension of it. Kant observed however, that existence isn’t associated with the definition of something, since it didn’t add to our understanding of that thing. This supports atheism as existence is merely something that we can have or not have, and it is absurd to say what something is like without it existing. It also supports atheism as an atheist would say that we can’t ascribe existence a priori to a definition of a perfect being. Bertrand Russell furthered Kant’s observations, proposing that ‘existence’ was not a predicate, but a term used to solely indicate the instance of something in the ‘spatio temporal’ world. To say something exists only tells us that that thing occupies a space on the earth. For example saying ‘Cows are brown, and exist’ tells us only one thing: they are brown. The ‘and exist’ shows that they are on the earth, however it’s a tautology since to say they are brown, effectively suggests that they exist and aren’t imaginary. Thomas Aquinas had already questioned this aspect of the ontological argument, claiming that Anselm was guilty of making ‘transitional error’ – moving from the definition of God to the existence of Him. He observed that Anselm also was guilty of making an assumption about the definition of God that was not necessarily shared by all believers. This supports atheism because not all believers believed in Anselm’s definition of God, which poses the question, if people have different views on the right or wrong definition of God, what’s to say that they could ALL be wrong, and atheism is the truth in it all? Furthermore, Aquinas said that understanding the term ‘God’ means that God exists in the understanding, not in reality. God’s existence in reality must be demonstrated a posteriori, with evidence or experience. Atheism is supported in this way, as atheists could argue that anyone can believe what they like in their minds, but something has to be evident in material form in reality to be actually real. Overall, the weaknesses generally give support to atheism as they show alternatives and flaws in the ontological argument. The ways in which atheists interpret the critic’s objections leads to further belief that God does not exist. Atheists are supported primarily by the fact that the ontological argument is a priori, so does not rely on empirical evidence, therefore if there was empirical evidence for God’s existence, they might be swayed slightly in their beliefs.

A Womans World Essay -- Feminism Equality Essays

A Woman's World There is a great distance present between woman in education and woman in society. Women in society, specifically the work place, do not reflect the portrayal of women in education. There is a thin line present between the identity of woman and what characteristics are needed to succeed in the work environment. Woman are capable of obtaining the characteristics that lead to success however, many may question where, when and how these traits are taught to women. In " What Does a Woman Need to Know? b Andriene Rich states that woman may need to look farther than what lessons are provided in standard education in order to achieve success in the working environment. " There is no women's college today which is providing young women with the education they need for survival as whole persons in a world today which denies woman wholeness."pg.65 It is a challenge for woman to express their womanly traits in a work place that where these specific characteristics are dined the opportunity for success. Women in education, women in work force, and the relationship between them repeatedly continue to teach women the lessons of survival are not provided in society, and need to come from within. I am presently a preschool teacher. In our school there is a library filled with children's books. Throughout each story I read to these three and four year old children I notice that there is a common message instilled within each story. This message includes a very specific idea of women and the roles in which one is expected to portray. These roles describe woman as a mother or child who is submissive, quit, non-confrontational and usually facing a dilemma that requires help from a male figure. Children are subjected to listen... ...at she is up against and can then begin to learn what tools are necessary in order to over come it. As a teacher I can shamefully say that this is the first time I have ever questioned myself as to the role I play in this situation. I now ask myself what can I do as an educator to better prepare the children? I am now aware of the influence I have, and have already begun to make changes in my own curriculum. It is now a goal of my own to deliver an education to students that accurately relates to the realities of society. Through my own experience's I have learned my own survival techniques and skills needed to achieve success and as a teacher I hope to share this with my students. Work Cited Rich, Adrienne. "What Does a Woman Need to Know?" The Presence of Others. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewics. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2000, 65-70. .

Black Men and Public Spaces Essay

In â€Å"Black Men and Public Spaces† Brent Staples reveals his experiences with different individuos in all kind of public areas. Staples talk about how people stereotype black men as a violent and dangerous individuals because of their appearance and the color of their skin. In the past when black men was associated with the word murderer or thieves or rapist or all kind of bad things people were afraid on being next to them. When Staples started the story saying â€Å"My first victim was a woman† and he specify (white) make it seems like he wasn’t the victim of this woman when he follows saying â€Å"After a few more glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest.† What the narrator is doing is letting know that people shouldn’t judge because of the others appearances. In the whole story Staples is leaving the clear concept of people will always see black men as a threat because of his race. The sad part is that the narrator is not saying that this happen long time ago is just like a decade ago when he mention about studying at the University of Chicago and then moved to New York. It make it seems that no matter when or where black men being dangerous or being involved in criminal activity does not leave the world’s general schema, people still see black men related to the word dangerous.The title is ironic because public space is supposedly available to everyone but, socially speaking, that does not appear to be that way for black men, even in today’s society. Staples demonstrates his struggle for acceptances from people whom are scared of him. He goes on to say that he now takes precautions to avoid situations he has experienced. He now whistles melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi when he takes walks at night because no one will assume a mugger knows classical music. Instead of people crossing to the other side of the street, he’ll keep his distance from those that may seem skittish of him. It seems that he does all this just to fit in to society. None of this will change the way black men are stereotyped. I was walking with my daughter one night around seven pm., and crossing the  street inside the parking lot mall this black woman was speeding like she was on the outside streets, We were slow walking on the street to reach our car and she got so angry and get out of her car and approach to me with the intention clear of fight me, she was a very heavy black young woman maybe on her middle twenties, she was screaming at my face â€Å"Do you have a problem with me?† I said many time no I don’t please leave me alone but my daughter who was fourteen by that time and to innocent of the danger we were on, told her â€Å"You shouldn’t be speeding inside the parking lot and talking on the phone† that was enough to her to start beating up my daughter. This was a really nasty experience that we will never want to repeat and since then we try to avoid on many ways to confront a black person. We call 911 and the police man who came was a black police who said this words â€Å"For people like that woman is that we have bad reputation† I think no matter when or where and no matter the race or color we need to be careful on how to conduct ourselves at public spaces. Stereotypes affect individuals regardless of race, sex, or religion. The narrator tell many time he was mistaken as a criminal for being black and six feet two inches tall with a beard and billowing hair, when he enter to the jewelry and the proprietor excuse himself just to get his enormous red Doberman Pinscher and he has to leave, or when he was mistaking as a reporter for the killer, police officers hauled him from his car at gunpoint. Black men on public space will continue to experience these situations. We cannot change the way people think and judge. Unfortunately the majority of black men, who are criminals, will continue to give a bad reputation for those that are not. We live in a world where we have to be in high alert to maintain unharmed. There’s no reason for anyone to feel the obligation or need to act a certain way so those that are judging them can feel a sense of security, the way Brent Staples did. As long as you know you’re not that type of person, you cannot let someone’s judgment stop you from succeeding and proving that you are not a statistic.

Business Intelligence and Analytics - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1579 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Business Intelligence and Analytics Essay Before taking decisions and setting up goals, it is important for an organisation to search and investigate their past performance. This exercise will give an idea of projecting model. For an organisation it is necessary to know their capabilities and how they can use it to make maximum profit needs business intelligence and analytics. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Business Intelligence and Analytics" essay for you Create order In this essay we are discussing how business intelligence and analytics is used in an organisation and their benefits. Business intelligence combines the collection of data and knowledge management with the tools of analytics to make complex data useful for the decision makers. It is mainly deal with large amount of data. This includes data mining, gathering of data, data warehousing and to think about the data . (Negash, 2004, Article 15) Business intelligence is a plan and collection of new processes and ways of performing exploration of data to support decision makers and also facilitate databases that provide organisational societies easy approach to data. (Larissa Terpeluk Moss, 2003) Advantages of using business intelligence in workplace give the opportunity to the managers to eliminate their gut feeling or guess work while making decisions. Gutt feel and experience not always gives positive result, but business intelligence provides the clear framework of what to do i n the business and provide more correct results. It gives quick answers to your business questions without wasting time to go through large data. Another great benefit of business intelligence is, with the help of this tool companies can be able to know their customer needs and their behaviour which they will use to make profit in future businesses. With the help business intelligence companies are capable to modify their predictive models. It increases the efficiency of business, by providing predictive models. It gives insight to your business where your business was, where it is now and where it is going. It helps to manage inventory according to the needs of customers. Business intelligence can also be applied in routine work. Such as revenue assurance, selecting vendors, customer value, order accuracy etc. First example: Bharti Airtel Limited (Telecommunication Company) beliefs that customer is the heart of the business, they focuses on customers and their target is to pr ovide maximum benefits and best services. If they want to give reward to top 20 customers by facilitating them one month free broadband subscription. They have to approach to previous years data. Although it is a big challenge for the company to find out best 20 customers from big data. Firstly, managers have to find out the answers of such simple questions: How many workers a company have or strength of the employees? For each plan, how many customers were opted within last 1 year in different regions? Who are top 20 customers? What is value of each customer? It is very surprising that nobody knows the answers of these questions and even donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have any framework for these questions. BI program not only provide tools to do framework, it also act as a channel for changing the way of thinking of team members. Before finding out the 20 best customers it is important for the managers to differentiate between a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“goodà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“badà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  customer and be able to measure the goodness. Business intelligence works in the way to what sets of data need to be collected, set up the process for the collection of data to find out answers of these questions and make it useful by applying software. It also works to maintain the quality of the data to avoid errors and combined the results into sensible report. By applying these measures manager can easily find out their top 20 customers and broadcast the result. (Loshin, 2012) Second example: In the selection of vendor company needs to fi nd out the vendor who is capable of fulfilling the company needs. This can be achieved by questionnaire based study. A questionnaire was framed and criteria are rated by the different fields of specialization. Each criteria assigned number from 1to 9 and according to number, levels of importance are determined. On the basis of results which would get from the questionnaire, a matrices are produced and priorities are decide. This process is helpful to find out the reliability of the vendor, quality of the product and the vendor experience in same field. (S. Kumar, 2009) Business analytics works on the different methods or processes of organisation use to make effective decisions. Process of analytics consist of a platform of varied techniques and statistics. Accumulating and analysing data can direct the business breakthrough. (Thorland, 23 June 2014) Business analytics perform on past performance analysis, concentrate on two-way analysis, to obtain new perceptions and understa nding, research the unknown and develop new patterns. (Beller, 2009) Human resource is a branch of an organisation who deals with the people of an organisation to enhance their performance, recruiting staff and to give the direction to an employee to work on organisation by applying policies and systems. This branch of an organisation use business analytics in many ways like employee appraisal, incentive schemes, recruitment process, promotions and employee welfare. Example 1.: State Bank of India is one of the biggest bank who work worldwide. This bank applies analytics to HR management to find out the problems and challenges of an organisation by arranging meetings with senior executives. According to their voting, they identifies problem like how to energise the performance of an employee and another problem they are facing is the ageing of top management group needs to be replace by young energetic staff. The HR is not capable to deliver development for the staff and their incentive schemes are not effective. After analysing such fact bank recognise that the people of SBI is the asset for an organisation and on the other it acts as a real problem. Employees had low morale and change must be required. They decide to design induction specifically devoted to create sense of team spirit among employees. Operation was cover the low-ranking executives and clerical staff, which comes around 1,38,000 employees and it was a two day workshop. To find out the accomplishment of the programme, questionnaire based survey of SBI customers was driven and more than 48% customers agreed that there has been an improvement noticed in the employees product knowledge and services. More than 28% of customers believed that employees give more attention than before. (N.Selvam, 2011) Example 2: In 1947, Wipro started as a vegetable oil company and in 1979, Wipro started developing their own computers. Selection process in Wipro is the process to place right person on right job. Human Resource department of Wipro uses analytics in many different ways. Recruitment is one of the process refers to the screening and selection of appropriate candidate according to the job requirements. Wipro is mainly used two sources for its recruitment i.e. internal and external sources. Internal sources means recruitment within the company by doing promotions, internal postings and reference from the employees. External source means outsourcing the employees through advertisements, on campus interview, agencies deal in personnel recruitment. Its recruitment process comprises of three steps i.e. 1) Aptitude test 2) Technical interview 3) HR interview . In aptitude test candidate has to solve 20 questions and there is no negative marking. Each section of test had cut-off. Interview was in two stages, one is technical and another is HR interview. Technical interview focuses on candidateà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s technical knowledge and HR interview focused on candidateà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ â„ ¢s communication skill. After going through all these rounds, company would finalise their selections. In terms of analytics, it is a process to analyse skills and qualities of an individual, which is helpful for the company to effectively work for the achievement of goal. (P.Rao, 2010 Vol -2) Example 3 : Hyatt International is one of the biggest international chain of seven star hotel used business analytics in their HR practices to concentrate on those employee who become key assets and focusing on their development and growth. To do this, we can say that Hyatt focuses on employee needs to be fulfilled which leads to achieve efficient work from the staff members and contribute better results. In hospitality, where people are recruited with the pleasing personality. The process of recruitment is done with the help of software called Taleo and after short listing the candidates called for further rounds. Company organizes the group discussion round so that people having goo d communication skills should be scrutinized and candidates with go getting attitude should be used for multitasking environment for the organization. Through an interview they finalise their candidates. Hyatt also organizes training for senior managers to make sure that everyone is equally treated and avoid conflicts in selection procedure. By applying such practices Hyatt can be able to recruit effective personnel for their hotel which leads betterment of the organisation. In conclusion, if a company needs to receive all the benefits of effective business intelligence, it ensures that they invest their money and time on capable human resources. They also planned such tools which is helpful to analyse their efficiency. Also to make sure that tools and systems designed would analyse both conditions and content of data. Beller, M. J. (2009). Next Generation Business Analytics. Larissa Terpeluk Moss, s. a. (2003). Business Economics. Addisson-Wesley Professional . Loshin, D. (2012). Business Intelligence : The Savvy Managers Guide. N.Selvam. (2011). The role of human resource management in state bank of india. Indian streams research journal . Negash, S. (2004, Article 15). AISeL . P.Rao. (2010 Vol -2). Journal of Indian research . S. Kumar, N. P. (2009). Analytical Hierarchy Applied to vendor selection problem. Business intelligence . Thorland, G. H. (23 June 2014). Business Analytics for managers.