What the Hell Is It all About Essay Example

What the Hell Is It all About Essay What the Hell Does it all Mean? Humans differ from any other species on the earth. Our superior brain gives us a tremendous reasoning capacity that probes the depths of human existence. This intellect is closely intertwined with our spirituality, our immaterial part that seeks answers from something beyond ourselves. Throughout the history of human existence, God worked to reveal himself to and develop a relationship with his people, the pinnacle of his creation. The Old Testament chronicles the story of Gods people, the Israelites. God chose these people to reveal himself to all nations. The Bible chronicles this story as well as writings that came out of this time period. A section of these writings is known as Wisdom Literature from which comes the book of Ecclesiastes. Many have debated the value of including Ecclesiastes in the canon because of its apparent godlessness. Nonetheless, after evaluating the book, Peter Kreeft in his book Three Philosophies of Life, calls Ecclesiastes the great of all books of philosophy (15). The content, logic, and personality of Ecclesiastes verifies this claim. First of all we need to define philosophy. Often, Just the word conjures up mages of old, robed men stroking their flowing white beards and contemplating deep questions. We also may think of universities where professors and students hold seminars and debates. Most nonintellectuals probably cringe at the mention of the word because of these very images. Even the various dictionaries strongly associate philosophy with the academic world. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines philosophy as the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, esp. hen considered as an academic discipline. The etymology also onnotes philosophy as a lofty intellectual term; the word originates from the Greek word philosophia which means the love of wisdom. One definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, however, reveals a deeper, more personal meaning of philosophy by defining it as the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group. Whether we realize it or not, we all live out of our individual philosophy. Our beliefs shape our decisions, goals, and perceptions. We will write a custom essay sample on What the Hell Is It all About specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on What the Hell Is It all About specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on What the Hell Is It all About specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Thus, philosophy is not Just for the intellectual. It also involves the common man because t some point everybody needs to answer lifes ultimate question of meaning. Of course, philosophy is also an academic discipline, and we need to reckon with this when dubbing Ecclesiastes as the greatest philosophy book ever written. Critics often dismiss Ecclesiastes as the senile ramblings of an old man, presumably King Solomon. The author does not use a strict form to present his ideas, a highly-valued discipline in the formal study of philosophy. Because of this, he often seems to ramble and at times even changes his mind. Instead of presenting his thoughts with lean, objective methodology, he involves much emotion. All these objections contain some legitimate points, yet we need to consider the basic qualities for great philosophy. Is the greatness and brilliance of a philosophy essentially measured by the form in which it is presented? Is the clean and articulate method of logic really the best? However necessary and good, the emphasis on form in modern philosophy has shifted our focus away from the actual content of the question. Perhaps this overemphasis on torm came as a way ot avoiding the reality ot the burning question that demands an answerthe question of meaning. Without orthodox form or tact, Solomon faces this ultimate question of human existence with gut-wrenching honesty. This is philosophy that reckons with reality. This is great philosophy. Ecclesiastes presents the world and our human existence as essentially meaningless. As the earth spins and revolves in the midst of a vast, swirling cosmos for who knows how many years, we are born. Throughout out our several decades of existence, we experience some pleasure and enjoy life at times, but typically we feel more pain than enjoyment. Even our enjoyment eventually becomes toilsome. Everything that we see tends toward a state of disorder. We desire the pleasure of life and resist the pain, but after several brief years, the law of entropy wreaks havoc on our physical bodies and we die. Why? What is the point? The hopelessness of this situation demands an honest answer. Solomon presents his argument for meaninglessness in a very logical form, contrary to the claims of many critics. The form is less explicit than most and very different than the rigid form developed by the Greeks and used by modern philosophers. The author writes disjointedly at times, but this very isjointedness in form brilliantly presents his argument for the meaninglessness of life. As Kreeft said, The books rambling is deliberate, for this form perfectly expresses its content, its message: that life rambles to nowhere. Its form is one with its content: the test of great poetry (24). We often credit the Greeks for developing the form of proper argumentation. Although Solomon existed long before the Greeks, he used the same basic form to develop his devastating, yet perfectly logical conclusion about the ultimate meaninglessness of life. At the core of all logic ies a syllogism that makes two statements and draws a conclusion. Kreeft presents the following syllogism: All toil is under the sun. And all under the sun is vanity. Therefore, all toil is vanity. (35) Before making these statements about toil and vanity, Solomon experimented with each in a logical way and recorded his findings in the book (Kreeft 37). First of all he experimented with wisdom, but soon discovered that wisdom only raises more questions than what it can answer. Wisdom did not satisfy because it explained nothing. It merely affirmed that everything was in fact meaningless. Meaning cannot be found in studying meaningless things. By denying spiritual reality and reducing humans to purely physical pieces of matter, existentialism confirms this truth. Knowledge, because it stems from purely physical aspects, is no longer trustworthy. Solomon acknowledged this futility after his experiment with wisdom. After wisdom Solomon experimented with hedonism, the unabashed pursuit of pleasure. Many modern, naturalistic philosophies that deny the existence of God advocate this approach towards finding meaning. Since no eternal meaning exists, people seek mmediate pleasure. Some spend all their lives pursuing riches and fame. Others turn to drugs or sex for their thrills. Solomon recorded his experimentation with pleasure and concluded that pleasure is essentially meaningless. Pleasure always requires increased dosages, and many people die completely unsatisfied. Living for the moment simply avoids the terrifying question of death. King Solomon gained enormous power that most men and women only dream about. As monarch at the apex ot Israels reign ne controlled trade which accumulated great riches tor him and the kingdom. Because of his political status he could marry virtually any woman that he desired. Solomon had complete control over his pleasure. Kreeft states that power is broader than pleasure because it includes power over pleasure (41). Solomon experienced this complete power, but still he lamented the meaninglessness of life. After selfishly pursuing pleasure for himself in search of meaning, Solomon gave up and turned to philanthropy thinking that sharing his goods would bring his life a sense of worth. Solomon soon realized, though, that sharing his meaningless things simply spread meaninglessness to other people. Many modern celebrities and businesspeople try this method of finding purpose. By giving millions to good causes they think their lives will have meaning. The postmodern generation seek meaningful Jobs instead of merely well-paying Jobs. Though these attempts are good in many respects, they remain incomplete. By addressing the quest for meaning in a short-term sense the ultimate question remains neglected. Finally, Solomon experimented with religion. He acknowledged that God existed and that God created the world and its people. However, even this acknowledgment failed to satisfy his quest for purpose. At one point Solomon even acknowledged that God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, but in a gloomy conclusion he stated that God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them (Holy Bible. Ecc. 6. 2). Solomon came very close to the truth here, but he failed to see an accurate picture of God. Instead of seeing God as the answer to his question, he merely saw God as a impersonal force. He then concluded that living in such a state is also completely Solomons horrifying conclusion logically shows that life in itself is vain. ssentially meaningless. We live for unknown causes. Finally we simply live to survive, but nature cares nothing for this desire and snuffs out our lives after a few years. Why even struggle for survival if existence is painful anyw?ay? No rational answer exists. For some reason, however, human nature recoils in response to this bleak assessment of existence. We were meant for much more. The ultimate beauty and greatness of Ecclesiastes as compared to other philosophy books comes from its depiction of a personal struggle. All the questions of philosophy eventually need to become personal. This personalizing of the questions grounds them in reality. It is easy for philosophy to get carried away with lofty hypothesizing and argumentation without ever becoming personal. By dealing with the questions on purely academic levels, we can avoid the shocking reality of the answers. Solomons honesty with the question of meaning shows his sincere desire for an answer. Unlike many modern philosophers Solomon refused to accept the easy answers presented by much of popular philosophy. He refused to ignore the question because he knew the effects of neglecting it. Much of popular philosophy attempts to answer the problem imply by ignoring it. Problem? What problem? Psychologists inform us that we are basically good and that all we need is self-actualization to overcome our destructive behaviors and ideas. We then force ourselves to think positively and delude ourselves into thinking that life depends solely on our outlook. Finally even this fails, so we fill our lives with noise and cheap entertainment, effectively drowning out the question that requires an answer. By doing this we seek an answer before recognizing the problem, and there is nothing more meaningless than an answer without its question (Kreeft 19). Taken to its logical conclusion, a life void of meaning results in a life void of sanity. The question presented by Ecclesiastes is the greatest question that man can and should ask. Ecclesiastes accurately portrays the life of man without God. Like many popular philosophies, Ecclesiastes assumes the absence of personal God. Unlike most other godless philosophers, however, the author honestly sees the implications of accepting this meaninglessness. He sees the truth and shudders. Even though the book ends with the question of meaning seemingly unresolved, the author vividly sees his need for God. He distinctly sees God by seeing the stark outline of the darkness that the face of Jesus fills (Kreeft 51). Despite its godless content, Ecclesiastes speaks pure, unadulterated truthobJective truth that divinely reveals God in its godlessness. As Kreeft says, It is divine revelation precisely in being the absence of divine revelation (23). Works Cited Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2013. Kreeft, Peter. Three Philosophies of Life. San Fransico: Ignatius, 1989. Philosophy. Merriam- Webster Online Dictionary. 2013. Merriam-Webster Online. 20 November 2008 . Philosophy. New Oxford American Dictionary. 2nd ed. 2001.

buy custom Internet Technology, Marketing, and Security essay

buy custom Internet Technology, Marketing, and Security essay Introduction Dell Company is a leading corporation that markets and sells their products through websites. Dell Inch is an American multinational corporation that deals with information technology products, such as computers and other related products. It bears the name of the founder Michael Dell who founded it in1984. It is one of the largest technological companies across the globe. It is the leading sellers of technological products of high quality across the globe. Dell Inch distributes their products across the globe through utilizing their website for advertising their products and services available in the market. The company conducts their business across the globe through subsidiaries. It designs, develops, manufactures, markets and sells their products in a wide range of product that are customized to individual customers. However, in the past three years, Dell Company has experienced a security breach. Dell employ unique marketing strategies and tits website provides a competitive adv ance, which contributes to increased sales. Dell Inch has designed its website in a manner that creates attention to customers. It has brand names for varied market segments for their products. The business corporate represents brand whereby the companys product information emphasizes the long life-cycles, reliability and serviceability of varied products. The consumer class emphasizes product value, its performance and expendability. It provides the arrangement of products available in the market. These products are arranged in a manner that makes it easy for customers to choose the products they want to purchase. Each product has information revealing the suitability of the products and where it suits best. The corporate contact information is clearly provided in their website in order to help customers make easy access of products purchase. The purpose of the contacts, which includes the email address of the company, is provided with the aim of contacting the company in case one needs the products. Additionally, customer information at purchase is provided for each product presented in the list. The company provides information for activity based management and such information includes product evaluation or information about the product a customer purchased. The information for products at purchase is clearly provided to customers in order to help them make decisions of the products suitable for them. Customization of products for customers is the most critical means of delivering true value to customers (Hvam, Mortensen and Riis, 2008). The companies customize their products in order to achieve superior competitive advantage in the marketplace. The company implements product configuration system as a way of achieving this practice. It provides a lead time for product reduction depending on the demands of customers. Therefore, the design of products is done in a way that attracts the attention of customers. The company carries out product customization, because consumers prefer to achieve their personal tastes reflecting on what they are doing or using. Thus, Dell customizes products for their customers in order to help them meet their demanding needs. One of the corporations Internet marketing strategies employed in marketing their products is lowering of prices for products any time all the year round. The company keeps on lowering their products in order to compete with their competitors producing the same products. This is crucial because it strategy has enabled it to acquire more customers who order and buy products online. In 2006, the company cut their prices in an effort of maintaining their market share. It also cut profit margins of real products purchased by more than a half. This is done for the purpose of maintaining existing customers and attracting more customers in the market. The company keeps on accepting most purchase made through the Internet or telephone network in order to maintain their prices low. After the customers purchase the products online, the company provides a free delivery thus; encouraging more customers for the availability of products in the market. Another marketing strategy they use is providing customers with bonuses for products purchased. The company offers their customers with free bonuses for the products purchased, including Dell printers and scanners. This is crucial, because it enables customers to demand more products in their company. This is a crucial strategy that helps the company to compete favorably with their competitors. They make subsequent product campaigning through their website. They make promotions of their services and products online offering a wide range of bonuses in order to attract more customers. Moreover, they started using the slogan of Yours is here as a means of making their products known to customers. This slogan is one of the advertisement strategies that communicate the way their products fits the requirements of customers. The last strategy they employed is providing free shipping of products in order to encourage more sales as well as to keep off their competitors. This is an essential tool that involves more customers to purchase the products. This is crucial because it increases the sales of products and encourages customers to make more purchase of products online, since they are freely delivered to them. Not only this strategy increases sales, but also aims at keeping away their competitors. The major competitors of Dell Company are Toshiba, Acer, Sony, Samsung and many other companies, which are producing software and hardware computer related products. Dell and its subsidiary, such as HP and other manufactures, have profoundly competed favorably in the market across the globe. This is through the introduction of this strategy that had helped them to maintain their customers, and they have created new customers for their computer products. This marketing strategy was formulated after Dell lost mo re server market share in 2006, to their competitors. The Dell Corporations privacy is a greater concern to the company. The company has implemented a strategy of managing their products and they have created a customer relationship management (CRM). This is the way their customer interacts with them and it involves technology use in organizing, automating and synchronizing business process. The security is provided by the company in order to protect their properties form any theft or malicious acts thhat may hinder the company from better performance. The customer relationship management is their business strategy that the company employs in providing security privacy. It takes into consideration sales activities and technical support provided to customers in case of any need arise. Moreover, they provide free software security and trial version downloads to customers in order to keep their computer safe. Additionally, the company is concerned with security privacy due to the need of striking a balance between ease use in the CRM software interface and acceptable security measures. Striking this balance is a challenge, because security improvements may be at the expense of the system usability. According to Roberts (2008), it is vital for a company to design and develop technology that strikes a balance between the user interface and security features that meets the standards of the company. Mostly, the security breaches result due to errors made by the user. Such errors may be intentionally done through downloading or executing computer virus something, which is termed as security breaches. Therefore, Dell Company responds to security bleaches through identifying the files and following the users; orders in order to execute the file exposed to the harmful virus. The research study indicates that a more usable system may create a less confusion or amount of errors that may arise thus; creating a more secure as well as stable CRM system. One of the methods or tools recommendable for ensuring greater security for customers is providing data security systems. The primary functional tool that would provide high security to customers is collecting the clients and information in order to enable the company to protect their clients form insecurity. Data security is one way of ensuring that the information or content is kept safe, and its access to its suitability is controlled (Ryan and Jones, 2009). This is vital, because data security enables a company to ensure privacy. It protects personal information and its one way of ensuring information is kept secure. The company may use some data security technologies, such as hardware base mechanism for protecting information from any theft or insecure. This data security may protect the information from being stolen. The company may provide strong protection from any unauthorized access, because some encrypted operating systems may be corrupted by malicious programs making them unusable. The hardware based security program may prevent this from any access thus, providing a better security of information. The second method recommendable for providing greater security to customers is data masking. This is a method of obscuring structured data within a database cell in order to ensure that information security is maintained. This is done through masking the information from the users, developers and outsourcing vendors. This is vital because it will enable the company to protect their customers from any malicious act. Masking data are a method employed in many organizations selling their products online, because it creates exceptional customer relationship. This enables the company to maintain their customers, thus will continue to operate smoothly without any consequence in business transactions. Buy custom Internet Technology, Marketing, and Security essay

Family assessment Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Family assessment - Coursework Example This structure is gradually changing, even though here we have considered father as the main provider and mother second authority for the decision making with father. Family assessment is the act of collecting data of a sample of a family and organizing the information derived from the data. However, the main purpose of the assessment is to find out the type of the environment that a child is brought up in. It also tries to find out the challenges that face a certain family and the factors that lead to the challenges. The assessment is done to come up with solutions that can be applied to create a better environment for the family. Through these family assessments, factors behind family failures have been realized and possible measures taken. Now we want observe and explore the idea of evidence based family assessment, which has significant influence on the mental health of the family members as well as the children. As many different researches has been published on this concept, ha ve harnessed here with detail analysis. Description of Family The assessment conducted was in a family made up of a father (49 years), mother (46) and two daughters one 22 years old years and the youngest is 12 years. The father is the provider of most of basic needs. However, the father, mother, and elder daughter make key decisions concerning the family’s financial issues and welfare like school fees and farming expenses. The father works as a salesperson while the mother is a farmer and a homemaker. The eldest daughter is a university student while the young girl is in a primary school. Both the mother and the father are college graduates. The language used by the family is primarily English. The only person available at home all through is the mother. The younger daughter is a day scholar in a nearby private primary school. There are three cats and one dog in the household. The dog is the best pet for the young girl. In this family, the father cannot make a decision witho ut informing the wife and the children. Developmental stage Developmental Stage – Evelyn Duvall has developed 8 stages for a family which is ; Stage-1 Married Couples yet to have children, Stage-2 Family with infant child, Stage-3 Families with pre-school children, Stage-4 School –going children within families, Stage -5 , Families where teenage children Stage-6 , where last children leaving home, Stage-7, -Middle age parents and Stage-8 Aged parents. These are the stages based on the age and the life cycle of the family member. Some may come up with the idea of power differentiation like mother as main decision maker or father, which is frequently appearing in current society. Family Structure- According to the theory of Development by Duvall, this family is in the fifth stage of development. The major issues are balancing of freedom with responsibility as teenagers mature and become increasingly autonomous, refocusing the marital relationship between the parents and communicating openly between parents and children. Child Development According to the theory by Erickson, the two children are in the stage of Fidelity: Identity vs. Role confusion. For one to reach this stage, development mainly depends on what a person is done for. However, at this stage, ones development is dependent on what one does. An

Business IT A Professional Issues Group Report Essay

Business IT A Professional Issues Group Report - Essay Example Improving treatment of depression in primary care requires properly organized treatment programmes, regular follow-up, monitoring of treatment adherence, and a prominent role for the mental health specialist as educator, consultant, guide and clinician. Future research should focus on how guidelines are best implemented in routine practice, since conventional strategies are not displaying any substantial improvement in their impact on patients. *Shifting patients away from mental health specialists decreases costs but worsens functioning outcomes. The appropriate strategy for making care for depression treatment cost-effective is through quality improvement and not through changing specialty mix. *Psychologists managing patients on antidepressant medications did as well as psychiatrists in reducing functioning limitations and were superior to primary care physicians.) *Pharmacotherapy be preferred over psychotherapy for the severely depressed, cognitive therapy, with supportive management. Either medication or psychotherapy could serve as the initial treatment for patients with mild or moderate depression. Our summation is that the idea to turn treatment of depression over to primary care physicians using antidepressant medications

Welfare and Cigarettes Essay Example for Free

Welfare and Cigarettes Essay With the increased health problems that caused by smoking, more and more people think that the production and sale of cigarettes should be made illegal. However, these people tend to ignore that the positive outcome of cigarettes business brings to the society. They also falsely believe that prohibition of producing and selling cigarettes will lead people to adopt a healthier living environment. Cigarettes business is one of the most profitable industries in the world. The government receive huge amount of taxes from cigarettes companies and it actually uses the money to help fund the welfare program, in which a lot of people can benefit from. Making production and sale of cigarettes illegal will definitely hurt the income of the government, and add pressures on many people who are in need of welfare programs. Some producers of cigarettes will probably keep the business running under the table, as they are still attracted by the humongous profit. This will create more problems that it actually has. It may cause chaos to the community, since smokers can go depressed and do harmful things without having cigarettes. It may also increase crime rate, since people have to trade cigarettes illegally; it can burden the government, since the government needs to spend more money on hiring people to stop the illegal sale and purchase of cigarettes. The potential negative effects on the illegalization of cigarettes are clearly telling us that it is not a desirable approach. In addition, many smokers know that if they consume too many cigarettes, their life will be thread with various health problems; however, they still choose to smoke without worrying about their future health. If they have already cared less of their health, they could find way around to purchase cigarettes and smoke anyway even knowing that is illegal. Thus, it cannot provide people with a healthier living environment. In conclusion, the government should not make the production and sale of cigarettes illegal because it will harm the society economically as well as create more problems that it actually has. The cost of illegalization of cigarettes outweighs the advantage of it, thus they should not make producing and selling cigarettes illegal.

Enterpreneurship And Management Essay -- essays research papers

Entrepreneurship is The process of initiating a business venture, organizing the necessary resources and assuming the associated risks and rewards. Entrepreneurship as an option. For many years there was many worries surrounding the idea but recently there has been an outbreak of entrepreneurs making money and living a better quality of life. Women and minorities are now starting their own businesses more than men because they have been discriminated in the corporate world and decided to go out on their own. Entrepreneurship and the environment-people used to be worried about small businesses surviving now there are about 23 million out there. Since our economy is rapidly changing it creates new opportunities for small business owners everyday. New technology has opened thousands of new opportunities and especially with the Internet making a small business available to thousands of people around the world. Definition of a small business by the SBA is typically a business with 500 or less people or it can depend on annual receipts or the number of employees in certain categories such as manufacturing, retail and services. Impact of Entrepreneurial companies: about 600,000 new companies are incorporated every year. The SBA reports that small businesses employ more than 50% of the workforce and generate more than half of the nations’ GDP. Who are Entrepreneurs They are people that have a vision and want to achieve something. They need tolerance for ambiguity, self confid...

Parachute

Parachute after shower Hair Cream Introduction Parachute after shower hair cream for men, is a hair styling cream that can be used daily to style your hair. It has aqua moisturizers & since it is made in an oil-in-water emulsion, it is completely non-sticky. Parachute after shower hair cream contains coconut milk proteins which keeps hair nourished. The need for males to look good has never been more important. More and more males in India are realizing the importance of â€Å"great looking hair† & want a product that can be used to â€Å"style hair daily. † The reason why I use Parachute after shower?After shower hair cream was launched in Mumbai 2005. This hair cream was only meant for the younger generation who were looking for a product that would help them to â€Å"look the part† Everyday. The reason I use this product is it easily available in the market and It’s an Indian company this product is less expensive as compare to others. If any other prod uct rather then this would be â€Å"Brylcreem†. BRAND AMBASSADOR To drive the brand the company had signed on Cricketer Yuvraj Singh, as there new Brand Ambassador who brings in a refreshing change. He is a complete fit with the brand because he is young, stylish, dashing, and flamboyant.Competitors Looking at the growth of the product many companies have come in with different products to match with this hair cream. They have even introduced many hair oil products as anti dandruff which can smoothen the hair and style also. This comparison with oil and gel had led into a competition in the market. Brylcreem: – Brylcreem’s purpose is to keep combed hair in place while giving it a shine or gloss. It is an emulsion of water and mineral oil stabilized with beeswax. Other ingredients are fragrance, calcium hydroxide, BHT, dimethyl oxazolidine, magnesium sulfate, and stearic acid.This was the first anti dandruff gel made for men’s. Men’s youth used this gel to style their hair and this gel would give them an entirely different look. Himalaya Herbal anti-dandruff hair cream: – The use of this cream can be used on wet hair. It can be used as massage to the hair also but only a small portion should be used. Use regularly before and after shampooing. Suitable for all hair types. Safe to use on artificially colored or permed hair.