Roderick Chisholm on freedom of the will Essay -- essays research pape

There is much debate over the issue of whether we have complete freedom of the will or if our will caused by something other than our own choosing. There are three positions adopted by philosophers regarding this dispute: determinism, libertarianism, and compatibilism. Determinists believe that freedom of the will does not exist. Since actions are events that have some predetermined cause, no actions can be chosen and thus there is no will to choose. The compatibilist argues that you can have both freedom of the will and determinism. If the causes which led to our actions were different, then we could have acted in another way which is compatible with freedom of the will. Libertarians believe that freedom of the will does exist.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Roderick Chisholm defends Libertarianism, and in his essay â€Å"Human Freedom and The Self† argues that we have freedom of the will. Chisholm does not abandon the idea of causes but instead defines two types of causation. The first is transeunt causation where one event or state of affairs causes another event or state of affairs. This causation is based on a relationship between events. The second is immanent causation where an agent causes an event or state of affairs. An agent is an uncaused causer of events who is not bound by the laws of nature. This causation is based on the relationship between an agent and an event. Chisholm quotes a passage from Aristotle to demonstrate his immanent causation, â€Å"Thus, a staff moves a...

Outsourcing Customer Service Essay

Outsourcing Customer Service Executive Summary The choice to outsource company’s relations with their customers is a choice many businesses are making. With the costs of labor more than a quarter of the rate an average customer service representative makes in the United States (U. S. ), large companies are making the choice to offshore some, or the entire company’s customers service departments to other countries. To many of these companies, the benefits are out weighing the issues relating to outsourcing in general. Breaches of security and customer satisfaction are some of the problems businesses are facing when making the choice to offshore. Are cutting costs more beneficial than customers losing faith in the products of the company? Outsourcing Customer Service Outsourcing is a business practice that is used around the world. This paper will describe the business case for a company to outsource some of its operations, and the risks that are weighed when choosing to outsource. What impacts those decisions have on the company and its customers will also be discussed. A Background on Outsourcing Outsourcing customer service overseas involves hiring another company abroad to take over either some or the entire customer support department. Outsourcing has become a growing trend today. Many large American, European, and British corporations are eager to cut costs by off shoring customer service jobs to foreign firms for significantly lesser wages. Why Outsourcing? Some of the objectives a company will accomplish by outsourcing jobs to foreign firms are cost savings, having 24 hour customer service, and a centralized service center. Each of these points does however come at a price, and will sometimes outweigh the benefits. Saving money has been the greatest reason companies have chosen to send the majority of their customer service departments to other countries. The thought of cheap labor is enticing to many businesses when making the choice to off shore. The average call center graduate, usually holding a bachelor’s degree (BA) earns 3,000 rupees a week, which is the equivalent of 67 U. S. dollars (Aspden, 2006). To facilitate the need to off shore, construction of office space is taking 10 months to complete instead of the normal 18 months in Bangalore, India. Each month over 40 companies make the decision to outsource Information Technology (IT), back-office and customer service departments to India, and other countries. To fight the onslaught of new business, India has setup second tier cities to handle the overflow of demand and establish call centers such as Pune, Kolkata, and Jaipur, just to name a few. These cities in India are growing quickly to accommodate the need for outsourcing, while slowly loosing the foothold on the market due to the increases in pay. With other countries such as China, Hungary, and the Philippines competing for lower wage work, India may loose almost half it’s market share by 2007 (Aspden, 2006). However, companies are finding out that there are hidden costs involved with the outsourcing of customer service. A growing trend of customer dissatisfaction is causing major corporations to reconsider the outsourcing of its services. In a recent survey of pension policy holders in the United Kingdom (U. K. ) it was found that 75% would leave their current provider if they experienced bad customer service (Pfeffer, 2006). Mega corporations such as Dell, Capitol One, and JP Morgan all made an attempt to outsource customer service and all reversed course. Evidence is mounting that good customer service is pivotal in a company’s retention of customers. A 2005 Gartner study predicted that 60% of organizations that outsource customer-facing processes will see significant numbers of frustrated customers switching to competitors (Pfeffer, 2006). Even call centers in the United Kingdom (U. K. ) have reverted calls back to their own soil due to customer complaints, with the majority of those companies vowing to keep call centers in the U. K. (Kivlehan, 2005). The corporate mentality towards outsourcing is far understated as companies see the business case for the moves, assuming that customers do not pay attention to dialect and local customs. After years of wondering what all those fiber-optic cables laid around the earth at massive expense in the late 1990s would ever be good for, we finally have an answer: They are good for enabling call-center workers in Bangalore or Delhi to sound as if they are next door to everyone. Broadband’s killer app, it turns out, is India (Fox, 2003). Risk Management

How useful are urban models to the modern geographer and urban planners?

An urban model is a simplification of a real city. They are used to help us understand more about real cities by showing patterns or processes which in real life may be complex and difficult to identify. They are applicable to a large number of cities rather than one particular city. They are based on the idea that there are similarities between cities. Geographers use these models to try and identify and explain urban spatial patterns and variations in their structure. Where as urban planners use the models to deal with real life situations such as deciding where to place a new motorway or deciding where to build a new business park. The first urban model to be produced was by Burgess in 1924 he attempted to explain the outward expansion of the city (Chicago) and the socioeconomic groupings of it inhabitants. He did this by splitting the city into five concentric zones: the central business district, transition zone, low class housing, medium class housing and high class housing. He devised these zones by the theory that individual compete with each other for the most favourable locations within the city. This competition was founded on the market for buildings and land: those who can afford the highest prices will get the best and most favourable land. This model could be useful to modern geographers as it could be used as a good starting point to look at the spatial variations of sections/zones within a town. It could also help to explain why people live where they do and why they live in certain groups. This model could be useful to modern urban planners as it could be used to describe the existing patterns of land use or city morphology and be compared to that of the modern morphology of a city in deciding where to place a certain building etc. due to the density of inhabitants in a certain area. It could also be used to measure land values and density within a city. Hoyt was the second producer of an urban model in 1939. He adapted on the same implicit assumptions that burgess had made but with adaptations. Hoyt's model was based on the mapping of eight housing variables for 142 cities in the USA. He tried to account for changes in, and the distribution of residential patterns. He had the addition of three new factors on the burgess model. He suggested that areas of the highest rent tended to be alongside main lines of communication and that the city grew in a series of wedges. He also said that once an area had developed a land use that it would remain that use as the city extended outwards. This model could be useful to modern geographers as it is a better adaptation of the burgess model. Meaning that extra factors have been taken into consideration such as the wealth and similar land uses. This could be more helpful as it makes more judgements on where and why variations will happen. Such as wealthy people can afford the highest rates so will have the best position and afford to buy cars so will live further from he Central business district. This model could be useful to modern urban planners as it is a better adaptation of the burgees model with extra factors taken into consideration. This could be helpful to a planner as it talks about land value and how similar land uses attract other similar land uses. This is helpful as a planner can locate where certain industries are and where to situate them. Also to know where the wealthy people are will help to know what services and transport routes are best targeted towards them Mann was the third producer of an urban model in 1965. He tried to adapt the Burgess and Hoyt models to three industrial towns in northern England. He made a compromise model that combined ideas of burgess concentric zone model with that of Hoyt's sectors model. He assumed that because of prevailing winds in northern Britain blow from the west, that the high class housing would be in the west and industry with its smoke, would be locate to the east of the central business district. This model could be useful to modern geographers as it combines the two theories of Hoyt and burgees resulting in a more complex and relevant model. It could be useful to see if industry does affect the position and distance of certain types of economic wealth. This model could be useful to modern urban planners as it combines the theories of Hoyt and burgees producing a more complex and applicable model. It could be useful in the location of industry and the construction of houses for different socio economic inhabitants. Ullman and Harris were the fourth producers of an urban model in 1945. They set out to produce a realistic model compared to those of Burgess and Hoyt but consequently they ended up with one that was more complex and this meant that the model was more descriptive then predictive. They said that a multiple nuclei needed to be developed as a response to the need for maximum accessibility to a centre, to keep certain types of land use apart and to show differences of land values, This model could be useful to modern geographers as it is more realistic to the modern world with its complexity. It could be useful to see if a town/city does actually follow the model with several nuclei. It also help to explain the inhabitants that commute to the central business district and see if they add to its density and population. This model could be useful to modern urban planners as it could help to locate bus routes and roads that were needed for the commuters and people who travel to work from the multiple nuclei. It could also help in the planning and placing of new houses for the people leaving the city to commute to work. In conclusion I think that urban models are very useful to modern geographers and planner's .I think that models are a good starting point for analysing the morphology of modern cities. These models were produced in the past so it is obvious that changes will have taken place such as technology, fashions and transport. This does not mean that the models cannot be of use. The principles can still remain with a little adaptation to the real modern world.

To What Extent Should We Trust Our Senses to Give Us the Truth

To what extent should we trust our senses to give us the truth? Most of the things we know are based on a life-long series of observations and experiments through our own senses. Without our senses, social interactions and critical thinking would be impossible, leaving us only with inexplicable emotions, a close state to nothingness. Despite its significance, however, our senses have limitations ranges from our dependency to language to our own biological limitations. Human beings are inherently provided with these inevitable limitations.We therefore, as well-educated individuals, must not completely trust our senses as it can easily be deceived. Our dependence on language distorts what our senses are truly getting. In a simple context of analyzing an art piece, for instance in the process of analyzing the nuance of the work, our interpretations of what we see tend to be bounded with the language that we know. Without the use of language, in this context, the art piece will remain ab stract in our mind. The emotions that we get from viewing the art piece, for example, can be described with adjectives.In a wider sense, language influences the way we think. I have encountered an experience where my short eyesight (I need glasses to see â€Å"normally†) gave a misleading account to an event. I was in an art convention center with my friend; the place was covered with a realistically structured fake plastic trees. It was part of the art works being exhibited. In the end of the expo I said to my friend, â€Å"Nice right! Such great pieces of art shown there! Especially the trees, how on earth can they grow it to form such structure†.My friend, whose vision is â€Å"normal†, told me that it the trees were forgeries. I wasn't using my glasses at the moment, If I was then I would've reacted differently. Biological capabilities limit what we are able to sense and perceive. There are still many factors such as spacial familiarity, past experience; our tendency to see or hear what we expect rather than what really happen; optical illusions or social and cultural conditioning that aren’t being discussed, but also a limitation of our senses.Although with the chance of getting false knowledge, what important is that we develop critical thinking skills to distinguish between good and bad reasoning. Examining our own perspectives, using our own senses perhaps, and comparing them to those of others and to see what we learn from it is what important rather than abstaining from the pursuit of knowledge due to the limitations of our senses.

Blacks Leisure Group Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Blacks Leisure Group - Essay Example This diversity makes the company capture a wider market. The company's strength also lies in the availability of capital enabling the company to weather periods of large losses and allocate budget to cover expenses for closure of its non-performing stores. This is the result of a comprehensive and effective financial management scheme. Most of the products sold by the company are designed for cold and moist conditions which make it inappropriate or warm and dry conditions. Whenever such weather conditions occur, the company will surely suffer from decreased sales. The company is also lacking in activities that encourage participation and industry growth. It has minimal presence in advocacy campaigns geared towards the availability of land/waterways upon which to recreate, strong outdoor ethos in the next generations and integration of a variety of activities into the active outdoor lifestyle. These activities are necessary to ensure that people will prefer to go outdoors than just enjoy indoor activities. According to the 2007 full preliminary report of the company, the new e-commerce web sites for Blacks and Millets have resulted to a 70% increase on online sales. The provision of online shopping as a distribution channel presents opportunities for the business firm to increase their sales as they can widen their coverage.

W 2 OM Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

W 2 OM Discussion - Essay Example Even though this system has been described by Asnis (2002) as being effective in controlling the deterioration of health cases, it has also been criticized as not being preventive in nature. This is because with this system, there must be a risk indicator before proactive interventions are sent by government. Based on the weakness with the system, it would be noted that the best way to make the system effective is to ensure that it is approached from both a preventive perspective and a curative perspective. To do this, government must deepen research that aids in the forecasting of possible health risks. With such forecasted results, it will be possible to predict some areas that are not currently prone to certain health risks but may be at risk in future. Most certainly, with such an effective preventive approach, there can be much guarantee that government spending on healthcare can be reduced (Meredith and Shafer, 2014). This is because the amount of money government have always spent on its curative duties have been more than the government have spent in preventing the escalation of health risks (Meredith and Shafer,

Literature review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Literature review - Essay Example Man has its own structure according to his responsibilities, woman posse’s different structure as per her responsibilities. Men and women both created in couples but both posses different attributes and different lifestyles. Woman posses some traits completely different from man and man owns some characteristics entirely different from woman. Still, there is a competition lies between man and woman. No matter in which part of the world, they live but it’s so easy to find a tight competition between man and woman. Gender plays an important role in both human beings. Gender helps creating special traits in every man or woman. It is generally considered that men are strong and women are weak, there are thousands of differences on the basis of which it is usually said. Regardless of strength, there are many other factors that make woman different from man. Man are usually strong in feelings, they do not take care lots of small things in their life, while on the other hand, woman are always possessive about their relationship, their belongings etc. The word docility states the trait of being agreeably manageable and submissive. Docility can also be defined as the willingness and readiness to fulfill other wishes without considering own’s wish. ... The term docility also points Judith butler’s (1990) theory of gender performance. She points that individuals must constantly perform defined gender actions, in order to get away the social discipline that is experienced against queer sexuality. In the repetition of gender actions, actions are usually ignored and the avatar is usually considered as an internal identity. In this way, gender seems a docile body. For instance, Miroslaw Filiciak (2003) argues that the developing of identities in cyberspace is not so much in plenty from a self as it is a longed for chance of showing one’s self beyond physical limits. These expressions might not move beyond the gender actions and sexual norms that make the â€Å"self†. In the eyes of many sociologist, docility in the main concept of performance. Docility usually helps in identifying personal traits as per their gender specification; it also helps in understanding why individuals authorize with the agency to develop th eir own sexual world rather to perpetuate the identified norms of gender and sexuality. Conformity is the action of relating attributes, concepts, and actions to what human gender considers is usual of their community or social group. This determination appears in small units and society as a whole, and normally output from elusive unconscious shapes, or direct and overt social force. Conformity can appear in the presence of others, or when an individual has no one around him. For instance, people incline to obey social values when eating or watching their favorite plays, even when they have no one around them. A number of people normally conform from a wish of being safe within a unit generally in a group of a similar religion, unit,