Kant Moral Law Theory Essay Example for Free

Kant Moral Law Theory Essay â€Å"Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. † – Kant (1788), pp, 193, 259 Immanuel Kant introduced and initiated his ‘moral law theory’ in the late 18th century. The doctrine in question sought to establish and constitute a supreme or absolute principle of morality. Kant disputes the existence of an ‘ethical system’, whereby moral obligations are obligations of ‘purpose’ or ‘reason’. The accuracy of actions [i. e. the rightness or wrongness of an individual deed] is determined by its configuration and conformity with regard to ‘moral law’. Evidently, according to Kant, an immoral transaction is invariably contemplated as an illogical or unreasonable occurrence or action. The supreme moral principle is a consistent working criterion that proves to be practically helpful and theoretically enlightening when used by rational agents as a guide for making personal choices (Kant VI). A supreme guiding moral principle must carry with it an absolute necessity and be done out of duty to the moral law in order to be free from corruption. Kant believed in a fair and impartial law. He accredited and affirmed the presence of an objective moral law that we, as humans, were/are able to identify with through the process of reasoning. Kant argued that we are able to recognise and distinguish moral law, without making reference to the possible consequence or outcome. Immanuel Kant declared a differentiation between statements [i.e. posteriori and priori] that he believed to coincide with moral law. A posteriori statement is one that is based on experience of the material world. In opposition, a priori statement requires no such knowledge; it is known independent of the phenomenal world. Furthermore, Kant continued to make additional distinctions with regard to analytic and synthetic statements. An analytic statement, he claims, is one that by its very nature is necessarily true, as the predicate is included within the definition of the subject. Example: – [â€Å"all squares have four sides†]. The previous statement is of an analytic nature, as the predicate, i. e. the square having four sides, is implicit and is part of the definition of the subject – [â€Å"square†]. An analytic statement is necessarily true – true by its own authority, and is purely explicative, as it tells us nothing new about the subject. In contrast, a synthetic statement is one in which the predicate is not included in the definition of the subject, and thus is not necessarily true. A synthetic statement also tells us something new about the subject. Prior to Kant, it was widely accepted that there were only two types of statement: a priori analytic and a posteriori synthetic. Kant accepted these two statements although believed there to be a third: a priori synthetic statement. These are statements that are known independent of experience that may or may not be true. Kant claimed that these priori synthetic principles are inherent within us and therefore subsequently form the basis of all moral decision making. Kant’s theory is based on and is primarily concerned with the aspect of ‘duty’. Kant believed and promoted the notion that to act morally is one’s ‘duty’, and one’s ‘duty’ is to act and proceed in accordance to the principles of moral law. Due to this, Kant’s theory is categorised and distinguished as a ‘deontological argument’. A deontological theory is one that maintains the moral rightness or wrongness of an action and depends on its fundamental qualities, and is independent of the nature of its consequence – â€Å"Duty for duty’s sake†. This perspective can be viewed in contrast to the beliefs and ‘rules’ associated and belonging to teleological arguments, i. e. utilitarianism. Immanuel Kant argued that moral requirements are based on a standard of rationality he dubbed the â€Å"Categorical Imperative. The categorical imperative has derived from the initial belief and notion that humans base their moral judgment on pure reason alone. This view can be viewed in contrast to a ‘morality theory’, which assumed/s that human’s actions are guided by emotions or desires. Example: When deciding what I ought to say to a friend who is distraught. Rationale would dictate that I give sensible advice, whereas my emotions may impulsively tell me to give comfort and sympathy. The categorical imperative declares and differentiates between obligatory and forbidden actions, and places further emphasis on the notion of ‘duty’. This statement can be strengthened through the following quotation – [â€Å"All in imperatives command either hypothetically or categorically†¦ If the action would be good simply as a means to something else, then the imperative is hypothetical; but if the action is represented as a good in itself†¦ then the imperative is categorical. †]. Example: If someone tells me that they will buy me dinner if I give them a lift into town, then this is a conditional action and would fall into the hypothetical imperative category. Conversely, if I think that I should give my friend a lift into town with no other agenda (i. e. she will not buy me dinner because of it), then this is a categorical imperative because it is independent of my interest and could apply to other people as well as myself. There are three principles of the categorical imperative: * Universal law; * Treat humans as ends in themselves; * Act as if you live in a kingdom of ends. 1. The categorical imperative is [â€Å"Do not act on any principle that cannot be universalised†]. In other words, moral laws must be applied in all situations and all rational beings universally, without exception. 2. [â€Å"Act that you treat humanity, both in your own person and in the person of every other human being, never merely as a means, but always at the time as an end. †] – The previous statement declares that we must never treat people as means to an end. You can never use human beings for another purpose, to exploit or enslave them. Humans are rational and the highest point of creation, and so demand unique treatment. 3. The quotation [â€Å"So act as if you were through your maxim a law-making member of a Kingdom of ends†] states Kant’s belief in the fact that humans should behave as though every other individual was an ‘end’. In conclusion, it is arguable that the categorical imperative possesses a sense of authority with regard to what actions are permitted and forbidden under Kant’s moral law theory.

File management

File management Developing a File Management System A filing system is developed by a good plan. Planning establishes direction and control it also ensures that everyone involved has a common understanding of purpose, goals and provides guidelines. Plan files in logical order- Assign responsibility Obtain support Collect information Analyze records Develop a filing system Implement system Train users Monitor implementation, follow up and revise system Assign Responsibility One person should be assigned the task for developing and coordinating a new filing system. This task usually falls to the person that is responsible for the documents. This may include Administration, Payroll/Financial Managers or Human Resource Manager. However there must be a Gatekeeper to control access to the information contained in the files. The Gatekeeper may implement the system or may supervise others in its implementation. The first step in developing or improving a filing system is to gain the support of the staff that will use the system. The support will legitimize the system and ensure the cooperation of all the office staff. Every member of the office must understand the purpose and scope of the project. Everyone should be involved in the process. The creator of a file may provide important insight useful during the analysis of the records. Office members can help determine which features or aspects of the present system work well and should be retained. Office members can also help identify specific problems within the present system that must be changed. Most importantly, involving others in the process makes them more amenable to using the system once it is implemented. Analyze Files Once files have been inventoried, they can be analyzed. Before a filing system can be designed, a thorough understanding of WHAT files are created, WHY they are created and HOW they are used is a necessity. An analysis begins with a careful consideration of the following questions: who creates the records who uses the records how often are various types of files used how long do files remain current how many people need access to the files which files are confidential are there legal requirements for retaining the files There are no set answers to these questions. Effective analysis requires that a common-sense approach be taken. The goal is to make a new system work, not just look good on paper. Analysis is the process of reviewing all information which has been collected, manipulating that information within the functional and operational requirements of the office, and then drawing conclusions. The most efficient and economical filing system is one that works well for the office and is easily understood by its users. Very often the simplest method is best. Final factors to bear in mind when establishing a filing system: ready identification and retrieval of individual files. Tools of File Analysis Classification is a tool of analysis. It is a method of sorting information into like groups. Identifying classification within the office and sorting files identified is the first step in the development of a filing system. The file classifications that are found in most offices are: Administrative files-document the internal administration and operation of an office Organizational files -document the relationship of an office with other offices and departments within Hogg Fuels Retention of Files A major consideration in the development of a filing system is the retention of the files. Retention schedules clearly state how long a file must legally be kept and whether the file is archival. Retention schedules also provide guidelines for moving files to inactive storage and for purging obsolete files. Managing correspondence and email Although correspondence may comprise only a small percentage of the total volume of files, it poses the most problems for many offices. Correspondence consists of unique documents which are often difficult to classify. Correspondence may consist of incoming and/or outgoing letters and memoranda. Classically, correspondence has been filed in chronological order. Retrieval depended on remembering the date of receipt or of transmittal. For many people this is very difficult. Information is rarely retrieved on the basis of occurrence. Email is similar to correspondence in many ways. Emails are sent or received based on date and time, not on content. This is one of the characteristics that make email so difficult to manage. Each email is different than the one sent before and will be different than the email sent after. Managing emails by date is rarely effective. Like correspondence, it is much easier to manage emails based on content or creator. Information is most commonly retrieved on the basis of content or creator. It is, therefore, most logical to file correspondence or email either by subject (with related information); by creator; by department from which it is received; or by department to which it is directed. It must be kept in mind that each office function is different, and it is necessary to tailor the management of correspondence files and email to respond to individual requirements. Completing the analysis Once the analysis is complete, a filing system can be developed. A filing system should be developed on paper before it is physically implemented. Folders should be sorted, on paper, into the appropriate classification. Within each classification files are sorted. Information without a specific retention period can be destroyed or should be managed separately. Unsolicited material can be destroyed. Arrangement Within each individual file they are arranged in an order best suited for rapid retrieval and disposition. The most common arrangements are: Alphabetic arranging records in alphabetical order is most helpful when records are retrieved by name or topic. However, it must be remembered that even the simplest alphabetic system requires establishing consistent and uniform filing standards. Chronological a chronological system is most useful for records that are created and monitored on a daily basis. Folders are arranged by sequential date order. It is, however, recommended that chronological filing be avoided. Retrieval can be slow and difficult as few people tend to remember dates accurately. The date of occurrence is rarely the basis for retrieval of information. Implement System There is no easy way to implement a new filing system. It is a very labor intensive task. If at all possible, it is recommended that the filing system be implemented in stages, by classificationone file at a time. Steps in the implementation process include: sorting paper files into classification assigning a physical location within the filing system to each classification re-labeling folders or creating folders to reflect the new file system if necessary, the purchase of new filing supplies/equipment Monitor implementation, follow-up and revise system After a test period meet with users to identify problems. Work with users to resolve inconsistencies and formulate implementable solutions. Written filing policies and procedures are useful tools which help ensure the success of the new system. Written policies should include: a brief statement describing the chosen system and its arrangement detailed procedures for the creation, maintenance, and purging of files procedures for the retrieval and re-filing of paper folders staff duties and responsibilities Written policies help ensure that the new system will be understood by all and will succeed. Filing Policy and Procedures Although many of the files we currently create may be electronic, we will always have to cope with paper files. This section includes basic information regarding the maintenance of active files. Processing information for filing check to see that the material is complete file the item in the front of folder if a folder does not exist, create a label for a new folder integrate the file into the system Sign-out Rules users check out folders, never individual documents Sign-out sheets are used to monitor the removal of the file Information on the sign-out sheet should include: file folder name borrower name date signed out date returned For convenience keep several sign out sheets in the front of each file drawer or on top of each file cabinet. For greater convenience, sign out sheets can be personalized for individual users. Sign out sheets personalized for an individual need only contain file folder title, date charged out, and date returned. (Appendix~1.0 Sample Sign-Out Sheet) Filing Supplies After determining a filing system for managing your paper records, it is important to choose appropriate supplies. Hanging folders Hanging folders are used to bring order to a drawer. They are effective only when used in the right circumstance. As hanging folders take up 1/3 of the available drawer space, they should be used only for files with high retrieval activity. Labels are used to facilitate identification of a folder and its contents. Visibility on the folder and use as a visual retrieval aid should be major considerations when choosing labels. Color coding is a method of identifying file folders within a filing system. Color, when used appropriately, can make misfiles visible at a glance, facilitate retrieval, and facilitate weeding and purging. Color is used as a visual aid to highlight a record series or the date. It can also be used to highlight a specific folder. Naming and Labeling Files For files, identification and labeling allows an office to maintain physical control over current files as well as manage growth of new files. When working with files two levels of file identification and labeling help simplify and facilitate filing and retrieval: drawer or shelf labels file folder labels

Frank Lloyd Wright :: essays research papers

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright was born as Frank Lincoln Wright in Richland Center in southwestern Wisconsin, on June 8, 1867. His father, William Carey Wright, was a musician and a preacher. His mother, Anna Lloyd-Jones was a teacher(1 Compton). It is said that Anna Lloyd-Jones placed pictures of great buildings in young Frank's nursery as part of training him up from the earliest possible moment as an architect. Wright spent some of his time growing up at the farm owned by his uncles near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Frank Lloyd Wright was of Welsh ethnic heritage, and was brought up in the Unitarian faith. Wright briefly studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, after which he moved to Chicago to work for a year in the architectural firm of J. Lyman Silsbee. In 1887, he hired on as a draftsman in the firm of Adler and Sullivan, run by Louis Sullivan (design) and Dankmar Adler (engineering) at the time the firm was designing Chicago's Auditorium Building(1 Compton). Wright eventually became the chief draftsman, and also the man in charge of the firm's residential designs. Under Sullivan, whom Wright called "Lieber Meister" (beloved master), Wright began to develop his own architectural ideas. In 1889 he married his first wife, Catherine Tobin. He also designed houses on his own toward the end, homes Wright called â€Å"bootlegged† (2 Encarta) which were done against Alder and Sullivan's policies concerning such moonlighting. When Louis Sullivan found out about these homes, Wright was fired from the firm. The bootlegged houses showed the start of Wright's low, sheltering rooflines, the prominence of the central fireplace, and "the destruction of the box" open floorplans. The Adler and Sullivan firm was just the right place to be for a young man aspiring to be a great architect, as it was at the leading edge of American architecture at the time. Wright started his own firm in 1893 after being fired from Adler and Sullivan, first working out of the Schiller building (designed by Adler and Sullivan) and then out of a studio which was built onto his home in Oak Park, an affluent suburb of Chicago which is located just to the west of the center of the city. Between 1893 and 1901, 49 buildings designed by Wright were built. During this period he began to develop his ideas which would come together in his "Prairie House" concept(1 Compton). Into 1909, he developed and refined the prairie style. Frank Lloyd Wright founded the â€Å"prairie school† of architecture, and his art of this early productive period in

Japanese Alien and Japanese-American Poets In U. S. Relocation Camps Es

On February 19, 1942, Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued the infamous Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the internment of 110,000 Japanese Aliens and Japanese Americans in concentration camps because of the so-called "military threat," they posed. In 1945, poet Lawson Fusao Inada wrote the following poem, titled "Concentration Constellation," which refers to the various relocation camps that were used to contain these people: In this earthly configuration, We have, not points of light, but prominent barbs of dark†¦ Begin between the Golden State's highest and lowest elevations and name that location Manzanar. Rattlesnake a line southward to the zone of Arizona, to the home if natives on the reservation, and call those Gila, Poston. Then just take your time winding your way across†¦ just make yourself at home in the swamps of Arkansas. for this is Rohwer and Jerome. But now, you weary of the way. It's a big country, you say. It's a big history, hardly halfway through - with Amache looming in the Colorado desert, Heart Mountain high in wide Wyoming, Minidoka on the moon of Idaho, then down to Utah's jewel of Topaz before finding yourself at northern California's frozen shore of Tule Lake†¦ Now regard what sort of shape this constellation takes. It sits there like a jagged scar, massive, on the massive landscape. It lies there like the rusted wire of a twisted and remembered fence. As Inada points out with his analogy to a constellation, the United States government had constructed many camps and scattered them all over the country. In other words, the internment of Japanese-Americans was not merely a blip in American history; it was instead a catastrophic and appalling forced remov... ...bstone Publishing Company, 1983. Matsura, Artist. "Impressions of Gila, 1." Gila News Courier. 7 October 1942: 4. Mori, Taisanboku, et al. Poets Behind Barbed Wire. Eds. Jiro Nakano and Kav Nakano. Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press, 1983. "My Gila Diary." Gila News Courier. 17 October 1942: 4. Nelson, Cary. "Japanese American Concentration Camp Haiku." [Online] Available at http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/haiku/haiku.htm, 2003. Okihiro, Gary Y. Whispered Silences: Japanese Americans and World War II. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996. Roripaugh, Lee Ann. Beyond Heart Mountain. New York: Hudson Books, 1999. Tule Lake Committee. Kinenhi: Reflections on Tule Lake. San Francisco: The Tule Lake Committee, 1980. Uchida, Yoshiko. Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese American Family. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982.

So Called Capitalism :: Freedom Governmental Essays

So Called Capitalism Freedom and the right to choose is the essence of capitalism. Capitalism instills the freedom of making a person’s well being and lifestyle as they wish it to be through the facility of choice. Though both industries are deemed capitalist because America is the â€Å"great capitalist nation†, they really run on feudalistic systems; Matewan in more respects than the textile industry Norma Rae works for. The only capitalistic element is that the workers got to choose their employers, but how much choice did they really have? If they chose to work for an industry, each industry would be a feudalistic enterprise no matter where they turned. There was no reason why they shouldn’t be so exploitive because for years the voice of the people went unheard until it was virtually muted. Some were too afraid to have a voice, some had a voice and were punished or manipulated, and most just felt it was hopeless. Industries, with their huge bank vaults, were too powerful for the workers to overpower alone. They had all the money on their side and therefore all the power. The way the industrial system was formatted was in effect the same as a feudalistic system. The owner was synonymous to the lord of the manner, the owners’ right-hand men acted as the knights, and the workers of course played the parts of the overworked serfs. As serfs, as workers in Matewan and the textile industry, the choice of living in a socially acceptable way was just not within grasp. Lives in both instances were regulated by the industry or the feudal lord. Freedom was nonexistent and therefore so was capitalism. The industry became engrained in the workers’ lives; they lived and breathed in the manner the industry saw fit. Not only did the industry own the actual factory or mine, it owned the town, it owned the education, it owned the people. It gave the people a way to survive and a well being good enough so that they could keep working. Capitalism revolves around the idea of a labor market; the workers are able to choose their employer and sell their units of lifetime, but in the instances of the coal mine and the textile factory, the people were virtually forced into selling their entire life.

Toni Morrison’s Beloved: The Effects of Slavery on Family Bonds

Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved analyzes the effects of slavery on the lives of the African Americans in a very original and profound way. Instead of telling a story about the violence of the white slave masters and about the sufferings of the black people, Morrison reviews the way in which slavery affects the sense of selfhood and identity in the African Americans. The enslaved self cannot relate to the world in the same way as the free self. The master and slave bond is reenacted in the family relationships of the former slaves.Thus, the text investigates the perpetuation of violence and possessiveness after the liberation of the African Americans has taken place. The climax of the novel is indeed an extremely violent moment- Sethe, a runaway slave from the Sweet Home plantation attempts to murder her own children in order to protect them from future slavery. She only has time to kill her baby daughter, Beloved, before the white men stop her. The black slave thus turns the vio lence that was done to her against her own children in two ways: first of all, Sethe kills her daughter because she thinks death would be better her than a life of slavery.However, this violent reaction of the mother has another meaning as well: she acts as if her children were her own possession, as if she were a white master herself. However, motherhood is not the only relationship that is affected by the dark past.Morrison’s novel exemplifies, through a number of relationships, the way in which slavery affects the unity of the traditional African family. In this respect, Beloved traces the reconstruction of African American identity and of the African family as a central structure of society, after the freedom has been obtained.Thus, Toni Morrison’s novel is a different type of slave narrative, told from the point of view of the African Americans, and focusing on the psychological effects of the slavery on selfhood, identity and love. First of all, the bond that is most investigated in the novel is that between the mothers and their children.Through this however, the author points at the destructive force that slavery has on the entire African American community, and especially on the family. Motherhood symbolizes creation and as such, it is the center of any human society.Morrison reveals the violence of white people indirectly, through the murder performed by the mother against her own child, which is obviously a remnant of master and slave relationship. The relationship between Sethe and her daughter Beloved, who haunts her first as a ghost and then as a nineteen old girl, is certainly the central one in the novel and the one that best represents the extent to which slavery can affect the human nature. The master/slave bond is essentially based on dependence, violence, transgression of boundaries.Selfhood for the black people was reduced to the definition of the white men, who took possession of them as if they were objects and not human be ings. The motive that the whites used to justify the slavery of the blacks was always the fact that the latter were savages.Morrison deftly inverses this statement, and points to the fact that the jungle was actually created by the white people, who annihilated the sense of selfhood and humanity in the slaves: â€Å"Whitepeople believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle.Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. . . . But it wasn't the jungle blacks brought with them to this place from the other place. It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them. And it grew.It spread†¦. The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own. (Morrison, 198-199) The strong bond between Sethe and her children reflects this ownership of the slaves by their masters.The jungle that was planted by the white people in the blacks through slavery is mirrored in the Setheâ₠¬â„¢s violence. The murdering act of Sethe can thus be explained: she does not know herself and mistakes her own identity with the fate of her children.Unable to see herself as an independent person, Sethe clings to her role as a mother and becomes extremely possessive. She mistakes her own identity with her motherhood, and thus, in a way, reenacts the violence of the white masters against her.Sethe feels she has no power over her own self because the white people had crossed all the boundaries and not only taken everything she possessed physically, but everything she had dreamed as well: ‘†Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed,' she said, ‘and broke my heartstrings too.There is no bad luck in the world but whitefolks. ‘†(Morrison, 89) It is obvious that the â€Å"whitefolks† are â€Å"bad luck†, that is, for the black slaves they were the instruments of destiny itself, trough the power have over their lives.Thus, when Sethe k ills her infant daughter, she obviously acts, although out of love, as a white master would. As Malmgren remarks, Sethe’s violent act against her own child is actually a perpetuation of the logic of slavery: â€Å"Sethe so identifies her Self with the well-being of her children that she denies their existence as autonomous Others, in so doing unconsciously perpetuating the logic of slavery. †(Malmgren, 103) Morrison’s novel thus reflects the violence of the white race against the black one indirectly, showing how weak the theory that the African American are less than human has proven over time.The white people are actually the ones who took their humanity by treating them as objects or animals. Beloved therefore reviews the manner in which the master/slave bond affects the selfhood of the former slaves, to the point that it is replicated in Sethe’s murder o her own daughter.Motherhood is exemplified in the novel not only in the relationship between Sethe and Beloved, but also in the relationships between Ma’ma and Sethe, or Baby Suggs and her own children. Infanticide seems to have been rather common among the former slaves, as a means of protecting their children.Although Sethe had barely known her mother, she is told that the latter also killed her children, all but herself since she was the only one begotten in love with a black man and not through the rape of a white master: â€Å"She told Sethe that her mother and Nan were together from the sea.Both were taken up many times by the crew. ‘She threw them all away but you. The one from the crew she threw away on the island. The others from more whites she also threw away. Without name she threw them. You she gave the name of the black man. She put her arms around him.The others she did not put her arms around. Never. Never. Telling you. I am telling you, small girl Sethe. ’†(Morrison, 98) As Demetrakopoulos points out, the slavery affected motherhood in such a way that it permitted the excessive and protective love to endeavor guard the child from the cruelty of life itself: â€Å"In this act, Morrison gives us the most searching portrait I know of the paradoxical polarities in motherhood. For Sethe the children are better off dead, their fantasy futures protected from the heinous reality of slavery.It is better, Sethe's act argues, to die in the cradle than to live out one's full life span soul-dead, a zombie/ puppet daily treading the process requirements of someone else's life and needs. The child as the adult's fantasy of the future is obviously central to Sethe's murder of Beloved. †( Demetrakopoulos, 53)In this way, motherhood crosses the normal limits of human love and seems to be reminiscent of the instinctual bonds between the animals and their babies: â€Å"Even her escape from slavery was not really for herself.Her swollen breasts and the baby kicking within pressed her onward to the baby waiting for her milk. B iological necessity made her create a life that would allow her children to grow up. Sethe carries Beloved on her conscience and in her heart. For the mother, the dead child is maternity in potentia, the mother truncated.( Demetrakopoulos, 54)The white domineering culture that enslaved the black is the main cause of this displacement of identity in all the characters in the novel.Although in the text the ghost and then the embodiment of Beloved appear as the main motives for the destabilization and deterioration of all the other family relationships, it is clear that the murdered child represents not only motherhood but also love itself. The possessive and narcissistic love that is exemplified in the relation between Sethe and Beloved replaces the normal emotions for the troubled self. This kind of love that ignores the boundaries of selfhood is obviously the result of the years of slavery and dependence.The liberated self does not know its own substance and limits: â€Å"Beloved/ You are my sister/ You are my daughter/ You are my face; you are me/ I have found you again; you have come back to me/ You are my Beloved/ You are mine/ You are mine/ You are mine. † (Morrison, 216)Paul D fears Sethe's love precisely because he realizes it is extremely powerful and fierce : â€Å"This here new Sethe didn't know where the world stopped and she began . . . more important than what Sethe had done was what she claimed.It scared him†(Morrison, 90) As Barbara Schapiro emphasizes in her study called The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison's Beloved, Morrison constructs in her novel precisely the kind of love that is based on possession, dependence and entrapment to show that the consequences of slavery affect the sense of self in the individuals: â€Å"Toni Morrison Beloved penetrates, perhaps more deeply than any historical or psychological study could, the unconscious emotional and psychic consequences of slavery.The novel reveals how the condition of enslavement in the external world, particularly the denial of one's status as a human subject, has deep repercussions in the individual's internal world. These internal resonances are so profound that even if one is eventually freed from external bondage, the self will still be trapped in an inner world that prevents a genuine experience of freedom. †(Iyasere, 155) Paul D calls this type of love that Sethe manifests for himself and for her children â€Å"too thick†, as if it were undiluted by the sense of identity.This type of love, that Sethe has shown in killing he baby daughter is afterwards perpetuated by her in her relationship with the ghost, with Beloved and with Paul D. Thus, the very opening of the novel plunges into Sethe’s world and briefly exposes the nature of the relationships in her family. The house itself is called â€Å"spiteful†, that is haunted by the dark past in the form of Beloved’s ghost. The two sons of Seth e have left and Baby Suggs is dead, all because of Beloved’s ghost.Slavery thus still haunts the lives of the liberated people, and not only in the form of guilt. The fact that the murdered daughter is named â€Å"Beloved† hints to the way in which emotions have been affected and altered: â€Å"124 was spiteful. Full of baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years, each put up with the spite in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims.The grandmother, Baby Suggs, was dead, and the sons, Howard and Buglar, had run away by the time they were thirteen years old — as soon as merely looking in the mirror shattered it (that was the signal for Buglar); as soon as two tiny handprints appeared in the cake (that was it for Howard).Neither boy waited to see more, another kettleful of chick peas smoking in a heap on the floor: soda crackers crumbled and strewn in a line next to the doorsill. Nor did the y wait for one of the relief periods: the weeks, months even, when nothing was disturbed.No. Each one fled at once — the moment the house committed what was for him the one insult not to be borne or witnessed a second time. † (Morrison, 3) Heller showed that Morrison’s novel is an attempt at reconstructing of the family relationships, which had been so much influenced and deteriorated by the slavery system: â€Å"As a study of the connection between the historical and the familial, Beloved is concerned with the healing of the black American family and the â€Å"reconstruction† of kinship structures.These structures had been violated by the cruel fact of family life under the slavery system: as enslaved Africans, women and men had no right to themselves, to one another, or to their children. †(Heller, 108) Love and family relationships are clearly affected by the question of identity.For the former slave identity is still undefined since he had been so long treated as an object which has a certain price but no value as a human being. In some of the plantations, the slaves were not allowed to have their own families, and the black women were often raped by their masters.In these conditions, it is obvious that the people had no sense of self and therefore could not relate to someone else. As Carl Malmgren comments in his study Mixed Genres and the Logic of Slavery, the novel points to the way in which love is affected by the loss of identity: â€Å"The novel thus meditates upon and mediates between the various forms that love takes. In this regard, its dominant theme is the problematic of love, particularly as regards the question of identity. †(Malmgren, 105)Denver, Sethe’s second daughter is also affected by Sethe’s love for her dead child. She intuitively feels that the relationship between Beloved and Sethe is wrong, and she lives with the anxiety that the mother could at any time repeat the murderous act and maybe kill her too: â€Å"All the time, I'm afraid the thing that happened that made it all right for my mother to kill my sister could happen again. I don't know what it is, I don't know who it is, but maybe there is something else terrible enough to make her do it again.I need to know what that thing might be, but I don't want to. Whatever it is, it comes from outside this house, outside the yard, and it can come right on in the yard if it wants to. So I never leave this house and I watch over the yard, so it can't happen again and my mother won't have to kill me too. † (Morrison, 205)Denver is actually the one that saves Sethe by deciding to go out of the house in search of food, and to break thus the mother’s total isolation. She makes therefore the first step to establish a relationship between herself and the outside world.She also evinces a much stronger sense of identity in her desire to listen to stories that only talked about her: â€Å"Denver hated the stories her mother told that did not concern herself, which is why Amy was all she ever asked about. The rest was a gleaming, powerful world made more so by Denver's absence from it.Not being in it, she hated it and wanted Beloved to hate it too, although there was no chance of that at all. â€Å"(Morrison, 62) Teresa N. Washington in The Mother- Daughter Aje Relationship in Toni Morrison’s’ Beloved’ shows that Beloved actually is a symbolic incarnation of the African American consciousness coming back to life:â€Å"But in having equated her best self with her children, making the decision to save that precious self, and summoning the self for a discussion, Sethe comes face to face with her spirit, her embodied conscience, and her own (and all her people’s past. )† (Washington, 184) Thus, it is the white culture that first took possession of the black people’s selves and identities, thus destabilizing the entire African American community: â€Å"Anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you.Dirty you so bad you couldn't like yourself anymore†¦The best things she was, was her children.. â€Å"(Morrison, 251) The novel concludes with the hope of Sethe’s regaining of her lost self: â€Å"You your best thing, Sethe. You are. † â€Å"Me? Me? † (Morrison, 273).The master and slave relationship is also based on dependence, and this is why Sethe has no sense of her real, independent self. She does not even dare to â€Å"go ahead and feel† for example: â€Å"Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something? † (Morrison, 38).This re-appropriation of the self is a symbol for the reconstruction of the African American identity and culture, and an example of the way in which the past can be accepted. The sense selfhood and the consolidation of the family bonds repre sent the consolidation of the African American community.Works Cited: Demetrakopoulos, Stephanie A. â€Å"Maternal bonds as devourers of women's individuation in Toni Morrison's Beloved. † African American Review. 1992. Vol. 26(1): 51-60.Heller, Dana. †Reconstructing kin: Family, history, and narrative in Toni Morrison's Beloved. † College Literature. Vol. 21(2). 1994.Horvitz, Deborah. â€Å"Nameless Ghosts: Possession and Dispossession in Beloved,† in Studies in American Fiction, Vol. 17, No. 2, 1989, pp. 157-67.Iyasere, Marla and Solomon Iyasere. Understanding Toni Morrison's Beloved and Sula: Selected Essays and Criticisms of the Works by the Nobel Prize-Winning Author. Troy: Whitston Publishing, 2000.Malmgren, Carl. â€Å"Mixed Genres and the Logic of Slavery in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. † Critique. 1995. Vol. 36(2).Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Knopf, 1987. Washington, Teresa. The Mother- Daughter Aje Relationship in Toni Morrisonâ₠¬â„¢s’ Beloved’.

Contribution of Savigny and Maine to Malaysian Constitution Essay

The views of Maine and Savigny had indeed contributed to some provisions in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia. Before the discussion proceeds in looking into provision that reflects the views of Maine and Savigny, it is better for us to understand first, what are the views suggested, or rather arguments put forward by these two jurists. The first jurist of the discussion is Savigny. Friedrich Carl von Savigny (21 February 1779 – 25 October 1861) was a German jurist and legal scholar who was one of the founders of the influential â€Å"historical school† of jurisprudence. He advocated that the meaning and content of existing bodies of law be analyzed through research into their historical origins and modes of transformation. Savigny’s great works are the Recht des Besitzes and the Beruf unserer Zeit fur Gesetzgebung. In 1814, the wave of German nationalism inspired by the war of liberation against Napoleon led the Heidelberg law professor Thibaut to demand a unified civil code for all the German states. Savigny opposed this demand for an immediate codification of German law in a famous pamphlet, â€Å"Vom Beruf unserer Zeit fur Gesetzgebung und Rechtswissenschaft† (1814; â€Å"Of the Vocation of Our Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence†), that started juristic thought along a new path. To Savigny, a hasty legal codification was something to be avoided, since the one essential prerequisite for such a codification was a deep and far-reaching appreciation of the spirit of the particular community. Savigny’s jurisprudential perspective was in part inspired by the Romantic Movement, which took the form in Germany of a movement harking back to the simplest tribal origins of the German people, to their folk songs and tales and to their distinctive ethos, or Volksgeist (â€Å"national spirit†). To the Romantics, the national spirit thus became the ultimate datum to be explored in its various manifestations. The Volkgeist theory introduced by Savigny seeks to shed the light that law is an expression of will of people or manifestation of people’s spirit. From this point of view law is not something that can be devised by means of rational formal legislation but rather originates in the unique spirit of a particular people and is expressed spontaneously in custom and, much later, in the formal decisions of judges. Law grows with the growth, strength with the strength of people, and dies away as the nation loses its nationality. This can also be explained further by looking at the stages of development of law by Savigny, in which, firstly, the political element, where the law is not found in legislation but in the spirit of people; secondly, the technical element, where the law is technical and needs particular expertise to develop it; and lastly, the loss of national identity, where when the society no longer needs the first and the second stage, this is when the people no longer wants the law and wanted a new one. Moreover, he rejected natural law and positive law as law should be made by the will of the people. Savigny pointed out that legislation and law codes can, at most, give mere verbal expression to a body of existing law whose meaning and content can only be discovered by careful historical investigations. Historical jurisprudence opposed not only attempts at codification but also those rationalist thinkers who sought to derive legal theories from general and universal principles without respect to the characteristics and customs of a particular people. Savigny sought rather to uncover the content of existing law through historical research. He held that legal science should be both historical and systematic, meaning that it should endeavour to show the inner coherence of the material handed down in the historical sources. The second jurist of the discussion is Sir Henry Maine. Sir Henry James Sumner Maine (15 August 1822 – 3 February 1888) was a Professor of Civil Law at Oxford University in 1847. He is famous for the thesis outlined in Ancient Law (1861). He studied the beginning of law, in which he concluded that ancient law was derived from codes of Manu and Narada, the Brehon Laws, the Twelve Tables and Homer. He was learned in English, Roman, and Hindu laws and also knowledge of Celtic systems. Instead of stressing the uniqueness of national institutions, he brought to bear a scientific urge to unify, classify and generalize the evolution of different legal orders. He was the first and still remains the greatest representative of the historical movement in England. He introduced a theory based on customary law known as the anthropological approach. The anthropological approach is a study of human being based on custom. Maine set out to discover whether a pattern of legal development could be extracted from a comparative examination of different system, especially between Roman law and the common law, which then he was led to distinguish between what he called ‘static’ and ‘progressive’ societies. ‘Static’ societies are regarded as undeveloped society and society whom do not progress. ‘Progressive’ societies are of which the societies proceed to develop the law by three methods; fiction, equity, and legislation. Generally, Maine believed that no human institution was permanent, and that change was not necessarily for the better. An example would be when societies progressed from hunters to farmers to pastorals. Maine stated that in early societies, both ‘static’ and ‘progressive’, the legal condition of the individual is determined by status, i. e. his claims, duties, liberties, are determined by law. The coming of ‘progressive’ societies witnesses the disintegration of status and determination of the legal condition of the individual by free negotiation on his part. One of Maine’s famous generalizations reads: ‘the movement of progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from status to contract’. This is where rather than a society based on stratified system, Maine proposes the concept of moving towards a contract society where everyone is free to negotiation at his own terms. According to Maine, there has been modification of later development, namely by means of fiction, equity and legislation. Deliberate legislation is now seen to have been an early method of law-making with fiction and equity coming at later stage. The codes, which one finds at the culmination of the primitive period, were chiefly collections of earlier legislation. Primitive law was by no means as rigid as Maine though nor were people inflexible bound by it. It is generally agreed that even in primitive societies, people do control their destinies, that they are by no means blindly subservient to custom. The conscious purpose of achieving some end precedes the adaptation of human behavior, and the adaptation of behavior is followed by adaptation of the structure of social organization. As it is now clear the views and propositions put forward by both Savigny and Maine, the discussion will be prolong in discussing the contribution of their ideas in its application to the Malaysian Constitution (Federal Constitution 1957). The Malaysian Constitution was drafted by taking into account the legacy of the past and product of customs, traditions and beliefs prevalent in different communities, and the need of the people. This is in line with Savigny’s view that law is not an abstract set of rules imposed on society but has deep roots in social and economic factors and the attitude of its past and present members of the society. The social contract which Malaysian Constitution was mainly based, a form bargain made by the citizen; that they would all have a place in the new independent nation, but not without some compromise and sacrifice on everyone’s part. This social contract has always been a crucial and sometimes contentious part of the nation’s constitution. The Reid Commission and the Alliance tried hard to take into consideration the different, and times divergent concerns on the ground. â€Å"The Constitution gave everyone something and to no one everything. Everyone got something in terms of citizenship, cultural pluralism and economic/commercial rights. The constitution did try to walk the middle path. †(Tunku Abdul Rahman, 1957) In the same 1957 speech upon returning from London, Tunku acknowledged that while it was important to have a constitution that was agreeable to most people, there would come a time when change was required. â€Å"Any constitution prepared today is not immutable. It can be changed, modified or improved according to the wishes of the people,† he said. The importance to have our own unique constitution is that, it tells us the position of a state itself. How independent and how the constitution would be accepted by the citizen. That it seeks to constitution describing the position of the individual vis-a-vis the state. It seeks to achieve a fair balance between the right of the state and the rights of the citizen, it confers on the citizen some basic rights and provides perimeter within which these rights can be exercised. The concept of Volksgeist is deeply entrenches in our constitution as it is after all the manifestation of the spirit and consciousness of the people and not from deliberate legislation. The social contract is the â€Å"spirit of the people who evolved around it†. This notion can be seen in the Commission chaired by Lord Reid in 1965 to formulate and draft and refine the Constitution of the Federation of Malaya. The commission sought the views of political parties, non-political organizations and individuals on the form of government and racial structure appropriate for this country. This is of course based on the historical, beliefs and cultural background of the society at that point of time. The memorandum of the Alliance had gained precedence in which the memorandum centers its concern at mutual interest and strengthening the nation’s democratic system of the government. The memorandum took into account in to five main factors namely the position of the Malays rulers, Islam as the official religion of the Federation, position of the Malay language, the special rights of the Malays and equal citizenship. We are going to look into these factors one by one. Firstly, the demand is that for the power of the Malay rulers to be preserved, which is conferred under Article 38 of the Constitution that established the conference of Rulers or ‘Durbar’. The council will act as the protector of the Malays, custom and religion. This power is materialized where the conference of ruler have need to be consulted in amending the Constitution and some other privileges in particular, those Articles which have been â€Å"entrenched†, namely those pertaining to the status of the rulers, the special privileges of the indigenous Bumiputera (Article 153 of the Constitution), the status of the Malay language as the National language, and the clause governing the entrenchment of such Articles. In the case of the Malays, these privileges related to the reservation of their position in the public services, of scholarship and other similar educational and training facilities (Article 153). Parliament is also empowered to reserve and for alienation to the Malays (Article 89 and Article 90) and also to restrict enlistment in the Malay regiment which to some extend violates right to equality of the people under Article 8 of the constitution but however in the spirit of the citizen itself. In the matter of religion, Islam was made the religion of the Federation. Tunku Abdul Rahman at the time was under pressure from the UMNO argued that the inclusion of Article 3 was important psychologically to the Malays. Nevertheless in recognizing the objections of the Rulers also the concern of the non-Malays, two provisos were included in the article in which it would not affect the position of the rulers in their respective state as head of Islam and that the practice and propagation of other religion in the federation would be assured. As for language that is entrenched under Article 152 of the Constitution, the Alliance agreed to UMNO’s proposal that Malay be the official language but that there would be no objections to the use of Chinese and Tamil for unofficial purpose. It was further guaranteed that the proviso in Article 152 will allow the teaching of Chinese and Tamil and that there would schools for the respective races. Among these five issues, the biggest bargain that the Bumiputera has offered during the drafting of the constitution must be the social contract in which the Malays would accept the jus soli citizenship and the minorities would settle with the special privilege conferred to the Bumiputera. The liberal citizenship requirement was a major concession from the Malays for with this agreement; large number of non-Malays became citizens. In exchange for liberalizing citizenship requirement, non-Malays leaders in the alliance accepted the special position of the Malays. Thus it can be seen the constitution of Malaysia largely drafted around the notion of Volksgeist; law should always conform to the popular consciousness. Hence, the provisions of the constitution was not the result of an arbitrary act of legislation but developed as a response to the impersonal powers to be found in the people’s national spirit. As mentioned earlier, Maine opines that a society should move towards a â€Å"contract society† from a â€Å"status society†, where individuals of the disadvantages group will be able rise above their discrimination, that is, the structure of society and rules of the game, so to speak, must be changed in order to achieve ethnic equality. The progress however, must not disregard the customs of the society. The notion of progress from status to contract is depending on the society itself. The application of Maine’s proposition is a bit different as Malaysia, from moving to status contract, Malaysia is progressing from contract society to planned society. To clearly observe the progress if the society in Malaysia from a status society, to a contract society, then to a planned society, while respecting the custom of the society, entrenched in the provisions of the Malaysian Constitution; we should first look in to the history of Malaysia. The Malaysian Constitution is the product of the political, economic and social development of the stratified people that can be traced back to the Malacca Sultanates. The highest ground of administration was the Sultan and it stays the way it is as the system was so to say, perfectly working at the time. The Sultan controls the government, act as the supreme command of the military power and symbolize the unity of the welfare. There was no issue of inequality of right as the society at that time as the citizen was so contented with the idea of leaded by a Ruler. It was only until the British colonial period commenced that the issue of advancing the society emerged. Treaty of the Federation 1895 which have the common clause that the four states; Selangor, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan and Perak to accept British officer that act as Resident General.