A history of Greece Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A history of Greece - Essay Example A history of Greece War between Athens and Sparta in his book, â€Å"History of the Peloponnesian War†. It was said after his death that the history was recollected through his accounts where he discusses the 27 year war between the two neighbors with strict reliance on evidence and on the philosophy of cause and effect. He is known to be the pioneer of the international relations school of thought â€Å"political realism†. Pericles funeral oration was given by the Athenian General Pericles after the end of the first year of war with Sparta, and it was done to honor and bury the war dead. It was recorded by Thucydides that the war dead would be left in a tent for three days after which they would be buried in Kerameikos, and then someone would sing their praises and tell stories of their braveries. During 431 BC Athens was going through a war with Sparta as already mentioned before, and there were no signs of victory or defeat in sight while the casualties were mounting to unexpected numbe rs.; That was when Pericles delivered this speech to praise the war dead and to sing the praises of the motherland (Athens), and in the end he delivered an epilogue to remind the audience to not speak over the dead. Pericles praises the main qualities of Athenians as the people of a country where they are free. They are all equal and no one is above the law; they live a free life and can sustain any life they want. He says that the people of Athens welcome immigrants from neighboring regions with open arms to come and see the prosperity of the Athenian people. According to him, the equality and openness raised the rank of Athens and established it as a great city of Greece. Pericles praises the people of Athens by proclaiming that the principle of the Athenian men is to die with honor and not to submit to the Spartans because, according to him, Athenian men consider it honorable to die rather than live while in submission to the oppressors and their enemies. Pericles considers Athen ian men to be free, and for them freedom means happiness and to be able to sustain happiness. They are brave and this is the reason why they are not afraid to go to war with any nation including Sparta. According to Pericles Athens was a nation by far better than Sparta. Sparta were blood thirsty warmongers whose life began and ended with wars, while Athens was a country that loved art and literature. Pericles contrasted that Athens welcomed foreigners to its country while Spartans were much jealous of the achievements of the Athenian people and envied their freedom and prosperity. He says that Athens is a democracy where decisions are not to be made by one individual but through unanimous agreement, thus implying that such is not the case in Sparta. He further exemplifies Athens by stating that in Athens, unlike in Sparta, equal justice is available to all people and this is one of the elements that differentiates Sparta from Athens where a person is identified by his deeds and not by wealth and neither does the government interfere in the life of any individual as long as he serves the state. The Athenian society was near perfect according to the speech done by Pericles. Although this might have been done so as to raise the courage of the fellow Athenians, his accounts have been considered correct by many historians who. Athens’s plusses were its art and literature, the freedom that

Answer 1 of 2 given questions with given sources Essay

Answer 1 of 2 given questions with given sources - Essay Example While some perceive him as a leader who abused powers and ignored the ideals of the French Revolution, others consider him as a successful leader who delivered the ideals of the French Revolution to his subjects. In this paper, I will comprehensively discuss the figure of Napoleon Bonaparte, his domestic and foreign policies, with an aim of illustrating whether he destroyed or preserved ideals of the French Revolution. Napoleon was a great strategist, a genius, a man with great self-control and very keen to protect his reputation. He had no friends and loved nobody simply because he believed that a man must be firm and have a resolute heart in order to protect the freedoms of citizens and fight the enemies of political, economic and social progress1. In the Napoleon’s diary, he evidently believed that his success and reputation depended on his ability to win wars, and this made him fight strongly for the freedom of French nationalist. â€Å"My power proceeds from my reputation, and my reputation from the victories I have won†¦conquest has made me what I’m; only conquest can maintain me."2 Being a genius and a strategist enabled him maintain an army that could hardly be overpowered. He had a team of secret police that was headed by Joseph Fouchà ©, spies in every corner of his territory to counteract unfriendly governments and watch the actions of friendly powers3. The police f orce that was supported by millions of taxpayers’ money was predominant in helping Napoleon seize freedom from his political adversaries. What’s more, in many battles, he fought alongside his militias hence giving them inspiration and the army became very loyal to him. Apparently, it makes sense to consider Napoleon as a leader who preserved the ideals of the French Revolution. Upon completion of the revolution, Napoleon had fulfilled the ideals that the

Language Acquisition Device

Language Acquisition Device In 1965 the linguist Noam Chomsky put forward the idea that language was innate, and suggested that childrens language acquisition was supported by a Language Acquisition Device (LAD). Other linguists and psychologists, however, have their own theories of child language acquisition, three of which base the development of language on interaction with caregivers, on cognitive development, and on imitation and reinforcement respectively. At first glance, it seems that the different theories of child language acquisition contradict each other, that it would be impossible for all five theories to have an element of truth in them. When, however, you look at the theories in more detail, you realise that the way in which children acquire language is likely to be a result of the five different theories working together. By describing language as innate, Chomsky was suggesting that children are born with an internal knowledge of language, that the rules of language are inside their brains from birth, so that when they begin to speak, they will have a pre-existing knowledge of grammatical rules. This essay will demonstrate that while Chomskys LAD is undoubtedly present in children, the other theories of child language acquisition also play a role in the development of childrens language; none can be disregarded as being untrue. In 1986, Chomsky added to his theory of language innateness by putting forward the idea that the Language Acquisition Device contained a Universal Grammar, a set of basic rules of grammar that characterise all languages. This explains the fact that children from all over the world pass through similar stages, at similar ages, in the acquisition of language, despite vast cultural differences. By 5 years of age, most children have a good grasp of the basic rules of their own language. This provides strong evidence for the existence of a LAD, as if language were not innate, children from different countries and backgrounds would surely pick up different aspects of language in different orders, and all children, even those from the same backgrounds, would acquire language at different rates. Further evidence for the existence of a Language Acquisition Device comes from what was termed s-structures (surface structures) and d-structures (deep structures) (Chomsky, 1957, 1982). Different languages have different surface structures (the actual phrases used in a sentence), but they all share the same deep structures, reflecting the sentences meaning. The fact that children understand deep structures without having to be actively taught about them suggests that language is innate: children have an inborn understanding of grammatical concepts, understanding that the order of words within a sentence is important. The grammatical errors that children make during the process of acquiring language, known as overgeneralisation, also suggest that language is an innate module, thereby providing evidence for the existence of a Language Acquisition Device. Overgeneralisation occurs, for example, when children apply the past tense -ed inflection to irregular verbs such as go. Children obviously wouldnt hear an adult saying goed, which suggests that children have an inbuilt knowledge of grammatical rules: they know that to form the past tense they have to use the -ed suffix, but they arent yet aware of irregular verbs. Evidence for grammatical overgeneralisation by children comes from an experiment carried out by Brown and Bellugi in 1964, in which the early speech of two children was analysed. The -ed past tense inflection was used for irregular verbs such as come (comed) and grow (growed). Further overgeneralisation occurred when forming plurals: nouns such as sheep and tooth were made plural by addi ng the -s inflection (sheeps and tooths). Again, the two children had learnt that to make a noun plural you used the -s inflection, but they were not yet aware of nouns which didnt follow the normal grammatical rule. The fact that not all children are exposed to Child Directed Speech provides further evidence for the innate nature of language. The cultures of the islands which lie in the South Pacific Ocean, for example, believe that such ways of speaking actually interfere with a childs language development. Infants in countries such as Samoa and Papua New Guinea, therefore, do not hear modified forms of language: all they hear is their native language in all its complexity. Despite the fact that the only language they are exposed to is the standard, unaltered form of their native language, infants in such countries pick up language at much the same rate and just as quickly as infants who are exposed to simplified forms of language, who are exposed to Child Directed Speech. This points clearly to the fact that language is innate, as if it wasnt, children in such countries would arguably acquire language at a later age, as a result of them not being exposed to simplified forms of language. A final piece of evidence for the existence of a Language Acquisition Device is the fact that language is specific only to humans. No other species spontaneously develops language in the way that humans do. This fact, coupled with the relative speed and ease with which children acquire their first language, provides substantial evidence for the existence of a LAD, especially as language is far too complex to be taught completely from scratch. Despite all of this evidence supporting the existence of a Language Acquisition Device, there are some factors which would throw the existence of the LAD into doubt. One such factor is the fact that feral children, along with children who have suffered extreme cases of abuse and neglect fail to master language, beyond the basics, even when taught by specialists. One such case is that of Genie (Curtiss, 1977). Up to the age of 13, from the age of approximately 20 months, Genie was kept in an isolated room with practically no human contact. Upon being rescued, Genie successfully learnt vocabulary, although she failed to understand the rules behind grammar, and as a result was only able to master three-word utterances as a result of the lack of attention and interaction she received throughout her infancy and childhood. This situation has been found to be the case with feral children, and with other victims of extreme child abuse. The inability to master grammatical rules, and therefore to speak in grammatically correct and complete sentences, can be explained by the Critical Period Hypothesis (Lenneberg, 1967), which theorises that language learning is easiest before a certain age. Combining the fact that feral children and abused children fail to master anything but the basics of language with the Critical Period Hypothesis provides evidence against the existence of a LAD. If language were innate, as Chomsky suggested, such children would be able to acquire language, however old they were when rescued, as it would simply be a matter of learning the vocabulary; they would have the grammatical rules already in place. The fact that they are unable to suggests that something else is required: this is where the other theorists of child language acquisition come in. One such alternative theory of childrens acquisition of language is the Behaviourist Account, associated with the psychologist B.F. Skinner. Skinner, 1957, suggested that children acquire language through a process known as operant conditioning. In a linguistic sense, this means that when a child uses language correctly, in terms of both the lexis and the grammar, they are rewarded in various ways. Due to these rewards, children are motivated to repeat the behaviour, thereby shaping their language and ensuring that it develops successfully. Another theory which goes against that set out by Chomsky is the Cognition Theory. Jean Piaget, a developmental psychologist, believed that cognitive development (the development of mental abilities and skills) was the overriding influence on the development of language, with language being neither innate nor learned passively. Piagets theory focuses on the precursors of early language, such as gestures and facial expressions, as Piaget claimed that in the first two years of life, the childs intellectual skills rely on sensori-motor experiences such as seeing, hearing and touching, as opposed to on words and images. While Piaget agreed with Chomsky in the sense that children develop a set of rules, he believed that rather than being innate, they came instead from a wider cognitive system, whereby children form schemas to help explain events in their lives, and then they are able to talk about them. Piagets concept of Object Permanence helps to support his cognition theory, in turn pr oviding evidence against the existence of a Language Acquisition Device. Before 18 months of age, infants are egocentric, as they cant mentally process the concept that something can exist outside of their immediate surroundings. By the time they are 18 months old, however, they have developed a sense of object permanence, realising that objects exist all of the time, even when the infant cant see them. The development of object permanence coincides with a substantial increase in vocabulary: if, as Chomsky suggested, language was innate and children possessed a LAD, object permanence wouldnt take such a long time to develop, as they would have a sufficient level of development to understand that an object couldnt and wouldnt just disappear. A further theory which helps to question the existence of Chomskys Language Acquisition Device is that of the psychologist Jerome Bruner. Bruners interactionist theory stresses the role of linguistic interaction from caregivers in a childs language development. This theory doesnt completely disprove the existence of the LAD; rather it suggests that something else is needed. Bruner suggested that children have a Language Acquisition Support System (LASS), whereby caregivers support their childs acquisition of language in social situations. A final theory which provides evidence against the existence of the Language Acquisition Device is that put forward by the psychologist Lev Vygotsky: the Socio-Cultural theory. The main tenet of this theory is that both social interaction and experiencing different social and cultural contexts are important for the development of language. Two significant factors which contribute to language development were identified: Private Speech (when a child talks aloud to itself, providing evidence that they are thinking for themselves) and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which occurs when a child needs the help of a caregiver in order to interact. The caregiver will either respond for the child, or will try to encourage a response from the child, both of which provide the child with a model to apply to similar situations in the future. This essay has discussed both evidence for and against the existence of Language Acquisition Device as proposed by Chomsky. The existence of the LAD has been challenged not only by other theories of child language acquisition but also by individual cases of feral and abused children. As the evidence set out in the essay suggests, the existence of Chomskys LAD cannot be disproved completely, as arguing that it didnt exist would put too many things down to coincidence, examples being that children the world over pass through similar stages of language development, and that children instinctively apply grammatical rules to irregular verbs and nouns, leading to overgeneralisation. You cant, however, simply disregard the work of other psychologist and linguists, as they all carried out their research to prove their hypotheses. Therefore, it is likely that all five of the theories mentioned play a part in childrens acquisition of language: while language may be innate, it develops alongsid e a childs cognitive development and children require input and encouragement from their caregivers in order for their use of language to develop fully. To conclude, no one theory of child language acquisition can be said to be wholly responsible for childrens acquisition of language, it is different aspects of each theory working together which make language learning such an impressive feat; this neither proves nor disproves the existence of Chomskys LAD.

MacBeth :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The greatest grieves are those we cause ourselves.† This quote by Sophocles is saying that the things you most regret are the things you, yourself choose to do. If you do something to someone else, not only do you hurt another person, or other people, but also you hurt yourself. If someone else hurts you, you feel pain but not as much as having the guilt and pain of hurting other people walking around with you on your shoulders. This quote is true in everyday like still today. In the play â€Å"MacBeth,† by William Shakespeare, there are many examples of greif shown by the people in the play. The play â€Å"MacBeth,† by William Shakespeare, shows an example of what regret and wrongdoing feels like. When Lady MacBeth found out that her beloved husband, MacBeth, was to eventually be king of Scotland, she knew he had to take the throne right away and to do so; she must kill the present king, Duncan. Lady MacBeth and MacBeth came up with a plan to secretly kill Duncan so that Macbeth can claim the throne. After going through with the act of murdering the king and not being caught, the grief soon got to Lady MacBeth. She started sleepwalking, and talking in her sleep. She tried to wash blood off of her hands that she thought was there only because of the grief she had felt about killing an innocent, great king for a selfish act. â€Å"The thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that: you mar all with this starting.† This quote by Lady Macbeth in the play refers to her guilt she hides. She says this while sleepwalking and she is saying that the thane of Fife, MacDuff’s, which was one of King Duncan’s nobleman and a thought to be threat to MacBeth, wife is dead. MacBeth had sent someone to kill MacDuff’s family so there would be less of a threat towards him.

Incredible India Essay

From ancient times, India has been looked upon as a place full of Mystique. In olden days time travelers like Huen Tsang came a long way with a great difficulty just to have felt of the place. But now in modern times, with supersonic jets, the world has become a smaller and has been named as a â€Å"global village†. With the destinations becoming so much closer the tourist are pouring into India from all over the world leading to a fast development of tourism industry and yet it has not grown to its fullest potential. History has lost count of hordes of humanity which have travelled and through this land of vibes and wisdom; explorers, travelers, traders and invaders have been drawn to her shores. Fa Hien and Hieun Tsang came from China in search of Bhuddha’s calm serenity; from Alexander to Tamburlaine and Nadir Shah, Mahmud Ghaznavi, Muhammad Shah Ghauri to Babar, and Vasco-De-Gama to East India Company. All came here to fill their coffers with the wealth of this land; Jews, Parsees, Muhammedans, Christians, Arabs, Persians, Turks, Orientals and Europeanshave been all made welcome here. Greek Chronicler Megasthenes, North African traveler Ibn-e-batuta, Arab explorer Al Biruni and the Russian traveler Afanasi Nikitin, have all been making a beeline to this land and could not fail to be impressed. Mark Twain said of this country, way back in 1896, â€Å"†¦.nothing has been left undone, either by men or nature to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his round!†

Aerobics and Weight Training essays

Aerobics and Weight Training essays As most of you already know, fitness is usually measured by the untrained eye on the basis of how a person looks and their muscle definition. For anyone its hard to get muscle definition until you lose weight, and that might be hard enough, more so for women then men. Women feel that they have a bigger need for physical fitness then men do. Some women and men think that dieting will get them looking great and feeling good with good muscle definition, but that is not the case. Research has shown that with a mixture of aerobic exercises, weight training, and nutrition any female can have the optimum level of physical fitness in order to look and feel great and have good definition. The basics for a good work out, most think, is straining yourself to your limit. In all actuality, this form of exercise is one of the worst. Your body is not used to the extreme conditions that come with binge training. Also, it is one of the leading causes of injuries. Because your muscles have to work up to training hard, it would be in your best interest to start easy and progress to harder things. So beginners should have a low profile goal that can be achieved easily enough as to not strain yourself, but hard enough where you can feel the results. (Venuto 1) The aerobic training is probably the most important part of ones workout. Aerobics: With air or oxygen means that with also being fun and effective, aerobics strengthen your cardiovascular muscles and improves your heart rate-which speeds up your metabolism. Also aerobics have a variety of other purposes. Such as increased resistance to fatigue and extra energy, decreased tension and aid in sleeping, increased general stamina, controlled body fat, and toned muscles and increased lean body mass. It is to be said for the last one that muscle does weigh more then fat, so your mass will increase. Along with physical benefits there are some psychologica ...

Sample Business Recommendation Letter From an Employer

Sample Business Recommendation Letter From an Employer Students who are applying to a business, management, or entrepreneur program will need to have at least one recommendation letter that demonstrates your leadership ability. This sample recommendation letter is the perfect example of what a business school wants to see from both undergraduate and graduate program applicants.It has been reprinted (with permission) from EssayEdge.com. Named ​one of the best essay services on the Internet by The Washington Post, EssayEdge has helped more applicants write successful personal statements than any other company in the world.Though EssayEdge did not write or edit this sample recommendation letter, it is a good example of how a recommendation should be formatted. See more sample recommendation letters. Sample Letter of Recommendation Dear Sir: Esti worked for me as my assistant for one year. I recommend her without qualification for your entrepreneur program. While working in commercial production, I often relied on Esti to put together creative presentations, for which she described and outlined the artistic approach to the project, researching illustrations and photographic reference materials. Her creativity, resourcefulness, and ability to see a project through really made these presentations distinctive and successful. When we went into production on the feature film Hotcha, Esti was able to observe every step of the process, sitting in on meetings and working with people in all areas of the production from the moment the production was set in motion through the release of the film ten months later. During this time, she was an effective communicator, often serving as my liaison to scattered members of the crew. She also coordinated projects involving numerous people, and her ability to work collaboratively while guiding the project quickly and effectively was outstanding. For example, when we suddenly needed to reconceive several action sequences that had already been storyboarded, Esti quickly found a new storyboard artist on location and worked with him, the stunt coordinator and the cinematographer through several drafts to make sure the new sequences worked, and then communicated with crew members from all departments, making sure everyone was up-to-date on the changes that were relevant to them. She even jumped in to draw a few last-minute storyboard changes herself. Estis sensitivity, diligence, energy, and sense of humor made working with her a joy. I highly recommend her as a welcome addition to the program. Sincerely,Jeff Jones