Philosophy In Aristophanes Play The Clouds Philosophy Essay

Philosophy In Aristophanes Play The Clouds Philosophy Essay Aristophanes play The Clouds is a play that is very intricate and in many ways speaks to the nature of mankind. It is a play that makes comments on the thoughts of the time period, predominantly comments towards philosophy. The plot of this story involves a father and his son. The father, Strepsiades, is a wealthy man, but is soon to no longer be a wealthy man if he does not do something about his situation. His situation is primarily that which involves his son. The father is in great debt at the beginning of the story because of the reckless and frivolous nature of the son Phidippides. The father is at a loss at the beginning of the play, not knowing what to do about all his debts. The father then hears about the Thinking shop where people get together and learn the art of argument in relationship to the field of philosophy. The father sees this as a form of hope for his problems. He think that if he can learn the art of persuasive argument he can pull one over on his creditors and come out ahead in the long run. Unfortunately, the father soon finds that he has no gift for learning the art of argument. He is a lost cause at the school and he is deemed too stupid to really be taught this fine art. He then sends his son to the school hoping his son could learn and then argue against the creditors. However, this plan backfires on the father. The son learns to argue incredibly well, he is a natural at it, and he turns his argument towards his father, beating him up and then offering such a logical argument that his father could not complain. However, in the end, when the son claims that he could well argue a reason to beat up his mother, the father becomes enraged and burns down the Thinkery. Aspect I find interesting in Aristophanes The Clouds, is the fact that even though its obvious Aristophanes is preaching to readers a more non-religious message of the importance of truthfulness, civic responsibility, and virtue, the play takes on a religious tone. In doing some background research into why this would be, I discovered that Aristophanes religious undertones could stem from the fact that Athenians were trying to harmonize science and religion. When new scientific theories were starting to surface and be questioned, many people couldnt even consider them without sounding as if they were committing treason against the state. Aristophanes turns to religion in order to remind his audience that both religion and science have to be equally open to questions, critique, and even in Aristophanes case, satire. This suggestion, that certain things need to be equally suceptable to critique and questions can also be seen through the way that Aristophanes suggests there is both a pr oblem with the accepted model of a well-rounded education, and the newer model brought about by such philopophers as the Sophists. Aristophanes saw the danger in not questioning an accepted theory or belief. Despite the fact I agree with Johnson in that Aristophanes may be a staunch defender of old values, Aristophanes saw that if something widely accepted was left unquestioned for too long, it would become idle. Basically, an idea that I believe should be applied more in the world we live in today. A traditionally accepted theory or belief could lose the exact fundamentals and values it was based on. This play has a very obvious shift in tone as Johnston mention in his essay. in the end of his essay, he mentions the ending Aristophanes chooses for The Clouds. I fall into the group that Johnson says, see that this powerful ominous ending as a persuasive possibility. As Johnson says, Aristophanes traps his audience; theyre engaged because of the humor and satircal nature of the beginning of the play. We can laugh at someone, like Socrates, that we have nothing in common with. But as the satire gets closer and closer to us with Strepsiades burning down the Thinkery, it becomes obvious that the audience is no longer laughing at Socrates, with whom we have nothing in common, but rather at the vision of the people we could become if we engage behavior motivated by self-interest. Ironically, as Johnson points out, Aristophanes was correct in his warnings. Athens did fall due to its own self-destruction. I find it interesting and a little bit scary because I believe we could apply this ominous warning to our own nation. We are guilty, just as the Athenians were, of sometimes being too proud of our political independence. I believe wars, like that in Iraq, could lead to our demise. Even more obvious to me is the fact that I definitely believe we are losing sight of our traditional moral virtues. Americans find it so easy to point the finger, and refuse to examine our own beliefs, trying to impose them on others that may not be able to survive our view of what democracy or freedom should be. I find it morally questionable that we centralize our efforts thousands of miles away when we have so many problems that have the potential to be our end looming within the borders of our own country. Strepsiades is pointing forward to much of the self-destructiveness which brought the Athenians, and countless other cultures proud of their values, to grief, Johnson says. I believe many of our leaders and citizens could never forsee a fate like this in America but it is that belief that has the potential to bring us off our self inflicted pedestal. Another interesting point Johnson brings to our attention is his warning in the problem of how do we keep the good will of our children on whom we are going to depend? What is it that keeps children from exerting their superior power to abuse their parents when they dont get their way? I believe that this breakdown of the immediate family is prevalent in our modern-day society. While its a bit different than what Johnson is suggesting, never before in history, has our lack of respect and concern for those who came before us been so obvious. Unfortunately, I cant think of a family who has a sick grandparent or other elder member of their family living in their home. Nursing homes and hospitals have become a place where we can tuck them away so as not to have to forfeit any aspect of our lives in order to help preseve theirs. If we forget and turn a blind eye to traditions formerly viewed as important in our society, we run the risk of as Johnson puts it, being left with a situation in which the only basis for human relationship is power. Power is the basis for all of our accepted laws and behaviors, if that for some reason shifts, so would the laws. Then, as Johnson suggets, a son would be free to harm his parents. Aristophanes does have somewhat of a different view of justice than Socrates. Whereas I believe Aristophanes is concerned more with governmental consequences of actions and adoption of certain beliefs that could be considered treason, Socrates believes that consequences will come not in his lifetime, but rather after his death. In The Apology, Socrates speaks of death as more of an unknown something he cant be afraid of, because he doesnt understand what it means. In Socrates eyes, death has the potential to be something great, as long as a person lives a good and virtuous life. Aristophanes, on the other hand, seems to be more concerned with what his peers and leaders will think of him and do to him and others, if they commit some sort of a crime. Aristophanes paints a potrait of death as more of an end, rather than having the potential to be a beginning. Comedic satire and philosophical dialectic are similar in that they are both practices of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical (and in the case of satire, funny) arguments. In the dialectic, its by presenting a thesis, developing a contradictory antithesis, and combining and resolving them into a coeherent synthesis, and in satire its by attacking human vice through irony and wit. In the case of Aristophanes, he urges the people of Athens to make changes through his satirical play. This play is essentially can be piece of work which we can applicable to our own world. When we do not take time to check practices and beliefs, we have the potential to lose our value and what we thought important at the beginning. Even though people at that time would have just watched the play and laughed about it, Aristophanes actually aimed for very serious warning. A nation too proud and too sure in its own beliefs and politics has proven through history, never to work. We sometimes dont try or refuse our time to examine our belief and value. If we do not set our moral goals and hopes, one day we can have the same problem as Athenian has suffered. .

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Throughout John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s life, he left behind not only a â€Å"household name† but also an American legacy. Both his name and face are recognized all across the United States as a legendary icon who touched every heart and every mind in America. From the day JFK was born, May 29, 1917, to the tragic day of his assassination on November 22, 1963, he completely inspired and earned full trust from the citizens of America. John F. Kennedy (also known as â€Å"Jack†) did not have the average childhood. He grew up in a very wealthy, very political Catholic family. His parents had high hopes for all nine of their children. but actually aspired for John’s older brother to become president. However, after the untimely and tragic death of his older Navy brother, he took his parents dreams for him upon himself. His political career began when he ran for Congress in Massachusetts in 1946. Not long after serving as the senator at 36 years old he was married to Jacqueline Bouvier. John became extremely popular not only because of his age, but he was also a popularly published author. His wor...

A manager’s job Essay

1. A manager’s job can be described from various perspectives. (Functions, roles, essential skills, systems, contingencies). describe what managers do using Henri Fayol’s functions approach and the contingency/situational approach. Bring out in you presentation, the advantages and disadvantages of the approach. Successful organizations are led by experienced and knowledgeable managers. Good managers are there to make work load look less difficult and their responsibility is mounting and endless. Managers oversee the use of all resources; that is to say financial, physical, information and human resources in their respective firm. All the aspects of a manager’s job are interrelated. Managers also develop, maintain and implement the organization’s goals and objectives. They also lead their employees as well as motivating them to meet set targets. What managers do is represented by the term POLC. This means; planning, organizing, leading (commanding), and controlling. According to Henri Fayol, there are fourteen management principles. However not all of them apply to manager’s roles, essentials, system, functions or contingencies. Planning is a predetermined course of action in order to set up clear business objectives and making of decisions on the best use of resources. Mangers here decide on the tasks and resources that are needed to achieve business objectives. It is the most difficult among the four and therefore requires active participation of the whole organization. This then comes out as a manager’s role that is he/ she is responsible for coordinating this setup. According to Fayol, planning must be coordinated on different levels and with different horizons. Since this process involves defining goals and establishing strategies for achieving those goals and developing plans to integrate and coordinate activities, the manager is responsible for such. (w ww.provenmodels.com/3/five-functions-of-management/). Planning as presented by Fayol facilitates management objectives that are it highlights the purpose for which various activities are to be undertaken. It also helps  in focusing the attention of employees on the objectives or goals of the business. However on the other hand, planning is rigid that is it has a tendency to make administration inflexible. There also is high doubt in the development of employees because of which management might have faced lot of difficulties in future. Planning therefore introduces inelasticity and discourages individual initiative as well as experimentation. Planning minimizes uncertainties that are it reduces uncertainty of the future as it involves anticipation of future events. Planning also facilitates coordination. Planning improves employee’s moral Employees know in advance what is expected of them and therefore conformity can be achieved easily. This encourages employees to show their best and also earn reward for the same. Planning encourages innovations. In the process of planning, managers have the opportunities of suggesting ways and means of improving performance. However planning is time consuming and expensive. Planning is a time consuming process because it involves collection of information, its analysis and interpretation thereof. The entire process of planning takes a lot of time specially where there are a number of alternatives available. Collection, analysis and evaluation of different information, facts and alternatives involve a lot of expense in terms of time, effort and money. Organizing according to Fayol’s perspective, is when managers provide capital, personnel and raw materials for the day to day running of the business and building structure to match the work. However, Luther Gulick and Brit Lydnall Urwick expanded organizing as establishing a structure of authority for all work. This is an essential role played by a manager. Managers arrange work to accomplish the organization’s goals. Managers also are concerned with assigning and allocation of resources and duties to employees. This is quite essential since the process brings people together that is as employees are grouped they get time to actually discuss therefore covering the social need as indicated by Abraham Maslow. It is also a manager’s job in organizing that is it is entirely up to him to know how tasks are to be grouped, who is to do the tasks, what tasks are to be done and who is to report to whom. Organizing helps in the division of work that then aids in the bringing up of specialization in various activities of concern. Specialization helps reduce wastages and in turn increases the quality of products produced. This is because everyone will be obliged to a  duty and the employees in a bid to get some recognition at work, they tend to work hard. Organizing also helps enhance effective administration, coordination, scope for new changes, and classifies authority. This is to say that organizing helps to define job positions, creates clear cut relationships among positions and ensure mutual cooperation among individuals, classifies power to every manager and the way he/ she has to exercise those powers can be clarified so that misuse of power will not take place respectively. However, specialization leads to boredom that is if the person continues to work in the same department for a long time. Leading is optimizing return from all employees in the interest of the entire enterprise. Successful managers have personal integrity, communicate clearly and base their judgments on regular audits. Leading is the imparting of a vision to the organization in order to achieve a goal. It does this by formulating a well-thought out vision and then clearly communicating it. It involves managers giving orders to employees. Managers here analyze workers’ reports and in turn get to know more about an employee. This thorough knowledge of personnel creates unity, energy, innovation, loyalty and eliminates incompetence. Managers here also motivate subordinates, influence individuals or teams as they work. This comes to the point in which a manager is said to work with and through people to accomplish organizational goals. It is within a manager’s job as well to choose the most effective communication channels or to deal with any employee behavior. Leading maintains order in the sense that everyone will be under one superior hence there are chances of having an organized structure. Members know to whom they report and who reports to them. This means that communication gets channeled along defined and predictable paths, which allows those higher in the organization to direct questions to the appropriate parties. It also means that individuals tend to know who does and does not possess the authority to assign or change tasks. A clear chain of command also generates clearly defined sets of responsibilities. However, Organizational structures that have leading as a management’s role are highly at an advantage because it offers very clear, if not always easy, advancement paths. In business organizations, for example, advancement frequently means replacing a departing or advancing superior. Also a leading management role  divides these areas of concern into various department configurations that specialize. Specialization allows organizations to concentrate particular skill sets and resources to achieve maximum efficiency. However In theory, organizations pursue a goal or goals as a unified team. The departmentalizing of specializations leads, in some cases, to decisions made to benefit a department rather than the organization goals. Amongst the POLC, controlling is the last element. Mangers here identify weaknesses and errors by controlling feedback and conforming activities to plans, policies and instructions. The manager under controlling; monitors actual performance, compares actual to standard performance and takes action basing on the outcome. It is entirely a manager’s job to come up with plans, policies and instructions that can govern the business and in turn benefit the business as a whole. By allowing controlling functions to operate effectively and efficiently through coordination and control methods for Fayol, the manager is the one who overlooks an employee as a living organism that requires liaison officers and joint committees. Controlling is precisely a way of monitoring, keeping, comparing, correcting, giving explanation and evaluating how well the purposed organization is achieving and accomplishing its goals and how they are taking action to improve or increase their performance. Controlling is the process used to establish and provide structure in order to deal with uncertainties. Control helps to reduce the wastage of human, material and financial resources. This increases the profits of the organization. All the work has to be done according to these standards. So control, acts as a guideline. It guides all the operations of the organization in the right direction. A contingency approach is a situation in management where there is no one approach to management. In short, it is a situation where there is no one size fitting all. According to Wikipedia, it is also known as the situational approach that is to say that there is not a set of management principles or tools that can be used to manage an organization. This is because organizations are different hence they face different circumstances and this may require different ways of managing. The contingency theory states that managers must understand the situation contingences facing them before deciding the best way to work with and through others as they  coordinate activities. In this case it’s not that managers just sit back and relax, rather they work the hardest because they have to first observe before acting. Managers in the contingency approach, first have to evaluate and understand what type of situation they will be in. this is mainly because situations vary and change over time. The right approach to use depends on the complex variety of critical environmental and internal contingences. The manager’s job under the contingency approach is to observe and be quick to adapt to the changes inconsiderate of how extreme the situation is, the manager therefore instills flexibility in oneself so as to find relevant solutions to different contingencies within a little amount of time. The key advantages of situational leadership are that the model is easy to understand and REFERENCE RICKY W GRIFFIN (BUSINESS 6TH EDITION) (www.provenmodels.com/3/five-functions-of-management/ managementstudyguide.com/organizing_importance_htm www.ehow.com/about_7382944_advantages-disadvantages-succession-planning.html www.ehow.com/info_8416158_advantages-disadvantages-management-information-system.html http://www.ehow.com/about_5522264_advantages-situational-leadership.html http://www.ehow.com/info_8536984_advantages-disadvantages-hierarchical-structure.html

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