Aristotle Essays (1004 words) - Philosophy, , Term Papers

Aristotle Aristotle Aristotle was born in 384 BC and lived until 322 BC. He was a Greek philosopher and scientist, who shares with Plato being considered the most famous of ancient philosophers. He was born at Stagira, in Macedonia, the son of a physician to the royal court. When he was 17, he went to Athens to study at Plato's Academy. He stayed for about 20 years, as a student and then as a teacher. When Plato died in 347 BC, Aristotle moved to Assos, a city in Asia Minor, where a friend of his named Hermias was the ruler. He counseled Hermias and married his niece and adopted daughter, Pythias (wierd names, huh). After Hermias was captured and executed by the Persians, Aristotle went to Pella, Macedonia's capital, and became the tutor of the king's young son Alexander, later known as Alexander the Great. In 335, when Alexander became king, Aristotle went back to Athens and established his own school, the Lyceum.Since a lot of the lessons happened when teachers and students were walking, it was nicknamed the Peripatetic school (Peripatetic means walking). When Alexander died in 323 BC, strong anti-Macedonian feeling was felt in Athens, and Aristotle went to a family estate in Euboea. He died there the following year. Aristotle, like Plato, used his dialogue in his beginning years at the Academy. Apart from a few fragments in the works of later writers, his dialogues have been wholly lost. Aristotle also wrote some short technical writings, including a dictionary of philosophic terms and a summary of the "doctrines of Pythagoras" (the guy from the Pythagorean Theorem). Of these, only a few short pieces have survived. Still in good shape, though, are Aristotle's lecture notes for carefully outlined courses treating almost every type of knowledge and art. The writings that made him famous are mostly these, which were collected by other editors. Among the writings are short informative lectures on logic, called Organon (which means "instrument"), because "they provide the means by which positive knowledge is to be attained"(They're not my words, I'm quoting him). His writing on natural science include Physics, which gives a huge amount of information on astronomy, meteorology, plants, and animals. His writings on the nature, scope, and properties of being, (I know what one of them means!) which Aristotle called First Philosophy (to him it was "Prote philosophia"), were given the title Metaphysics in the first published version of his works (around 60 BC), because in that edition they followed Physics. His belief of the "Prime Mover", or first cause, was pure intellect, perfect in unity,immutable, and, as he said, "the thought of thought," is given in the Metaphysics. Other famous works include his Rhetoric, his Poetics (which we only have incomplete pieces of), and his Politics (also incomplete). Because of the influence of his father's medical profession, Aristotle's philosophy was mainly stressed on biology, the opposite of Plato's emphasis on mathematics. Aristotle regarded the world as "made up of individuals (substances) occurring in fixed natural kinds (species)" (more confusing quotes, yippey!). He said "each individual has its built-in specific pattern of development and grows toward proper self-realization as a specimen of its type. Growth, purpose, and direction are thus built into nature." Although science studies many things, according to Aristotle, "these things find their existence in particular individuals. Science and philosophy must therefore balance, not simply choose between, the claims of empiricism (observation and sense experience) and formalism (rational deduction)." One of the most famous of Aristotle's contributions was a new notion of causality. "Each thing or event," he thought, "has more than one 'reason' that helps to explain what, why, and where it is." Earlier Greek thinkers thought that only one sort of cause can explain itself; Aristotle said four.(The word Aristotle uses, aition, "a responsible, explanatory factor" is not the same as the word cause now.) These four causes are the "material cause", (the matter out of which a thing is made); the "efficient cause", (the source of motion, generation, or change); the "formal cause", (the species, kind, or type); and "the final cause", (the goal, or full development, of an individual, or the intended function of a construction or invention.) Although I don't know what these mean, they sound philosophical. An example he gave is "a young lion is made up of tissues and organs, its material cause; the efficient cause is its parents, who generated it; the formal cause is its species, lion; and its final cause is its built-in drive toward maturity." Another example he gave is "the material cause of a statue is the marble from which it

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety Disorders Free Online Research Papers Introduction We have all felt the effects of stress at one time or another. Our bodies tell us when we need to slow down because we are overloaded. If stress continues unchecked, it can develop into a more serious problem called anxiety. It has been estimated that over 20 million Americans suffer from an anxiety disorder at any one time and that another 30 million will experience the problem at least once during their lifetime (Hunt, 2005). However, anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. Slight anxiety can actually motivate us in school or at work to perform better and achieve results. However, high levels of anxiety, especially over extended periods of time, is quite detrimental and often requires some kind of medical intervention. Individuals affected with this disorder experience an inappropriate and excessive level of arousal, which is often followed by feelings of uncertainty, fear, and apprehension. Consistent stress and anxiety can greatly affect our spirit, making life seem less meaningful. However, there is no one theory of anxiety that explains the various clinical and biological data. Many theories have suggested possible etiological factors in the development of anxiety; the three main theories are psychodynamic, behavioral, and biological (Hansell and Damour, 2005). Psychodynamic View Freud proposed that anxiety is the result of unconscious psychic conflicts. When these conflicts, or forbidden impulses, threaten to become conscious, anxiety is experienced. Anxiety then becomes a signal to the ego to take defensive actions to suppress it. When the defense mechanism is successful, anxiety is lowered and a sense of security returns. However, if the conflict is intense and the defense mechanism is not successful, symptoms will display in the form of phobias, regression or ritualistic behaviors. Cognitive Behavioral View Behavioral theory suggests that anxiety is a result of learned or conditioned responses. Techniques utilized in the treatment of phobias and obsessive-compulsive behaviors support this theory. According to this hypothesis, anxiety results from a series of responses to certain stimuli. Over time, a person would develop a learned or conditioned response to the stimuli. This concept suggests that anxiety can be learned and unlearned as a result of experience. Biological View From the biological perspective, manifestations of anxiety may be experienced by physiological irregularity. Anxiety may be a warning of an underlying physiological process. In this case, anxiety could be caused by physical disease or abnormality and not necessarily by an emotional conflict. For example, people with multiple sclerosis, brain tumor, diabetes, or, anemia may experience anxiety stemming from their physiological processes. Examples of Anxiety Disorders Though there are varying categories of anxiety disorders, the most common are Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Disorders, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Phobias, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) manifests itself with feelings of chronic and persistent anxiety that last for six months or longer. A person who is experiencing GAD often feels as if they have no control or management capacity over their anxiety. This person may experience insomnia, restlessness, fatigue, uncontrolled behavior, and muscle tension. GAD can also result in a number of physical symptoms such as sweating, dry mouth, and tension headaches. This disorder can be debilitating enough to interrupt an individual’s social and professional life. Generalized Anxiety Disorder Generalized anxiety disorder originates from two main factors: biological vulnerability to anxiety and stress due to negative environmental stressors. An individual may be genetically predisposed or have a natural inner tendency to live life in a tense manner. Any undue amounts of stress can move this naturally tense person into a level of nervousness that gradually moves into worry, then create physiological changes, and finally lead to GAD. Individuals affected with GAD show less responsiveness on most physiological measures such as heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration rate. They often experience chronic muscle tension, as well as intense cognitive processing in the frontal lobes, especially in the left hemisphere of the brain. This indicates worry without images, which cause the individual to experience extreme levels of worry without having the ability to create images for their current thought. Individuals with GAD are extremely sensitive to threat, especially threat with personal bearing. They seem to be more aware and attentive than people without GAD, and this awareness seems to be unconscious. They usually avoid negative effects associated with the threat at hand; therefore overlooking what may be a solution to their problem. This prevents the person from facing the feared situation and makes adaptation difficult. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Obsessive Compulsive Disorder also known as OCD is a chronic mental disorder most commonly characterized by intrusive, repetitive thoughts. These thinking patterns produce a compulsive behavior that the person feels driven to perform. Often, the sufferer would follow a personal routine applying special rules aimed at preventing some imagined anxiety-producing events. The obsession aspect of OCD is where individuals experience troubling repetitive thoughts, images, or impulses that are not only upsetting, but may not make much sense to the individual. Typical obsessions are in the area of cleanliness, such as a fear of germs, contamination, and dirt. The compulsion aspect of OCD is where individuals seek to cope with or manage their anxiety using routine, methodic actions known as rituals. These compulsions somehow help the sufferer negate worrying thoughts, but usually the impact of the rituals is short-lived causing the person to repeat them. Both obsessions and compulsions are troubling and embarrassing, so many people with this condition often hide their fears and rituals though they are not able to stop acting on them. A majority of the people affected by OCD have both obsessions and compulsions with only a small amount having only one aspect of the malady. There are a number of treatment methods for OCD ranging from psychotherapy to self-help and medication. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to be the most effective form of therapy for because it challenges the dysfunctional and irrational beliefs and thoughts that lie underneath the obsession, as well as the fear that such obsessions produce. During this type of therapy, an OCD sufferer may have a dual approach of gradual exposure to the feared stimulus combined with medication that tempers the anxious emotional state. In regard to the latter, it is believed that individuals with OCD have a lower level of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin has an important role in regard to proper regulation of mood, sleep, and other functions. A class of antidepressant that has been shown to treat OCD most effectively is the serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Antidepressants can help with the treatment of OCD because they increase levels of serotonin in which OCD sufferers have been known to have a lesser amounts. Specific antidepressants that have been effective in treating OCD include Clomipramine (Anafranil), Fluvoxamine (Luvox), Fluoxetine (Prozac), Paroxetine (Paxil), Sertraline (Zoloft), and Citalopram (Celexa). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder In comparison to GAD and OCD, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be the most experientially troubling of the anxiety disorders. Also known by popular phrases such as railway spine, stress syndrome, shell shock, and battle fatigue, the sufferer of PTSD is haunted by horrific experiences that have attached the person’s emotions, psyche, and senses (visual, auditory, and even olfactory). Such events might be rape, various forms of abuse, natural disasters, and battle experience, all coming back to the sufferer in such forms as flashbacks and nightmares that can significantly impair social and occupational functioning long after the event has passed. Similar to GAD, there also seems to be a negative impact in certain brain functioning with PTSD. For example, soldiers who experienced intense fighting in the Vietnam War with PTSD showed a 20% reduction in the volume of their hippocampus compared with veterans who did not have PTSD. In addition to this evidence, it has been theorized that the amygdala may be in a semi-permanent state of hyperarousal, where the sufferer is not able to â€Å"turn off† the hypersensitivity of the amygdala, which regulates the fight or flight response. Treatment of PTSD has been greatly helped by Horowitz’s creation of the Stress Response Syndrome. This is a model that maps a common pattern of typical responses to stressors, real or imagined. In regard to the sometimes unpredictable and shifting symptoms of PTSD, the Stress Response Syndrome has helped therapists with a logical and phased outline of emotional or impulsive states in which to guide a PTSD sufferer through. These states are: Stressful event, Outcry, a dual state of Intrusion and Denial, Working through, and finally Completion. It has been theorized though, because of the sometimes shocking memories associated with PTSD events, that sufferers may not adequately ever reach the final state of completion. This may be especially true because PTSD often enter deep episodes of depression, substance abuse as a coping method, and even periods of psychosis. Like other anxiety disorders, treatment is varied for PTSD sufferers with psychotherapy and medication. Again, a cognitive behavioral approach is advised, especially by using gradual exposure or remembrance of the stressor with the therapist being careful to not have the patient experience the exposure too deeply. Medications are meant to manage PTSD symptoms from intrusive flashbacks (antidepressants and antipsychotics), hyperarousal (antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and anticonvulsants), psychosis (atypical antipsychotics and anticonvulsants), depression (antidepressants), and panic attacks (antidepressants, MAO inhibitors, and benzodiazepines). A Non-Traditional Setting for Anxiety Besides traumatic situations, anxiety can also surface in areas that are not seen as traditionally stressful, for example, sports. Athletes must often experience and manage various levels of nervousness, apprehension, and fear. Sport psychologists believe that anxiety is a reaction that is measured using various scales through the observation of cognitive and physiological symptoms that appear in reaction to a stimulus. In relation to the environmental stressors associated with sports, this could be upcoming performance, intense competition, or possibly the expectation put on athletes by friends and family. Anxiety in connection with sports is a provocative topic for research since its management can affect a persons athletic performance positively or negatively (Mellalieu, Hanton OBrien, 2004). The relationship between anxiety and sports is a complex one, since it involves anxiety responses that are unique for each athlete along with the variable of different sports. For example, anxiety responses felt by athletes in an individual, non-contact sport (such as tennis) might differ greatly from anxiety responses felt by athletes in a team, contact sport (such as football). This disparity elicits different anxiety responses due to the divergent task demands of the sports (Mellalieu, Hanton OBrien, 2004). Unlike general sufferers of anxiety disorders, athletes on the other hand have a kind of built-in outlet for the anxiety as well. In fact, there is a great amount of literature regarding the beneficial relationship of anxiety in conjunction with sports. In particular, there have been many studies that have exclusively focused on children, and how beneficial sports activities have done to improve their self-esteem, confidence, mood, and mental health, in spite of the presence of anxiety as well. For an in depth look at this specific subject, further research is required. References Carlson, Neil R. (2007). Physiology of Behavior. Boston, MA: Allyn Bacon Antai-Otong, D. (2003). Current treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing, 41, 20-28. Gioia, M. C., Cerasa, A., Di Lucente, L., Brunelli, S., Castellano, V. Traballesi, M. (2006). Psychological impact of sports activity in spinal cord injury. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine Science in Sports 16, 412-416. Hansell, J., Damour, L. (2005). Abnormal psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Hunt, D (2005). What your doctor may not tell you about anxiety, phobias, panic Attacks. The all-natural program that can help you conquer your fears. New York, New York: Grand Central Publishing. Mellalieu, S. D., Hanton, S. OBrien, M. (2004). Intensity and direction of competitive anxiety as a function of sport type and experience. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine Science in Sports 14, 326-334. 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Banking Secrecy Laws Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Banking Secrecy Laws - Essay Example The article talks about the evil practice of evading taxes and the topic has been narrowed down by the author and primarily focuses upon the citizens of Switzerland. There are about 52000 American depositors who have intentionally hidden some information regarding tax evasion with the help of their Swiss Bank accounts, the Swiss authorities are known for their secrecy and this is a double edged weapon and it is certainly proving out to be that way. The US government is putting extreme pressure on the Swiss government to provide them with information of the American citizens who have Swiss bank accounts. The US government has even launched a civil suit in Miami to get access to this pivotal information. The US government firmly believes that the American citizens have hidden their potential worth of about $ 14.8 billion in various Swiss bank accounts and recently a Swiss bank by the name UBS provided information important information to the US authorities of as many as 250 US citizens who have their bank accounts with the bank. The Swiss government is trying really hard to implement a tax system which will complement their secrecy but this has not been implemented yet. The French president has also got involved in this and he recently said that Switzerland would be put in a black list of the G-20 members for being a tax- haven nation.