Beatles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Beatles - Essay Example A simple percussion that is consistent throughout does not dominate but simply backs the moderate tempo of the song. However, the changing progressions and phrasing throughout the song gives the illusion of a changing tempo and time signature. The instrumentation is built on top of a bass line that is an "Oom pah" sound reminiscent of a military march or civic band. In the first half of the song, this is accompanied with a strummed acoustic guitar that compliments the percussion. In the last verse, Harrison introduces a picked instrument, probably a 12 string guitar, that plays counter melody and gives the song a Mediterranean or Eastern sound not unlike the sitar used in later works. "Girl", like many of the songs on the album, was mixed with all the vocals on one channel and the instruments on the other. This was a move toward greater use and experimentation in the studio. Many of the elements of "Girl" would be expanded on and would show up on their subsequent recordings.

Male culture disadvantages boys in education Essay Example for Free

Male culture disadvantages boys in education Essay Until the late 1980s, most sociological literature focused on the underachievement of girls. Girls were less likely to pursue A levels and consequently to enter higher education. However, in the early 1990s, it was argued that girls had begun to outperform boys at most levels of the education system. The main sociological focus today therefore is on the underachievement of boys. Epstein et al.(1999) state that boys underachievement is not something new, but in the past was not a worrying trend for two reasons: working-class boys used to move easily into jobs without good qualifications in the days when sons followed fathers into mines, factories, etc. And the structural and cultural barriers preventing females access to high-status jobs and the pressure on women to become wives and mothers, etc. meant that males always achieved better paid jobs in the long run. However, today Epstein notes that governments are anxious about large numbers of unemployed young men because they are a potential threat to social order. There are many reasons why boys are under-achieving in education. In some schools, the extent of boys underachievement has become so serious that twice as many girls are getting five GCSEs grades A-C. It is estimated that by the age of 16, nearly 40% of boys are lost to education. Some sociologists have suggested that the fault lies with teachers. Studies of classroom interaction and the relationship between pupils and teachers suggest that teachers are not as strict with boys as with girls. It is claimed that teachers tend to have lower expectations of boys, e. g.they expect work to be late, to be untidy and boys to be disruptive. Emphasis in the past has been on excluding such boys rather than looking for ways to motivate them. Consequently a culture of low achievement evolved among boys and was not acted upon because the emphasis in schools for many years was to make education more relevant and interesting for girls. Boys performance in schools is a complex issue. This policy issue of boys underachievement can be understood in many different ways. The issue can be framed in terms of human capital, class inequality, equal opportunities or social justice. Links can be drawn between the low educational attainment of some boys and the low employment rates of some young men. There is also for some boys an antagonism between educational attainment, even attentiveness, and the performance and achievement of particular and valued masculinities. Mac An Ghaill (1996) argues that working-class boys are experiencing a crisis of masculinity. Their socialisation into traditional masculine identity has been undermined by the decline of traditional mens jobs in manufacturing and primary industries such as mining. Mass unemployment found in working-class areas means that boys are no longer sure about their future role as men. This confusion about their future role may lead working-class boys to conclude that qualifications are a waste of time because there are only limited opportunities in the job market. The future looks bleak and without purpose so they dont see the point in working hard. They may temporarily resolve this crisis by constructing delinquent or anti-school subcultures, which tend to be anti-learning. Research evidence indicates that boys appear to gain street credibility and status in such cultures for not working. In 1994 Panoramas The Future is Female by Hannon suggested that with more opportunities for women in the work place, a change in the female ideology and with a fairer education system women simply passed the boys. Boys are not actually doing worse than they have done in the past, they are improving, but girls improvement outstrips boys Hannon, The Future is Female, 1994. With father opportunities of women it is easy to realise the origins of the current masculinity crisis, as there is no set role. Boys are no longer thought of as maturing later and comfortably walking into sustainable education. Instead men are expected to work hard throughout education to reap the rewards later but this is against the gender stereotype portrayed through the agents of socialisation. With this problem the new man was created producing a crisis for men on which to evolve into. Both published in socialisation agents boys have the problem of evolving into fulfilling the laddish stereotype or one in which they draw away from the idea that it is not male to work hard in education. Other sociologists have pointed to the feminine culture, which surrounds younger children as a possible influence on male under- achievement. Children, both male and female, may equate learning and therefore schooling with femininity. As boys grow up, they identify with more masculine role models and may reject academic learning and skills such as presentation and reading as feminine. Boys and reading and boys and literature are frequently mentioned by teachers as trouble spots in educating boys. Many young boys belong to anti-learning sub-cultures and they would therefore be deemed as un-cool if they achieved well in school especially in a girly subject such as English. Many boys dont try to achieve at school simply to conform to their groups norms and values. If their group doesnt value education then they wont. They believe it is more valuable to be popular and in with the right crowd as opposed to achieving in school and education.

After Various Writings By Rich :: essays research papers

After various writings by Richard Rodriguez and Octavio Paz, I have come across several realizations. Who am I? Should I be a part of a nation and a â€Å"system† that does not value me, or should I be a part of a nation that does not acknowledge my existence? The United States as a nation does not value me, and Mà ©xico does not even know that I exist. These are difficult matters to discuss. We are all in search of our own identity. However, some of us are placed in a situation that makes it very difficult and confusing to know or understand. I have always asked myself, â€Å"Who am I?† I should put it in more crude words, â€Å"Where do I belong?† After this specific question is asked, I begin to realize that I have problems coming up with a response. My parents were born in Mà ©xico, and thus, they are Mexican. Sometimes I feel I belong here in the United States, but other times I feel more attached to Mà ©xico. I am a Mexican-American. However, I feel that I am denying in some way my heritage and my culture by saying that I am. I am denying my parents. I say that I’m Mexican because in a sense I am. I am also an American. I am a Mexican-American. What do these terms put together imply? They should imply that the person is Mexican and American. The term â€Å"Mexican-American† is the very reason why I find myself confused about who I really am. I need to search for my own identity, which leads me to the purpose of this essay. Rodriguez and Paz have discussed this particular problem of identity. All three have different viewpoints. Some of their ideas are similar but mostly contradictory, especially in the case of Rodriguez and Paz. As I was reading, I was able to relate to what they had to say, and in a much bigger sense, I was able to understand and know who I am. I was able to find my self.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  According to Paz, self-discovery is most than anything realizing that we are alone. Paz argues that our being or our identity becomes a problem and a question. It becomes a problem because of several reasons. We just don’t simply wake up one day and realize that we don’t know who we are. There are individuals who are placed in difficult situations that allow for these questions to arise.

Subject-Object Relation in Mullâ Sadrâ’s Theory of Knowledge :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Subject-Object Relation in Mullà ¢ Sadrà ¢Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Theory of Knowledge ABSTRACT: Dividing knowledge to knowledge by presence and knowledge by representation, Mullà ¢ Sadrà ¢ treats the subject-object relation with regard to each one of them differently. In the former, the subject is united with the object, or rather they are one, and the reality of knowledge is this very unity. In this type of knowledge, there is no medium. Such unity culminates, on the one hand, in knowledge by presence comprehensively and completely conveying the objective reality, and in its untransferability on the other. By contrast, in knowledge by representation, the subject experiences another kind of relation to the object of knowledge thanks to the presence of a medium in the subject’s mind, called "mental form." Mullà ¢ Sadrà ¢ considers mental forms as the mental existence of the same quiddities (mà ¢hà ®yyà ¢t) existing in the external world. The only difference is that they have another type of existence. In this essay, I argue that this approach is congruent with the principality of quiddity, which is rejected by Mullà ¢ Sadrà ¢. To be consistent with the basic pillar of Mullà ¢ Sadrà ¢Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s philosophy, viz., the principle of existence, I hold that one should begin with the continuity of existence through mental, imagery and external worlds from which the mind abstracts the same quiddity, not vice versa. The problem of the interaction between subject and object in the process of cognition is a crucial issue in a theory of knowledge. Cognition, a unique window on the objective world, has captured the attention and motivated research and debate by scholars in a wide variety of fields over millennia. In all discussions regarding the phenomenon of knowledge, one question has always been raised no matter what the approach, method or focus of inquiry employed. For Kant, the distinction between nomenon and phenomenon and the determination of categories were major concerns. For the psychology of sensation and perception, the search continues for scientific methods to settle the extent to which an individual vis à   vis the environment effects the content, as well as the form, of sensory perception. In the tradition of Islamic philosophy, discussion revolves around the relation between ‘à ¢lim and ma‘là »m (knower and known). The question, expressed more precisely is: How much of what we know can be credited to objective reality per se, and how much is the creation, influence, or interference, of our mental power? It might also be asked how much and in what ways this influence alters the reality of the object of our cognitive system.

Accounting Information System 5

American Journal of Scientific Research ISSN 1450-223X Issue 4 (2009), pp36-44  © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2009 http://www. eurojournals. com/ajsr. htm Accounting Information Systems (AIS) and Knowledge Management: A Case Study Zulkarnain Muhamad Sori Department of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Management Universiti Putra Malaysia Abstract This study seeks to examine the use of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) by ZBMS Sdn. Bhd. , and it’s contribution to the knowledge management and strategic role of the organisation. ZBMS is a company that registered in Kuala Lumpur and operate in construction industry.The company used automated AIS known as ‘Contract Plus – Financial & Project Accounting’ package commercially developed by a private company (ZYXW). Wide variety of people that involve in the company’s operation within and outside the organisation uses accounting information generated by this system for decisionmaking. Ba sed on input provided by operational level managers, the Contract Plus software produces monthly projects’ income statements, balance sheets and statement of changes in financial position for the strategic and tactical managers to plan, control and make decision on the resources allocation.The role-played by AIS enhanced the organisations’ accounting functions, and add information value. The automated AIS speed up the process to generate financial statements and overcome human weaknesses in data processing. The system enhances management of resources and the process of monitoring, control and prediction of ZBMS business for better future. With the advent of AIS, the growth of tacit and explicit knowledge could be seen from the intensive training of personnel at the early stage of system implementation to the development and use of company’s own manual in training of new staff and assisting the job of existing staff.Given the benefit of AIS to ZBMS, this paper re commended that the source of data should be fully automated, and the existing system should be upgraded through computerise the pre-tendering and post-tendering of projects to enable AIS integration. Keywords: Accounting Information Systems, Knowledge Management, Accounting Functions, Information Value, Financial Statements 1. Introduction Accounting Information System (AIS) is vital to all organisations (Borthick and Clark, 1990; Curtis, 1995; Rahman et al. , 1988; Wilkinson, 1993; Wilkinson et al. 2000) and perhaps, every organisations either profit or non profit-oriented need to maintain the AISs (Wilkinson, 2000: 3-4). To better understand the term ‘Accounting Information System’, the three words constitute AIS would be elaborate separately. Firstly, literature documented that accounting could be identified into three components, namely information system, â€Å"language of business† and source of financial information (Wilkinson, 1993: 6-7). Secondly, inform ation is a valuable data processing that provides a basis for making decisions, taking action and fulfilling legal obligation.Finally, system is an integrated entity, Accounting Information Systems (AIS) and Knowledge Management: A Case Study 37 where the framework is focused on a set of objectives. The combination of the three words Accounting Information System indicate an integrated framework within an entity (such as a business firm) that employs physical resources (i. e. , materials, supplies, personnel, equipment, funds) to transform economic data into financial information for; (1) conducting the firm’s operations and activities, and (2) providing information concerning the entity to a variety of interested users.Indeed, the combination or interaction between human, technology and techniques would permit an organisation to administer its knowledge effectively (Bhatt, 2001; Thomas and Kleiner, 1995). Currently, the world and human life has been transformed from informat ion age to a knowledge age (Syed-Ikhsan and Rowland, 2004: 238; Thomas and Kleiner, 1995: 22), and knowledge has been recognised as the most valuable asset. In fact, knowledge is not impersonal like money and does not reside in a book, a data bank or a software program (Drucker, 1993).Drucker believed that knowledge is always embodied in a person, taught and learned by a person, used or misused by a person. As the world moving into knowledge era, this paper will examine how ZBMS Sdn. Bhd. manages its knowledge in order to remain competitive amongst the construction industry. Probst, Raub & Romhardt (1999, p. 1) stressed that companies must learn to manage their intellectual assets (i. e. knowledge) in order to survive and compete in the ‘knowledge society’. Indeed, knowledge management is concerned with the exploitation and development of the knowledge assets (Davenport et al. , 1998).This paper seeks to examine the Accounting Information Systems (AIS) used by a Malaysi an company named ZBMS Sdn. Bhd. The paper will highlight the users of the system and the way information adds value to the organisation. Also, the paper will investigate the way knowledge is managed through the process of creating, storing, disseminating and applying and how information system plays an important role throughout the process and the AIS contribution in the organisation’s strategic role. The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. The following section describes the background of ZBMS and the use of accounting information systems.The third section provides research findings on accounting information systems employed by ZBMS. The fourth section offer suggestions for future research. The final section concludes the paper and outlines the limitations of the study. 2. The Use of Accounting Information Systems in ZBMS ZBMS is a private limited company registered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that operate in construction industry, where the main activities ranging from construction of infrastructure, building, power, waste water to property development as well as engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) in the oil & gas sector.The company used automated AIS known as ‘Contract Plus – Financial & Project Accounting’ package in their Finance Department, which was commercially developed by a private company (ZYXW). Contract Plus is a fully integrated business solution designed specifically for companies in the engineering and construction industry. The software will generate financial data to be analysed by the accountants and subsequently used by top level of management for strategic decision making, thus, these managers could identify future opportunities and limitations face by the company and industry (McCarthy, Minichiello and Curran, 1987: 243-244). . Findings As mentioned earlier in section 2, ZBMS is a company that operate in construction industry. The industry was identified as one of the most difficult to understand due to its complexity mixture of people, plant, materials, locations, technology, knowledge of the law as well as the design and valuation of work done, which are much subjectivity (Capon, 1990: 1). However, these challenges are under control with the advent of technology such as software development that allows systematic data 38 Zulkarnain Muhamad Sori processing.Therefore, it is important to understand the information flow in ZBMS in order to appreciate the usage of information within the organisation as shown in Figure 1-1 below. 3. 1. Users of AIS As shown in Figure 1-1, the finance personnel that reside at site project office (or called Project Accountants) and head office such as the Financial Accountants, Management Accountants and Finance Manager are the internal users of the system. Also, the management team that consists of Finance General Manager, Chief Operating Officer, Managing Director and Board of Directors are among the internal users of the system.On the other hand, the external users consist of government agency (i. e. Inland Revenue), external auditors and creditors. Indeed, wide variety of people within and outside the organisation uses accounting information for decision-making (Rahman and Halladay, 1988, Renau and Grabski, 1987). Figure 1. 1: Information Flow of ZBMS ZBMS HEAD OFFICE Management Team Inland Revenue ZBMS HEAD OFFICE External Auditors Finance Department Bankers Suppliers Site Office Design Team SubContractors Client 3. 2.Function of AIS The main function of AIS is to assign quantitative value of the past, present and future economics events. At ZBMS, AIS through its computerised accounting system (i. e. ZYXW-Contract Plus) produces the financial statements namely income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statement. The system will process the data and transform them into accounting information during input, processing and output stages that will be used by a wide variety of users such as inter nal and external users (see for example Wilkinson, 2000: 10-11).Wilkinson noted that an effective AIS performs several key functions throughout these three stages such as data collection, data maintenance, data Accounting Information Systems (AIS) and Knowledge Management: A Case Study 39 management; data control (including security) and information generation. Figure 1-2 summarised the transformation process of AIS. Figure 1. 2: Data Processing in Finance Department at ZBMS Input – Progress Billing Certificate, Subcontractors Progress Certificate, Suppliers’ Invoices Processor – ZYXW Accounting System Output – Financial StatementHuman Element – Finance Personnel 3. 3. Usage of Information Within AIS The construction projects undertaken by the company are divided according to the type of construction activities that comprised of five divisions, namely infrastructure, building, power, wastewater and oil and gas, where each project is treated as a se parate company. The number of projects undertaken by each division depends on the contracts being awarded to the company. As indicated by Figure 1-2, the sources of data originated from external parties such as client, subcontractors and suppliers.The Project Accountants will work closely with the Quantity Surveyors to come out with the appropriate information as illustrated below: Client – The client’s Quantity Surveyors (QSs) will evaluate work in progress (WIP) and come out with percentage of WIP to be agreed by both parties. Once agreed, Progress Billing Certificates (PBC) will be issued by Client’s QSs, which a copy of it will be sent to head office for data processing. Subcontractors – The ZBMS’s QSs will evaluate subcontractor’s WIP at site and come out with percentage of WIP to be agreed by both parties.Once agreed, Subcontractor Progress Certificate (SPC) will be issued by ZBMS’s QSs and verified by ZBMS’s Project Mana ger, which a copy of it will be sent to head office for data processing. Suppliers – QSs and Project Accountants will ensure that the materials and machineries are delivered in good condition at construction site before delivery orders are accepted. The delivery orders will be attached to supplier’s invoice and sent to Head Office for processing. 40 Figure 1. 3: Simplifies the AIS within ZBMS: Zulkarnain Muhamad Sori CLIENTSUBCONTRACTORS SUPPLIERS Site Valuation by Client Site Valuation by ZBMS Materials & machineries delivered Certified by Client Certified by ZBMS Materials & machineries delivered PBC SPC Invoices Verified & KeyPunched by Project Accountants Projects’ Accounts Receivables HQ Database (ZYXW) Head Office Maintenance Projects’ Accounts Payable Projects’ Fixed Assets Projects’ Cash Book Project Ledger Projects’ Trial Balance Projects’ Financial Statement Consolidated Consolidated General Ledger Consolidated Trial Balance Consolidated Financial StatementsThese documents will be verified and input into the system by Project Accountants. The projects’ data will be stored at Projects’ Account Receivables, Account Payables, Fixed Assets accordingly. Projects’ cashbook will be updated automatically after the data being entered to the projects’ Account Receivables and Account Payables. Any expenses incurred at head office will be stored at HQ Maintenance master file by Financial Accountant. The Contract Plus Accounting System software will process the data and produce financial statements of individual company’s projects onAccounting Information Systems (AIS) and Knowledge Management: A Case Study 41 monthly basis, which subsequently consolidated at group level. The process flow is shown in Figure 13 above. The automated AIS play an important role in the ZBMS’s operational level. As indicated by Rahman and Halladay (1988: 20), most modern organisationâ€⠄¢s operational control of financial resources depends largely on automated support. This is due to the financial statements are generated by the Contract Plus.As shown in Figure 1-4, projects financial statements are generated by the Project Accountants, while the Financial Accountant generates the consolidated financial statements. The Management Accountant uses the consolidated financial statements to prepare company’s Performance Report such as cash-flow forecasts and ratio analysis. Once the Finance Manager (operational level) approve the report, it will then be submitted to the Finance General Manager and Chief Operating Officer (tactical level) to assist them for planning, control and decision making.The Performance Report will provide the information regarding work in progress relevant information. Therefore, AIS plays very important role at operational and tactical level as the activities at these level depend heavily on the information generated by the AIS. Figure 1 . 4: Type of Information in ZBMS Strategic Board of Director, Managing Director Tactical Chief Operating Officer, General Manager (Finance) Finance Manager, Management Accountant, Financial Accountant, Project Accountant Operational Transaction Processing ZYXW Accounting System . 4. Value Added of AIS The role played by accounting functions has been enhanced with the development of AIS, which in turn contribute to the profession’s value added to organisation. In fact automated AIS employed by ZBMS expedite the process to generate financial statement and reduce the human errors compared to non-automated AIS, which add the existing value of accountants. AIS also provide information on both actual and budget data of the organisation that helps company’s management to plan and control business operation.Good management of resources and better control of cost, budgeting and forecasting enhance the well being of ZBMS to continually generated profits. The AIS also played a cr ucial role that contributes to ZBMS’s value added by providing internally generated inputs from financial statements. Rahman and Halladay (1988: 19) believed that viable strategic plan must have inputs based on history of organisation, the current assets and capabilities of the organisation, and the trends in operations of the organisation. 42 3. 5. Role of Knowledge Zulkarnain Muhamad SoriAt ZBMS, both tacit and explicit knowledge are used as shown by the extensive used of accounting information system to assist business decision-making. The ZBMS begins its computerised accounting system in 1997. During the transformation process from manual to computerised accounting system, all finance personnel were sent for comprehensive computer training. Table 1: Relationship of AIS at ZBMS and Knowledge Management System Knowledge Management System Creation of knowledge Creation of Knowledge Storing of Knowledge Disseminating of Knowledge Knowledge Conversion Explicit to Tacit Explici t to Tacit Tacit to Explicit Tacit to ExplicitDevelopment of Automated AIS Training by hands-on experience ZYXW implemented, staffs learned from vendor’s manual Staffs gaining experience; Problems and solution being recorded on paper Improvement on system; Internal manual that suits the ZBMS needs being produced; Widely used in the department; Assists learning process of new staffs Explicit to Tacit System constantly use in Finance Department to generate monthly financial statements Applying of Knowledge Explicit to Explicit As shown in Table 1, the staffs were given hands on experience on the ZYXW System.During the early stage of system implementation, finance personnel were given flexibility to explore the system due to limited experience on the software at that time, and most of the staffs depend largely on the manual provided by the vendor for trouble-shooting. At initial stage, two-way communications with the vendor were developed to solve problems arised. As the time go ing on, the personnel were encouraged to record the problems aroused. Problems that have been solved were recorded for future reference.Currently, the ZBMS Finance Department has its own ZYXW manual that suits with the department needs. The manual provides valuable information to new employees as well as to the existing personnel at Finance Department. Indeed, AIS provide the systematic recording, processing and generating of accounting information, and in the absence of AIS, information would be scattered, random and hard to access, which would become a barrier to the growth of knowledge. 3. 6. Strategic Role and AIS To analyse the AIS strategy in ZBMS, McFarlan Strategic Grid will be utilised. The McFarlan’s strategic grid would locate ZBMS to the appropriate category with respect to its information system strategy (Curtis, 1995: 61). Automated AIS is fundamental part of the strategic plan of ZBMS in 1997. It has been improved over the years of implementation and generates accurate and timely accounting information that contributes to a good decision-making. Realising the benefit brought by the AIS, the source of data must be fully automated. The existing system should be upgraded through computerise the pre-tendering and post-tendering of projects in the primary stages of the construction activities.When the system is upgraded, the ZYXW Contract Plus will integrate the two modules of pre- and post-tendering with the currently automated Financial and Project Accounting. Therefore, the most suitable position to locate AIS at ZBMS on the McFarlan Grid is on Factory Grid as shown in Figure 1-5 below. Accounting Information Systems (AIS) and Knowledge Management: A Case Study Figure 1. 5: ZBMS Location on McFarlan’s Strategic Grid 43 Low Current Dependence on AIS Support Turnaround High Factory –AIS at ZBMS Strategic Low Future Importance of AIS High 4. Direction for Future ResearchHaving mentioned the above opportunities and challenges to t he AIS, future research should investigate the AIS contribution on the organisation’s growth of knowledge. Though AIS would organise and structure the data input and knowledge, lack of understanding on the potential effect of human behaviour on the system such as human error, manipulation and work-style. In fact, Ponemon and Nagoda (1990) noted, â€Å"the most difficult problems often are caused, or are exacerbated, by those individuals who have erroneous expectations of the new system being implemented† (p. 1).The study would be fruitful with the use of questionnaire and interview survey. Perhaps, the survey should concentrate on a sample of senior managers of the top hundred companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia (Malaysian Stock Exchange), banks and regulatory bodies. These groups could contribute significantly due to their role as a decision maker in their respective organisations. Secondly, future research should also investigate the possibility to expand the use of AIS to the other areas that still did not use the system such as non-profit organisation and society.Indeed, the current level of usage shows that the benefit outweighs the investment cost. The successful implementation of AIS could save shareholder’s money and time. Finally, future research should explore issues on the information value generated by AIS to shareholders and stakeholders in making investment decisions. Case study approach on top companies would be appropriate methodology because the understanding on specific AIS model would be more valuable rather than using questionnaire and interview approach that assumes AIS across sampled organisation is identical. 5. ConclusionThis paper examines the use of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) by ZBMS Sdn. Bhd. The wide varieties of people that involve in the company’s operation get the benefits from the implementation of AIS and the use of Contract Plus software developed by ZYXW. The system assists the operati onal managers to come out with monthly reports for the top managerial level (i. e. tactical and strategic) plan, control and decide resources allocation. In addition, the paper showed that the AIS add value to information processed within the company. The automated AIS could speed up information process and overcome traditional human weaknesses.As a result, the system supports the resource management and help ZBMS pursue its projection of continuing business profit. The use of AIS indicate the growth of tacit and explicit knowledge, where personnel were trained intensively and experience and trouble shooting were 44 Zulkarnain Muhamad Sori recorded for future reference and training. Indeed, the successful implementation of an accounting information system can be described as a series of complex, interconnected activities necessitating participants to have technical and managerial skills to sort out prospective problems (Ponemon and Nagoda, 1990: 1).Note To keep the identity of the r espondent and it’s software developer anonymous, an imaginary name was used in this study i. e. ZBMS Sdn. Bhd. and ZYXW respectively. References [1] [2] Bhatt, G. D. (2001). Knowledge management in organisations: examining the interaction between technologies, techniques, and people. Journal of Knowledge Management, 5(1): 68-75. Borthick, A. F. ; Clark, R. L. (1990). Making accounting information systems work: An empirical investigation of the creative thinking paradigm. Journal of Information Systems, 4(3): 48-62. Capon, G.C. C. (1990). Construction Industry. London: The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Curtis, G. (1995). Business Information Systems: Analysis, Design and Practice. Wokingham: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Drucker McCarthy, D. J. , Minichiello, R. J. and Curran, J. R. (1987). Business Policy and Strategy: Concepts and Readings. Illinois: Irwin. Ponemon, L. A. and Nagoda, R. J. (1990). Perceptual Variation and the Implementation of Accounting Information Systems: An Empirical Investigation. Journal of Information System, 4(2): 1-14.Probst, Raub & Romhardt (1999) Rahman, M. and Halladay, M. (1988). Accounting Information Systems: Principles, Applications and Future Directions. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Reneau, J. H. and Grabski, S. V. (1987). A Review of Research in Computer-Human Interaction and Individual Differences Within a Model for Research in Accounting Information Systems. Journal of Information Systems, 2(1): 33-53. Rowley, J. (1999). â€Å"What is knowledge management†. Library Management, 20 (8): 416-420. Syed-Ikhsan, S. O. S. (2004). â€Å"Benchmarking Knowledge Management in a Public Organisation in Malaysia.Benchmarking: An International Journal, 11 (3): 238-266. Thomas, V. and Kleiner, B. H. (1995). New developments in computer software. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 95(6): 22-26. Wilkinson, J. W. (1993). Accounting Information Systems: Essential Concepts and Applications. Secon d Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Wilkinson, J. W. , Cerullo, M. J. , Raval, V. and Wong-On-Wing, B. (2000). Accounting Information Systems: Essential Concepts and Applications. New York: John Wiley and Sons. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

Hera - Queen of the Gods in Greek Mythology

Hera - Queen of the Gods in Greek Mythology In Greek mythology, the beautiful goddess Hera was queen of the Greek gods and the wife of Zeus, the king. Hera was goddess of marriage and childbirth. Since Heras husband was Zeus, king not only of gods, but of philanderers, Hera spent a lot of time in Greek mythology angry with Zeus. So Hera is described as jealous and quarrelsome. Hera's Jealousy Among the more famous victims of Heras jealousy is Hercules (aka Heracles, whose name means the glory of Hera). Hera persecuted the famous hero from before the time he could walk for the simple reason that Zeus was his father, but another woman Alcmene was his mother. Despite the fact that Hera was not Hercules mother, and despite her hostile actions such as sending snakes to kill him when he was a newborn baby, she served as his nurse when he was an infant. Hera persecuted many of the other women Zeus seduced, in one way or another. The anger of Hera, who murmured terrible against all child-bearing women that bare children to Zeus....Theoi Hera: Callimachus, Hymn 4 to Delos 51 ff (trans. Mair)Leto had relations with Zeus, for which she was hounded by Hera all over the earth.Theoi Hera: Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 21 (trans. Aldrich) Hera's Children Hera is usually counted single parent mother of Hephaestus and the normal biological mother of Hebe and Ares. Their father is usually said to be her husband, Zeus, although Clark [Who Was the Wife of Zeus? by Arthur Bernard Clark; The Classical Review, (1906), pp. 365-378] explains the identities and births of Hebe, Ares, and Eiletheiya, goddess of childbirth, and sometimes named child of the divine couple, otherwise. Clark argues that the king and queen of the gods had no children together. Hebe may have been fathered by a lettuce. The association between Hebe and Zeus may have been sexual rather than familial.Ares might have been conceived via a special flower from the fields of Olenus. Zeus free admission of his paternity of Ares, Clark hints, may be only to avoid the scandal of being a cuckold.On her own, Hera gave birth to Hephaestus. Parents of Hera Like brother Zeus, Heras parents were Cronos and Rhea, who were Titans. Roman Hera In Roman mythology, the goddess Hera is known as Juno.

Historical Inacuraccys In The 1954 Film ALexander The Great

Historical Inacuraccys In The 1954 Film ALexander The Great Historical Inacuraccys In The 1954 Film ALexander The Great The 1954 Film Alexander the Great was written, directed and produced by Robert Rosser a well renowned director for his time. Rosser employed a cast of first-rank British and American actors, and was backed by United Artist who put a lot of money in to the film. He was aiming for a masterpiece, but failed honorably . His depiction of Alexander's early life is relatively historically correct. The second half however, which deals with Alexander's crusades, was both chronologically and geographically erratic and incorrect, hurrying through the battles scenes and missing out important historical facts and even inventing its own. Yet we have to understand that Rosser used many unhistorical elements from Alexander fiction which existed throughout the middle age. Rosser certainly had limitations in telling his story, if he had a larger budget, the technology of today and less (at the time) conventional restriction in telling this story we may have been able to expect a better and more accura te portrayal of Alexander the Greats life .Battle of the Granicus

Early Life Theories - Panspermia Theory

Early Life Theories - Panspermia Theory The origin of life on Earth is still somewhat of a mystery. Many different theories have been proposed, and there is no known consensus on which one is correct. Although the Primordial Soup Theory was proven to be most likely incorrect, other theories are still considered, such as hydrothermal vents and the Panspermia Theory. Panspermia: Seeds Everywhere The word Panspermia comes from the Greek language and means seeds everywhere. The seeds, in this case, would not only be the building blocks of life, such as amino acids and monosaccharides, but also small extremophile organisms. The theory states that these seeds were dispersed everywhere from outer space and most likely came from meteor impacts. It has been proven through meteor remnants and craters on Earth that early Earth endured innumerable meteor strikes due to a lack of an atmosphere that could burn the up upon entry. Greek Philosopher Anaxagoras This theory was actually first mentioned by Greek Philosopher Anaxagoras around 500 BC. The next mention of the idea that life came from outer space wasnt until the late 1700s when Benoit de Maillet described the seeds being rained down to the oceans from the heavens. It wasnt until later in the 1800s when the theory really started to pick up steam. Several scientists, including Lord Kelvin, implied that life came to Earth on stones from another world which began life on Earth. In 1973, Leslie Orgel and Nobel prize winner Francis Crick published the idea of directed panspermia, meaning an advanced life form sent life to Earth to fulfill a purpose. The Theory is Still Supported Today The Panspermia Theory is still supported today by several influential scientists, such as Stephen Hawking. This theory of early life is one of the reasons Hawking urges more space exploration. It is also a point of interest for many organizations trying to contact intelligent life on other planets. While it may be hard to imagine these hitchhikers of life riding along at top speed through outer space, it is actually something that happens quite often. Most proponents of the Panspermia hypothesis actually believe the precursors to life were what was actually brought to the surface of the earth on the high-speed meteors that were constantly striking the infant planet. These precursors, or building blocks, of life, are organic molecules that could be used to make the first very primitive cells. Certain types of carbohydrates and lipids would have been necessary to form life. Amino acids and parts of nucleic acids would also be necessary for life to form.   Meteors that fall to the earth today are always analyzed for these sorts of organic molecules as a clue to how the Panspermia hypothesis may have worked. Amino acids are common on these meteors that make it through todays atmosphere. Since amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, if they originally came to Earth on meteors, they could then congregate in the oceans to make simple proteins and enzymes that would be instrumental in putting together the first, very primitive, prokaryotic cells.

E-Businesss Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

E-Businesss Marketing - Essay Example By doing this an organization faces both the advantages and the disadvantages of conducting business internationally. Advantages include competing with multinational firms and exploiting regions more suited to the products of the firm. The disadvantages include; entering a new country successfully will require studying the culture of the country and adapting to the situation and the potential risk of failing. Security is one of the major issues that are being faced by any organization in the present world. Internet crime has been one of these problems for organizations doing business on the Internet. Viruses and hacking have become very common, steps to reduce these have been taken and are being taken. An organization doing business online must convince its customers that data transmitted about them while buying online is safe from hackers and alteration. This can be done by formulating a security policy that provides the most secure transactions. A good security policy not only builds trust within the consumers but also helps an organization build a reputable image. The organization should also be efficient in responding to potential threats that are present before they harm the organization in any way. Importance to systems privacy is given while formulating a security policy as it determines a user's freedom while using Internet to purchase from the organization's website. Integrity i s also given importance while formulating a security policy as to avoid policies that might hinder the cohesiveness of different systems that are integrated into the E-Business. Another major security issue apart from all these is the physical security of the system. Physical security ensures that a system is safe from physical damage and thefts. Ant viruses help organizations in conducting a secure e-business and Fire Walls help control the traffic flow, balancing activities and stopping unexpected actions. Fire Walls also restricts unauthorized access in the systems. A security system that I have recently been exposed to is McAfee Antivirus system that protects the System from viruses, hackers and different potential threats on the Internet. 3. Some of the specific security objectives for protecting Web business assets and customer privacy are: - How do you protect client computers from security threats - How do you protect information as it travels through the Internet communication channel - How do you protect the security of Web server computers Pick any one of these topics to give your discussion contribution. Protecting Client Computers from security threats is not a very easy task to accomplish but it's the most important one too. Until and unless a client computer is safe it's impossible to conduct e-business with trust. The main threats are hackers

Response paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Response paper - Assignment Example One aspect to consider in reference to the author’s use of the different publications is that he recognizes that most scholars overlook the effects of the civil war on the international level (Beckert 1407). Instead, he focuses on the structure of the cotton industry before, during and after the way to come up with his conclusions. Since the author considers the structure of the cotton industry in the three phases mentioned earlier, he provides a clear understanding of the effects that the war and the cotton industry had on global networks. The understanding does not only relate to the global web created due to trade between nations, but also the factors that contributed to global capitalism. In order to create a seamless flow of the events leading to the reconstruction of the global network of cotton production, Beckert refers to numerous historical accounts. These accounts are not only economic in nature, but also political, legal, and agricultural, among other explanations. Beckert identifies the different policy positions among the different nations as influential in encouraging the international reshaping the world cotton industry. He provides explanations regarding the manner in which the policies governed trade between cotton producing countries. These provisions are vital for determining the factors that influenced cotton production. For instance, the author identifies that the most critical foreign policy goal for the Union was the maintenance of the neutrality of the European governments. Conversely, the most critical foreign policy of the Confederacy was to gain recognition (Beckert 1417). Even though the policies were necessary for enhancing the production of cotton, they created were influential in creating a balance trade and production. In relation to the way the civil war was instrumental in creating  the global network of cotton production, the upheavals

Essay on Germinal by Emile Zola Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

On Germinal by Emile Zola - Essay Example It is for this reason that Germinal is valuable in order to understand the social and cultural values of French society of that period but also to make significant assumptions regarding the protest against the capital as it was formulated the particular period. These assumptions do not have just historical value but they can be used in order to understand modern social structures and forms of protest against the capital as this protest is being developed throughout the world. It should be noticed that in order to write Germinal, Zola has studied carefully all aspects of coal mining industry. In this context, it is mentioned by Ellis, referring to Zola, (Introduction, 2nd and 3rd lines) that ‘For six months he travelled about the coal-mining district in northern France and Belgium, especially the Borinage around Mons, note-book in hand’. It is for this reason that Germinal represents with accuracy all aspects of life of workers in the particular industry being one of the few novels in which such an issue is developed. The general story developed throughout Germinal could be described as following: Etienne Lantier is a young man that decides to go and live in a mining village. Soon, Etienne begins to work in the mine. However, after a while the daily problems of miners lead Etienne to urge them to protest against the capital (miner’s owners). In the meantime, Etienne – because of his capabilities has become a leader of miners and his view influences them. It is for this reason that influenced by Etienne miners decide for their first time to protest against the capital. Their protest, which has the form of a strike, causes severe financial losses to the miner’s owners and their reactions are characterized by violence and brutality. The story of the novel is ‘enriched’ by the extended reference to the daily life of a particular family of the village, the Maheu family. Etienne, who felt

Tesco's Recommendations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tesco's Recommendations - Essay Example However, it was with the oncoming of the 1990s that Tesco began its international expansion and began to channel extensive resources towards innovation in its marketing strategy to reach consumers (Clark, 2008). This paper shall attempt to shed light on Tescos current standing in the consumer market and the effectiveness of its current marketing strategies in order to develop a set of recommendations for Tesco to sustain and improve its market share and profitability. It is also imperative to realize that Tesco has chosen to exercise extensive product development and market development by adding products and services that are non-food but provide consumers with high levels of utility. This strategy is one that has proven to be extremely beneficial for Tesco over time (Chaffey, 2008). While this innovation on the part of Tesco may make it difficult to soundly place Tesco as a grocery retailer, the fact remains that Tescos fundamental sales items remain those that pertain to groceries. The approach is one that is found by Tesco in the concept of the investment in growth. Growth, according to Tescos strategy, is the development of availability and accessibility for consumers to Tesco (Corporate Watch UK, 2004). An example can be found in the fact that Tesco more than often chooses to make use of an opportunity to open an Express Store rather than letting it go by. With regard to the effectiveness of the current marketing and strategic outlook of Tesco, it can be observed that Tesco is currently recognized as a reliable and acknowledged brand amongst European consumers and is in a condition that can be considered stable enough to bring forth an expansion plan into the market (Corporate Watch UK, 2004). It would be appropriate for Tesco to move forth from market penetration approaches to product development strategies (Marivic Butod, 2009). Needless to say, the question of the

Nietzsche - Geneology of Morality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nietzsche - Geneology of Morality - Essay Example In this way, Nietzsche claims that rather trying to persuade, argue with, or grapple to explain the fallacy of certain ways of thinking, it is necessary for the philosopher to look at such notions with disdain, resentment, disgust, and superiority. It is through such a response mechanism that Nietzsche believes that it is possible for the superiority of ideas to triumph over another by means of the contempt that they are shown. Accordingly, this essay will attempt to focus upon the idea of â€Å"ressentiment† as presented by Nietzsche and quantify it with regards to whether it is a beneficial and/or useful practice that should be engaged with or whether it is fundamentally harmful to the free flow of information and expression and disagreement that has been indicative of the intellectual community since time immemorial (Clark 21). As such, key aspects and competing realities of Nietzsche’s point of view will be considered, weighed, and analyzed. In effect, this ressenti ment is a form of intellectual disdain and disgust for those aspects of different types of worldviews that the individual does not respect. Nietzsche further described that the reason that many individuals place themselves in subjugation to the morality and laws of his era was the fact that they felt more comfortable in a master and slave-type relationship (in which they were invariably playing the part of the mental slaves). As a means to jar these individuals from their complacency and acquaint them with the folly of such a worldview, Nietzsche advocates levying a degree of contempt on such belief systems as a means of encouraging those that hold these to re-access them and come to a more complete understanding of the inherent inadequacies and lack of logic presented within them. With respect to the extent to which this particular author agrees or disagrees with the concept of â€Å"ressentiment† as described by Nietzsche, the answer to this cannot be simply stated. Firstly , there are a multitude of instances in which world views, ideas regarding morality, and other such philosophical constructions cannot and should not be considered due to the sheer preposterous nature of their claims. However, the clear and overriding elements of intellectual hubris also come together to raise key questions in the mind of one who reviews such a tactic and response. By not only refusing to engage but showing contempt for a given belief system or worldview, the philosopher is unable to transmit the necessary knowledge which could be key in convincing the practitioner to abandon an otherwise untenable stance. Such an approach, although advocated by Nietzsche has little if any effect in bringing about a greater understanding as such, for purposes of intellectual and academic advancement, stifles the expression of thought and the transmission of ideas. Accordingly, it is the belief of this author that such an approach is more or less fruitless due to the fact that neithe r participants is able to differentiate or expand upon the argument due to the fact that employing ressentiment will necessarily close down the participant’s ability and/or desire to reason together with the opposition. This understanding of intellectual supremacy helps the individual to understand further nuances of the way in which Nietzsche engages the reader with his understanding of the master and slave paradox. Whereas no one wants to consider themselves the intellectual slave of another, Nietzsche effectively argues that those who

Tesco's Recommendations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tesco's Recommendations - Essay Example However, it was with the oncoming of the 1990s that Tesco began its international expansion and began to channel extensive resources towards innovation in its marketing strategy to reach consumers (Clark, 2008). This paper shall attempt to shed light on Tescos current standing in the consumer market and the effectiveness of its current marketing strategies in order to develop a set of recommendations for Tesco to sustain and improve its market share and profitability. It is also imperative to realize that Tesco has chosen to exercise extensive product development and market development by adding products and services that are non-food but provide consumers with high levels of utility. This strategy is one that has proven to be extremely beneficial for Tesco over time (Chaffey, 2008). While this innovation on the part of Tesco may make it difficult to soundly place Tesco as a grocery retailer, the fact remains that Tescos fundamental sales items remain those that pertain to groceries. The approach is one that is found by Tesco in the concept of the investment in growth. Growth, according to Tescos strategy, is the development of availability and accessibility for consumers to Tesco (Corporate Watch UK, 2004). An example can be found in the fact that Tesco more than often chooses to make use of an opportunity to open an Express Store rather than letting it go by. With regard to the effectiveness of the current marketing and strategic outlook of Tesco, it can be observed that Tesco is currently recognized as a reliable and acknowledged brand amongst European consumers and is in a condition that can be considered stable enough to bring forth an expansion plan into the market (Corporate Watch UK, 2004). It would be appropriate for Tesco to move forth from market penetration approaches to product development strategies (Marivic Butod, 2009). Needless to say, the question of the

Targeted Organization Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Targeted Organization Summary - Essay Example The company is also dynamic and is expanding scope. It has for example been planning to expand its ventures into the Arctic waters from primary dependence on the Mexican gulf. The company has also been active in ensuring safety in its ventures, a move that contributed to its temporary clearance for the Arctic exploration. Though a number of regulatory measures still face the company over the exploration, there are high chances that a license will be granted. This will even expand the company’s scope for a more explorative work environment (Broder and Krauss, 2012). As a public health expert, I have the potential to design and implement the organization’s strategies towards safety of employees. My potential will therefore help the company in realizing its commitment and policy statements towards employee and environmental safety (Static, 2009). Broder, J. and Krauss, C. (2012). Shell clears major hurdle in its bid for new Arctic drilling. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/science/earth/us-tentatively-approves-shell-spill-plan-for-new-arctic-drilling.html?_r=1 Static. (2009). Shell commitment and policy on health, security, safety, the environment and social performance. Retrieved from:

In the name of the father Essay Example for Free

In the name of the father Essay Often a film conveys a message about a character through various film techniques. This is true in the film â€Å"In The Name of the Father†. This story is mainly about a young man who is arrested for a crime he did not commit and how a relationship between father and son deepens throughout the tragedy. The main character, Gerry Conlon, is first portrayed to the viewer as an unruly rebel but is later developed into a more docile and compliant character. The director, Jim Sheridon, uses film techniques such as costume design, dialogue and extended metaphors to convey the development of Gerry as a character. 1st paragraph: -1st time we see gerry, scruffy, uncut -costume design baggy jeans, long hair, dirty appearance -gives idea that gerry doesn’t care about his appearance or what people think of him -as film progresses he sharpens up appearance -combed pulled back hair 2nd: -change also shown through dialogue -lawyer asks him if he is scared of the court: -he replies â€Å"i just don’t want to be humiliated again† -this brief piece of dialogue shows that he has now changed and does care what others think of him -helps viewer understand how desperate an innocent man can be in the fight for justice 3rd: -use of extended metaphor -viewer sees lawyer gareth pierce driving through a long tunnel while listening to gerrys story -this could be viewed as an extended metaphor for the long dark road gerry has gone down while fighting the legal system -as the story draws to a conclusion she reaches the end of the tunnel, or the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ -could refer to the point in the story where gerry and the others are finally set free

Explain The Relationship Between Strategic Management And Human Resource Management Business Essay

Explain The Relationship Between Strategic Management And Human Resource Management Business Essay Every organisation is trying to become more efficient and more productive. The key to an organisations success is to become more global and advance from a technological prospective. In order to become more efficient and to make its goals achievable, an organization should focus the most important assets of all other resources, which is the human capital or the intellectual assets. After all, none other than a person or an employee executes every achievement or any activity in an organization. Thus keeping this particular asset in good terms and managing it up to a standard is quite a challenge in terms of time and similarly finance. However, having a well organized and a well-managed human resource brings more significance to an organizations wellbeing. This essay will investigate how Strategic Management (SM) and Human Resource Management (HRM) are related, and then evaluated the role they play in providing organisations with a competitive advantage. Strategic management deals with devising people interventions that help an organization to develop the customer behaviour to promote the competitive advantage (Saini, 2009). The strategic management process helps the organisation to react quickly towards the new challenges. This dynamic method helps organizations find new and more efficient ways to do business. Strategic formulation, which is the practice of classifying a companys goal and strength and strategic implementation which express as the process of allocating resource and developing structures are the two components of strategic management process (Kramar, Bartram and De Cieri, 2011) Strategic management processes raise the organizations to discover new and more capable ways to do business. Situation analysis, strategy implementation, strategy formulation and strategy evaluation are the key elements of the strategic management process (Kramar, Bartram, and De Cieri, 2011). By dealing with these elements of the SM process in order listed, companies can assess and re-evaluate situations as they develop; always making sure, the company has positioned itself optimally in the business environment. Situation analysis engages with looking over the companys internal and external environments and the context in which the company fits in to those environments. As a way of implementing, observations are made about companys internal environment and investigations are carried out to find out how employees interact with each other at all levels. In the completion of the situational analysis, a strategy is formulated. (Kramar, Bartram and De Cieri, 2011). This involves determin ing the companys strengths to decide which strategies could be implemented. Operational strategies involve routine operations, outlining the procedures and process by which the company does business. Competitive strategies involve finding ways to compete with a particular industry or business (Kramar, Bartram, and De Cieri, 2011). Strategy implementation is the third step in the strategic management process. It involves the implementation of the formulated strategy. The final step in the strategic management process engages observing the results of an implemented strategy (Kramar, Bartram, and De Cieri, 2011). As mentioned, these four elements and the process of building a good strategy would be very significant to an organization, which presumes to manage their intellectual resource with great efficiency. Using strategies would help HRM to be more rapid and supervised in their decision making process and in achieving the objectives and targets of the entity (Kramar, Bartram and De Cieri, 2011) Human resource management described as a set of activities aimed at building an organizational performance (Plumb, 2008). Also having a good HR management department is identically important to an organisations strong financial. Any organization is goal oriented and has targets to achieve, and the employees of the organization perform them. The employees are the works force in the entity, thus managing and maintaining them is very crucial and very vital to its top managers on behalf of the organization. Managing the work force is also important as it gives the foundation of a healthy entity; this happens only if an entity holds a strong work force that is right for the job (Payne, 2010). Having a strong work force opens many opportunities for the organization in terms of growing their day to day businesses, and consequently by overcoming supplementary trades the company unwraps a pathway to a successful and a most importantly a sustainable organization in today competitive world. Thus, using strategies and planning HR activities is quite important to a business entity for the betterment of the employees, which consequently brings success to the organization itself. HR strategies are laid down according to the overall objectives of the organizations in the same way as investments or marketing strategies. However, HRM strategies explained through quantifiable terms so that outcomes of them measured. Also, HR strategic objectives go past the basic calculation and control of staff numbers and minimization of costs (Barrett, 2009). The function of a Human Resource Management strategy is when adopting their HR practices, organizations must take into account the interest of the fit between these firm strategy and practices. As a result, the main goals of strategic HRM is to make sure that HRM is aligned with the strategic needs of organization (Saini, 2009). Strategic management is important in all kind of organization activities to achieve their long-term goal. Hence, most of the managers agreed that perceived strategic management is the most important capability and information technology as the least important competency for HR managers (Payne, 2010). Strategic management domain contains visioning, analytical and leadership skills that managers viewed as important for human resource (Payne, 2010). Thus HR leaders can make significant role to strategy development and achievement as well as to improve the quality of decision related strategy and talent. Overall, the relationship between HR and management is becoming mutual. HR executives are trying to become a part at the management table and they are concerned in everyday management activities. However, there is still a long way to go if HR is to become a strategic partner at all levels. In order to do that, HR needs to expand its internal competencies to deal with organizational issue s and find ways to suggest creative and innovative solutions to organisation wide issues (Kramar, Bartram and De Cieri, 2011). Meanwhile for harder strategic HR themes like cost cutting, rate of return productivity measurement, performance measurement it has been noticed that the employees volunteer reluctantly. Therefore, a clear dualism is apparent in HR intervention that organisations have been adopting for their survival (Saini, 2009). In addition, strategic management prescriptions are never comfortable when put together with pluralist employment relations framework (Saini, 2009). Some organisations have a practice of using strategies not only in HR but also in other aspects of their organisations to achieve their target goals and objectives without any hassle. Practicing strategies in HR would be beneficial not only to the employee but also it is the right way to do the right job (Lawler, Boundreau, 2009) Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) also identifies the long-term effects of HR decisions on the employment and development and development on the bond between management and staffs in the organisation as being significant (Barrett, 2009). This is important if the company wants to gain competitive edge through its workforce. As a result of, HR departments integration to the business, the personnel were re-looked as a resource in the company. On the other hand, SHRM system helps effectively by answering the requests of the strategy and environment and assists strategic flexibility with the goal of achieving the active fit (Pablos, Lytras, 2008). Strategic management can also help the organization to identify their strength, weaknesses, and opportunity and threat. So, that the organization can compete with their competitive firms and build their profit and achieve their success. Strategic management as general and within HR, helps to organize how HR systems and practices with the aim of developing a competitive advantage for the firm (Pablos, Lytras, 2008) According to Porter, (1994) competitive advantage defined as an advantage that arises from observing and realizing ways of competing that are unique and distinctive from those of rivals, and that can be sustained over time. Some researches tell that human resources can become the cause of competitive advantage for the organization is not new. At the same time, the organization need to understand that competitive advantage is not permanent (Pablos, Lytras, 2008). The speed with which competitors are able to acquire the skills needed to duplicate the benefits of a firms value-creating strategy determines how long the competitive advantage will last (Pablos, Lytras, 2008). In addition, it has accepted that firms can generate a competitive advantage from their management practices. Organizational resource leads to a constant competitive advantage when the resources are valuable, rare and have no substitute (Pablos, Lytras, 2008). Human resource needs to create organizational values in or der to be a source of competitive advantage. Therefore, organizations offer jobs in which individual can show their different skills (Pablos, Lytras, 2008). When the firm choose a strategy, they make choices among competing alternatives. Competitive advantages help to sketch the organizational procedure by analytically and the emergent strategy help the rational decision making process by senior management and enhance the firms competitiveness. In addition, the organizations can develop a long-term competitive advantage. Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) allows the adaptation of HR practices, the knowledge, and the behaviour of the employees as regards the immediate needs of the organization. In brief, SHRM must facilitate strategic flexibility with the goal of reaching an active fit (Pablos, Lytras, 2008). In the past, organizations and their top managers assumed the status of managing the most vital intellectual assets of an entity. Thus, they tried to bring in systems in which they could be in track of workers and their actions, which is handling and regulating the work force of an organization. However, as the world has evolved throughout the years and due to many reasons, managers have understood the workforce is also kind of a resource that is in common with other resources. As a result, they implemented the process of strategic management. Therefore, in conclusion this essay has expressed how strategy and planning are related to HRM, the relationship between strategic management and HR management and how strategic human resource management helps to develop the competitive advantage of firm. As proved above, practicing of these strategies would absolutely assist an organization in achieving their aims and objectives. Consequently, it is significant for HR management to change from being primarily administrative and operational to becoming a strategic contributor.

Coral Bleaching Essay -- Geology

Coral Bleaching Abstract Coral reefs have been called the rainforests of the ocean and are one of the most diverse and important ecosystems on the planet. This paper will explore how global warming has effected these fragile ecosystems. It will focus on the impact of increasing ocean temperatures on coral reefs. Coral Reefs Coral reefs exist globally from 30N to 30S latitude and have existed in some form on Earth for over 200 million years. Over 2500 species of coral have been identified 1000 of which are reef building hard coral. Reefs are actually limestone structures produced by small animals called coral polyps. These polyps contain unicellular plants (algae) called zooxanthellae in their tissue. They have a symbiotic relationship which means, "living together." During the day the zooxanthellae rise to the surface of the animal and produce food by photosynthesis. At night the polyp extends a stinging, multitenticled mouth that feeds on any planktonic animals. They both benefit from the waste products of the other. They also work together to capture calcium carbonate from seawater and convert it into the hard limestone structures in which they live. Because corals survive due to this fragile relationship, they are very sensitive and tolerate relatively narrow ranges of water temperature, salinity and transparency. Coral reefs are estimated to cover less than .2% of the ocean floor but contain approximately 25% of the ocean’s species. They provide protection for shorelines, reducing erosion. They also give food, shelter and protection to almost one million marine species and act as a nursery for growing fish. Humans benefit directly from coral reefs. They supply us with food, jobs (through fishing and tourism) a... ...astrous to lose the existing coral reefs of the world. References 1. William Fitt. Bleaching of Symbiotic Algae Available http://zircon.geology.union.edu/Carb/fitt 2. Reef Relief. Reef Relief Available http://www.blacktop.com/coralforest/index.html 3. Knauer Communication. Global Warming is a Problem Available http://www.enviroweb.org/edf/isproblem/isproblem_frameset.html 4. Michael Van Woert. ORAD Available http://140.90.191.231/orad/ 5. Indiana University. Reef Resource Page Available http://www.indiana.edu/~reefpage/. 6. Ingrid Guch. NOAA Available http://www.ara.polytechnique.fr/surface.html 7. PCRF. Planetary Coral Reef Foundation Available http://www.pcrf.org/ 8. The Coral Reef Alliance. Get the Facts on Coral Reefs Available http://www.coral.org/Facts.html

Capital Punishment Essays -- essays research papers

Capital punishment is necessary in order for justice to prevail. Capital punishment is the execution of criminals for committing crimes, so bad that this is the only acceptable punishment. Capital punishment lowers the murder rate, but its value as retribution alone is a good reason for handing out death sentences. It is one of the only fair punishments allowed by the judicial system. Another issue is that it saves money compared to the alternative of life in prison.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1972, in the case of Furman vs. Georgia, declared capital punishment cruel and unusual punishment. However after the Supreme Court Decision of Gregg vs. Georgia, the Supreme Court said that capital punishment was not unconstitional and the capital punishment resumed under new guidelines.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are seven main types of execution: Hanging, where the prisoner is blindfolded and stands on a trap door, with a rope around his neck. The trap door is opened suddenly. The weight of the prisoner's body below the neck causes traction separating the spinal cord from the brain. The second most widely used technique is shooting, where a firing quad shoots the prisoner from some meters away. Another method is Guillotine, a device consisting of a heavy blade held aloft between upright guides and dropped to behead the victim below. Then there was Garroting, in which a tightened iron collar is used to strangle or break the neck of a condemned person. One of the more r...

Iron Crowned Chapter 15

I had two immediate reactions to this. One was that Dorian could wait around forever; he had no right to demand anything of me. My other reaction was outrage that he could come traipsing into my home when I was banned from his. Admittedly, that was my own fault. I hadn't put down any hospitality rules to keep him out. As such, he'd be welcomed like any other non-enemy monarch – particularly by my people. I considered simply sending Volusian to revoke hospitality but then tossed that idea aside. I'd take care of this myself. I drove out to the gateway by my home as fast as I could without getting a ticket and then crossed over to the anchor inside my castle. Once there, I hurried through the halls, oblivious to servants' startled stares. I knew where Dorian would be. My people would have received him in the nicest chamber, the one befitting any visiting monarch. Sure enough. Dorian sat inside the parlor, lounging in a central chair with Shaya, Rurik, and others sitting around him. He looked like he was holding court in his own castle. My anger doubled. Everyone except him jumped up at my sudden approach, giving hasty bows. â€Å"Out,† I snapped. â€Å"All of you. And shut the door.† My words left no question about who exactly I wanted out. Dorian didn't move, but the rest scurried to obey my orders. I saw Shaya and Rurik exchange looks with each other, no doubt worried what was going to happen with the two monarchs they loved. Once we were alone, I turned on Dorian. â€Å"What the hell are you doing here?† He regarded me coolly, face perfectly at ease. â€Å"Visiting, as is my right. There's nothing that says I can't. Unless you're revoking my hospitality?† â€Å"I should,† I said, stepping forward with fists clenched. â€Å"I should have my guards throw you out on your ass.† He snorted and absentmindedly smoothed a piece of his long hair. â€Å"Good luck with that. They'd throw you out first, if I gave the order.† â€Å"So that's why you're here? To start a rebellion in my own kingdom?† â€Å"No. I'm here to remind you of your responsibilities to your kingdom – since you've clearly forgotten.† â€Å"Really?† I crossed my arms across my chest in an effort to stop myself from doing something stupid. â€Å"I think you've forgotten what I've done for my kingdom. Say, like, saving it from disaster. And risking my life for that fucking crown so that we could finally have peace.† â€Å"If memory serves, you caused that disaster when you created an inhospitable desert.† His voice was still damnably calm. â€Å"And that crown is doing you no good.† â€Å"Didn't you hear me? We have peace. The fighting's stopped.† â€Å"The fighting's temporarily stopped. Katrice is playing you, and you're letting her. She's dragging her feet, using this negotiation delay to figure out a way out of this. If you really want to end the war once and for all, you need to get involved and let her know you're serious. Wave the crown around. Dare her to call your bluff. Show her you're in control and stop all of this for real.† I gave a harsh laugh. â€Å"That's so typical of you. Attempting to pull the strings, as usual. You don't even have the crown, but you're telling me what to do with it.† Dorian shot up from the chair, smooth features breaking into annoyance. â€Å"I am remembering what it means to be a king. I'm not running away and letting others deal with things that seem too hard.† â€Å"Right,† I said, keeping an eye on the distance between us. â€Å"Getting the crown was easy. Which is why, of course, you were right out there with me.† He narrowed his eyes. â€Å"You know I would have if I could. So I did the only thing I could: I got you out there after it.† â€Å"By lying!† I exclaimed. I tried to keep my voice strong, letting anger be the only emotion to slip, but grief cracked me a little. â€Å"By creating an elaborate set-up with Masthera in the hope I'd seize more land for us. Why do you not see how wrong that was?† â€Å"Was it?† His volume was starting to match my own. I'd so rarely seen emotion seize him, and it was both terrible and beautiful. â€Å"Do you think our people think it's wrong? The ones whose homes are no longer in danger? The ones who are alive because of this? The crown bought that, and you're going to ruin it all if you don't force her into talks! Not only that, by not acting, you're letting what Leith did to you go unpunished.† â€Å"Oh, he got punished,† I said. â€Å"Yes,† agreed Dorian coldly. â€Å"By me. Something you seem to have forgotten, now that you've jumped back into bed with that animal.† â€Å"Kiyo isn't part of this. And what you did isn't enough to obligate me to stay in a relationship with someone who constantly deceives me.† Dorian turned away, putting his back to me. Somehow, this was more insulting than all the glares in the world. â€Å"I can only assume this is human logic. Achieving peace by bending the truth is deceitful. The greatest sin in the world. But infidelity is moral and just.† â€Å"It's not! And I wasn't – I didn't cheat on you. As far as I was concerned, we were through. I was free to do whatever I wanted.† â€Å"Obviously.† I didn't want to show any weakness in front of him, but the thing was, part of me still questioned if having sex with Kiyo back in the forest had been right or not. I'd even felt conflicted at the time. I'd let my impulses win out, using muddled logic to satisfy both my lust and need for revenge. â€Å"Look,† I said, trying to calm myself down. â€Å"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings – â€Å" He spun around so sharply that my words dropped. I didn't fear Dorian, not with my power and in my home, but something in his eyes made me step back. â€Å"Queen Eugenie,† he said formally. â€Å"Don't trouble yourself over my ‘feelings.' Replacing you in my bed isn't that difficult. You have too high an opinion of yourself in that regard.† Those words slapped me in the face, despite all the reasonable parts of my brain screaming at me that it didn't matter. I had no reason to care what he did. No reason to care about him. â€Å"So,† I said, matching his tone. â€Å"Ysabel has a place to sell her skills again.† â€Å"Very good ones,† he agreed. â€Å"The question now is if you're going to use yours. Put Katrice in her place. Get her to negotiate so that we can get the concessions we deserve. Stop acting like a human.† â€Å"I am human. You keep forgetting that.† He studied me up and down, giving me the opportunity to do the same to him. You don't care, you don't care, I told myself, trying to push aside how much I'd loved that gorgeous face. â€Å"No,† he said at last, contempt in his voice. â€Å"It's impossible to forget. You're acting like one now, refusing to do the right thing just because I've asked you to. You're being contrary out of spite.† He strode toward the door. â€Å"If you don't act soon, you'll regret it.† I didn't like him being the one to end this conversation. It was more of him always having the power. â€Å"Are you threatening me?† Dorian put his hand on the door's handle and glanced at me over his shoulder. â€Å"No. I'm not the threat. Katrice is. And while you keep going on and on about how much I've wronged you and lied to you, I can say with absolute certainty that what I've just told you is the truth.† â€Å"Noted.† Hastily, I made an attempt at acting like the queen around here. â€Å"You can go now. And don't come back.† That earned me a half smile, though there wasn't much humor in it. â€Å"Are you revoking my hospitality?† I hesitated. â€Å"No. I'm above that. I'll just assume you'll do the right thing and stay the hell away from me.† â€Å"Noted,† he replied, imitating my earlier tone. He opened the door and walked away without another look. I stared at the empty space where he'd been, wondering who'd come out on top of that argument. By the time I emerged and found Shaya, Dorian had already left my castle for his own lands. She asked nothing about what had transpired with him, but worry was written all over her face. â€Å"How close are we?† I demanded. â€Å"How close are we to sitting down with Katrice and writing up a treaty?† Shaya paled, and I realized I had turned my anger at Dorian on her. â€Å"Not as close as I'd like. She agreed †¦ she agreed she'd come in person, but only if the talks were held in the Willow Land. Queen Maiwenn has agreed, but Dor – King Dorian says that's unacceptable. He suggests the Linden Land or the Maple Land. Katrice refuses.† Linden and Maple. Kingdoms both staunchly neutral. Maiwenn theoretically was too. She'd always put on the pretense of friendship, and I was certain Kiyo would endorse her hospitality. But something about it made me uneasy. I didn't want to support Dorian †¦ but then I realized that instinct came from exactly what he'd warned me of: wanting to oppose him just out of spite. Our personal mess aside, he was my ally. Neutral ground was best for us. â€Å"Reiterate Dorian's stance,† I said. â€Å"Linden or Maple. I'm going back to Tucson. Let me know what happens.† Shaya opened her mouth, to protest or beg for help, I couldn't say. Dorian's words came back to me. Get actively involved. â€Å"Wave the crown† and make Katrice agree to our terms. No. On that, I wouldn't agree with him. I wouldn't use that crown like he wanted me too, even as a threat. â€Å"That'll be all,† I told Shaya. She nodded, obedient as always. The look on her face as I left made me feel a little guilty. Maybe I could make things easier for her. Maybe I could expedite all this. But for now, there was literally no harm being done. What could Katrice's stalling achieve? If she began hostilities again, she ran the risk of facing the crown she obviously feared. My people were safe. The waiting was frustrating, but it had to end soon. I'd told Dorian I was human, and that's what I intended to be. I would go home, start following up on jobs, and let the gentry deal with this red tape until I was absolutely needed. And that was exactly what I did. I returned to my old life. Kiyo and I continued dating, and being with him, reestablishing our old connection and sex life, went a long way toward blocking out images of beautiful, voluptuous Ysabel in Dorian's bed. My workload increased – as did my income – though my jobs tired me out more than I was used to. That scared me. It made me think about what it meant to be human and gentry. I'd fought to keep my human side dominant. Was the gentry part taking over? Stunting my shamanic abilities? No, I firmly decided. This was stress, pure and simple. In the two weeks that followed, though, I had to concede to my gentry side occasionally. The Thorn Land called to me, so I continued my quick visits, keeping the land strong and – no matter how much I hated to admit it – strengthening myself. Unfortunately, I took little joy from that because no good news ever came from the Otherworld. Katrice kept switching back and forth. Yes, she'd agree to the Maple Land – no, she'd changed her mind. Linden. But only if ambassadors went first, then the monarchs. No – she'd go. But it was back to the Willow Land. Or maybe some place altogether different? What about the Palm Land? Dorian made no attempts at direct contact with me, but there was no need. When I went to bed each night, I could see his face. Wave the crown, wave the crown. Fortunately, my aggressive workload tired me out enough to fall asleep quickly. Good news of sorts finally came one day when Kiyo and I were out hiking. The temperature had shot up, heralding spring, and I'd welcomed the break from work. Traipsing through the wilderness was something Dorian would certainly never do – especially in the desert. But like me, Kiyo appreciated the rugged beauty and heat of the land. I'd missed these excursions with him. His eyebrows rose when my cell phone rang. â€Å"You can get a signal out here?† â€Å"Apparently.† I was as surprised as him. Looking at the ID, I saw Enrique's name pop up. His recent reports, after that brief surge of promising news, had been clipped and vague: simple reminders that he was still working on things. I answered eagerly. â€Å"Please tell me you've found something.† â€Å"I have,† he said. Enrique had that smug tone from when we'd met. It had been annoying then, but now, I found it encouraging. â€Å"I finally tracked down the gun dealer and – â€Å" I didn't hear the rest because a sudden drop in the temperature and tingling in the air heralded Volusian's arrival. Apparently, I could get an Otherworldly signal out here too. My minion's orders to report all urgent news trumped whatever Enrique had to say. â€Å"Hey,† I interrupted. â€Å"I'll call you back.† â€Å"What the – â€Å" I disconnected, not giving him a chance to finish his outrage. He probably wasn't used to being hung up on. I turned to Volusian, who waited patiently and silently for me. He was a spot of darkness on the sunny day; he seemed to suck away the light of the world. â€Å"Please,† I begged. â€Å"Please tell me Katrice has finally given in, so that we can talk.† Volusian stayed silent a few moments. I swear, it was for drama's sake, and I felt like choking him. â€Å"No,† he said. â€Å"The Rowan Queen has not agreed to negotiations yet, although †¦ she has acted.† Kiyo and I exchanged looks. There was no way this could be good. I was also pretty sure Volusian liked delivering this news. â€Å"She's kidnapped your sister,† he said. â€Å"And has a list of demands to be met, if you want to see Jasmine alive again.†

Importance of arts Essay

Now we must study the following questions: What significance does art acquire if we assume that our interpretation of it is correct? What is the relation between aesthetic response and all other forms of human behavior? How do we explain the role and importance of art in the general behavioral system of man? There are as many different answers to these questions as there are different ways of evaluating the importance of art. Some believe art is the supreme human activity while others consider it nothing but leisure and fun. The evaluation of art depends directly on the psychological viewpoint from which we approach it. If we want to find out what the relationship between art and life is, if we want to solve the problem of art in terms of applied psychology, we must adopt a valid general theory for solving these problems. The first and most widespread view holds that art infects us with emotions and is therefore based upon contamination. Tolstoy says, â€Å"The activity of art is ba sed on the capacity of people to infect others with their own emotions and to be infected by the emotions of others. †¦ Strong emotions, weak emotions, important emotions, or irrelevant emotions, good emotions or bad emotions – if they contaminate the reader, the spectator, or the listener – become the subject of art. This statement means that since art is but common emotion, there is no substantial difference between an ordinary feeling and a feeling stirred by art. Consequently, art functions simply as a resonator, an amplifier, or a transmitter for the infection of feeling. Art has n6 specific distinction; hence the evaluation of art must proceed from the same criterion which we use to evaluate any feeling. Art may be good or bad if it infects us with good or bad feelings. Art in itself is neither good nor bad; it is a language of feeling which we must evaluate in accordance with what it expresses. Thus, Tolstoy came to the natural conclusion that art must be evaluated from a moral viewpoint; he therefore approved of art that generated good feelings, and objected to art that, from his point of view, represented reprehensible events or actions. Many other critics reached the same conclusions as did Tolstoy and evaluated a work of art on the basis of its obvious content, while praising or condemning the artist accordingly. Like ethics, like aesthetics – this is the slogan of this theory. But Tolstoy soon discovered that his theory failed when he tried to be consistent with his own conclusions. He compared two artistic impressions:  one produced b y a large chorus of peasant women who were celebrating the marriage of his daughter; and the other, by an accomplished musician who played Beethoven’s Sonata. The singing of the peasant women expressed such a feeling of joy, cheerfulness, and liveliness that it infected Tolstoy and he went home in high spirits. According to him, such singing is true art, because it communicates a specific and powerful emotion. Since the second impression involved no such specific emotions, he concluded that Beethoven’s sonata is an unsuccessful artistic attempt which contains no definite emotions and is therefore neither remarkable nor outstanding. This example shows us the absurd conclusions that can be reached if the critical understanding of art is based upon the criterion of its infectiousness. Beethoven’s music incorporates no definite feeling, while the singing of the peasant women has an elementary and contagious gaiety. If this is true, then Yevlakhov is right when he states that â€Å"‘real, true’ art is military or dance music, since it is more catchy.† Tolstoy is consistent in his ideas; beside folk songs, he recognizes only â€Å"marches and dances written by various composers† as works â€Å"that approach the requirements of universal art.† A reviewer of Tolstoy’s article, V. G. Valter, points out that â€Å"if Tolstoy had said that the gaiety of the peasant women put him in a good mood, one could not object to that. It would mean that the language of emotions that expressed itself in their singing (it could well have expressed itself simply in yelling, and most like ly did) infected Tolstoy with their gaiety. But what has this to do with art? Tolstoy does not say whether the women sang well; had they not sung but simply yelled, beating their scythes, their fun and gaiety would have been no less catching, especially on his daughter’s wedding day.† We feel that if we compare an ordinary yell of fear to a powerful novel in terms of their respective infectiousness, the latter will fail the test. Obviously, to understand art we must add something else to simple infectiousness. Art also produces other impressions, and Longinus’ statement, â€Å"You must know that the orator pursues one purpose, and the poet another. The purpose of poetry is trepidation, that of prose is expressivity,† is correct. Tolstoy’s formula failed to account for the trepidation which is the purpose of poetry. But to prove that he is really wrong, we must look at the art of military and dance music and find out whether the true purpose of that art is to infect. Petrazhitskii assumes  that aestheticians are wrong when they claim that the purpose of art is to generate aesthetic emotions only. He feels that art produces general emotions, and that aesthetic emotions are merely decorative. â€Å"For instance, the art of a warlike period in the life of a people has as its main purpose the excitation of heroic-bellicose emotions. Even now, military music is not intended to give the soldiers in the field aesthetic enjoyment, but to excite and enhance their belligerent feelings. The purpose of medieval art (including sculpture and architecture) was to produce lofty religious emotions. Lyric appeals to one aspect of our emotional psyche, satire to another; the same applies to drama, tragedy, and so on †¦ Apart from the fact that military music does not generate bellicose emotions on the battlefield, the question is not properly formulated here. Ovsianiko-Kulikovskii, for example, comes closer to the truth when he says that â€Å"military lyrics and music ‘lift the spirit’ of the army and ‘inspire’ feats of valor and heroic deeds, but neither of them leads directly to bellicose emotions or belligerent affects. On the contrary, they seem to moderate bellicose ardor, calm an excited nervous system, and chase away fear. We can say that lifting morale, calming nerves, and chasing away fear are among the most important practical functions of ‘lyrics’ which result from their psychological nature. It is therefore wrong to think that music can directly cause warlike emotions; more precisely, it gives bellicose emotions an opportunity for expression, but music as such neither causes nor generates them. Something similar happens with erotic poetry, the sole purpose of which, according to Tolstoy, is to excite lust. Anyone who understands the true nature of lyrical emotions knows that Tolstoy is wrong. â€Å"There is no doubt that lyrical emotion has a soothing effect on all other emotions (and affects) to the point that at times it paralyzes them. This is also the effect it has on sexuality with its emotions and affects. Erotic poetry, if it is truly lyrical, is far less suggestive than works of the visual arts in which the problems of love and the notorious sex problem are treated with the purpose of producing a moral reaction. Ovsianiko-Kulikovskii is only partly correct in his assumption that sexual feeling, which is easily excited, is most strongly stirred by images and thoughts, that these images and thoughts are rendered harmless by lyrical emotion, and that mankind is indebted to lyrics, even more than to ethics,  for the taming and restraining of sexual instincts. He underestimates the importance of the other art forms, which he calls figurative, and does not remark that in their case also emotions provoked by images are counteracted by the nonlyrical emotion of art. Thus we see that Tolstoy’s theory does not hold in the domain of the applied arts, where he thought its validity to be absolute. As concerns great art (the art of Beethoven and Shakespeare), Tolstoy himself pointed out that his theory is inapplicable. Art would have a dull and ungrateful task if its only purpose were to infect one or many persons with feelings. If this were so, its significance would be very small, because there would be only a quantitative expansion and no qualitative expansion beyond an individual’s feeling. The miracle of art would then be like the bleak miracle of the Gospel, when five barley loaves and two small fishes fed thousands of people, all of whom ate and were satisfied, and a dozen baskets were filled with the remaining food. This miracle is only quantitative: thousands were fed and were satisfied, but each of them ate only fish and bread. But was this not their daily diet at home, without any miracles? If the only purpose of a tragic poem were to infect us with the author’s sorrow, this would be a very sad situation indeed for art. The miracle of art reminds us much more of another miracle in the Gospel, the transformation of water into wine. Indeed, art’s true nature is that of transubstantiation, something that transcends ordinary feelings; for the fear, pain, or excitement caused by art includes something above and beyond its normal, conventional content. This â€Å"something† overcomes feelings of fear and pain, changes water into wine, and thus fulfills the most important purpose of art. One of the great thinkers said once that art relates to life as wine relates to the grape. With this he meant to say that art takes its material from life, but gives in return something which its material did not contain. Initially, an emotion is individual, and only by means of a work of art does it become s ocial or generalized. But it appears that art by itself contributes nothing to this emotion. It is not clear, then, why art should be viewed as a creative act nor how it differs from an ordinary yell or an orator’s speech. Where is the trepidation of which Longinus spoke, if art is viewed only as an exercise in infectiousness? We realize that science does not simply infect one person or a whole society with thoughts and ideas, any more than technology helps man  to be handy. We can also recognize that art is an expanded â€Å"social feeling† or technique of feelings, as we shall show later. Plekhanov states that the relationship between art and life is extremely complex, and he is right. He quotes Tairfe who investigated the interesting question of why landscape painting evolved only in the city. If art were intended merely to infect us with the feelings that life communicates to us, then landscape painting could not survive in the city. History, however, proves exactly the opposite. Taine writes, â€Å"We have the right to admire landscapes, just as they had the right to be bored by it. For seventeenth-century man there was nothing uglier than a mountain. It aroused in him many unpleasant ideas, because he was as weary of barbarianism as we are weary of civilization. Mountains give us a chance to rest, away from our sidewalks, offices, and shops; we like landscape only for this reason.† 6 Plekhanov points out that art is sometimes not a direct expression of life, but an expression of its antithesis. The idea, of course, is not in the leisure of which Taine speak s, but in a certain antithesis: art releases an aspect of our psyche which finds no expression in our everyday life. We cannot speak of an infection with emotions. The effect of art is obviously much more varied and complex; no matter how we approach art, we always discover that it involves something different from a simple transmission of feelings. Whether or not we agree with Lunacharskii that art is a concentration of life, we must realize that it proceeds from certain live feelings and works upon those feelings, a fact not considered by Tolstoy’s theory. We have seen that this process is a catharsis – the transformation of these feelings into opposite ones and their subsequent resolution. This view of course agrees perfectly with Plekhanov’s principle of antithesis in art. To understand this we must look at the problem of the biological significance of art, and realize that art is not merely a means for infection but something immeasurably more important in itself. In his â€Å"Three Chapters of Historic Poetics,† Veselovskii says that ancient singing and playing were born from a complex need for catharsis; a cho rus sung during hard and exhausting work regulates muscular effort by its rhythm, and apparently aimless play responds to the subconscious requirement of training and regulation of physical or intellectual effort. This is also the requirement of psychophysical catharsis formulated by Aristotle for the drama; it manifests itself in the  unsurpassed mastery of Maori women to shed tears at will, and also in the overwhelming tearfulness of the eighteenth century. The phenomenon is the same; the difference lies only in expression and understanding. We perceive rhythm in poetry as something artistic and forget its primitive psychophysical origins. The best repudiation of the contamination theory is the study of those psychophysical principles on which art is based and the explanation of the biological significance of art. Apparently art releases and processes some extremely complex organismic urges. The best corroboration of our viewpoint can be found in the fact that it agrees with Bucher’s studies on the origins of art and permits us to understand the true role and purpose of art. Bucher established that music and poetry have a common origin in heavy physical labor. Their object was to relax cathartically the tremendous stress created by labor. This is how Bucher formulated the general content of work songs: â€Å"They follow the general trend of work, and signal the beginning of a simultaneous collective effort; they try to incite th e men to work by derision, invective, or reference to the opinion of spectators; they express the thoughts of the workers about labor itself, its course, its gear, and so forth, as well as their joys or sorrows, their complaints about the hardness of the work and the inadequate pay; they address a plea to the owner, the supervisor, or simply to the spectator.† The two elements of art and their resolution are found here. The only peculiarity of these songs is that the feeling of pain and hardship which must be solved by art is an essential part of labor itself. Subsequently, when art detaches itself from labor and begins to exist as an independent activity, it introduces into the work of art the element which was formerly generated by labor: the feelings of pain, torment, and hardship (which require relies are now aroused by art itself, but their nature remains the same. Biicher makes an extremely interesting statement: â€Å"The peoples of antiquity considered song an indispensable accompaniment of hard labor.† From this we realize that song at first organized collective labor, then gave relief and relaxation to painful and tormenting strain. We shall see that art, even in its highest manifestations, completely separate from labor and without any direct connection thereto, has maintained the same functions. It still must systematize, or organize, social feeling and give relief to painful and tormenting strain. Quintilian puts it this way: â€Å"And  it appears as if [music] were given to us by nature in order to make labor bearable. For instance, the rower is inspired by song; it is useful not only where the efforts of many are combined, but also when it is intended to provide rest for an exhausted worker.† Thus art arises originally as a powerful tool in the struggle for existence; the idea of reducing its role to a communication of feeling with no power or control over that feeling, is inadmissible. If the purpose of art, like Tolstoy’s chorus of peasant women, were only to make us gay or sad, it would neither have survived nor have ever acquired its present importance. Nietzsche expresses it well injoyful Wisdom, when he says that rhythm involves inducement and incentive: â€Å"It arouses an irresistible desire to imitate, and not only our legs but our very soul follow the beat. †¦ Was there anything more useful than rhythm for ancient, Superstitious mankind? With its help everything became feasible – work could be performed magically, God could be forced to appear and listen to grievances, the future could be changed and corrected at will, one’s soul could be delivered of any abnormality. Without verse man would be nothing; with it, he almost became God.â €  It is quite interesting to see how Nietzsche explains the way in which art succeeded in acquiring such power over man. â€Å"When the normal mood and harmony of the soul were lost, one had to dance to the song of a bard – this was the prescription of that medicine †¦ First of all, inebriation and uncontrolled affect were pushed to the limit, so that the insane became frenzied, and the avenger became saturated with hatred.† Apparently the possibility of releasing into art powerful passions which cannot find expression in normal, everyday life is the biological basis of art. The purpose of our behavior is to keep our organism in balance with its surroundings. The simpler and more elementary our relations with the environment, the simpler our behavior. The more subtle and complex the interaction between organism and environment, the more devious and intricate the balancing process. Obviously this process cannot continue smoothly toward an equilibrium. There will always be a certain imbalance in favor of the environment or the organism. No machine can work toward equilibrium using all its energy efficiently. There are always states of excitation which cannot result in an efficient use of energy. This is why a need arises from time to time to discharge the unused energy and give it free rein in order to reestablish our equilibrium with the rest of the  world. Orshanskii says that feelings â€Å"are the p luses and minuses of our equilibrium.† These pluses and minuses, these discharges and expenditures of unused energy, are the biological function of art. Looking at a child, it is evident that its possibilities are far greater than actually realized. If a child plays at soldiers, cops and robbers, and so on, this means, according to some, that inside himself he really becomes a soldier or a robber. Sherrington’s principle (the principle of struggle for a common field of action) clearly shows that in our organism the nervous receptor fields exceed many times the executing effector neurons, so that the organism perceives many more stimuli than it can possibly attend to. Our nervous system resembles a railway station into which five tracks lead, but only one track leads out. Of five trains arriving at this station, only one ever manages to leave (and this only after a fierce struggle), while the other four remain stalled. The nervous system reminds us of a battlefield where the struggle never ceases, not even for a single instant, and our behavior is an infinitesimal part of what is really included in the possibilities of our nerv ous system, but cannot find an outlet. In nature the realized and executed part of life is but a minute part of the entire conceivable life Oust as every life born is paid for by millions of unborn ones). Similarly, in our nervous system, the realized part of life is only the smallest part of the real life contained in us. Sherrington likens our nervous system to a funnel with its narrow part turned toward action, and the wider part toward the world. The world pours into man, through the wide opening of the funnel 154), thousands of calls, desires, stimuli, etc. enter, but only an infinitesimal part of them is realized and flows out through the narrowing opening. It is obvious that the unrealized part of life, which has not gone through the narrow opening of our behavior, must be somehow utilized and lived. The organism is in an equilibrium with its environment where balance must be maintained, just as it becomes necessary to open a valve in a kettle in which steam pressure exceeds the strength of the vessel. Apparently art is a psychological means for striking a balance with the environment at critical points of our behavior. Long ago the idea had been expressed that art complements life by expanding its possibilities. Von Lange says, â€Å"There is a sorry resemblance between contemporary civilized man and domestic animals: limitation and monotony. Issuing from the patterns of bourgeois  life and its social forms, these are the main features of the individual existence, which lead everybody, rich and poor, weak and strong, talented and deprived, through an incomplete and imperfect life. It is astonishing how limited is the number of ideas, feelings, and actions that modern man can perform or experience.† Lazurskii holds the same view when he explains the theory of empathy by referring to one of Tolstoy’s novels. â€Å"There is a point in Anna Karenina where Tolstoy tells us that Anna reads a novel and suddenly wants to do what the heroes of that novel do: fight, struggle, win with them, go with the protagonist to his estate, and so on.† Freud shares this opinion and speaks of art as a means of appeasing two inimical principles, the principle of pleasure and that of reality. Insofar as we are talking about the meaning of life, these writers come closer to the truth than those who, like Grant-Allen, assume that â€Å"aesthetics are those emotions which have freed themselves from association with practical interests.† This reminds us of Spencer’s formula: he assumed that â€Å"beautiful is what once was, but no longer is, useful.† Developed to its extreme limits, this viewpoint leads to the theory of games, which is accepted by many philosophers, and g iven its highest expression by Schiller. The one serious objection against it is that, in not recognizing art as a creative act, it tends to reduce it to the biological function of exercising certain organs, a fact of little importance for the adult. Much more convincing are the other theories which consider art an indispensable discharge of nervous energy and a complex method of finding an equilibrium between our organism and the environment in critical instances of our behavior. We resort to art only at critical moments in our life, and therefore can understand why the formula we propose views art as a creative act. If we consider art to be catharsis, it is perfectly clear that it cannot arise where there is nothing but live and vivid feeling. A sincere feeling taken per se cannot create art. It lacks more than technique or mastery, because a feeling expressed by a technique will never generate a lyric poem or a musical composition. To do this we require the creative act of overcoming the feeling, resolving it, conquering it. Only when this act has been performed – then and only then is art born. This is why the perception of art requires creativity: it is not enough to experience sincerely the feeling, or feelings, of the author; it is not enough to understand the structure of the work of art; one must also  creatively overcome one’s own feelings, and find one’s own catharsis; only then will the effect of art be complete. This is why we agree with Ovsianiko-Kulikovskii who says that the purpose of military music is not to arouse bellicose emotions but, by establishing an equilibrium between the organism and the environment at a critical moment for the organism, to discipline and organize its work, provide appropriate relief to its feelings, to chase away fear, and to open the way to courage and valor. Thus, art never directly generates a practical action; it merely prepares the organism for such action. Freud says that a, frightened person is terrified and runs when he sees danger; the useful part of this behavior is that he runs, not that he is frightened. In art, the reverse is true: fear per se is useful. Man’s release per se is useful, because it creates the possibility of appropriate flight or attack. This is where we must consider the economy of our feelings, which Ovsianiko-Kulikovskii describes thus: â€Å"The harmonic rhythm of lyrics creates emotions which differ from the majority of other emotions in that such ‘lyric emotions’ save our psychic energies by putting our ‘psychic household’ into harmonic order.† This is not the same economy of which we talked earlier, it is not an attempt to avoid the output of psychic energies. In this respect art is not subordinated to the principle of the economy of strength; on the contrary, art is an explosive and sudden expenditure of strength, of forces (psychic and otherwise), a discharge of ene rgy. A work of art perceived coldly and prosaically, or processed and treated to be perceived in this way, saves much more energy and force than if it were perceived with the full effect of its artistic form in mind. Although it is an explosive discharge, art does introduce order and harmony into the â€Å"psychic household,† of our feelings. And of course the waste of energy performed by Anna Karenina when she experienced the feelings and emotions of the heroes of the novel she was reading, is a saving of psychic forces if compared to the actual emotion. A more complex and deeper meaning of the principle of economizing emotions will become clearer if we try to understand the social significance of art. Art is the social within us [55], and even if its action is performed by a single individual, it does not mean that its essence is individual. It is quite naive and inappropriate to take the social to be collective, as with a large crowd of persons. The social also exists where there is only one  person with his individual experiences and tribulations. This is why the action of art, when it performs catharsis and pushes into this purifying flame the most intimate and important experiences, emotions, and feelings of the soul, is a social action. But this experience does not happen as described in the theory of contaminati on (where a feeling born in one person infects and contaminates everybody and becomes social), but exactly the other way around. The melting of feelings outside us is performed by the strength of social feeling, which is objectivized, materialized, and projected outside of us, then fixed in external objects of art which have become the tools of society. A fundamental characteristic of man, one that distinguishes him from animals, is that he endures and separates from his body both the apparatus of technology and that of scientific knowledge, which then become the tools of society. Art is the social technique of emotion, a tool of society which brings the most intimate and personal aspects of our being into the circle of social life. It would be more correct to say that emotion becomes personal when every one of us experiences a work of art; it becomes personal without ceasing to be social. â€Å"Art,† says Guyau, â€Å"is a condensation of reality; it shows us the human machine under high pressure. It tries to show us more life phenomena than we actually experience.† Of course this life, concentrated in art, exerts an effect not only on our emotions but also on our will â€Å"because emotion contains the seed of will.† Guyau correctly attributes a tremendous importance to the role played by art in society. It in troduces the effects of passion, violates inner equilibrium, changes will in a new sense, and stirs feelings, emotions, passions, and vices without which society would remain in an inert and motionless state. It â€Å"pronounces the word we were seeking and vibrates the string which was strained but soundless. A work of art is the center of attraction, as is the active will of a genius: if Napoleon attracts will, Corneille and Victor Hugo do so too, but in a different way. †¦ Who knows the number of crimes instigated by novels describing murders? Who knows the number of divorces resulting from representations of debauchery?† â€Å"Guyau formulates the question in much too primitive a way, because he imagines that art directly causes this or the other emotion. Yet, this never happens. A representation of murder does not cause murder. A scene of debauchery does not inspire divorce; the  relationship between art and life is very complex, and in a very approximate way it can be described as will be shown. Hennequin sees the difference between aesthetic and real emotion in the fact that aesthetic emotion does not immediately express itself in action. He says, however, that if repeated over and over again, these emotions can become the basis for an individual’s behavior; thu s, an individual can be affected by the kind of literature he reads. â€Å"An emotion imparted by a work of art is not capable of expressing itself in immediate actions. In this respect aesthetic feelings differ sharply from actual feelings. But, since they serve an end in themselves, they justify themselves and need not be immediately expressed in any practical activity; aesthetic emotions can, by accumulation and repetition, lead to substantial practical results. These results depend upon the general properties of aesthetic emotion and the particular properties of each of these emotions. Repeated exercises of a specific group of feelings under the effect of invention, imagination, or unreal rnoods or causes that generally cannot result in action do not require active manifestations, and doubtless weaken the property common to all real emotions, that of expression in action. †¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I Hennequin introduces two very important corrections, but his solution of the problem remains quite primitive. He is correct in saying that aesthetic emotion does not immediately generate action, that it manifests itself in the change of purpose. He is als o correct when he states that aesthetic emotion not only does not generate the actions of which it speaks, but is completely alien to them. On the basis of Guyau’s example, we could say that the reading of novels about murder not only does not incite us to murder, but actually teaches us not to kill; but this point of view of Hennequin’s, although it is more applicable than the former, is quite simple compared with the subtle function assigned to art. As a matter of fact, art performs an extremely complex action with our passions and goes far beyond the limits of these two simplistic alternatives. Andrei Bely says that when we listen to music we feel what giants must have felt. Tostoy masterfully describes this high tension of art in his Kreutzer Sonata: † Do you know the first place? Do you really know it?† he explains. Oh! †¦ A sonata is a frightening thing. Yes, this part, precisely. Music, generally, is a frightening thing. What is it? I don’t understand. What is music? What does it do? And why does it do whatever it does? They say that music elevates our  soul. Rubbish, nonsen se! It does work, it has a terrible effect (I am talking for myself, but it certainly does not lift the soul. It does not lift the soul, nor does it debase it, but it irritates it. How can I put it? Music makes me oblivious of myself; it makes me forget my true position; it transfers me into another position, not mine, not my own: it seems to me, under the effect of music, that I feel what I don’t feel, that I understand what I actually don’t understand, can’t understand. †¦ â€Å"Music immediately, suddenly, transports me into the mood which must have been that of the man who wrote it. I become one with him, and together with him I swing from one mood into another, from one state into another, but why I am doing it, I don’t know. That fellow, for instance, who wrote the Kreutzer Sonata, Beethoven, he knew why he was in that state. That state led him to certain actions, and therefore, for him, that state was sensible. For me, it means nothing, it is completely senseless. And this is why music only irritates and achieves nothing. Well, if I play a military march, the soldiers will march in step, and the music has achieved its purpose; if dance music is played, I dance, and the music achieves its purpose. Or, if Mass is sung and I take communion, well, here too the music has achieved its purpose; otherwise, it is only irritation, and no one knows what to do with this irritation. This is why music occasionally has such a horrible,terrifying effect. In China music is an affair of state, and this is how it should be †¦ â€Å"Otherwise it could be a terrifying tool in the hands of anybody. Take for instance the Kreutzer Sonata. How can one play its presto in a drawing room, amidst ladies in decollete? Play it, and then busy oneself, then eat some ice cream and listen to the latest gossip? No, these things can b e played only in the face of significant, important circumstances, and then it will be necessary to perform certain appropriate acts that fit the music. If it must be played, we must act according to its setting of our mood. Otherwise the incongruity between the place, the time, the waste of energy, and the feelings which do not manifest themselves will have a disastrous effect.† This excerpt from The Kreutzer Sonata tells us quite convincingly of the incomprehensibly frightening effect of music for the average listener. It reveals a new aspect of the aesthetic response and shows that it is not a blank shot, but a response to a work of art, and a new and powerful stimulus for further action. Art requires a reply, it incites  certain actions, and Tolstoy quite correctly compares the effect of Beethoven’s music with that of a dance tune or a march. In the latter case, the excitement created by the music resolves itself in a response, and a feeling of satisfied repose sets in. In the case of Beethoven’s music we are thrown into a state of confusion and anxiety, because the music reveals those urges and desires that can find a resolution only in exceptionally important and heroic actions. When this music is followed by ice cream and gossip amidst ladies in d’collet, we are left in a state of exceptional anxiety, tension, and disarray. But T olstoy’s character makes a mistake when he compares the irritating and stimulating effect of this music to the effect produced by a military march. He does not realize that the effect of music reveals itself much more subtly, by means of hidden shocks, stresses, and deformations of our constitution. It may reveal itself unexpectedly, and in an extraordinary way. But in this description, two points are made with exceptional clarity: First, music incites, excites, and irritates in an indeterminate fashion not connected with any concrete reaction, motion, or action. This is proof that its effect is cathartic, that is, it clears our psyche, reveals and calls to life tremendous energies which were previously inhibited and restrained. This, however is a consequence of art, not its action. Secondly, music has coercive power. Tolstoy suggests that music should be an affair of state. He believes that music is a public affair. One critic pointed out that when we perceive a work a work of art we think that our reaction is strictly personal and associated only with ourselves. We believe that it has nothing to do social psychology. But this is as wrong as the opinion of a person pays taxes and considers this action only from his own viewpoint own, personal budget, without bearing in mind that he participate the huge and complex economy of the state. He does not reflect that by paying taxes he takes part in involved state operations whose existence he does not even suspect. This is why Freud is wrong when he says that man stands face to face with the reality of nature, and that art be derived from the purely biological difference between the principle of enjoyment toward which all our inclinations gravitate, and that of reality which forces us to renounce satisfaction and pleasure. Between man and the outside world there stands the social environment, which in its own way refracts and directs the stimuli acting upon the individual and guides all  the reactions that emanate from the individual. applied psychology it is therefore of immense significance to know I as Tolstoy puts it, music is something awesome and frightening to average listener. If a military march incites soldiers to march proudly in a parade, what exceptional deeds must Beethoven’s music inspire! Let me repeat: music by itself is isolated from our everyday behavior; it does not drive us to do anything, it only creates a vague and enormous desire for some deeds or actions; it op ens the way for the emergence of powerful, hidden forces within us; it acts like an earthquake as it throws open unknown and hidden strata. The view that art returns us to atavism rather than projecting us into the future, is erroneous. Although music does not generate any direct actions, its fundamental effect, the direction it imparts to psychic catharsis, is essential for the kind of forces it will release, what it will release, and what it will push into the background. Art is the organization of our future behavior. It is a requirement that may never be fulfilled but that forces us to strive beyond our life toward all that lies beyond it. We may therefore call art a delayed reaction, because there is always a fairly long period of time between its effect and its execution. This does not mean, however, that the effect of art is mysterious or mystical or that its explanation requires some new concepts different from those which the psychologist sets up when he analyzes common behavior. Art performs with our bodies and through our bodies. It is remarkable that scholars like Rutz and Sievers, who studied perceptual proc esses and not the effects of art, speak of the dependence of aesthetic perception on a specific muscular constitution of the body. Rutz was the first to suggest that any aesthetic effect must be associated with a definite type of muscular constitution. Sievers applied his idea to the contemplation of sculpture. Other scholars mention a connection between the basic organic constitution of the artist and the structure of his works. From the most ancient times, art has always been regarded as a means of education, that is, as a long-range program for changing our behavior and our organism. The subject of this chapter, the significance of applied arts, involves the educational effect of art. Those who see a relationship between pedagogy and art find their view unexpectedly supported by psychological analysis. We can now address ourselves to the last problems on our agenda, those of the practical effect of art on life  and of its educational significance. The educational significance of art and its practical aspects may be divided into two parts. We have first criticism as a fundamental social force, which opens th e way to art, evaluates it, and serves as a transitional mechanism between art and society. From a psychological point of view, the role of criticism is to organize the effects of art. It gives a certain educational direction to these effects, and since by itself it has no power to influence the basic effect of art per se it puts itself between this effect and the actions into which this effect must finally resolve itself. We feet therefore that the real purpose and task of art criticism is different from its conventional one. Its purpose is not to interpret or explain a work of art, nor is its purpose to prepare the spectator or reader for the perception of a work of art. Only half of the task of criticism is aesthetic; the other half is pedagogical and public. The critic approaches the average â€Å"consumer† of art, for instance, Tolstoy’s hero in The Kreutzer Sonata, at the troublesome point when he is under the incomprehensible and frightening spell of the music and does not know what it will release in him. The critic wishes to be the organizing force, but enters the action when art has already had its victory over the human psyche which now seeks impetus and direction for its action. The dualistic nature of criticism obviously entails a dualistic task. The criticism which consciously and intentionally puts art into prose establishes its social root, and determines the social connec tion that exists between art and the general aspects of life. It gathers our conscious forces counteract or, conversely, to cooperate with those impulses which have been generated by a work of art. This criticism leaves the domain of art and enters the sphere of social life, with the sole purpose of guiding the aesthetically aroused forces into socially useful channels. Everyone knows that a work of art affects different people in different ways. Like a knife, or any other tool, art by itself is neither good nor bad. More precisely, it has tremendous potential for either good or evil. It all depends on what use we make of, or what task m sign to, this tool. To repeat a trite example: a knife in the hands surgeon has a value completely different from that of the same knife the hands of a child. But the foregoing is only half the task of criticism. The other half consists in conserving the effect of art as art, and preventing the read spectator from wasting the forces aroused by art by  substituting for its powerful impulses dull, commonplace, rational-moral precepts. Few understand why it is imperative not only to have the effect of art shape and excite the reader or spectator but also to explain art, and to explain it in such a way that the explanation does not fill the emotion. We can readily show that such explanation is indispensable, our behavior is organized according to the principle of unity, which is accomplished mainly by means of our consciousness in which any emotion seeking an outlet must be represented. Otherwise we risk creating a conflict, and the work of art, instead of producing a catharsis, would inflict a wound, and the person experiences what Tolstoy when his heart is filled with a vague, incomprehensible emotion of depression, impotence, and confusion. However, this does not mean that the explanation of art kills the trepidation of poetry mentioned by Longinus, for there are two different levels involved. This second element, the element of conservation of an artistic impression, has always been regarded by theoreticians as decisively important for art criticism but, oddly enough, our critics have always ignored it. Criticism has always approached art as if it were a parliamentary speech or a non-aesthetic fact. It considered its task to be the destruction of the effect of art in order to discover the significance of art. Plekhanov was aware that the search for the sociological equivalent of a work of art is only the first half of the task of criticism. â€Å"This means,† he said when discussing Belinskii, â€Å"that evaluation of the idea of a work of art must be followed by an analysis of its artistic merits. Philosophy did not eliminate aesthetics. On the contrary, it paved the way for it and tried to find a solid basis for it. This must also be said about materialistic criticism. In searching for the social equivalent of a given literary phenomenon, this type of criticism betrays its own nature if it does not understand that we cannot confine ourselves to finding this equivalent, and that sociology must not shut the door to aesthetics but, on the contrary, open it wide. The second action of materialistic criticism must be, as was the case with many critic-idealists, the evaluation of the aesthetic merits of the work under investigation †¦ The determination of the sociological equivalent of a given work of literature would be incomplete and therefore imprecise if the critic failed to appraise its artistic merits. In other words, the first action of materialistic criticism not only does not eliminate the need for  the second action, but requires it as a necessary and indispensable complement.† A similar situation arises with the problem of art in education: the two parts or acts cannot exist independently. Until recently, the public approach to art prevailed in our schools as well as in our criticism. The students learned or memorized incorrect sociological formulas concerning many works of art. â€Å"At the present time,† says Gershenzon, â€Å"pupils are beaten with sticks to learn Pushkin, as if they were cattle herded to the w atering place, and given a chemical dissociation of H20 instead of drinking water.† It would be unfair to conclude with Gershenzon that the system of teaching art in the schools is wrong from beginning to end. In the guise of the history of social thought reflected in literature, our students learned false literature and false sociology. Does this mean that it is possible to teach art outside the sociological context and only on the basis of individual tastes, to jump from concept to concept, from the Iliad to Maiakovskii? Eichenwaid seems to believe this, for he claims that it is impossible as well as unnecessary to teach literature in the schools. â€Å"Should one teach literature?† he asks. â€Å"Literature, like the other arts, is optional. It represents an entertainment of the mind. †¦ Is it necessary that students be taught that Tatiana fell in love with Onegin, or that Lermontov was bored, sad, and unable to love forever?† Eichenwald is of the opinion that it is impossible to teach literature and that it should be taken out of the school curriculum because it requires an act of creativity different from all the other subjects taught at school. But he proceeds from a rather squalid aesthetic, and all his weak spots become obvious when we analyze his basic position, â€Å"Read, enjoy, but can we force people to enjoy?† Of course, if â€Å"to read† means â€Å"to enjoy,† then literature cannot be taught and has no place in the schools (although someone once said that the art of enjoyment could also he taught). A school that eliminates lessons in literature is bound to be a bad school. â€Å"At the present time, explanatory reading has as its main purpose the explanation of the content of what is being read. Under such a system, poetry as such is eliminated from the curriculum. For instance, the difference between a fable by Krylov and its rendition in prose is Completely lost.† From the repudiation of such a position, Gershenzon comes to the conclusion: â€Å"Poetry cannot and must not be a compulsory subject of education; it is time that it again become a guest  from paradise on earth, loved by everyone, as was the case in ancient times. Then it will once again become the true teacher of the masses.† The basic idea here is that poetry is a heavenly guest and it must be made to resume the role it played â€Å"in ancient times.† But Gershenzon does not concern himself with the fact that these ancient times are gone forever, and that nothing in our time plays the same role it played then. He ignores this fact because he believes that art is fundamentally different from all the other activities of man. For him, art is a kind of a mystical or spiritual act that cannot be recreated by studying the forces of the. According to him, poetry cannot be studied scientifically.† One of the greatest mistakes of contemporary culture,† he says, â€Å"application of a scientific or, more precisely, a naturalistic method to the study of poetry.† Thus, what contemporary scholars consider to be the only possible way of solving the riddle of art is for Gershenzon the supreme mistake of contemporary culture. Future studies and investigations are likely to show that the i creating a work of art is not a mystical or divine act of our soul, I real an act as all the other movements of our body, only much complex. We have discovered in the course of our study that a creative act that cannot be recreated by means of purely conscious operations. But, by establishing that the most important elements in art are subconscious or creative, do we automatically eliminate any and all conscious moments and forces? The act of artistic creation cannot be taught. This does not mean, however, that the educator cannot cooper ate in forming it or bringing it about. We penetrate the subconscious through the conscious. We can organize the conscious processes in such a way that they generate subconscious processes, and everyone knows that an act of art includes, as a necessary condition, all preceding acts of rational cognizance, understanding, recognition, association, and so forth. It is wrong to assume that the later subconscious processes do not depend on the direction imparted by us to the conscious processes. By organizing our conscious, which leads us toward art, we insure a priori the success or failure of the work of art. Hence Molozhavy correctly states that the act of art is â€Å"the process of our response to the phenomenon, although it may never have reached the stage of action. This process †¦ widens the scope of our personality, endows it with new possibilities, prepares for the completed response to the phenomenon, that is, behavior, and also has educational  value †¦ Potebnia is wrong to treat the artistic image as a condensation of thought. Both thought and image are a condensation either of the conscious with respect to the phenomenon involved or of the psyche, which issued from a series of positions preparatory to the present position. But this gives us no right to confuse these biological elements, these psychological processes, on the basis of the vague argument that both thought and artistic image are creative acts. On the contrary, we must emphasize all the ir individual peculiarities in order to understand each as a part of the whole. The tremendous strength that arouses emotions, inspires the will, fortifies energy, and pushes us to action lies in the concreteness of the artistic image which is in turn based upon the originality of the psychological path leading to it.† These considerations need one substantial correction if we move from the field of general psychology into child psychology. When we determine the influence exerted by art, we must take into account the specific peculiarities facing one who deals with children. Of course this is a separate field, a separate and independent study, because the domain of child art and the response of children to art is completely different from that of adults. However, we shall say a few brief words on the subject and trace a basic line along which child psychology intersects this field. There are remarkable phenomena in the art of children. First, there is the early presence of a special structure required by art, which points to the fact that for the child there exists a psychological kinship between art and play. â€Å"First of all,† says Biihler, â€Å"is the fact that the child very early adopts the correct structure, which is alien to reality but required by the fairy tale, so that he can concentrate on the exploits of the heroes and follow the changing images. It seems to me that he loses this ability during so me period of his development, but it returns to him in later years. †¦Ã¢â‚¬  Apparently art does not perform the same function in a child as it does in an adult. The best example of this is a child’s drawing which in many cases is on the borderline of artistic creativity. The child does not understand that the structure of a line can directly express the moods and trepidations of the heart and soul. The ability to render the expressions of people and animals in different positions and gestures develops very slowly in a child, for various reasons. The principal one is the fundamental fact that a child draws patterns, not events or phenomena. Some claim the opposite, but they  seem to ignore the simple fact that a child’s drawing is not yet art for the child. His art is unique and different from the art of adults, although the two have one very interesting characteristic in common. It is the most important trait in art and we shall mention it in conclusion. Only recently was it noticed that certain absurdities or amusing nonsense which can be found in nursery rhymes by inverting the most commonplace events play a tremendously important role in child art. Most frequently the required or desired absurdity is achieved in a nursery rhyme by assigni ng certain functions of object A to object B, and vice versa. †¦ â€Å"The hermit asked me how many strawberries grow at the bottom of the ocean. I answered him: ‘As many as there are red herrings in the forest.’ To understand this nursery jingle the child must know the truth about life: herrings exist only in the ocean, and strawberries only in the forest. He begins to look for the absurd only when he is absolutely sure of the facts.† We, too, feel that the statement, that this aspect of child art comes very close to play, is true; as a matter of fact, it gives us a good explanation of the role and the significance of art in a child’s life. â€Å"We still do not quite understand the connection which exists between nursery rhymes and child’s play. †¦ When evaluating books for small children, critics frequently forget to apply the criterion of play. Most folk nursery rhymes do not issue from games but are play, a game in themselves: a play of words, a play of rhythms, sounds; †¦ these muddles always maintain some sort of ideal order. There is system in this folly. By dragging a child into a topsy-turvy world, we help his intellect work, because the child becomes interested in creating such a topsy-turvy world for himself in order to become more effectively the master of the laws governing the real world. These absurdities could be dangerous for a child if they screened out the real interrela tionships between ideas and objects. Instead, they push them to the fore, and emphasize them. They enhance (rather than weaken) the child’s perception of reality.† Here, too, we observe the same phenomenon of the dualism of art. In order to perceive art, we must contemplate simultaneously the true situation of things and their deviation from this situation. We can also observe how an effect of art arises from such a contradictory perception. Since absurdities are tools for the child to use in understanding reality, it becomes suddenly clear why the extreme leftists in art criticism come up with a slogan: art as a method  for building life. They say that art is building life because â€Å"reality is forged from the establishment and destruction of contradictions. When they criticize the idea of art as the cognition of life and advance the idea of a dialectic perception of the world through matter, they reach agreement with the psychological laws of art. â€Å"Art is an original, chiefly emotional †¦ dialectic approach to building life.† Now we can envision the role of art in the future. It is hard to guess what forms this unknown life of the future will take, and it is even harder to guess what place art will take in that future life. One thing is clear, however: arising from reality and reaching toward it, art will be determined by the basic order of the future flow of life. â€Å"In the future,† sa ys Friche, â€Å"the role of art is not likely to change substantially from its present role. Socialist society will not be the antithesis of capitalist society, but its organic continuation.† If we regard art as an embellishment or ornament of life, such a viewpoint is admissible. However, it basically contradicts the psychological laws of art. Psychological investigation reveals that art is the supreme center of biological and social individual processes in society, that it is a method for finding an equilibrium between man and his world, in the most critical and important stages of his life. This view of course completely refutes the approach according to which art is an ornament, and thereby leads us to doubt the correctness of the above statement. Since the future has in store not only a rearrangement of mankind according to new principles, not only the organization of new social and economic processes, but also the â€Å"remolding of man,† there seems hardly any doubt that the role of art will also change. It is hard to imagine the role that art will play in this remolding of man. We do not know which existing but dormant forces in our organisms it will draw upon to form the new man. There is no question, however, that art will have a decisive voice in this process. Without new art there can be no new man. The p ossibilities of the future, for art as well as for life, are inscrutable and unpredictable. As Spinoza said, â€Å"That of which the body is capable has not yet been determined.†