The Ship Of Theseus Paradox Essay - 872 Words

The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus’ Paradox, is a thought experiment that questions whether an object is fundamentally the same object after having all of its parts replaced. The story goes that Theseus, a mythical hero of Athens, went on an endeavor to kill the Minotaur who had been harassing the townspeople. When Theseus returned successful, his ship was left in the harbor to commemorate his victory. Consequently, the ship’s planks had deteriorated and were replaced one by one. Thus, the question begs: is this the same ship, or a different one? Throughout this paper I will argue the stance that Theseus’ ship is not the same ship nor has it ever been the same ship the second it left the port in which it was built. Theseus’s Paradox is entirely built upon perception— someone’s view of the ship is different (no matter how minuscule) compared to the next person. Hence why philosophers differ so much on the subject. However, the idea of human perception can be taken into account when discussing this question. Because no answer to this question can be true, is precisely why one answer has to be more true; the ship is different. Take into consideration perception— to apply an identity to an object means that the object was perceived by an observer. The observer selects attributes of its subject in order to serve his/her purpose; the â€Å"attributes† assigned to the subject become the basis for its identity. Therefore, identity has no meaning apart from being a branch ofShow MoreRelatedWhy Is It Our Anatomy That Makes Us Human?802 Words   |  4 Pagesreligions, locations, divorces, and a string of childhood drama I feel I have lived 80 years in my 17 years on this tiny blue sphere. So what makes us, humans. We are never the same from one second to the next. We are the living example of the paradox of Theseus ship, at what point do we stop being who we are and become something new. Is it when we deci de or is the idea of predestination true, making it meaningless what we want to become because it is already predetermined. I feel we are the x thatRead MoreDualism And Materialism By Peter Van Inwagen1968 Words   |  8 Pagesthe human person from the human body: in the case that the human identity is tied up solely in its physical components, the scenario in which nothing existing would simply leave no room for the scenario’s consideration via one’s mind, creating a paradox. Therefore, Descartes’ conclusion that from the mind exists separately from the body lends itself to be the most immediate, logical explanation for human identity. Another essential concept for the understanding of dualism and its superiority overRead MoreWinter Essay2018 Words   |  9 PagesAnticriterialism Theseus’s paradox is used: Theseus was a voyager who had decided to call it a day on exploring. When he retired Theseus wanted to repair his ship and restore it to its former state by replacing all the planks of wood out of which the ship was made out of. When the work was done the ship had new wood and all the old wood was discarded. However when Theseus came to view his boat he said â€Å"well, it looks very nice and all, but I don’t really see in what sense this is MY ship at all - for thisRead MoreTaking a Look at Four-Dimensionalism1200 Words   |  5 Pages Four-dimensionalism is often seen in the field of metaphysics as a strong and sound solution to many puzzles. Whether that’s the Antinomy of Constitution, the Ship of Theseus, or the Paradox of Increase, four-dimensionalism always appears as a probable sol ution. But, four-dimensionalism is not the all-powerful solution it appears to be at first glance. The theory itself has many repercussions if it is taken to be true, leading me to dispute its overall validity. So what exactly is the four-dimensionalRead MoreFigurative Language and the Canterbury Tales13472 Words   |  54 PagesFweet, Bootchee-Fweet. - Saul Bellow 54. oxymoron: the yoking of two terms that are ordinarily contradictory Eg. sweet pain; cheerful pessimist; conspicuous by her absence; thunderous silence; make haste slowly; jumbo shrimp; rational hysteria 55. paradox: a statement that reveals the truth but at first seems contradictory †¢ He is guilty of being innocent. - about Joseph K. in Kafka’s The Trial †¢ The past is the prologue. -Paul Newman 56. paraphrase: a restatement of the content of a poem designedRead MoreGreek Mythology8088 Words   |  33 Pages  which  resulted  from  an  attempt  to  carry  off  the  Lapith   women  at  a  wedding  feast.  This  combat  was  depicted  in  sculpture  on  the  Parthenon,  a  temple   dedicated  to  Athena  in  Athens. The  Sirens   In  Greek  mythology  sirens  were  sea  nymphs  who  lured  sailors  with  their  sweet  singing,  causing  their  ships  to   founder.  Odysseus  overcame  the  temptation  by  tying  himself  to  his  ship’s  mast  as  shown  in  this  painting  by  19th ­Ã‚   century  French  artist  Leon  Belly  in  the  Musà ©e  de  l’Hotel  Sandelin  in  Saint  Omer,  France.   Giraudon/Art  Resource,  NY   The  Sirens

The First Civilizations The Rise Of Civilization

The first civilizations, the foundations for future empires, were all founded and created between 3500 B.C.E. and 500 B.C.E. by groups of nomadic peoples who decided to settle in an area for certain group specific reasons. Some of the main states of the first civilization were Mesopotamia, Norte Chico, Egypt, Indus Valley, China, and Olmec. The second wave civilizations, built between 500 B.C.E. and 500 C.E., included the Persians, the Greeks, Romans, Chinese (Qin and Han), and India (Mauryan and Gupta). The first wave civilizations were sparked by the agricultural movement that led to the settlement of large groups of people in areas that became the cities and states that formed these first civilizations. The rise of civilization led to†¦show more content†¦The key similarities between the two waves of civilizations are important and were continued throughout history even further than the empires of the second wave. These similarities included slavery, treatment of women, a nd the patriarch and monarch rulers; these similarities were intertwined in both waves. Hierarchies of gender declared that women and men were not equal because â€Å"to be gendered as masculine or feminine defines the roles and behavior considered appropriate for men and women in every human community.† The hierarchy of gender led to the creation of patriarchy, the concept that women are lesser or subordinate to men in all aspects of life. This idea of patriarchy meant sons were valued more than daughters, men had more opportunities in society and with jobs, the opportunity to rule, and men were the heads of their households. However, this wasn’t true for every society, even in the first civilizations there were cities and groups of people living within some states that allowed women to do what they wanted to do out in society. The Egyptians were a good example of equality as women were legally viewed equal to men. They were able to own land and slaves, initiate divo rce, and rarely they would reach the position of queen, the most famous being Hatshepsut. On the more extreme side, in ancient Mesopotamia, patriarchy took root quickly in the form of actual written law. The code of Hammurabi was created in 1750 B.C.E. creating very submissive laws forShow MoreRelatedThe First Global Civilization : The Rise And Spread Of Islam1539 Words   |  7 PagesChapter 6: The First Global Civilization: The Rise and Spread of Islam Introduction Muslims believed in Allah. This was their God. They only believed in Allah. Muslim’s biggest rivals were Christians. In the seventh century, Muhammed controlled several empires, including Persia, Greece, and Egypt. These empires took him decades to acquire, however. Empires were beginning to spread to places like: -Africa, Asia and Southern Europe. -Central Asia, Western Asia and Southern Asia. -They alsoRead MoreFactors That Affect The Rise And Fall Of Civilizations Essay914 Words   |  4 PagesEffect the Rise and the Fall of Mayan Civilization Area and Egyptian Civilization Area In ancient time, environmental factors were very important. It directed the people to where they should settle to practice agriculture for their living. Among many different important environmental factors such as geography, geology, plant and animal species, agricultural potential, resource abundance, one of the most significants factors which influenced to the rise and the fall of civilizations is climateRead MoreEgypt : The Egyptian Civilization920 Words   |  4 PagesEgypt was never like that today. This essay well talk about the development of Egyptian civilization by explaining the prehistory of Egypt and identifying three cultural developments or political events that were important to the rise of Egyptian civilization. Also, explaining what happened and why it was important or significant to the rise of Egypt. Egypt is known to be one of the longest lasted civilization in the world. It is located in the Nile Valley, in the north east of Africa. Its originsRead MoreUrbanization and State Formation in African Civilizations Essay1295 Words   |  6 PagesUrbanization and State Formation in African Civilizations: When it comes to talking about the ancient African civilizations, both Africans and those who spent their lives studying Africa are aware of how complex and diverse the African precolonial societies really were. 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From 551-479 B.C. with the Chinese, to the nineteenth and early twentieth century with western civilization. Ranging from the collapsing of the Roman and Mayan empires, to the ending of the Byzantine and Inca empires. Historians and architects use ancient readings left behind on stone and walls to gain knowledge about these civilizations. To comprehend these civilizations that were once there and the culture behind them. The virtue and values of these civilizations have hugeRead More Seeds of Trees Essay1172 Words   |  5 Pages According to the encyclopedia Encarta, a civilization is an advanced state of a soc iety possessing historical and cultural unity. There are four early river valley societies that had successfully met the requirements to be called civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and India. These four civilizations encompass several similarities as to how they developed, including location, spirituality, governmental structure and forms of written communication. 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In essence, the â€Å"clash of civilizations† between China and the United States will be primarily based on the problem of cultural hegemony in the 21st century struggle for global dominance between these two modern nation states. Huntington’s theory provides ample evidence of the growingRead MoreEnd of Mayan Civilization1143 Words   |  5 PagesEnd of Mayan Civilization Samuel Nathaniel H. Stansbury HUM 111 11/3/2012 The mystery concerning the fundamental explanation for the collapse of the Mayan Civilization has been a major focus for researchers in the fields of anthropology and archeology for a considerable period of time. At the very core of this mystery of the Mayan collapse was the question of how could such a strong, stable civilization that had flourished for approximately twenty-seven hundred years disappear without a clear

The McDonaldization Free Essays

string(143) " This can be attributed to the fact that they do not pre-make their burgers and leave them under heat lamps to sit like McDonald’s does\." â€Å"McDonaldization† — as used by George Ritzer, author of The McDonaldization of Society — refers to the creation of â€Å"rationalized systems† to perform everyday functions such as food preparation, retail sales, banking, home construction, entertainment, news delivery and so on. He calls it McDonaldization because such methods were used to famous effect by Ray Kroc, who built McDonald’s into a fast-food empire — and because in many people’s minds McDonald’s represents the results, both good and bad, that occur when rationalized systems take over. But has this transition affected other businesses either positively or negatively? Why sure, thanks for asking! I think the best way to examine McDonaldization is to compare the analysis of McDonalds to its effects in the same industry. We will write a custom essay sample on The McDonaldization or any similar topic only for you Order Now The way I plan to do this is to see if the effects of McDonaldization have effect the Wendy†s franchise. The information that I know about this business comes from my brother working for this company for many years and partaking in a triple-cheeseburger or two in my short college career. The way that Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers does business and markets it’s product to consumers is due to the change in our society to where the consumer wants the biggest, fastest, and best product they can get for their money. This change in society can be attributed to a process known as McDonaldization. Although McDonaldization can be applied to many other parts of our society, this paper will focus on its impact on Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers. My belief is that the process of McDonaldization, where the ideology of McDonald’s has come to dominate the world, has caused Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers to emulate McDonald’s style of running a franchised restaurant chain in terms of efficiency, calculability, and control. However, since McDonald’s has become the embodiment of â€Å"fast-food† in our society, Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers has had to change their focus to giving the consumer a higher quality product in a relatively fast amount of time. So, Wendy’s still caters to a McDonaldized society in terms of giving them a meal as fast as possible but making quality their number one priority to give people a viable option from McDonald’s. In addition, as mentioned before, I have used my brother who managed to keep a job at Wendy’s for a short period and observations I gathered while at McDonald’s as further information for this paper. First, before I discuss the impact of McDonaldization on Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers, I will define what McDonaldization is. McDonaldization is the process by which the principles of fast-food restaurants are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society, as well as, of the rest of the world. George Ritzer created this concept of McDonaldization as a continuation of Max Weber’s theories on bureaucracies (I hope). Max Weber defines a bureaucracy as a large hierarchical organization that is governed by formal rules and regulations and has a clear specification of work tasks. Its three main characteristics are that it has a division of labor, hierarchy of authority, and an impartial and impersonal application of rules and policies (see what I got from Sociological Theory). Thus, from that definition of a bureaucracy, one would conclude that both McDonald’s and Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers are bureaucracies. The fact that both restaurants are bureaucracies is supported by the fact that each assigns workers to a specific job where each worker individually contributes to the overall success of the restaurant by doing his or her job. For example, workers at each restaurant could be assigned to working the grill, making fries, working the front register, or taking orders at the drive-thru window. Both restaurants have a hierarchy of authority from worker, crew chief, shift manager, salary manager to owner of the store. Also, each restaurant enforces an impartial and impersonal application of rules and policies. Both McDonald’s and Wendy’s have standard, impersonal greetings at the register and at the drive-thru window. The exception when this impersonal attitude towards the customer is changed is when a worker knows the customer outside the restaurant. In this case, the worker will probably ask their acquaintance how they are doing or what they are up to. The worker might even throw in an extra cheeseburger that a regular customer might not get. Despite this exception where standardization is broken, both these restaurants have become bureaucracies because they are the most efficient means of managing large groups of people. That leaves one to wonder why the process of McDonaldization has been so successful for both companies. The first reason is that it offers efficiency where consumers know that it means the quickest way to get from one point to another. In the case of McDonald’s, it offers the best available way to get from being hungry to being full. This is so important in today’s society because so many people are in a rush to get from one place to another. Therefore, the quick, efficient setup of McDonald’s allows consumers to eat a fast-food meal without having to leave their car. On the other hand, Wendy’s strives for as efficient service as possible without affecting the quality of their product. This is because McDonald’s already has imprinted on people’s minds throughout the many years of its existence that they will get the same burger each visit in the quickest amount of time. They reinforce this idea on the minds of consumers through advertising and other clever tools. For example, on every McDonald’s sign is a tally of how many people in the world have eaten there, which is currently at 99 billion served. The use of this sign reinforces to people that McDonald’s is an icon in our society and many people will equate that large number with McDonald’s being the best restaurant. As a result, Wendy’s has tried to make quality their number one priority but with no serious deficiencies in the speed of their product. This can be attributed to the fact that they do not pre-make their burgers and leave them under heat lamps to sit like McDonald’s does. You read "The McDonaldization" in category "Essay examples" Instead, they have their staff assembled to make the burger as the customer orders it. This is an especially important benefit because many people like to â€Å"customize† their burger and the process that Wendy’s uses allow them to do that. This allows them to target another group of society, which McDonald’s product doesn’t appeal to. For example, older people who would rather sit down and have a quality meal would most likely rather go to Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers. Even, the name of Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers suggests that their style is more like how things used to be done many decades ago in terms of making quality the number one priority for a restaurant. Therefore, they would provide an alternative for people who were not interested in getting a burger that has been slopped together and sitting under a heat lamp for an hour. This would be reflected in which demographic of people each restaurant targeted. McDonald’s traditionally has targeted families as their key demographic but recently they have shifted to make their product more appealing to teenagers as well. This can best be demonstrated in their new style commercials that use many young adults and refers to McDonald’s as â€Å"Mickey D’s† as a hip place to hang out. So, for young people who are in a rush to get from place to place, McDonald’s provides a fast, cheap meal that they can eat on the run. On the other hand, Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers targets people who aren’t in such a rush and would rather sit down and eat a slow, relaxing meal (is this ageism). They still cater to those who are in a rush by offering a drive-thru. However, they know that most of their business will come from people looking for a quality alternative to McDonald’s. Another aspect of McDonaldization that has made both companies successful is calculability. This is where each restaurant puts an emphasis on quantitative aspects of products sold like portion size and cost. For example, McDonald’s has burgers like the â€Å"Quarter Pounder† and â€Å"Big Mac† while Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburger has burgers like the â€Å"Double Bacon Cheeseburger†. This use of descriptive adjectives suggests to the consumer that they are getting the most amount of food for their money. Both McDonald’s and Wendy’s have the option to â€Å"Supersize† or â€Å"Biggiesize† an order. This makes the companies successful in our society because of our belief that bigger is better. Finally, both companies use control, especially through the substitution of non-human for human technology. For both companies that means using soft drink machines that automatically shuts off when the glass is full, french-fry machines that rings and lifts itself out of the oil when the fries are done, and the preprogrammed cash registers that eliminate the need for the cashier to calculate any prices. The main reason that this is done is because,† [people are] The great source of uncertainty, unpredictability and inefficiency in any rationalizing system. Thus, by increasing control, through increased mechanization, both companies maintain a better control over the entire organization. Also, this leads to employees not having to think about their job because the tasks they are asked to do are very repetitive. In conclusion, it is obvious that both restaurants have adopted a style of running their restaurants that makes them successful. McDonald’s style is to give the public the same burger that they have always had so that they can come to depend that they will get the same meal as they did last time. They have been a pioneer in the fast-food industry and the model that other restaurants try to imitate. On the other hand, Wendy’s style is to make a quality product that reminds people of the â€Å"good old days†. They have been directly influenced by McDonald’s in terms of how to run their fast-food restaurant to maximize speed and efficiency. However, since Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers would not have a chance of competing with McDonald’s at their own game, they have developed their own niche in the market of making a quality product efficiently. What concerns me is the way these companies are phasing out the roles of their employees to the point where they are doing nothing but mindless, repetitive tasks. To me, the consequence of this will be that someday all human workers will be replaced because it is more efficient for machines to do the work. So, although McDonaldization has made both these companies very successful, there is a very serious potential downside that could have an effect on everyone. Now there is no doubt that this text can be read on a number of different levels, some of which are far more satisfactory than others. Ritzer is clearly an accessible and engaging writer. For an undergraduate audience, which is unfamiliar with the language, and indeed, critical project of radical social theory, this text provides a worthy, and indeed somewhat enjoyable introduction. Keep in mind, though, that those four principles are not necessarily pursued from the point of view of the consumer. Efficiency, for example, may entail the placing of great inconveniences upon a consumer for the sake of efficient management. Calculability may involve hiding certain information from the consumer. Predictability and control may involve a company’s ability to predict and control consumer behavior, not the consumer’s ability to predict what kind of product or control what kind of service he gets. Ritzer calls such breakdowns â€Å"the irrationality of rationalization. † Even so, there is a great perception among American consumers in particular that McDonaldized systems succeed from their own point of view based on those criteria: the systems are perceived to be more efficient, the benefits calculable, the goods and services predictable. But it’s rare that the consumer will ever feel himself to be more in control. McDonaldized systems take away a great deal of consumer autonomy (which I love), making decisions and implementing processes on a mass-market scale with little room for individual involvement on the part of a single customer or even a single store or plant manager. The benefit of control is one that accrues exclusively to the company. Regardless of who benefits or to what extent, the universal result is homogenization. Rationalized systems have a pronounced tendency to squash-individual tastes, niche markets, small-scale enterprise and personalized customer service. Differences are leveled, wrinkles smoothed, knots cut off — convenience at the expense of character. An overwhelming normlessness develops, along with a decrease in responsiveness among the people of our society that are involved. The system that seeks to mimic a machine becomes a machine, incapable of making exceptions or taking risks. McDonaldization is taking over our society. In the future, our wishes of fast, more efficient services will be fulfilled; but whom in the world will we ever talk too? How to cite The McDonaldization, Essay examples