Biographical Sketch free essay sample

Thessalus and Draco Major University Affiliations: Asklepieion of Cos; and the Thracian Physian Herodicus of Selymbria. Historical Context: Hippocrates lived in an era called the Classical Period of ancient Greek history which was from around 500 to 336 BC. This was a period of great political and cultural advancement for Greece as it saw the development of a democratic system of government and the creation of philosophical schools on the intellectual front. The early part from 461 to 429 was a time of Greek prosperity, under the rule of repeat elected statesman Pericles, called the Golden Age or the Age of Pericles. This was a time that visionary arts, literature, grandeur architecture, education and culture were venerated in Greece. Gods were worshiped, honoured, celebrated and thought to be the reason for victory in war, the answer to ill health, the cause of good health and the ones responsible for disease as a result of their displeasure with an individual. We will write a custom essay sample on Biographical Sketch or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Hippocrates Major Thoughts and Ideas in the Historical Context in which they Occur: Hippocrates single most important thought and idea was his conclusions that all disorders both mental and physical were as a esult of natural factors like inherited susceptibility to disease, organic injury, and an imbalance in bodily fluids, which at the time both disease and medical practices were purely based on the occult, superstition, beliefs, magic, supernatural forces and as a result of being in favour or not being in favour with the gods. He also thought that humans comprise of the four elements; earth which was represented by black bile, air which was represented by yellow bile, fire which was represented by blood and water which was represented by phlegm. He associated an imbalance in these eing healthy. He also thought that the body had the ability to heal itself naturally and the doctor was responsible for facilitating this process focusing on treating the whole individual patient and not the disease while cures included rest, proper diet, exercise, fresh air, massage and baths. He also thought that physicians should not charge patients who could not afford to pay. Hippocrates had these thoughts and ideas back in a time when such was unheard of as people heavily relied on magic, the occult and believed that being in favour with the gods as a result of the gods eing pleased with the celebrations and ceremonies performed in their honour. He separated the works of a doctor from that of a priest in a time when it was thought to be one of the same. He thought that through observation of the patient and his ailment and recording the symptoms he could systematically help treat the patient. The Relation of Hippocrates Thoughts and Ideas to the Development of Psychology: Hippocrates was the first of his time to posit that thoughts, ideas and feelings all come from the brain and not the heart as believed in his time. He also believed in treating the whole being not Just the disease. He was of the belief that all pleasure came from the brain and that it was the brain that was responsible for human senses and the ability of human beings to distinguish things. He claimed that fear, anxiety, deliriousness and other forms of mental disorders originate in the brain as a result of an imbalance of the elements, hot, cold, moist and dry and therefore this imbalance determines a persons mental capacity and balancing out the imbalance would effectively treat the patient. Hippocrates also identified mental illnesses such as hysteria which he believed to be a disease caused by a wandering uterus, lthough it was refuted, it presented a biological explanation for mental illness. Hippocrates theory of the elements was later further developed by Galen into one of the first theories of personality. My Reasons for Choosing Hippocrates: I chose Hippocrates because his contributions revolutionized the way we look at medicine, psychology and disease. His take on health is still very relevant to todays treatments. I am of the belief that his contributions made it possible for psychotherapy, homeopathic treatments and other alternative healthcare apart from contemporary medicine. Apart from all of this he as instrumental to categorizing disease and use terms such as acute, chronic, endemic, epidemic, exacerbation, relapse, resolution, crisis, paroxysm peak and convalescence.

The Possibility of Time Travel Essay Example

The Possibility of Time Travel Essay Example The Possibility of Time Travel Essay The Possibility of Time Travel Essay Essay Topic: The Time Machine The possibility of time travel Introduction Although the study of time travel is a fairly new topic of scientific and philosophical investigation, it is so well-known because of different literature, films and stories in our daily life. It is believe that most locals have got access to at least one such production related to time travel. Yet, the possibility of time travel is still a question mark to them. Is it possible to have a time travel? The answer is definitely yes. Although not every scientist agrees with the answer, supporters of relativity would also be supporters of time travel. Moreover, some scientists or philosophers give explanations to the paradoxes and make the answer almost certain. In this article, we give a clear explanation to some kinds of time travel with high possibility such as time travel to the future. For time travel to the past, we discuss the possibility and point out the impossibility of some counter arguments as well as the contradiction of some ‘paradoxes’. Definition Among lots of definitions of time travel, David Lewis’s version is easy for everyone to understand. An object time travels if and only if the difference between its departure and arrival times in the surrounding world does not equal the duration of the journey undergone by the object (1). Although the definition of the phrase ‘surrounding world’ is indefinite, we give such definition: the environment at sea level on the Earth. Yet, things are not clear. What is time? Philosophers offer a few explanations such as eternalism, possibilism, and presentism(2). Eternalism and possibilism give same explanation for the past and present The eternalist thinks that time, correctly understood, is a fourth dimension essentially constitutive of reality together with space. All times, past, present and future, are actual times just like all points distributed in space are actual points in space, while possibilism suggests that future is the only possible. They are in fact the determinism and indeterminism version of the similar theories. The presentist thinks that only temporally present objects are real. Whatever is, exists now. The past was, but exists no longer; the future will be, but does not exist yet. ’(3) Therefore, the past does not exist and we cannot travel to the past. We would put presentist aside and consider eternalism (or possibly possibilism). The above gives the concept of time-flow. Yet, the time-flow of a person might not be the same with the others. Time could distinguish from physical time or external time (which we defi ne as the time at the surrounding world) and personal time or inner time. Put this into the definition of time travel, we could get the combination: An object time travels if and only if the inner time during the journey is different from the external time(4). To be more detail, if the inner time is longer than the external time, we call it ‘time travel to the past’, while we called it ‘time travel to the future’ for the opposite. Relativity and time travel It is important to understand general relativity before studying this issue. In Newtonian gravity, which we usually learn in high school, the source of gravity is mass(5). In special relativity, we replace the term mass with more accurate terms, including energy, momentum densities, pressure and shear, called energy-momentum tensor(6). Using the equivalence principle, this tensor could curve space-time since time and distance are not the invariance but the speed of light is. This breaks many people’s common sense. The distance and time are not fixed but variable when under different gravitational force or experiencing different ‘speed’. The theory shows that if the gravitational force and the speed change, the inner time could also change and the way of time travel is to change the force and the speed(7). This is explained in later chapter. Real case of relativity in daily life Do you believe that we could have time travel by a bus? It is possible. Assuming the bus is moving at 70km/h and by definition the speed of light is constant, the inertial frame of the bus passenger is moving relative to a standing pedestrian acting as a stationary inertia frame. Put it in this way. The lights observed by the pedestrian on the road and from the bus are all at speed c. The lights observed by the passenger from the bus are also at speed c. Yet, we must not forget the fact that the passenger is at 70km/h going at the same way of the light from the bus. By common sense, the passenger should observe the light going at speed (c-70km/h) but he does not. Who takes this 70km/h away? In fact, no one take it. That’s because the passenger is experiencing a time travel, which is called ‘time dilation’ by Einstein (8). That the time on the bus is a bit slower than the time of a person in stationary inertia makes two people see the same speed of light. After a trip from Lingnan University to my home, I should be a few picoseconds (1nanosecond=1000picoseconds) younger than I should have. Moreover, such daily usage of time differences happen everyday. For example, the clock on GPS satellites is affected by both different speed and gravitational force relative to the clock at sea level in stationary state. By special relativity, it experiences a future time travel of 7. 2 microseconds per day according to its high rotational speed. By general relativity, it experiences a past time travel of 45. 9microseconds per day according to its ‘lost’ of gravitational force because of its high altitude. Therefore, the clock of the satellites should be 38. microseconds slower than a normal clock per day(9). ‘Real’ time travel to the future Although the above cases are real cases in most senses, people would argue that it’s not the ‘real’ time travel as they cannot observe the case obviously. ‘Can I jump into a machine for a while and the external time goes fast forward for several years? ’ This is people’s imaginatio n. Since we have the empirical prove from the GPS satellites, the problem is not the possibility but the degree of the travel. In my, as an art student’s, erspective, the easiest way would be using an extraordinarily extremely fast space shuttle to move toward a remote planet with an extraordinarily extremely strong gravitational force, rotate around it and move back to the Earth. After a yearly trip, he would probably saw his granddaughter breathing her last after aging. ‘Real’ time travel to the past This is a bit harder for we human being. Same as above, the question ‘can I jump into a machine for a while and the external time goes fast backward for several years’ could be asked. It is suggested that we could do it in some ways, which all of them are only hypothetically applicable. First, we could use a moving machine which could move faster than light. According to special relativity, if an object or information could move from one point to another faster than light, it could have moved backward in time(10). Second, we could use wormholes(11). The theories behide are out of a philosophy student’s handle. Yet, it is proved by Einstein field equations of general relativity and openly discussed by some professionals such as Stephen Hawking. The limitation is that we could only go back to the day the time machine built(12). Time travel and Philosophy While the possibility of time travel is proven by physical theories, what is related to philosophy? Although scientists have spotted out the physics theories behind, something is still unable to explain by science. For example, presentism (which we put aside before and probably after this sentence) suggest that we could not travel to a destination which does not exist. Moreover, if I can prove myself exist, who can prove the existence of the future me standing in front of me? At the same time, the physics affects some definition of philosophical theories. According to possibilism, our past and present are actual times but our future is the only possible. Says that 07:00 of 07/07/2007 an object was disturbed at a particular position, would a time travel to past before 07:00 of 07/07/2007, says 06:00 of 06/06/2006 of one make the time 07:00 of 07/07/2007 become possible from actual for him? In another word, change the history? Even if determinism exists, if an object is determined to go back to some time before, would it replace or affect the before it? Since questions arose in many senses, paradoxes appeared. The grandfather paradox(13) and similar The paradox is this: suppose a man travelled back in time and killed his biological grandfather before the latter met the travelers grandmother. As a result, one of the travelers parents (and by extension the traveller himself) would never have been conceived. This would imply that he could not have travelled back in time after all, which means the grandfather would still be alive, and the traveller would have been conceived allowing him to travel back in time and kill his grandfather. Thus each possibility seems to imply its own negation. Similar paradoxes came out like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. The simplest one is that one goes back to the past and kill the past him. Will he exist anymore? Philosopher Bradley Dowden even makes his argument with these paradoxes(14). He wrote that: â€Å"Nobody has ever built a time machine that could take a person back to an earlier time. Nobody should be seriously trying to build one, either, because a good argument exists for why the machine can never be built. The argument goes like this: suppose you did have a time machine right now, and you could step into it and travel back to some earlier time. Your actions in that time might then prevent your grandparents from ever having met one another. This would make you not born, and thus not step into the time machine. So, the claim that there could be a time machine is self-contradictory. † The solution of this paradox could simply ask a local kid as the cartoon ‘Doreamon’ is so popular among kids. â€Å"If you use the ‘If Telephone’ to change the world, the world could return to normal if and only if you use the telephone again in the same (parallel) world(15). † answered by a kid in the local playground. The parallel universe is a new topic to scientists but an old topic for fiction and animation. Let’s put it this way: Assume there is a person Tom. The present Tom is the real Tom in the present world, named world A. Since time is irreversible, Tom’s grandfather has met Tom’s grandmother and so on. It is an actual case happened in this world A. If you go back to a place where that particular case would still be a possible future, that particular world must not be world A but a parallel world, named world B. Even if Tom kill that ‘grandfather’ before he would have met his wife, Tom would only prevent the existence of Tom in that parallel world B but not the Tom in the original world A. Existence of parallel universe One may question: does parallel universe exist? No matter it exists or not, the grandfather paradox is still meaningless if we are clear-headed. Assume that it exists; it is obviously no more a paradox. If it does not exist, Tom could never go back to a time before he could be since by something past is actual and irreversible by definition. The past cannot be changed by definition since no parallel world could be changed by him. He will never succeed and therefore it is no more a paradox. The only ‘change’ (would it still called a change? could be done by a ‘future object’ must have been past and become an actual time just like everything is determined and becomes a history, while some people would still called it a paradox named Predestination paradox but it is something determinism could explain. Conclusion Although the paper does not mention some related theories, it included most physical and philosophical theories needed to cover this topic generally. In this topic, physicists and philosophers affect each other and new ideas spark every moment. The philosophical theories give idea to physicists and hysics theories change the mind of philosophers. In conclude, a time travel to the future is possible. Similar events occur everyday. A time travel to the past is partially possible. For those who is just travel relatively past to the external time but still future comparing with the time of depart, such time travel is possible. Similar events happen occur everyday. For those travel which the arriving destination is before the departure time, a parallel universe should be exist or the ‘past’ should already be determined. Otherwise, such travel may not exist. References 1: Lewis, David. 1976. The paradoxes of time travel. American Philosophical Quarterly. 2: Hunter, Joel. 2004. Time Travel. Philosophy of Science ( iep. utm. edu/category/s-l-m/science/) 3: ^[2] 4: ^[3] 5: Arnold, V. I. 1989, Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics, Springer, Chapter 1. 6: Gott, J. Richard. 2001. Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time. Houghton Mifflin. 7: ^[6] 8: Einstein, Albert. 2004. Relativity : the Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein. Project Gutenberg ( gutenberg. org/etext/5001) 9: Rizos, Chris. 1999. GPS Satellite Signals. University of New South Wales. 10: ^ a b Jarrell, Mark. 2006. The Special Theory of Relativity: ( physics. uc. edu/~jarrell/COURSES/ELECTRODYNAMICS/Chap11/chap11. pdf) 11: Thorne, Kip S. 1994. Black Holes and Time Warps. W. W. Norton. 12: ^[11] 13: ^ Barjavel, Rene. 1943. Le voyageur imprudent (The Imprudent Traveller). 14: Bradley Dowden. 1993. Logical Reasoning. International Thomson Publishing 15: . F.. 1984. 5 .

Wk 5 BA541 Asign Mass Customization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Wk 5 BA541 Asign Mass Customization - Essay Example A good thing about mass customization is that it gives a company the competitive edge because the company does not just create any product, but those that customers need based on the company’s research. Another advantage of this strategy is that it promotes innovativeness on the part of the manufacturer and results to customer satisfaction for the consumer. (Babiarz, P., Piotrowski, M., et. al., 2008) Another benefit that mass customization brings is cost-reduction since companies, aware of what products or services are needed, are able to streamline processes. (Peppers, D. & Rogers, M, 2011). As mentioned earlier, there are also drawbacks in using mass customization as a strategy to build lasting customer relationships. One of these is that there is no standard per se in mass customization. (Peppers, D. & Rogers, M, 2011) For example, in some methods, customers can choose to change the color or style of a product once they have it. For others, it is different. As a result, some companies may lose their competitive edge because the method they chose may not give them information on what the customers want. For instance, companies who create interactive dress-up games for children may not know what colors or styles are designed by the consumers. Another disadvantage of mass customization is that, unlike in mass production, there is no inventory of finished goods so the customer may have to wait. (Zipkin, P., 2001) Because mass customization is dissimilar to mass production wherein the products are based on customer information, the company can project the quantity to be made. As a result, if there is an unexpected need, the quantity will not be enough. There have been several companies that successfully managed to shift to mass customization and received the loyalty of their customers. One of these that come to mind is Lutron Electronics Company. Specializing in lighting systems, Lutron listened to its customers and came up with a