DISCUSS THE AETIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS WITH Essay

DISCUSS THE AETIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS WITH RESPECT TO ITS PRESENTATION IN THE FOOT - Essay Example The disease, which lasts over a long period of time, can cause damage to cartilage, bone, tendons and ligaments (DynoMed.com, 2000). Foot deformities are very common in RA. These deformities may affect patient functional foot, especially hallux rigidus and calcaneal valgus (Bal, et al. 2006). Human foot is more susceptible to arthritis because the human foot contains 33 joints. About 90 percent of RA patients will complain of problems with the midfoot and forefoot while 67 percent will have problems with the hindfoot and ankle. The ankle is usually the last joint to be involved with RA (DynoMed.com, 2000). RA causes inflammation in the lining (synovium) of joints, most often the joints of the feet. The most common symptoms of RA in the foot are pain, swelling, and stiffness. Symptoms usually appear in several joints on both feet. The signs of inflammation can also include a feeling of warmth around affected joints. In some patients, chronic inflammation results in damage to the cartilage and bones in the joint. Serious damage can lead to permanent joint destruction, deformity, and disability (FootPhysicans.com, 2007). With the progress in the disease the feeling of pain in the joint or in the sole or ball of the foot will increase. The joint may be warm and the way the patient walk may be affected. In addition the patient may develop corns or bunions, and the toes can begin to curl and stiffen in positions called claw toe or hammer toe. Corns, or even ulcers, may develop on the foot. Metatarsalgia, a general term for pain in the sole or the ball of the foot, is also very common. This indicates that RA is affecting the metatarsal joints of the toes. Hindfoot and ankle pain often involves the posterior tibial tendon. The ankle itself is usually the last joint in the foot to be involved with RA (DynoMed.com, 2000). As the disease progresses in the foot region, the joint space becomes narrow and bone begins to rub on bone, leading to painful arthritis. Besides, deformities may occur resulting in loosening of the ligaments and capsule lining of the joint. If the housing of the joint or the capsule loosens up considerably, the joints mostly in front of the foot may dislocate. This can cause painful swelling on the bottom of the ball of the foot that can make walking even more terribly uncomfortable. Later the big toe begins to deviate and bunions may form on the inside of the big toe (footandankle.mdmercy.com, N.D.). In cases where the hindfoot (back of the foot) and ankle are affected, the bones may shift position in the joints. This can cause the long arch on the bottom of your foot to collapse (flatfoot), resulting in severe pain and difficulty walking. Because RA affects the entire system, the patient may also feel feverish, tire easily, and lose appetite (AAOS, 2001). AETIOLOGY The exact cause for RA is still unknown, but there are many thoughts about what might contribute to it. A sudden and traumatic injury such as a broken bone, torn ligament, or ankle sprain can cause the injured joint to become arthritic in the future. According to Cotran et al, (1994)"...RA is triggered by exposure of an immuno-genetically susceptible host to an arthritogenic microbial antigen". Heredity, or the genes from the parents, may be a determining factor in who gets rheumatoid arthritis. Roth explains that this "genetic predisposition appears to be related to the

Study Habits Essay Example for Free

Study Habits Essay Introduction Each student has unique way of studying. They differ individually in academic performances and study habits. The efficiency of the students at this stage depend upon his/her study and how well his/her lessons. The effectiveness of the intellectual ability of a student is assessed by its ability to perform and respond in lectures, assignments and scores in examination. The values on attitude and the well-planned efforts to maintain good grades and most importantly develops a positive value which is the sense of responsibility. Different techniques applied by students on their study habits. Some manifested focused on their studies and others portray a happy go-lucky style which means a poor study habits. A person with a goal in life inspite of hindrances experienced, aspire or aim high to cope with challenges along the way.(Legaspi 2010) It is generally agreed that healthy family atmosphere and satisfactory parent- child relationship are essential for the good performance of every student. Study habit plays an important role in the academic status of a student. To accomplish such an objective, it is necessary that student should have effective and enjoyable use of leisure time where discipline comes in. Because of technological advances, there are many temptations to destruct the students and it is through this that they can counteract the growing dependency passive forms of recreations such as computer, cell phones, and TV. These can cause damage to students because they became lazy. This system should also be discouraged for they can cause mental block. The teacher exercises considerable influences of the students development of 2 attitude, mental hygiene and deals of behavior. This particular attitude displayed by a teacher from the student affects the latter significantly. The individual’s degree of intelligence or of intelligent behavior is his/her degree of ability of attention, relentive and recall, inductive and deductive reasoning and generalization as there respond to the learning process.(Legaspi 2010) Study habits of Second Year students of Saint Michael College of Caraga is very interesting topic because it will help most of the students to adopt the good method of learning and studying. It also help every students to cope up with their problems encountered from their studies. It enables them to create effective and efficient ways to their studies. On the side of the Saint Michael College of Caraga, they will able to comprehend every students and rendering good teachings which creates effective and efficient teacher.

Impact of Exile on the Frankfurt School’s Theory

Impact of Exile on the Frankfurt School’s Theory GERMAN JEWS: INTELLIGETNSIA IN EXILE The atrocities of the Second World War (WWII) drove many of continental Europe’s Jewish intellectual elite to the United States and Great Britain. The Axis persecution not only targeted ethnic groups, but also persecuted an array of intellectuals and political thinkers. Among these was the political and philosophical institution known as The Frankfurt School (TFS). Some of its most influential members included Austrian-born art historian Ernst Gombrich (1909-2001), Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979), Theodor Adorno (1903-1969), Max Horkheimer (1895-1973) and Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), all of whom were at one point influenced by both political and intellectual persecution. Their European experience was affected by their Jewish identities as well as their respective theories of aesthetics and their affinity for a reformed system of Marxist thought. Unfortunately for the noted thinkers, their alienating experiences in exile did not stop after leaving Europe. As a proponent of Marxism and aspects of Communist thought, TFS’ encounters with elements of America’s notorious Red Scare had profound effects on the development of its work. Despite the inherently American institution of Ford’s mass assembly and naturally Communist implications of the American working class’ ideals, the bourgeois-idealism of TFS found it could not escape questions of its motives and widespread suspicions perpetuated throughout the American political environment. Spurred on by the relentless political witch-hunts of the Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin), scholars of the Frankfurt school found themselves perpetually marginalized throughout their lives. While ostracized intellectually for espousing Communist theory and rhetoric, TFS scholars were not limited to political systems. Gombrich and others followed paths similar to aesthetic thinker Michel Foucault in arenas ranging from art and music to popular culture at large. The experiences of TFS thinkers differed in this respect, with some challenged directly upon their arrival to the US. Others found that while they may not have been singled out in McCarthyism’s irreconcilable political aggression, their experiences in exile shared common traits ranging from the nonchalant acceptance of existentialist thought to the mobilization of Marxist revolutionary rhetoric. Unable to settle in any intellectual sphere, the constant alienation of TFS scholars weighed heavily on their philosophical conclusions, arguably cementing the unique characteristics of its thought. The political unrest and unconscionable harassment TFS thinkers encountered played as big a role in the development of its thought as religion played in the formulaic structure of a priori philosophy vis-à  -vis Kant and Rawls. Without their experiences in exile and resettlement in America and Britain, it is argued that their indirect sponsorship of Marxist thought would never have taken form. The particularly noteworthy traits of TFS scholarship are the irrevocable feelings of nostalgia and longing and perhaps the inevitable rebellion of those who simply could not accept intellectual ostracizing. Whether rejected by Heidegger or pursued by McCarthy, TFS found itself constantly in defense of its positions, its scholars either accepting of the situation or flagrantly unapologetic in their stance. Through identification of each key scholar’s beliefs and comparing shared experiences in exile, revelations of the weight of exile on the establishment of TFS schools of thought are clarified as well as the extent to which each scholar may have based his respective epistemological conclusions on sen timent rather than idealism. The German-Jewish experience, after all, was unique among Communist experiences throughout Europe and the United States. On one hand, Communists were persecuted both in the United States and Europe. On the other, the Jewish experience in Europe, especially that of the bourgeois, added a personal degree to marginalization. Europe had no propensity of goodwill towards Jews, but the American predilection to personal liberty found little room for acceptance in regards to Communism, especially in the years after WWII and the gradual Soviet ascension to the status of superpower. THE EXPERIENCE OF GERMAN JEWS IN CONSTANT EXILE: A LOOK AT AMERICAN TFS SCHOLARS Herbert Marcuse A student of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, Marcuse found himself at odds with society from the natal stage of his academic career. Marcuse found himself at odds in the forming of his epistemological stance; Feenberg believes this struggle is the product of â€Å"his own past, his complicated relationship to the doctrine of his teacher, Heidegger†[1]. Academically blocked as a German Jew, Marcuse would later find opposition in his career as a proponent of Communism; the two traits were hardly welcomed in German academic circles in the years preceding the rise of the Nazis. Even Heidegger hampered Marcuse’s development, the notorious Nazi supporter blocking publication of his student’s thesis in the infamous purge of dissenting ideas. Where Marcuse was remembered for being â€Å"guru of the New Left, the darling of 1968,† Heidegger is most known for having â€Å"betrayed his calling by becoming a Nazi and recognizing Hitler as his Fuhrer, never renou ncing his error publicly even after WWII†[2]. Marcuse differed from Heidegger’s nationalist positions as well as from his mentor’s stance on technology and social evolution. Marcuse believed technology had a profound effect on society, which in turn became a part of modern technology â€Å"not only as the men who invent and attend to machinery but also as the social groups which direct its application and utilization†[3]. To an extent, Heidegger’s avoidance of technology in regards to social evolution had much to do with the classical revolutionary stance Marxism upheld. The radical changes implicated in technological advancement, especially in the development of the wholly-efficient industrial ideology of Henry Ford, presented several philosophic and social implications, none of which could be tolerated in a society in constant intellectual upheaval. While Heidegger’s writings exuded a sense of existential realism in regards to technology and what he perceived as the end of human aesthetics and reason, Marcuse accepted modernity as part of an the ongoing Enlightenment, deviating from a priori traditions and accepting, for example, that concepts such as essence â€Å"can neither be based on tradition and community standards nor speculatively derived in an a priori metaphysics†[4]. In regards to his Marxist contemporaries, one of Marcuse’s shared traits with his other TFS scholars was his attempt to â€Å"combine critique and modernism in a revolutionary perspective†[5]. Perhaps the source of nationalistic suspicion, the revolutionary undertones of Marxist philosophy earned Marcuse the enmity of Germans and Americans alike, the extent of which will be later examined. A utopian thinker, Marcuse conceived â€Å"of a redeemed technological rationality in a liberated society, much as Plato,† imagining â€Å"a reformed rhetoric that would serve good ends†[6]. While Heidegger and other German nationalists believed in a utopia, their idealism was served by future ethnic cleansing and a politically-derived eschewing of Soviet-style Communism. â€Å"Safely checked after the mid-1930s,† Heidegger’s suppressed utopian impulses were a form of supplication to a regime that would not stand for intellectual deviance; also affected by the bleak reality of exile and intellectual persecution, TFS scholars Adorno and Horkheimer in turn â€Å"seemed to have lost not hope but even the capacity to imagine a better future†[7]. Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer Early in Adorno’s career, when he â€Å"started his study of philosophy in Frankfurt with Hans Cornelius, he was already complete outside the Neo-Kantian mainstream of the scholastic philosophy of that time that Cornelius himself represented†[8]. A priori epistemology was a staple of pre-war Germany for the ability to manipulate morals based on a code of law. Adorno’s anarchic themes and then-unconventional thinking added to his academic ostracism. In contrast, as the â€Å"son of an undertaker from Stuttgart, Horkheimer was no scholastic philosopher either, but he did stand closer to the traditional style of German philosophy than did Adorno†[9]. While a proponent of Marxism, Horkheimer often examined the nature of existing concepts rather than venturing into the realm of revolutionary action. In his â€Å"On the Problem of Truth,† Horkheimer wrote of the temporal nature of reality and truth, perhaps a reactionary piece to the propaganda and book-b urning espoused by the Nazis in 1938. Horkheimer placed a great deal of weight on the deviation of the individual from the perspective of the many, writing that â€Å"cognition never has more than limited validity† and that â€Å"every thing and every relation of things changes with time, and thus every judgment as to real situations must lose its truth with time†[10]. Perhaps slightly less existential than Adorno, Horkheimer did not fully discount the bleakness of the reality of his time. Though not outwardly optimistic, Horkheimer was taken aback by the negative light in which Adorno perceived the world around him. A lifelong friend and colleague of Max Horkheimer, Adorno â€Å"had, as Horkheimer once put it, a keen view of the existing world sharpened by hatred, and this coalesced well with the misanthropic inclinations of the Institute’s director who understood himself as its ‘dictator’†[11]. Welcomed almost instantly in to the TFS circle, Adorno was greatly affected by the persecution he encountered as a Jew and an intellectual. His negative views of the world and its people lead him to deviate in focus from the social institutions that would earn TFS infamy in America and Europe. Unlike his contemporary Horkheimer, Adorno was â€Å"not so much interested in social science and research as in music and aesthetic theory†[12]. Adorno’s negative view of the world, nationalist or not, had a profound effect on his writings and the development of his beliefs. His disdain of modernity and realism lead him to adopt surrealist views reminiscent of aestheticians such as Hume, not unlike fellow TFS scholar Walter Benjamin. Feenberg noted that: â€Å"From the point of view of an aesthetic modernism, Adorno made a sinister and radical critique of all non-aesthetic modernity. Here he was close to the French surrealists as was his friend Walter Benjamin. The aesthetic idea of freedom from all institutions of a repressive society was very different from a more scientific idea of freedom as controlling and planning this society and its economic anarchy, which was basically Marx’s idea†[13] Unlike Marcuse, who embraced technology fully as a manifestation of social evolution within the framework of the Enlightenment, Adorno acknowledged both the positive and negative potentials of a world philosophically and politically lead by technology. Both he and Horkheimer believed that technics â€Å"by itself can promote authoritarianism as well as liberty, scarcity as well as abundance, the extension as well as the abolition of toil†[14]. Though Marcuse shared several social views in common with Horkheimer and Adorno, he differed from the two in his methods of critiquing the Nazi ascension to power. Unlike Marcuse, Adorno believed technology and social evolution had as much to do with the pre-1938 German nationalistic purge of free thought as did the provincial thought espoused by the Nazi party. For instance, Adorno believed â€Å"National Socialism [to be] a striking example of the ways in which a highly rationalized and mechanized economy with the utmost efficiency in production can operate in the interest of totalitarian oppression and continued scarcity†; the Third Reich was what Adorno referred to as a form of technocracy, the â€Å"technical considerations of imperialistic efficiency and rationality [superseding] the traditional standards of profitability and general welfare†[15]. Despite the advances of technology and the social implications that should have set with society at large, the Nazis a nd their reign was sustained by the historically-familiar force of arms, propaganda, and ironically all the traits associated with Marxist society. In what was strikingly similar to Soviet-style Communism, the Nazis ascended to power on the coattails of â€Å"the intensification of labor, propaganda, the training of youths and workers, the organization of the governmental, industrial, and party bureaucracy—all of which constituted the daily implements of terror† and in doing so, following the lines of â€Å"greatest technological efficiency†[16]. Unlike Adorno and Horkheimer, â€Å"Marcuse followed a different trajectory,† believing â€Å"technology was to be reconstructed around a conception of the good in his terminology around life†[17]. The more pragmatic and academically optimistic of the two TFS colleagues, Horkheimer perceived the negative sociology of knowledge grasping Nazi Germany as a cyclical phenomenon, one that like its â€Å"existentialist counterparts, calls everything into question and criticizes nothing†[18]. Unlike Marcuse, whose philosophy held fewer checks and precautions on the evolution of society, Horkheimer held that â€Å"the growth of antagonisms† of their period was the product of â€Å"disproportionate development of human capacities,† as if to suggest the Nazi ascension was a matter of personality and not â€Å"of the anonymous machinery which does away with the individual†[19]. Horkheimer thus asserted that the negative state of the world leading to his and other German Jews’ experiences had more to do with the hasty elimination of the value of the individual, with the populace conned into fascism by belief in the good of the state over the good of the pe rson. He observed that â€Å"right and wrong are glossed over in like manner,† with â€Å"the average man abstracted from the concepts and assigned an ontological ‘narrow-mindedness’† reminiscent of pre-Enlightenment eras[20]. THE EXPERIENCE OF GERMAN JEWS IN EXILE: TFS SCHOLARS IN EUROPE Walter Benjamin and Ernst Gombrich Adorno believed Walter Benjamin’s â€Å"thinking constituted the antithesis of the existential concept of the person,† that Benjamin â€Å"seemed empirically, despite extreme individuation, hardly to have been a person at all, but rather an arena of movement in which a certain content forced its way, through him, into language†[21]. Benjamin was much more akin to Marcuse in his optimism for technology and its effect on society. Benjamin did not espouse the same existentialist negativity of Adorno and Horkheimer, his philosophy embodying the aspirations of a utopian dedicated to the transformation of society. While still revolutionary in the Marxist sense, Benjamin did not advocate as fully as Adorno the impetus of labor and its inherent connection to the human psyche. However, his focus on aesthetics paralleled his thinking along the lines of Adorno, which prompted an exchange of ideas among the two contemporaries. Where Marcuse focused on technology as a tool to revolutionize the proletariat in keeping with Marxist ideals, Benjamin focused more on art, media, and popular culture’s consumption of the latter. Benjamin was among the first to identify the impact of transforming aesthetics and their ability to change society. Where Benjamin saw a great chance â€Å"for a revolutionary transformation of art by the new technical mass media, Adorno and Horkheimer were much more skeptical,† focusing equally on the negative potential as well as the potential to contribute to the betterment of mankind[22]. Though an advocate of the individual and markedly more optimistic than Horkheimer (and Adorno), Benjamin’s philosophical perspective was one of bleak realism. Constantly pursued, Benjamin allegedly committed suicide while fleeing the Nazi regime of whom he was sharply critical. Never leaving Europe, Benjamin’s obstinate refusal to flee lead to his demise but ironically espoused his bleak outlook on life. Though he had th e means to do so, Benjamin remained in continental Europe at the end of his life, not following in the footsteps of the German Jewish intelligentsia who found refuge in America. Where Gombrich and Benjamin unfortunately differed most as European aestheticians was their end; Gombrich remained in the United Kingdom during the war as in the employ of German broadcast monitoring living to the age of 92. Benjamin, however, would never know acceptance or peace in his life, dying a manifestation of his perspective of man. Ironically, it was Horkheimer and Adorno who emphasized what they believed to be â€Å"the obvious power of the new media in fascist dictatorships† and â€Å"the manipulative potential to impose the will on the leaders to passive and authoritarian masses of people†[23]. Adorno and Horkheimer’s pessimism surpassed whatever bleak outlook Benjamin may have exuded, countering Benjamin’s emphatic support of mass media as equally malignant as beneficial to society. They believed, unlike Benjamin, that the propensity for immobilization of the individual was present â€Å"not only in fascist countries but also in democratic regimes like the USA and in totalitarian or authoritarian socialism such as the Soviet Union under Stalin†[24]. Benjamin most markedly departed from Horkheimer’s views in his take on subjectivity. He exuded a â€Å"refusal to speculate on the role of subjectivity in the critical process in large measure explicable as a reluctance to incorporate idealist philosophical baggage into an exploration of the metaphysical structure of truth, which, as he had been convinced from very early on, was objectively present and objectively discoverable in the phenomena themselves†[25]. Like Adorno and Marcuse, Benjamin’s perception was a marked departure from neo-Kantian phenomenology and a priori-based philosophy. Benjamin’s â€Å"unwillingness to regard contemplative subjectivity as a constitutive in the critical discovery of truth was a philosophical predilection he shared with peers† who â€Å"were engaged in critical receptions of Marx, Nietzsche, and Weber†[26]. Pensky notes that: â€Å"†¦the potential endlessness of the process of subjective speculation might close out for good the receptive capacity whereby the messianic moments of historical experience could disclose themselves in the medium of critical thinking. Subjectivity, which is the medium in which the act of critical redemption takes place, is also the realm of contemplation and poses risk of an abyssal, endless descent into the inner recesses of speculation as bad infinity†[27]. Like Benjamin and Adorno, Ernst Gombrich was an accomplished aesthetician. Quick to make note of the innately negative potential of art, Gombrich claimed in his article â€Å"Art and Propaganda† that the modern age’s â€Å"sinister technique which gradually converts human beings into something like mental robots† rendered art and propaganda sharing â€Å"at least one common frontier†[28]. The exploitation of art’s aesthetic appeal coincides with propaganda; for art and propaganda to be received successfully by the general public, Gombrich argued that sensationalism in one shape or form had to be communicated. Where art had to break boundaries and the norm set by the precedence of the imagination, propaganda had to break boundaries set by the precedence of accepted logic. Gombrich stated plainly that â€Å"aesthetics of bygone days could name rhetoric† as the realm where art and propaganda met[29]. Gombrich believed â€Å"persuasion through t he eye, pictorial propaganda, is far from holding a similar rank in theory, but in practice its possibilities have always been exploited†[30]. THE TFS INTELLECTUAL EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA DURING MCCARTHYISM â€Å"According to information compiled by the various national and international aid committees formed in 1933 to rescue German intellectuals, about 1,200 academics lost their jobs in Germany during that year. This number was to grow by the end of the 1930s to about 1,700, to which another 400 university faculty were added after the annexation of Austria. If the various other academic professionals, doctors, lawyers, and so on, as well as students suspended from the universities are included, the total number comes to about 7,500. If we add writers, artists, and other freelancers, we may safely assume that—not counting family members—about 12,000 intellectuals lost their jobs and were eliminated from Germany’s social and cultural life†[31]. Perhaps more ominous than the volume of intellectuals exiled from Germany was the indication made by the mass-exodus of field-specific academics. Krohn notes that no sooner was the so-called â€Å"Law to Restore the Professional Civil Service† of April 1933 passed than â€Å"over 16 percent of all university faculty were dismissed†[32]. These â€Å"dismissals,† as they were termed, reached new heights, culminating in the forced-departure of â€Å"more than one-quarter of all university teachers†; in retrospect, the loss of â€Å"university faculty through the end of 1938 has been assessed at 39 percent†[33]. The fact that nearly 80 percent of German philosophical intelligentsia was Jewish and estranged on two fronts—ethnicity and intellectual affiliation—only hastened the effective neutralization of dissent inside Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, however, the departure of the German Jews whose beliefs fell outside the auspices of American political favor comprised a majority. TFS scholars comprised a minority of intellectuals whose formerly high-profile status carried over to the United States. Ironically, those â€Å"who had first experienced Hitler’s wrath benefited from their privileged position†; â€Å"the academics he booted out in 1933 were extended assistance and hospitality almost at once by American and British institutions; hence their crossing was comparatively smooth†[34]. Intellectuals who later reached the shores of Britain and the United States well into the war, however, experienced a different welcoming. With Britain under constant attack and the main city centers such as London almost shut down in Nazi bombing campaigns, several lacked the institutional umbrella of academia to transition into their new lands. Without such protection, many such â€Å"intellectuals often supported themselves initially with menial jobs, working as gardeners and dishwashers or, if strong enough, as stevedores and mechanics†[35]. Finding themselves in a state of near-poverty, many intellectuals including professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and en gineers never resumed their academic pursuits. Most notably, the American academic environment at the end of WWII left many German intellectuals to find â€Å"that their specialties did not transport well†[36]. A common assumption in regards to intellectuals in McCarthy-era America is that all were persecuted in the â€Å"Red Scare† that ensued at the beginning of the 1950s. But those intellectuals who were fortunate enough to remain in their fields found themselves in a much more favorable position than those who were struggling to survive in the blue collar marketplace. In comparison to these â€Å"foiled scholars, the most abused academic rested on a flower bed of ease†; â€Å"these unfulfilled à ©migrà ©s remained present in the academics’ lives, as their friends, their relatives, the audiences for their lectures and publications†[37]. This is not to say, however, that the German-Jewish academics in 1950s America did not encounter tribulation in their assimilation to New World society. Contentions such as Marcuse’s support of the Marxist tenet emphasizing labor as â€Å"man’s means of realizing his essence† and an irrevocable aspect of â€Å"man’s nature† were only slightly more welcome in American intellectual circles as they were in pre-war Germany[38]. Suspected by many as agents provocateurs of the Soviet Union, German-Jewish intelligentsia were marginalized further after having fled a land inflamed by similar conditions. Tensions flared following the capture and execution of convicted Communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, whose 1953 executions were part and parcel of McCarthy’s fervent vigil for Communists of all sorts. Given Benjamin, Adorno, and Horkheimer’s fears about propaganda, McCarthy-era America was hardly a place to feel welcomed. The isolation felt in America by TFS after fleeing Nazi persecution contributed greatly to the molding of its philosophic rhetoric. Marcuse often wrote of â€Å"the horror of capitalism produced by the type of objectification it fostered,† finding glaring similarities in the death of individuality embodied in the American industrial working class as in the nationalist characteristics of Nazi Germany. Furthermore, TFS scholars were alarmed at the scant modicum of utopian values espoused by a competitive drive set on besting one’s fellow man. Marcuse and others agreed â€Å"with the analysis of alienated labor in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, to which Horkheimer and Adorno rarely referred in their writings†; â€Å"un-alienated labor, Marcuse suggested, implied working with others, not against them†[39]. As capitalism p revented the Marxist ideal of solidarity, TFS scholars perceived it as one more cause against which revolutionary tactics were mandated. Such revolutionary overtones, as one might imagine, were demonized by intellectual circles advocating McCarthyism’s rhetoric. As a corollary, further existential rhetoric pervaded TFS philosophy, the impetus of the constant necessity of revolution alienating themselves from American society simultaneously lending to their own feelings of nostalgia and desire for a sense of belonging. Adorno was among the TFS scholars who never found a place among American academics. Estranged from non-Communist circles, he was among several who found themselves as perpetual intellectual refugees. Brunkhorst claims that â€Å"all in all America remained foreign to Adorno†; during his exile, â€Å"Adorno never gave up the hope of coming back to Europe and Germany†[40]. Like other TFS scholar, Adorno was acclimated to a certain â€Å"distinction† as was the norm among â€Å"the old European educated classes†[41]. America, however, was entering a point of mass industrialization, ironically paralleling pre-war Germany in its focus on the state and the relative muting of intelligentsia in the era. THE DEVELOPMENT OF KEY TFS THEORY Development of key TFS theory evolved through conversation and communication, which were â€Å"among the guiding mottos of contemporary thought†; Dallmayr questions, however, if TFS socio-political perspectives could be â€Å"integrated into a common conversational framework† in a manner â€Å"yielding transparent understanding of all points of view†[42]. It is just as likely that such idioms as Marcuse’s take on technology and Gombrich’s theories of propaganda and truth were formulated on the precepts of an â€Å"unbridgeable gulf† or the â€Å"incommensurability of linguistic and epistemic rules†[43]. TFS theory, Dallmayr contends, was shaped by contact with its a priori counterpart in the Freiburg Institute, comprised of Heidegger and Kantian colleagues. In measuring the extent of exile’s effect on TFS, it is of the utmost importance to examine TFS’ experiences in its indigenous setting, that is to say its experiences in Germany and Europe. According to Dallmayr, â€Å"nowhere are the dilemmas of communication and non-communication more glaringly apparent than in the context of recent German thought† as manifested between TFS and Freiburg; â€Å"to a large extent, contacts between the two schools of thought have been marked either by neglect or indifference or else by polemical hostility and an insistence on incommensurability, often coupled with hegemonial [sic] claims†[44]. It is, after all, equally as possible that as a proponent of revolutionary rhetoric that TFS’ existence was dependent on a measure of exile of the metaphoric type. To a large extent, TFS scholars’ conclusions were drawn within the framework of Marxism, whose fundamental precept is revolution on a large scale. When taken into the context of â€Å"moral indictment† as described by Dallmayr, the experience of TFS in Germany would put into perspective the exchange of ideas espoused by TFS in ex ile and in its natal setting of pre-war Germany. Given the tendency of Marxist ideology and the radicalization of its writings, perhaps even Benjamin’s bleak outlook on life could have been regarded as carrying with it the requisite novelty of individuality; how would any revolutionary school of thought conduct itself if it followed in the footsteps of convention? Adorno, after all, â€Å"maintained a relentless opposition to Heidegger’s work and lavished on it an unending stream of polemical venom, a practice aggravated by personal distance†; Heidegger, on the other hand, â€Å"remained aloof from the Frankfurt School and at one point confessed complete ignorance of Adorno’s writings†[45]. While the personal contingent of Heidegger’s latent support of the Nazi party cannot be dismissed, it also does not dismiss the tone with which Adorno and other TFS thinkers indicted their opposition and the contempt they held for some of their a priori, Kantian contemporaries. Sherratt examines the possibility of Adorno’s â€Å"Positive Dialectic,† in which she purports there is a â€Å"positive† solution to what Adorno and others â€Å"envisaged as the problems of subjectivity and knowledge in enlightenment†[46]. Sherratt examines Adorno’s aesthetic, extricating and examining from Adorno’s work on enlightenment that would have the potential for positive dialectic. Unlike many of his other works, Sherratt finds that following his exile from Germany, Adorno’s epistemological and aesthetic conclusions are indirectly and dialectically positive. She concludes that the â€Å"newer† dialectic was positive in contrast â€Å"with the ‘old’ dialectic, which is already shown as negative†[47]. If Sherratt’s conclusions are of any sch

The Advantages of E-Textbooks Essay examples -- Educational Technology

Imagine a day when youngsters would leave for school carrying nothing more than an electronic device weighing less than one pound. The advent and growing popularity of electronic textbooks may make this a reality sooner rather than later. No more students trudging around with 20 pound backpacks strapped to their backs. No more lockers jammed with textbooks and notebooks. The benefits of transitioning to e-textbooks are many and provide advantages for both students and educators. Electronic textbooks can be updated faster than traditional textbooks and can also provide resources that traditional books cannot supply. Because reprinting textbooks is expensive, they are rarely corrected and schools frequently have outdated versions that are 5 – 10 years old (Acker, 42). The information in traditional textbooks is often obsolete and the pictures can be very dated. For example, Pluto is still listed as a plant in our solar system in many science books even though it was decided in 2006 that it is actually a dwarf planet. In some cases, a textbook may be updated every few years, but many high schools do not purchase the new edition because of the high cost involved. In our current economy, many schools can neither justify nor afford the several hundred dollars it would cost to purchase a new edition for just a few changs. With e-texts, corrections and updates can be made quickly and at a fraction of the cost of their printed counterparts. In addition , e-textbooks include more than just the words. â€Å"The nature of literacy is changing; it includes not only text but also symbols and visual images or icons that make up graphic user interfaces.† (Hassell, 117) Visual images and icons can be found on practically every electronic ... ...irst generation of digital natives. New York: Basic Books, 2008. Print. Shepperd, James A., Jodi L. Grace, and Erika J. Koch. "Evaluating The Electronic Textbook: Is It Time To Dispense With The Paper Text?." Teaching Of Psychology 35.1 (2008): 2-5. Academic Search Elite. Web. 8 May 2012. "Technology in the Middle  » Blog Archive  » Digital Literacy 101: Class Dismissed But Not Over." Technology in the Middle . N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2012. . "Virtual textbooks gain popularity in class - News - The University Echo - Student weekly of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga ." The University Echo - Student weekly of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 May 2012. .

Hebrew Pentecostals Essay

The movement known as the Hebrew Pentecostals started in 1914 by Bishop R.A.R. Johnson, a former Methodist minister, in Beaufort South Carolina. Bishop Johnson, dissatisfied with the Methodist church and its lack of positive support for the Pentecostal experience which included tongues, the indwelling of the holy spirit, and the observance of the original seventh day Sabbath, left the Methodist church to form what was called the â€Å" Commandment Keepers†. Through Bishop Johnson’s travelling ministry both nationally and internationally the church experienced rapid growth and quickly developed congregations on three continents. The group has been in existence and growing ever since then. Bishop Johnson was succeeded by Bishop Aaron Smith, first Chief Apostle, who led the church from 1941 to 1049, followed by Bishop S.P. Rawlings, second Chief Apostle, who headed the church from 1950 to 1990. Under Bishop S.P. Rawlings the church saw significant changes including the adoption of the Jewish festival days, and the acceptance of an identity as â€Å"Hebrew Pentecostal†. Hebrew Pentecostals do not consider themselves a Christian group or a Jewish group; they associate themselves with both early Christianity and the faith of the early Hebrews. Bishop Rawlings felt that the churches observance of the Jewish law and the acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Messiah separated the organization from traditional Christian and Jewish theological positions. The term â€Å"Hebrew Pentecostal† provides a unique identifier which embodies the marriage of Judaism and Christianity. Bishop S.P. Rawlings was succeeded by Bishop F.C. Scott, third Chief Apostle, who led the church from 1991 to 2005. Bishop Scott dedicated the current national Temple and oversaw paying it off. International presence increased greatly under his leadership and technological advancements were made in the church. Powers of the executive boards were refined and polices were updated. The honorable Bishop James E. Embry is the current Chief Apostle of the church and has been in office since 2005. Hebrew Pentecostalism is a religious philosophy derived from the inclusion of all divine concepts expressed in both the old and new Testaments of the Bible. The writings of the Old and New Testaments form the basis for both Judaism and Christianity, they also sharply delineate respective perceptions regarding the manner in which man is required to recognize and worship God. For example, Judaism rejects the validity and applicability of the New Testament writings while Christianity does the same for much of the Old Testament. It appears therefore that a merging of these two desperate positions would be tantamount to mixing water and oil however, that is exactly what Hebrew Pentecostalism does. The word â€Å"Hebrew† was used in Bible history by foreign peoples as a name for the Israelites; today it is applied only to the Hebrew language. Since the basic tents of the Hebrew Pentecostalism extracts its legitimacy from the original concepts of the Bible, it follows that the original reference to Gods chosen people is retained in the denominational identification. Membership is claimed, in the Hebrew family, by linkage provided by the Apostle Paul in Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Pentecostalism has its basic roots in familiar religious concepts. Its beginning can be traced to Acts 2:1-6, where the promise of the Holy Ghost was fulfilled in the upper room. The recognition of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit survived through centuries, but grew in the United States when speaking in tongues was evidenced in the southern Appalachians(1896). However, Bishop S.P. Rawlings of the House of God fathered the concept of â€Å"Hebrew Pentecostalism† at the 58th Convocation in 1977, after recognizing the The House of God was the only known church that embraced the total Bible as current day truth. They follow certain commandments in the Old Testament, such as dietary laws, the three pilgrimage festivals and the Sabbath. Their devotional services follow the Hebrew tradition rather than the Christian. They observe the Sabbath, it being an element in Creation since God himself rested on the seventh day and Adam rested with Him. They believe the Sabbath was made for man, but the Jewish people are the carriers of it. By observing the Sabbath, they are following the practices made for man. They have a systematic way of dealing with issues that come up within their organization and there is a definite hierarchy. They have a spiritual leader over the entire movement, called the Chief Apostle. Currently, the Chief Apostle is Bishop James E. Embry Jr. Under him, there is a board of Apostles, Elders, Pastors, and Evangelists. If there is a decision concerning matters of the Scripture, it comes down from the board of Apostles to the Pastors and to the local congregation. There are the male-only offices: Bishops, Vicar Bishops, Elders, and Deacons. Then the male-female offices: Pastors, Evangelists and Ministers. Then the female-only offices: Elect Lady, Mothers, Missionaries. The role of women is very open in the Hebrew Pentecostal church. There are women Pastors, women who carry out the Sacraments, such as marriage, burying the dead, and rites of Passover. They have no problems with the feminist movement as a whole, but there are some individual disagreements. Basically, as long as the feminist movement does not contradict the word of God, then they accept it. Since the feminist movement advocates abortion it cannot be supported by the church in that area. Their Sacraments are not similar to the Christian Sacraments. They have incorporated the rites of Passover into them. Passover is not a Sacrament in the Christian tradition. This reflects how they incorporate the Hebrew tradition into the Christian idea. The titles of many aspects of their religion have Christian names and some Hebrew themes although they do not exactly call themselves Christians. One common theme in their beliefs is the desire to go back to the root of the religion, rather than follow what history has made it to be. Hebrew Pentecostals are similar to Messianic Jews. However, Hebrew Pentecostals differ from Messianic Judaism in the respect that they started from different places. Messianic Judaism came from a Jewish background to accept the concept of Jesus as the son of God, whereas the Hebrew Pentecostal group came from a Christian background to embrace the Old Testament traditions. They are on the same understanding of the scriptures and identify with them closely. The primary doctrine of Hebrew Pentecostals is contained in twenty four principles developed by Bishop R.A.R. Johnson. Although there are other doctrinal issues that fall outside of these principles, â€Å"The Twenty Four Principles† represents the foundation of the church doctrine. They are as follows: It is important to look at how they approach change since much of their tradition is based on keeping things as they were originally. It is very interesting that if Hebrew Pentecostals find there is something the word of God teaches that they have not been aware of they are open to change. The way they approach change is through question that come up in the national meeting. Anyone can write to the board of apostles with questions and their answers are discussed. A doctoral change may or may not come out of it. Ideas for change can come from the congregation members themselves. The actual mandate of the change is given by the board of Apostles. It seems that the majority of the movement is based on going back to the basics and keeping things the way they were in the beginning and the acceptance of change seems to go against that framework. In the past 40 years Hebrew Pentecostals have increased 1000%. They grow through the merging of churches and through proselytizing. They do not actively proselytize, but when people hear of them, they explain what they are about and people join. http://excitingjudaism.com/docs/Sutton.doc http://netministries.org http://houseofgod.org

Mrs Pollifax essays

Mrs Pollifax essays The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax is one of my favorite books of all times! An old, brittle woman in the CIA has to sneak eight forged passports into Bulgaria, and get out as fast as possible without being suspicious. But even before this fairly easy assignment starts, trouble begins to arise.Before she had ever touched the airplane, she met a group of young people leaving to Bulgaria too. She began to talk to a young man by the name of Philip Trenda, who was noticeably upset that a man by the name of Nikki had forced him into going. After their chat, Mrs.Pollifax and the group loaded the plane. On the way to Sofia, Bulgaria, the airplane made a special stop for General Ignatov to get on the plane.When they landed, the Bulgarian Secret police took him away from his group. One of the girls in the group had seen Mrs. Pollifax talk to Phil. Her name was Debby. When she arrived to the city, Mrs. Pollifax was supposed to go to a jacket shop, ask for an imaginary sheepskin jacket. What Mrs. Pollifax thought that now she would do is give the hat to Tsanko and go back to the US. But the CIA had a man to pay off named Radev. The counterfeit money was sewn in the jacket and then they would just switch the jackets and be done with Radev. Mrs. Pollifax didn't know about Radev, so when he came to steal it at night 3 times, she or Debby, who had joined her, had beaten him up so badly that he couldn't steal the jacket. after she had delivered the hat to the underground she changed her plans and went north of Sofia. While driving, she had noticed that someone had cut her breaks. The car was heading toward a cliff, so Mrs. Pollifax had just crashed the car into a tree right on the edge. Afterward, Debby had heard on the news that Phil was being released from prison and was returning to the US. It sounded like good news but as it turned out, it was a plan by new Chief of the Secret Police, General Ignatov. The General was ransoming P...