states and power in africa Essay -- essays research papers

We must understand the differences in the African and European political experience in order to understand the difficulties faced by African leaders. In Herbst’s book States and Power in Africa, First I will give an overview of the differences between the African and European advances toward becoming a nation state. Next the reasons why these differences are important to understanding the difficulties faced by African leaders will be discussed. Finally I will give an overview of possible alternatives to the current system of states in Africa.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In States and Power in Africa Herbst shows us several differences between   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is important to look at why Herbst’s analysis of Africa’s and Europe’s political differences gives us many reasons that go toward the explaining African leader’s political difficulties. One of Herbst’s overall arguments is that the colonization of Africa by Europe is not solely responsible for their self destructive systems of government. He would like others studying comparative politics to understand that many of the pre-colonial social and political norms as well as post-colonial observance of the forced state system have also contributed to Africa’s current problems. Herbst’s shows us that it is important to look beyond the predetermined political geography as set forth at the Berlin Conference as the sole reason for African leader’s difficulty in broadcasting power. To counter this argument Her...

Effect of Education on the Development of China Essay

Education has had powerful effects on the development in many aspects during the past centuries. This trend, has begun to manifest that education is playing a significant role in economics, societies and environment around the world. Education can promote economic growth and global movement. It can influence the population in fertility and mortality, stimulate the development of the poor segments and promote peace and stability of the society. As for environment, the development of education can solve environmental problems by raising individual awareness, but could also lead to a threat to the environment. A large amount of researches have shown that the increase of the number of girls benefited from education has led to a country’s per capita economic growth (Smith, 1999). Also, according to Brown (2008), a loss of education will lead to a wider gap between the rich and the poor that may increase instability sources in societies. This essay will analyze how education has influenced countries’ development in economics, societies and environment more specifically. In addition, some suggestions will also be conducted to encourage more progress in the development of countries. As seen in a large amount of researches, education has a prominent positive effect on promoting economic growth. For instance, according to Goujon (2008), tertiary education for younger people can lead to more powerful effects than that on old people. However, an inverse case happens in secondary education. That means government should focus on completing the universal primary education and decide which kind of education can strictly prove country’s economic growth. Although the effects of the productivity are not always positive, education, especially for women, is going to be a vital part in achieving a sustainable development (Goujon, 2008). UNESCO (2006) states that education can have positive effects on agricultural productivity, the status of women and controlling the population. In developing countries, the economic development always depends on the agriculture. Similarity, the productivity of agriculture always depends on the farmers’ education level. In conclusion, education could lead to great improvement in workforce which promotes a country’s economic. Not only in China but in other countries, the development of education plays a significant role in countries’ economic movement. That means a great change of relationship between economy and education is promoted around the world due to the trends of global economic development. According to Goh and Gopinathan (2008), in Singapore, the transformation of education system is a strong fundamental to improve its competitiveness in South Asia. Children can choose different kinds of schools to obtain education in Singapore, such as English-speaking schools and Chinese-speaking schools. Students have the opportunity to study in different cultures and learn different skills. As a result, Singapore has a great increase in economy because of a large number of skilled and high-educated workforces. Similarly, in China, the government has used major tertiary transformation in education (Li, Whalley, Zhan, Zhao, 2008). This change leads to a huge impact on economy and also the education structure all over the world. The Chinese government is aiming at upgrading the quality of skilled labour and pulling up the productive ability. In fact, after China’s higher education transformation, other countries begin to look for an appropriate structure for their local education. This exactly illustrates that a closer relationship between economy and education is promoted by the governments worldwide. However, not all the countries are willing to invest in reforming the local education. Different attitudes towards education have resulted in countries’ economics development becoming depolarized. Some countries do not take notice of their education systems, most of which are developing countries. Their governments have not recognized the significance of education and the effects that education could have on their economic development. For example, Mauritius is a small island which is much smaller than Tanzania. However, the GDP in Mauritius was $ 12,800 while in Tanzania was $ 700 in 2006 (Bloom, Canning, Chan, 2006). The main reason why this great gap exists is that the attitudes to higher education are very different. While Mauritius was focusing on the quality and quantity of higher education, Tanzania was still facing the low student-to-staff ratios because of its needless high costs in higher education. In fact, this was a vicious circle in Tanzania. Bloom (2006) shows that although the government has invested a  lot of money to build universities, such as UDSM, the social economic problems were aggravated. Due to the economic problems, government had to reduce the investment to universities. In that case, fixing the relationship between education and economy is so difficult for Tanzania government. In contrast, Mauritius government has already built an optimum circle and the country’s economy is rapidly growing. Education has also had significant impacts on the development of many countries in population in several ways. On the one hand, it could reduce fertility, that is to say, as levels of female education rise, fertility will fall. Brown (2008) states that for reaching substantial reductions in fertility, the single best lever may be the expansion of women’s secondary education. Education and careers have become important factors for women marrying later and having fewer children because education provides females with more employment prospects and opportunities. A good illustration of this is that many girls have been drawn and benefited by the school lunch program in the US since 1946. On the other hand, it can promote children’s health and reduce mortality due to mothers’ better education. It has been reported by UNICEF (2008) that there is an essential connection between under-5 mortality rates and mothers’ education attainment. For example, the stimulation of education has brought about considerable variation in Islamic World that Organization of the Islamic Conference countries account for 11 of the 16 highest rates of under-five mortality in the world. Also, attending schools helps children fight back with various diseases, for instance, AIDS. Schools inform and educate students before they are infected with the disease about the lifestyles that accelerate its propagation. All of this explains that education actually affects the development of a country by reducing the mortality of its population. Table 1: Average annual reduction rates in OIC countries on The popularity of basic education is playing a vital part in fostering popularity of the approach to the hardest to-reach segments of society. Universal primary education is available to more children in poor families nowadays via several ways. Firstly, through the efforts of implementing educational plans, some progress has been made, especially to the poorest  segments of society. For example, Education for All plan, has aimed to promote education by providing financial support to countries which have meaningful plans for universal primary education. This plan was developed by the World Bank which is an important source of financial and other kinds of assistance to developing countries around the world. Owing to this plan, the figure of children’s accomplishment of primary school has risen from 78% in 2000 to 83% by 2005. Furthermore, according to Brown (2008), some third world countries have established Girls Advisory Committees, such as Ethiopia, which largely encourages the registration rates rising in the rural areas. These groups sent representatives to persuade parents in impoverishment to keep their children in school and some countries like Bangladesh and Brazil, provide scholarships or stipends to the parents and help the poor obtain a basic education. Therefore, universal education is stimulating the development of the poor segments by both applying educational plans and founding relevant committees. Also, education can promote peace and stability in a country. As the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen who encourages education popularity focuses, â€Å"Illiteracy and innumeracy are a greater threat to humanity than terrorism.† That means a loss of education widens the gap between the rich and the poor and then leads to the integrated world staying in an unstable position eventually. Evidence has shown that education contributes to narrowing the gap that helps build a more stable and harmonious society. An example of this is that with fast increasing number of enrolments since 1999 in China, the gap in access between urban and rural areas is gradually diminishing (Li, Whalley. Zhan and Zhao, 2008). The admission rates of universities in rural China have increased a lot and graduates in poor families have the opportunities to attain hopeful prospects. Plan (2008) has reported that education benefits people’s employment and makes more resources available to them. This avoids hunger, illness and other unequal factors increasing the danger of the destruction of world’s structure. Education no doubt reduces the social burden and promotes stability in the development of countries. Education definitely can help solve environmental problems, and this can be  demonstrated in the aspect of improving individual awareness of the environmental affairs. For instance, through being educated, people will know that their surroundings can be dangerous for living if there aren’t enough steps to be done for a better environment and then they will have a sense of responsibility for the health of their common hometown in their own. According to Dobson (2003), education for sustainable development make great effects on the quality, structure and health of environment by teaching and encouraging pupils to take active parts in democratic and other decision-making processes that can be seen as the commitment of the citizens. So by raising individual sense of responsibility, it proves the effects of education on the environment. In addition, education passes on scientific ways to deal with the environmental problems, which can help produce most environmental efficiency of individuals. The macro environmental achievement needs every citizen’s efforts, so emphasizing environmental education, especially the education for sustainable development, can be a key factor for a better prospect of the environment. However, education sometimes can make a threat to environment. Sustainable development, which is defined as â€Å"the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs† (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987), logically, can be promoted by education. From what has been said above, education can cause a lower fertility and a slower population growth and the resistance to the overpopulation can facilitate the progress of sustainability. Therefore, most people believe that education can certainly become an essential tool for sustainable development. Actually, the truth is dramatically the opposite that greater threat to sustainability will be done with the higher education people obtain. It could be caused by the reason: â€Å"Unfortunately, the most educated nations leave the deepest ecological footprints, meaning they have the highest per-capita rates of consumption. This consumption drives resource extraction and manufacturing around the world.† ( McKeown, 2006: pp12) When people receive more education, they may just have the capability to change the nature and not develop the earth appropriately. The United States, known as its high level of education, is also known as the biggest threat to the environment, which is a typical case  that demonstrates the relationship between education and sustainability. This can be a very controversial point and create challenges to make sure that there is no growing demand for goods and resources while raising the level of the education. In conclusion, to analyze how education could affect the development of countries, this essay obtains the key ideas in mainly three aspects. Education can promote the economic growth and movement globally. Then it can help control the population, stimulate the development of the poor segments and promote peace and stability of the society. As for environment, developing education can help solve environmental problems by raising individual awareness, but may also cause a threat to the environment somehow. Furthermore, the essay advocates raising the level of education among the poor segment of the society, because a loss of which may be origin of threats to the stability of societies. It’s also expected for the developing countries to find a suitable structure of the education system instead of the radical one that just for the needs ahead. Another prediction is that countries could increase the public needs for more sustainable production and consumption patterns through a higher-level education. Although we can see that some progress has been made, there’s still a long way to go. Governments should pay more attention both on basic education and tertiary education in order to provide us a necessary study environment. The government ought to develop more powerful policies to ensure more enrolment so that the quality of a country’s development can be improved. Overall, education has had great effects on the development of countries and will continue influence the economics, societies and environment in a long term. Therefore maturer educational steps ought to be taken in order to conduct much more progress. (Words: 2095) Reference Bloom, D. Canning, D. Chan, K. (2006) Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa. Washington D.C. Harvard University. Brown, L. (2008) Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Earth Policy Institute. Dobson,A.P.(2003) ‘Citizenship, Education and the Environment’. In Citizenship and the Environment. Oxford University Press:2003+p.174-207 Goh, C.H., Gopinathan, S. (2008) ‘The Development of Education in Singapore since 1965’. In Lee, Sing Kong Goh, Choor Boon Fredrikson, and Birger (ed) Toward a Better Future: Education and Training for Economic Development in Singapore since 1965. The World Bank: 2008. p. 12-38 Li, Y. Whalley, J. Zhan, S, and Zhao, X. (2008) China’s Higher Education Transformation and Its Global Implications NBER Working Paper No. W13849 [online]. Available form: http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/1066 [06/12/10] Lutz W, Goujon, A & KC S (2008). Education: The Key to Development. Options (Summer 2008): 12 – 15. [online] Available form: www.iiasa.ac.at/Admin/INF/OPT/Summer08/opt-08sum.pdf.[06/12/10] Plan (2008) Paying the Price [online], Available from: http:// www.plan.org.au/mediacentre/publications/ research/ paying_the_price [07/12/2010] UNESCO (2006) Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit. Paris: UNESCO Publishing, pp. 12 – 14 UNICEF (2005) Investing in the Children in the Islamic World, http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Investing_Children_Islamic_World_full_E.Pdf [07/12/2010] Yu-Shu Peng,Shing-Shiun Lin(2009)’National Culture, Economic Development, Population Growth and Environmental performance: The Mediating Role of education’.Journal of Business Ethics.Dordrecht: Dec 2009.Vol. 90,iss.2:p.203-216

Essay on Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas - 2022 Words

Introduction Critics have for a long time argued that there is no way that philosophy and religion can come together. In their argument, they find many a religious group conflicting with the sound doctrine purported by the philosophy arena. For those who have tried to harmonize the two disciplines, they have been met with complex questions on the authenticity and their grounds of arguments. However, the works of ancient (middle-age philosophers) and religious thinkers and scholars has had challenges too but there are two outstanding works that have gained credit from most, if not all, of the scholars and modern philosophers. In this Essay, the researcher takes a keen look at the works of Aristotle and that of St. Thomas Aquinas. To be†¦show more content†¦In their argument, they say that a shrill voice as well as a rapid gait is some good characteristics of superb results articulated to excitement and hurry (Schall, 1997). In this argument, they find that what makes a magnanimous man is the very thing that inspires the same man to do whatever they chose to do. Some occurrences to human are as a result of personal choice or external forces that bring about action within. Power When discussing on the subject of power, Thomas Aquinas in most cases did make it clear that the kind of power that he referred to was the Power of God (Schall, 1997). While in the words of Aristotle, natural philosophy is as a result of two forces, Aquinas attributes the political philosophy, with immense reference from Aristotle’s arguments and way of reasoning, to the ‘omnipotence’ of God that is a great driving force (Schall, 1997). From this argument, it is clear that most of the decisions that are seen in the political arena can be attributed to the level of understanding of the ‘Omnipotence’ of God among the lawmakers. For example, while making reference to Aristotle’s virtue of epichia (which is also called equity), Aquinas is noted to argue that those in political arena have over time talked about their effort to bridge the gap that lies between those who are rich and those who areShow MoreRelatedMoral Virtues Between Aristotle And St. Thomas Aquinas1147 Words   |  5 Pagestheories of moral virtues between Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, analysing and assessing how their beliefs have influenced European culture. Aristotle (384-322BCE) was an ancient Greek Philosopher who was a polymath and productive writer. Despite the fact that it can’t be positive it is commonly accepted the Nichomachean Ethics (NE) are his own works (IEP, 2005), and it is in Book Tow that the topic of virtue and moral values is one of several conferred. St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), a Dominican priestRead MoreNichomachean Ethics And Thomas Aquinas986 Words   |  4 Pagesrelationship between justice, good, and happiness, specifically in Aristotle’s â€Å"Nichomachean Ethics† and Thomas Aquinas’ â€Å"On the Nature of Law.† And by examining these texts I wish to argue that even though they lived nearly 1000 years apart, Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas share the same overall view of justice, but the y each follow different paths to reach that justice. Both Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas believe in the pursuit of happiness as a measure of justice and a desirable chief end of life. SoRead More The Worldwide Influence of St. Thomas Aquinas Essay943 Words   |  4 PagesInfluence of St. Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas was born in the year 1225 into an incredibly Catholic family in a small town in Italy. As Thomas Aquinas grew up, he was very smart and was very interested in the catholic faith and philosophy and ultimately became a teacher of all these things. Thomas Aquinas proved that he was an important historical figure over his life time by being a leader in the Catholic Church , writing The Summa and spreading his beliefs. Thomas Aquinas proved himself asRead MoreEssay on St. Thomas Aquinas’ On Being and Essence1002 Words   |  5 Pages In St. Thomas Aquinas’ On Being and Essence, he devotes an entire chapter of his book discussing how essence is found in composite substances. â€Å"Form and matter are found in composite substances, as for example soul and body in man. But it cannot be said that either one of these alone is called the essence.’ Aquinas argues that in a composite substance, not only is the form but also matter in the essence of a thing. However, in Metaphysics, Aristotle says that essence is in the form, which actsRead MoreThe Italian Kingdom Of Sicily1363 Words   |  6 PagesMedieval period witnessed the rise of the religious movement which was lead by Thomas Aquinas who invented the Thomistic way of thought which was based around Medieval scholasticism. He revolutionized the catholic church beginning in 1245 when he moved to Paris and studied under Albertus the Great. I am a monk who studies in a monastery similar to one that Thomas Aquinas studied in his earlier years. I, like Aquinas, was originally a Benedictine monk who realized the wrongs associated with livingRead MoreSt. Thomas Aquinas Of The Personalist / Natural Law Ethics888 Words   |  4 Pagesdifferent theories were presented in our Ethical Theory class, the theory that stood out and reignited the most is St. Thomas Aquinas of the personalist /natural law ethics. St. Thomas Aquinas natural laws theory developed from a non-Christian that was Aristotle. Despite many of many Catholic theologian did not agree with St. Thomas Aquinas due to his agreement with Aristotle, but St. Aquinas would become one of the most influential theologian in Christianity history. His theory on natural law startedRead MoreSt. Thomas Aquinas Essay823 Words   |  4 PagesSt. Thomas Aquinas, was a Dominican monk, who generally one of the greatest Scholastic writers of all times. He used ancient philosophy to prove religious propositions. One of the ancient philosophers that St. Thomas Aquinas used to prove religious facts was Aristotle. One of the greatest works that Aristotle did was to prove that god really exists. St. Thomas Aquinas used the forms that Aristotle and Plato used to prove the same philosophical question, does god really exist? St. Thomas AquinasRead MoreGreek Philosophies Impact On The Early Development Of Christian Thought1348 Words   |  6 Pagesperceived by the sense, which is then rationally evaluated. Theologists like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas both discovered the use of Aristotle in the formation of the Christian mind. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, believed that all humans had a purpose and that the purpose was for the greater good. However, the good life or the blessed life for Aquinas and Augustine was heaven. For Greek thinkers like Aristotle or even Plato, human actions derived from reason, rationality, and intellect. ChristianRead MoreGreat Philosophers and Lives Well Lived1238 Words   |  5 PagesThere have been many great philosophers throughout time. Socrates, Thomas Aquinas and Rene Descartes all lived during different times. This gave each of them different insights, which helped to create their philosophies and principles of their philosophies. Each philosopher also had a different means as to how they delivered their ideas and teachings. With so many differences the three had one thing in common: A love for wisdom, and the need to share it with others. Socrates was a great philosopherRead MoreThe Equality Gap Between Men And Women1346 Words   |  6 Pageshow I believe their ideas have influenced current gender roles. Early Ideas on the Role of Women in Society: Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas Aristotle on Women Let us take a look at the early ideas of women from Aristotle—one of the most influential philosophers of all time and the most notable student of Plato, who surprisingly can be viewed as an advocate of women. Aristotle introduced his philosophies and theories on logic between 335 and 323 BC; we are extensively familiar with his Theory