Role of the judiciary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Role of the judiciary - Essay Example Thesis Statement: The American constitution stipulates that the main function of the nation’s foreign policy is to protect and reinforce the position of the United States as a sovereign and independent state. The history of the American constitution in terms of Foreign Affairs The U. S. constitution, as documented by the nation’s Founding Fathers, stated that it was the nation’s aim to assume ‘the earth’s powers, equal to the rules of nature as were intended by God’ (Chomsky, 2004). Essentially, all other rules, including those that dictate foreign policy, have to observe this objective in all attempts to adopt stances of foreign policy as well as shared power. All regulations concerning the American foreign policy are formed through consultations between the nation’s Commander-in-Chief, executive and legislative branches. Even in the days of the first president of America, George Washington, there were difficulties in creating a releva nt, consistent, and practical foreign policy. Theoretically, the creation of foreign policy ought to correspond with the objectives of national interest. The federal government’s position, as one of the factors that contribute towards the formation of foreign policy, stems from the Supremacy Clause; which stipulates that Federal law is the supreme law in America and even precludes state law. The American constitution was first formed by the founding fathers as a contract of a revolutionary tobacco democracy which was led by an enlightened pseudo-government made up of merchants, paramilitary planters, and lawyers (Murray, 2013). The first American government, which was headed by George Washington, wanted to ensure that the new young nation would be able to survive in spite of the existence of powerful opponents in the European continent. In those early years, American foreign policy was aimed towards ensuring that the new nation avoided potential conflicts with European superp owers while also establishing itself as an autonomous member of the then group of free nations. This would be hard to accomplish as the nation was crafted out of a bloody conflict with the then greatest power, the United Kingdom, and had a weak and disorganized army. The United States also came into existence at a time when there was no organization, such as an international court, to arbitrate between warring nations. War was considered as being the only honorable method of solving serious disputes. In the late 1700s, only the self-interested sovereign nations were recognized as the major principalities on the international stage. When it was first formed, the American constitution worked alongside congressional powers to standardize commerce with other states, to sustain the armed forces, and create government regulations to oversee immigration and naturalization clauses. The ‘Articles of Confederation’ was America's primary constitution, and was confirmed in 1781. Th is was a time when the nation was merely a disorganized confederation of thirteen states, each of which were conducting themselves as nations in their own right (Brzezinski, 2004). America’s national government was made up of a congress and a singular legislature. The Articles of Confederation allocated to congress the abilities to oversee the running of foreign affairs, the regulation of national currency, and determination of all issues to do with war. Moreover, these activities were limited

Beer Market Essay Example for Free

Beer Market Essay The Market. How should one think about market definition in the U.S. beer industry? Is there a single â€Å"beer market,† or are there several markets? If there are two or more markets, how would you identify them? How does demand substitutability and/or supply substitutability affect market boundaries in the industry? How high is demand substitutability and supply substitutability across segments of the industry, and in particular across the different markets you have identified? We find two markets in the beer industry: Alcoholic beer market and Nonalcoholic beer market. The demand substitutability heavily affects the market boundary in the industry. People who cannot consume alcohol can never try alcoholic beer. On the other hand, people who can drink alcoholic beer generally do not like nonalcoholic beer because they want to enjoy drinking â€Å"alcohol†. It means that the demand substitutability between alcoholic beer and nonalcoholic beer is low. In the alcoholic beer market, the demand substitutability is high. There are difference of the taste between the products (lagers, ales and etc.), but we believe people can switch the product easily. There is price difference, but still the range is $3-$7 and people can try other products easily. I can imagine if lagers decreased the price by $2, people having ales would try lagers. People can get almost all types of beer in USA, so there is no geographical boundary. In terms of the supply substitutability, it does not affect the market boundary. All beer companies can produce any types of beer. If a beer company earned a lot of profit in the nonalcoholic beer market, others would jump in the market. There is no geographical boundary, neither. In summary, the demand substitutability and the supply substitutability are high, except for the demand substitutability between non-alcohol and alcohol. Large Firms. Anheuser-Busch and SAB-Miller/Coors use advertising as their main tool in fighting for market share. It has been argued that they advertise too much. (See â€Å"Beer: Price and Advertising Elasticities of Demand† in the reading package.) Do high levels of advertising make sense, or should they be scaled back? Should SAB-Miller/Coors rely more on pricing to compete with A-B? Why or why not? Spending a lot of expenses make sense in the beer industry. First, the demand substitutability is very high. Beer is relatively cheap though there is the $2-3 price difference. Beer has different tastes, but still it tastes beer. People can try another type of beer easily, seeing the advertisement. Second, the advertisement of beer can increase the pie of the demand. For example, if we was an advertisement of beer in summer, we just feel like drinking beer. An advertisement can not only get the customers of a competitor, but also can increase the pie of the demand. Finally, an advertisement is effective to make a long lasting brand. Branding and penetration in the market is important and the companies cannot build them in short-run. An advertisement helps the company to make the prestigious brand in long-run. 3. Antitrust Issues. Some economists opposed the Miller-Coors U.S. merger. They argued that it would create too much concentration in the industry, and lead to more market power and higher prices for consumers. Do you agree and think the merger should have been blocked by the DOJ? Why or why not? Explain briefly but clearly. [pic] According to Steven Newborn, an antitrust attorney with Weil Gotshal Manges in Washington, D.C. said, â€Å"Normally, a 30% market share would not create a problem, but when you have two companies controlling almost 80%, the government may think there is potential for anti-competitive effect.†1 Others have different opinion. I can see a price war breaking out if MillerCoors starts to gain share from Budweiser, says Roman Shuster, a research analyst in Chicago with Euromonitor International PLC. InBev is known to push back, and what they do will have a huge impact on the market.2 I believe the merger shouldn’t have been blocked by DOJ because of below two reasons: †¢ To avoid monopoly: If the merger is blocked by DOJ, then Anheuser-Busch may even capture more market share due to its cost advantages as the result of economies of scale. This may result in a monopoly. Merger gives MillerCoors more than 30% of the market share and a chance to fairly compete with Anheus er-Busch. †¢ Consumers may benefit customers due to price war: Joint venture of MillerCoors was expected to reduce the production and transportation cost of the company. Now both the companies can brew beers at the combined locations and save on transportation and other costs. When the operations merged then hundreds of employees may be laid-off which is expected to reduce employee-related costs.3 Reduced cost will enable MillerCoors to reduce price in the hope to gain market share. Consequent price decreases by Anheuser-Busch may start a price war which will benefit customers. 4. Small Firms. Craft brewing has been the fastest growing segment of the beer industry, but very few craft brewers have reached annual sales levels of 50,000 barrels or more. Magic Hat, however, has reached annual sales of over 150,000. Why has Magic Hat been relatively successful, and does it have the potential to keep growing? If you were to enter the craft brewing market next summer, what would be your sales objective over the following 5 years? What strategy would you use to achieve that objective? Key success factors of Magic Hat potential of growing: As Co-founder of Magic Hat, Alan Newman, says Magic Hat has gone from making kegs for a few Burlington bars to being the number 10 craft brand in the country4. Mainly there are two reasons for its success: †¢ Quality Product Delicious Taste: Magic Hat products are known for its uniquely delicious beers. They have understood taste of their customers. They provide quality product and respect their customer choices. †¢ Quirky Branding: Magic Hat is having a different way of advertising. Its webpage doesn’t ask whether you are 18 or above. But says – Splendor and glory are yours if you can answer one riddle: when were you born? They associate their product to Splendor and glory. Their commercials are equally quirky. Instead of showing people drinking beer and having fun, they show the brewing process and end the commercial by saying â€Å"A performance in every bottle†. Branding is very important to attract customers and their different way of advertising has given them a unique brand name. I believe that Magic Hat has the potential of growing further by focusing on innovation. In Magic Hats Vision and Values Statement, the company focusses on innovation, stating that †¦ideas cannot be limited by current perception. 4 They are expanding in new places and also in long-term markets. Sales Objective and Strategy: Currently total brewery market in U.S. is $27.6B. And it is expected to increase at the rate of 1.9% per year for the next five years to reach $30.3B. But much of this increase is expected to be in craft and premium beer segments. So I believe a growth target of 5% per year I reasonable. So starting at 50,000 barrels, my objective will be to at least increase sales by 5% per year. I will adopt below strategy to be competitive in the market: 1) Select geographic areas where it is appropriate and profitable to sell products. 2) Keep optimum debt level. 3) Establish a brand name by effective advertising and public relations. 4) By optimally utilizing capacity. 5) By controlling distribution arrangements so that they are optimal. By carefully planning links to wholesale stores, bars and nighclubs. 6) By achieving economies of Scale. If required, acquire or merge with another brewery. References 1http://www.beer-universe.com/beer-education-article/2012-07-06/Beer-Wars-Is-Big-Beer-Getting-Too-Big-/ 2http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/lager-heads/price-war-coming-in-the -beer-industry/article_44619cea-1fb5-5d76-b55c-e7dcc0ee3722.html 3IBISWorld Industry Report 31212 Breweries in the US 4http://www.legalzoom.com/business-management/success-stories/microbreweries-found-macro-suc

What is Wisdom? Essay example -- essay on wisdom

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines the word wisdom as â€Å"the quality of being wise; power of judging rightly and following the soundest course of action, based on knowledge, experience, understanding, etc.; good judgment; sagacity (penetrating intelligence and sound judgment).† In this paper, I will present my interpretation of one instance of how wisdom is obtained and hopefully passed on. I perceive wisdom as the ability to make the best decision or select the best course of action according to the current situation with respect to prior similar situations and their outcomes. Wisdom is what I like to call acquired knowledge over time and experience. Wisdom is often associated with a formal education. On the other hand, you may not be formally educated, but still considered wise. As wisdom is acquired, situations are looked at in a different light. Let’s use children as an example. As babies and small children, we view our parents as role models. We emulate them as we get older. When most children reach adolescence, they think they are grown, know everything, and their parents don’t know anything. They can’t wait to get out on their own so they don’t have to follow any of those constricting rules placed upon them by their parents while they live under their parent’s roof. For the children that venture out on their own and either without their parent’s help or with just enough help to get set up, reality hits rather quickly. Out on their own, children start to see ju...

Underlying Normal Traits Within Abnormal Personality Disorders

Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS Underlying Normal Traits within Abnormal Personality Disorders Student University April 11, 2010 Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS Abstract Scholars have argued for decades concerning the fact that there are normal personality traits underlying abnormal personality traits in people who exhibit dysfunctional personalities. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition is the determinative guide on the descriptions of these personality characteristics, and it determined that there were everal models to be considered when looking for a universal clinical definition of abnormal personality. Researchers used either the Big Four, Big Five or other models to describe what an abnormal personality consisted of and how it related to a normal personality as studied. Researchers measured personality differences based on qualitative, quantitative and other key factor diffe rences to determine normal or abnormal functioning personalities. It was difficult to determine one substantive definition, as the traits overlapped from normal to abnormal characteristics noted. Later, the definition of personality dysfunctions included life skills, personal tasks and life goals, and whether the individual was able to function as a member of his society, while meeting the expectations of that society. A person’s maladaptiveness and evolutionary sense were added as part of the definition of whether the personality was normal or abnormal, and whether a person had the skill to be able to manage personal relationships were considered as well in the general definition of abnormal personality. Today, treatment options are expanded from the traditional therapy treatments to include drug therapies, psychodynamic herapy, day hospital intervention, and dialectical behavior therapy. To date, day hospital interventions have proved very successful on non-schizophrenic patients suffering from abnormal personality traits. Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS Introduction Scholars have argued for decades concerning the fact that there are normal personality traits underlying abnormal personality traits in people who exhibit dysfunctional personalities. Recently, scholars have begun to make an argument that current category systems of personality isorders (PDs) should be substituted by trait dimensional scheme designations in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Experts are leaning towards using a Big Four model, which are â€Å"essentially maladaptive variants of the Big Five traits of normal personality, minus Openness† (Watson, 1545). In a discussion of this issue by Watson, Clark and Chmielewski, they state that the newly comprised Big Four model excludes odd or eccentric Cluster A PDs, (Watson, 1545) and that their results noted from three studies show a relationship examining the actors of normal and abnormal personalities. Their results established that the Oddity factor was considered more broad than the Cluster A tr aits and more distinct from Openness and other Big Five models, which suggested â€Å"an alternative five factor model of personality pathology (considering only abnormal traits) and an expanded, integrated Big Six taxonomy that subsumes both normal and abnormal personality characteristics† (Watson, 1545). Model Theories The Watson study explains that the Big Four structure was a result of developed hierarchical models that combined general models, like the Big Three and the Big Five models. These former models of personality reviews included multidimensional factors reminiscent of Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS past personality inventories. When the Big Three and Big Five models were formally combined, it was apparent that â€Å"two higher order traits—Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality and Extraversion/Positive Emotionality—are included in both models† (Watson, 1547). Considering these changes, Watson proposes a â€Å"Big Four† theory which does not include Openness, but does include many of the traits of the other theories. Watson reports that their research on the Big Five heory also includes research on a Big Six taxonomy â€Å"that subsumes both normal and abnormal personality dimensions (Watson, 1551). Definitions of Abnormal Personalities Researchers have made recent discoveries that â€Å"abnormal personalities can be modeled as extremes of normal personality variation† (O’Connor & Doyc e, 2001) (Markon, p. 139). Even though researchers agree that it is possible to describe normal and abnormal personalities within the same frameworks, they disagree on the structure of what the framework will encompass. Even abnormal personality traits are seen now as a variant of the extremes that can happen when eviewing normal personalities. One way to make sense of the distinctions between normal and abnormal personalities is to describe personality disorders (PDs) and develop a working definition for them. By defining the traits for PDs, the researcher is able to develop a base for delineating personalities studied. Once normal traits are identified, abnormal traits need to be assessed. This can be done by reviewing the Big Five model of abnormal personalities. This is the juncture that normal and abnormal personalities overlap. Apparently, there are similar modeling structures that can be tilized to describe both normal and abnormal personalities. Some traits are very common R unning Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS between the two models, and others mimic similar personality descriptions. Meta-analytic Investigation Model One cohesive factor that applies to both normal and abnormal personalities is the meta- analytic investigation model. This model was proposed by O’Connor in 2002, and it stated that there were structural relationships between normal and abnormal personalities (Markon, p. 142). The O’Connor study in 2002 reviewed 37 personality and psychopathology inventories to etermine if dimensional structure differences existed between clinical and nonclinical respondents (O’Connor B. P. , 2002). O’Connor found similarity between normal and abnormal populations reviewed and measured similarities â€Å"both in the number of factors that exist in the data matrices and in the factor pattern† (O’Connor B. P. , 2002). The ten abnormal behavior disorders listed by the DSM-IV are listed as: paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic, avoidant, dependent, and obsessive–compulsive† (Livesley & Jang, p. 258). Each of these disorders shows traits, and it is he way that professional clinicians are able to make accurate diagnoses of abnormal personality traits of their patients. This listing of traits by the DSM, showed that the distinction between what was considered normal and what was considered abnormal was often defined by distinguishing the â€Å"qualitative distinction between the two† (Livesley & Jang, p. 258). Unfortunately, in truth researchers have come to find out that there are no true separations between normal and abnormal disorders, and they are hard pressed to find the dividing lines between the two entities. O’Connor asked whether the distinction can be made using former Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS models, and what exactly was normal or abnormal personality disorder. When the conceptual distinctions between the two were reviewed, there are several models to note. The most noteworthy working model being that there was â€Å"no evidence of discontinuity in the distributions of 100 traits selected to provide a systematic representation of personality disorder† (Livesley & Jang, p. 259). In other words, there was no concrete evidence that the researchers would consistently find traits that were exclusively common or descriptive of a specific personality disorder. In fact, personality disorders were measured across normal and control groups. The findings were that there were similarities within the disorder traits and that some equaled normal and others disordered personality traits. In this way, the researchers queried whether disorder traits could be seen in normal personalities. The answer was that there were few solid frameworks to make the decision which would provide a definitive answer to the question. In effect, extreme ends of the traits seemed to be deemed disorders, while extreme variations alone may not have been considered enough to state that a personality disorder actually existed. Quantitative Differences in Normal and Abnormal Personalities Quantitative differences exist between the normal and abnormal personality. The differences often mix up and muddle the personality traits and the disorders apparent within them. With personality disorders, often â€Å"it is difficult to see how an extreme score on dimensions such as conscientiousness, extraversion, or agreeableness is necessarily pathological. Researchers agreed that there were to be other additional factors that needed be present to justify the diagnosis (Livesley & Jang, p. 262). That additional trait is inflexibility and subjective Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS distress (Livesley & Jang, p. 259). The character trait of inflexibility is defined as one where the person has extreme traits, but not necessarily only an extreme position noted on any given trait. For example, a person who is extremely open and gregarious, but then is not able to tone down his personality when necessary would be an example of this trait. Continuing with this example, what would make the person who is considered otherwise outgoing and spontaneous a person who is suffering from a personality disorder? Maladaptive Personalities The answer may come from prior work done by researchers who were determining personality and abnormal personality disorders. Extreme actions alone were not enough to say the person operated outside of â€Å"normal† personality parameters. The researchers at the time believed that personality disorders were the result of someone suffering from an abnormal variation of a personality being studied. It was measured in how much the person suffered from the disorder. This is where the theory of maladaptation or dyscontrolled impairment came into play (Widiger & Trull, 1991; Widiger & Sankis, 2000). The reason the researchers sought a generalized definition is that without one, they â€Å"would have to catalogue the various maladaptive manifestations of each trait† (Livesley & Jang, p. 263). This was a difficult proposition, since even â€Å"normal† people were prone to exhibit maladaptive traits at some time in their lives. Another problem came with the idea of traits as one certain set of behaviors that were noted on subjects clinically or otherwise. Extreme exhibitions of a trait may show some measureable amount of psychopathology, but were not exclusively indicative of being considered classically maladaptive. In this way, the researchers determined Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS that the â€Å"definition of personality disorder needs to incorporate features of disorder that are separate from, although possibly correlated with, extreme trait variation† (Livesley & Jang, p. 263). Harmful Dysfunctional Traits in Personalities These descriptions of personality were necessary because there were more than these factors to consider when determining a personality disorder. In fact, personality was considered to be â€Å"a system of interrelated structures and processes† (Costa & McCrae, 1994; Mischel, 1999; Vernon, 1964) which included a person’ dispositional traits, motives, coping mechanisms, and ability to tame impulses are part of the process of determining normal or abnormal indications of personality. In other words, if these traits were considered â€Å"harmful dysfunctions,† (Wakefield, 1992; Livesley & Jang, p. 263) they consisted of harmful traits that were underlying natural functions. So, the definition of a personality disorder can be considered a harmful dysfunction in the normally adaptive functions of a person’s personality system (Livesley & Jang, p. 263) Another issue within the developing studies of personality disorders was that personality functions were considered to be seen as disturbed in individuals who exhibited personality disorders. Researcher Cantor described a person’s personality as the types of tasks a person sets as personal goals, and they way the person looks at his or her â€Å"self, and life situations, and the strategies used to achieve personal tasks† (Livesley & Jang, p. 263). This delineation of personality traits offered a true to form definition of what a personality disorder consisted of for the individual suffering from it. It was considered of a higher order than simply a dysfunction of a personality trait. Here it was described as needing to concentrate on life tasks as the Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS determining factor to determining if an individual had a personality disorder, and was therefore considered abnormal in terms of functioning personality. The researchers assumed that as a person lives his life, he orders his tasks as to what he sets as priorities for completing goals and meeting the needs of his immediate surrounding community and culture. This comes under the order of living in society and meeting the expectations of people who live near the individual, or a way of fitting in within his community. It also had to do with the person’s mean biology, or biological features characteristic of the individual. In fact, these tasks did vary depending on where the person lived and what the person had do to be able to survive in his culture. These may come under the umbrella of life skills, and they are definitely different considering where a person lived or had grown up. For example, a person who grew up in a small native Alaskan out island would have different life skills that ould a person who grew up and lived in a borough of Manhattan, NY. The two personalities of these individuals might be similar, but their life skills would be developed in obviously different ways. The person living in the native island village would have an understanding of the elements and what is necessary for bare-bones survival in possibly e xtreme conditions. While, the person who grew up in the city would have to understand how to be â€Å"street smart† and may need to know how to survive in even a potentially violent atmosphere if the neighborhood suggested those skills were essential to survive on a daily basis. Each individual may otherwise be soft spoken, or be considered similarly warm-hearted or kind. But decidedly, their life skills would separate them and put them a world away from each other in what they knew and needed to depend on to survive in their environment on a daily basis. Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS Universal Tasks Underlying Personality Traits The researchers then understood that there would need to be a set of universal tasks that needed to be identified. These universal tasks were considered of â€Å"evolutionary significance† nd featured four universal challenges as set by Plutchik (1980). These were the four ways a person’s identity was developed and they included: the solution to the problems of dominance and submissiveness created by hierarchy that is characteristic of primate social hierarchies; development of a sense of territoriality or belongingness; and solution to the problems of temporality, that is, problems of loss and separation. This allowed the researchers studying personality disorders to come to the conclusion that personality disorders prevented an individual from managing the adaptive answers or solutions hat were considered universally applicable to everyone, or a person’s life tasks. When an individual had a deficit in any of these areas, there was a noted â€Å"harmful dysfunction† and the person was unable to adapt to be able to function in his environment or society. The life tasks then seen as either being fulfilled or being abandoned by the individual, probably because of this identified deficit. Personality disorder was seen as different from other disorders by the fact that these failures â€Å"should be enduring and traceable to adolescence or at least early adulthood and hey should be due to extreme personality variation rather than another pervasive and chronic mental disorder such as a cognitive or schizophrenic disorder† (Livesley & Jang, p. 26 4). Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS Evolutionary Sense Within Personality Traits There was talk of the individual not being able to adapt to his environment in an â€Å"evolutionary sense† which spoke to whether the person had garnered enough skills for ensuring adaptive social behavior to allow reproduction and survival (Livesley & Jang, p. 264). This was xplained as stating that the adaptive traits would contribute to the person adapting to his environment and society in general, and the person adapting to his family unit would move the person towards being able to rear children and eventually reproduce to pass down his traits to offspring later on. This is the general definition of people who have self confidence in their dealings with others, and are able to live in harmony in stable relationships, while becoming productive members within their society or community. These can be seen to be part of the ancestral or evolutionary needs of ev ery individual, whether the person had an abnormal ersonality or normal personality. The more common description of an abnormal personality comes from what the common person observes when someone has problems dealing within a relationship. Rutter (1987) stated that personality disorders were characterized by â€Å"persistent, pervasive abnormality in social relationships and social functioning generally† (Rutter, p. 454). Also, Tyrer (2001) stated that â€Å"we do not necessarily need to know everything about someone's personality to recognise the elements that make it disordered† (Tyrer, p. 83). Tyrer states quite honestly that psychiatrists iew these descriptive axioms as something to be deferred, and says â€Å"personality disorder and mental retardation are stigmatic terms that psychiatrists like to avoid† (Tyrer, p. 83). So the question is, how can one determine the underlying normality within the abnormal Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONA LITY DISORDERS personality? For this the clinician and the layperson need review the DSM-III, considered the premier source of personality disorder classification (American Psychiatric Association, 1980). The DSM classifies what is considered normal and abnormal in terms of personality. The professionals in the field disagree to the proposed stereotyping of this group of classifications, on the basis of the fact that such profiling is considered â€Å"quite inappropriate in such a complicated field† (Tyrer, p. 84). In fact, it appears that there are burgeoning alternative and substitute classifications being used for determining personality disorders in surveys, trials, studies and private practice. Most people would be surprised to find out that this topic has been heatedly debated over the past two decades. Many people most likely assume that there is one clinical efinition of what is normal, and what is not normal when it comes to personality disorders. The media plays into this, as well as the television and movie plots. The person seen as abnormal is cloaked in symbolic black, speaks in a raspy voice or has otherwise obvious mentally deviant behaviors that even the least sophisticated person in the audience could confidently label as the â€Å"bad guy. † Personality Disorders Studied Abroad Even the study of personality disorders abroad have led researchers to agree to disagree in the area of determining how to describe profiles for patients with underlying normal traits within heir abnormal personality profiles. In a study performed by McCrae (2001) in The People’s Republic of China, 1,909 psychiatric patients were examined to determine the accuracy of the hypotheses determined from the Interpretive Report of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (McCrae, p. 155). The researchers determined that the PDs were not separate categories that Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS could be determined in a vacuum. They realized that they needed to consider a more comprehensive and forgiving system of personality traits, to be considered an accurate measure f the patient’s personality issues and concerns. The researchers found that the personality traits of the patients did not fit into the DSM-IV defined traits. They did â€Å"draw on the same five underlying personality traits† (McCrae, p. 171), and were considered redundant, but there were several areas of overlap to be considered conclusive. In fact, over 60% of the patients that were being treated for maladaptive personalities were not meeting the criteria defined in the DSM-IV, as relating to any criteria for a PD (McCrae, p. 171). The maladaptive behaviors, the person’s habits and personal attitudes were all measured o find a comprehensive scale for measuring the personality traits of the patients. It was determined that the results were insignificant, and concluded that personality profiles were â€Å"modest predictors of categorical PDs, but they are immensely informative about people† (McCrae, p. 172). Treatment Options for Abnormal Personality Traits But clinicians and psychiatrists are still interested in treating and helping people who exhibit the traits of these personality disorders identified above. They are in disagreement whether there are normal traits that are underlying the abnormal personality traits that deserve to e treated in an effort to offer the patient an opportunity to live a full and productive life. This is a critical option for people who have normal personality traits, but also exhibit the identified borderline abnormal personality traits as well within their psyche. Over a half decade ago, the best treatments were heralded as therapeutic, and they seemed Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS to promise the greatest success overall. But today, there are many alternate treatments available for individuals exhibiting abnormal personality disorders. They include drug therapies, sychodynamic therapy, day hospital intervention, and dialectical behavior therapy (Linehan, 1992, Tyrer, p. 84). Other methods of treatment that carry high success for the patients are the partial hospitalization of patients (Bateman & Fonagy, 1999). Bateman & Fonagy compared the effectiveness of treating patients exhibiting borderline personality disorders with partial hospitalization s a standard psychiatric care. They studied thirty-eight patients with borderline personality disorder and offered them individual and group psychoanalytic psychotherapy, for up to 18 months (Bateman & Fonagy, 1999). The results were that the patients who had been partially hospitalized did exhibit less problems, with â€Å"An improvement in depressive symptoms, a decrease in suicidal and self-mutilatory acts, reduced inpatient days, and better social and interpersonal function began at 6 months and continued until the end of treatment at 18 months† (Bateman & Fonagy, 1999). Their conclusion was that the partial hospitalization was determined as a far superior type of psychiatric care for those patients exhibiting borderline personality disorder. This treatment option was in opposition with the standard treatment options of the herapies listed above. These results were similar in the study by Piper, (1993) where a day treatment program at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta was studied. The patients were referred from the day treatment program and walk-in clinic, and utilized participants with â€Å"chronically disturbed non-schizophrenic patients, who usually have aff ective and personality disorders† (Piper, p. 757). The results of the study were that day treatment programs were considered effective for patients with long-term nonschizophrenic disorders. The Running Head: NORMAL TRAITS WITHIN ABNORMAL PERSONALITY DISORDERS atients noted significant improvement in â€Å"four of the five areas studied—interpersonal functioning, symptomatology, life satisfaction, and self-esteem—as well as in several of disturbance associated with individual objectives (Piper, p. 762). Reference American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn) (DSM—III). Washington, DC: APA. Bateman, A. & Fonagy, P. (1999). Effectiveness of partial hospitalization in the treatment of borderline personality disorder: a randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 1563-1569. Retrieved on April 9, 2010 from http://ajp. sychiatryonline. org/cgi/content/full/156/10/1563? ijkey=bb19a5d 116af525fe927da3b0a0c0250f3d61de3 Costa, P. T. , & McCrae, R. R. (1994). Can personality change? In T. F. Heatherton, & J. L. Weinberger (Eds. ), Can personality change? (pp. 21–40). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Linehan, M. M. (1992) Cognitive Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder. New York: Guilford Press. Livesley, W. John & Jang, Kerry L.. (2005). Differentiating normal, abnormal, and disordered personality, European Journal of Personality, 19(4), 257-268. Markon, K. E, Krueger, R. F. , & Watson, D. (2005). Delineating the structure of normal and bnormal personality: An integrative hierarchical approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 139–157. EBSCO Database: Academic Search Premier. McCrae, Robert R. , Jian, Yang, et al. (2001). Personality Profiles and the Prediction of Categorical Personality Disorders. Journal of Personality, 69(2), 155-174. Mischel, W. (1999). Personality coherence and dispositions in a Cognitiveà ¢â‚¬â€œAffective Personality System (CAPS) approach. In D. Cervone, & Y. Shoda (Eds. ), The coherence of personality (pp. 37–60). New York: Guilford. O’Connor B. P. (2002). The search for dimensional structure differences between normality and bnormality: A statistical review of published data on personality and psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 83(4), 962–982. Retrieved on April 9, 2010 from http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pubmed/12374447 O’Connor B. P. & Dyce J. A. (2001) Rigid and extreme: A geometric representation of personality disorders in five-factor model space. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1119–1130. PubMed Database. Piper, W. E. , Rosie, J. S. , Azim, H. F. A, Joyce A. S. (1993). A randomized trial of psychiatric day treatment for patients with affective and personality disorders. Hosp Community Psychiatry, 44, 757–763. Plutchik, R. (1980). A general psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. In R. Plutchik, & H. Kellerman (Eds. ), Emotion: Theory, research, and experience (pp. 3–33). San Diego, CA: Academic. Rutter, M. (1987). Temperament, personality and personality disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 443–458. Tyrer, Peter. (2001). Personality disorder. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 179, 81-84. Retrieved on April 9, 2010 from http://bjp. rcpsych. org/cgi/content/full/179/1/81 Watson, David, Clark, Lee Anna, Chmielewski, Michael. (2008). Structures of Personality and Their Relevance to Psychopathology: II. Further Articulation of a Comprehensive Unified Trait Structure. Journal of Personality, 76(6), 1545-1586. EBSCO Database: Academic Search Premier. Vernon, P. E. (1964). Personality assessment: A critical survey. London: Methuen. Wakefield, J. C. (1992). Disorder as harmful dysfunction: A conceptual critique of DSM-III-R’s definition of mental disorder. Psychological Review, 99, 232–247. Widiger, T. A. , & Sankis, L. M. (2000). Adult psychopathology: Issues and controversies. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 377–404. Widiger, T. A. , & Trull, T. J. (1991). Diagnosis and clinical assessment. Annual Review of

The Last Samurai Being a Favorite Movie

The movie The Last Samurai was not only a great fighting action movie but it also touched on human spirituality, cultural, lifestyle difference and the effect of Japanese culture on a western man. The movie was created in 2003 and takes place in Jap in the 1860s. An American military advisor is embraces the samurai culture that he was hired to destroy after being capture. The battle scenes in The Last Samurai are accurate to how the samurai fought back then from weapons to battle strategies.The warrior strategies of the samurai were determined in part by the weapons that were being used as was the topography of the battle site where the fight was being conducted. They would use up close cavalry for open plains battle, while having archers in the mountains that were better suited for the forest and rocky terrains. They are able to combine these two ways to conduct long range and up close melee attacks during a battle. There are two completely different cultures that clash throughout t he movie.You have the Japanese old Samurai culture that hasn't changed for hundreds of years. Then there is the still new western American culture that Japan is trying to adapt into. The Japanese Samurai culture has always has great discipline and lived by the code of Bushido. Bushido has seven virtues to it which are, Duty or also known as Right Action, Courage, Benevolence, Morality, Truthfulness, Honor and Loyalty. They would live everyday disciplining themselves to this and believed so highly in it that if they disgraced themselves they would commit Seppuku which is taking their own life.While you have the new still forming western culture of America where people were more selfish greedy and wild instead of discipline. They strongly believed in growing stronger through selling or trading and expanding their reaches across the globe. In the beginning of the movie you will see the main character Major Nathan Algeren of the united states army who is sadden, angry and a personal los t of oneself. He despises himself so much that he has to lose himself every night in a bottle of alcohol hoping and wishing someone will release him from his pain by killing him.When he is capture by the same people he was suppose destroy, he is then able to see and study the way of how another culture lives. He eventually takes part in the ways of the Samurai and experiences the mysterious culture of his enemy. By keeping an open mind and fully taking in what he learned from the different culture of his enemies he is able to find a peace within himself that he has never felt before and a new path of life that he can follow happily with no regrets.The movie does have awesome historical accurate battle scenes but it also has a deeper story about how a different culture that can seem strange at first effect someone in a good way. Major Nathan Algeren was an unstable person that thought he didn't deserve to live but was able to find a peace that he never imagined through learning and e xperiencing a different culture that he use to refer to as primitive. It's just like the quote â€Å"never judge a book by its cover†.

The Prodigal Son Essays

The Prodigal Son Essays The Prodigal Son Essay The Prodigal Son Essay In only a couple of weeks we come to Great Lent, the period of fasting, prayer, and preparation before Christ rises from the dead. In order to prepare for this great event, there are a few skills that we as Orthodox Christians must keep in mind. One of these is forgiveness. Jesus’ message about forgiveness is clearly given to us in the bible through the parable of the Prodigal Son. In this story, two brothers are promised large inheritances from their father. However, while the older brother patiently waits for his inheritance, the younger brother asks for his share right away. He ends up wasting all of his money on material items, and not saving any for food or shelter. The younger son returns to his father’s house, not expecting a warms welcome. However, the father is thrilled to see him, and even prepares a banquet for him. The older brother is upset that the father welcomed the younger brother back, but the father tells him that he should be happy, because â€Å"his brother who was once lost had been found†. We as Orthodox Christians can learn a lot about forgiveness from the parable of the Prodigal Son. A lot of times many of us feel like the older brother in the story. When somebody hurts our feelings, or does something bad to us, we don’t really want to forgive them for what they did. However, God’s message is very clear. Even though the younger son hurt his father by taking all of his money and wasting it, the father forgave him. We need to follow this example as well. If we can’t forgive other people for what they have done to us, then how can we expect God to forgive us for all of the things that we have done against him? If we all keep this idea in mind, and remember God’s message to forgive others, we will be able to come into Great Lent with a clean spirit, and will be much more prepared for Christ’s resurrection.

The Metaphysics of John Stuart Mill in Relation to Philippine Government Essays

The Metaphysics of John Stuart Mill in Relation to Philippine Government Essays The Metaphysics of John Stuart Mill in Relation to Philippine Government Essay The Metaphysics of John Stuart Mill in Relation to Philippine Government Essay Essay Topic: Second Treatise of Government II. Table of Contents Chapter 1 Acknowledgement 3 Abstract 4 Chapter 2 Introduction 5-6 Theoretical Framework 7 Statement of the Problem 8 Thesis Statement Review of Related Literature 9-19 Chapter 3 Methodology 22-34 Presentation and analysis of Problems Q#1: What is the problem of the Self according to Nishida Kitaro? Q#2: What is David Hume’s concept of the Self? Q#3: What is the implication of their Metaphysical philosophies of the self to the centripetal morality of the Filipinos? Chapter 4 Summary 35-37 Conclusion 37-41 References 42-43 Chapter 1 Acknowledgement This is a discourse that is made for metaphysical study that brought enlightenment with the two different paradigms that explicate the essential attribution to the implication of the self to the Filipino. I would like to acknowledge the help of some people who made this research possible Dr. Segundo Sim for his direction, assistance, and guidance particularly in his recommendations and suggestions have been invaluable for the research. I also wish to thank Sir Garnace, who has taught me techniques of writing. Special thanks should be given to my classmates and colleagues who helped me in many ways. Finally, words alone cannot express the thanks I owe to my family for their encouragement and assistance. Abstract Although philosophical inquiries regarding the notion of the self bombarded through different elucidation of philosophers still encompasses the internal aspect of within as a metaphysical commitment which regard to the notion of the East and West paradigm. This paper aims to elucidate in comparative way the essential contribution of the philosophies of two different paradigms with the essential thought of metaphysical assertion. It entails the significance towards metaphysical endowment as a very profound distinction and similarities thru a bi polar elucidation regarding the concept of David Hume’s commencement of the self as no self at all, that everything underlies within the notion of impression, and that the self is no self at all. In Nishida Kitaro’s commencement he explicitly determined the stance of the self in the pure experience towards a nihilistic point of view which he determined that a self is a Basho or place, as an empty self. Towards the two philosophies of the self as a metaphysical genealogy intertwine the metaphysical through ethical relation of the centripetal morality of the actuality and the potentiality of the being ness of the Filipinos. Chapter 2 Introduction This paper aims to expose in a comparative way the ideas of Scottish philosopher David Hume and Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitaro both studies talks about the metaphysical understanding a propos notion of the Self and the repercussion to the centripetal morality of the Filipinos. A comparative way of explicating not leading to a chauvinistic elucidation but an affirmative thought between the two. Both thoughts consider the metaphysical attribution of the Self in a necessary relation determining the pursuit of the self or a person and the extraordinary conception of causation of beings. The unravel spirit of formulating thoughts regarding the diversity of the concept is a view of exhilarating the close door in a new light of horizon. The ideas of two different paradigms, the East and West have in a way the same conception that will elucidate their affinity and even the diversity will be serve somehow as an enlightenment, a determinant factor of a fascinating point of view of life in the meadow of philosophizing in a prolific manner. This will somehow shows a connection that will outpour the transcendental understanding of the self of an individual and the intertwining part towards morality. Thou, it implied denotes the bond within the necessary connection of the two paradigm will surely enlighten the reader in the spirit signification of a merely self of a person into a selfhood act to forsake what is the reality of the inter connection that purports the two representation and the metaphysical connection of the self and the pure experience as a notion that is necessarily for the convenience essentiality of this paper. The relationship of the self to metaphysics is the being of man that constitutes the whole embedded part of the ontological and transcendental aspect of one’s own essential attribute in the world. Man is a Self determining being, the place of the self to reality serve as a teleological concept, thou not genuine still emerge the possibility of the impossibility that takes place in the being ness capable of living. The teleological character of the unity we ascribe to the self is further illustrated by the puzzles suggested by the â€Å"alternate and multiple† personalities a connection of the past life to a new life as being the expression of aims and interests which were at least implicitly and as tendencies already present though concealed in the old connotation that will lead to uplift the individual self. The self implies and has no existence apart from a not self and it is only the contrast with the not self that’s aware of it self as a self. The feeling of self is certainly not an inseparable concomitant of all our experience. Self consciousnesses are source of weakness and moral failure. While we are steadily engaged in the progressive execution of a purpose we lose ourselves in the work, it is only upon a check that we become self conscious. Self consciousness in the bad sense always arises from a sense of an incongruity between the self and some contrasted object or environment. This paper will elucidate the two philosophies of the great philosophers which regard to self Theoretical Framework The researcher uses a theoretical framework to explain the concept of Nishida Kitaro and David Hume’s notion of the Self and its relation to the Centripetal Morality of Filipinos. The researcher will elucidate the two paradigm enable to have a grasp in the two different philosophies of the East and West and how they are connected to the centripetal morality of Filipinos. And through discussing what are the two diverse fields of a metaphysical philosophy the researcher will explicate the essential correlation towards the moral aspect in effect to the morality of Filipinos. Statement of the problem 1. What is the problem of the Self according to Nishida Kitaro? 2. What is David Hume’s concept of the Self? 3. What is the implication of their Metaphysical philosophies of the Self to the centripetal morality of the Filipinos? Thesis Statement The Metaphysical philosophy of Hume and Nishida is a manifestation of a life, a life that embedded a direct way of viewing the external exemplification to substantiate the discourse between the two, through the ordinary. An internal co relation to the external out view of the self towards the life of the Filipinos will surely afflict the individual of a person towards the being ness as an uninfringeable essential factor of one’s own self. There is no definite line of demarcation between self and not-self the self on its side consisting of me and the not self is social, the self on its side consisting of me and the not-self of other men. The self is essentially a thing of development and as such has its being in the time process. The nature of the experience is the concept of the self is based. The self is never identical with anything that could be found completely existing at any one moment in the mental life. Self is essentially an ideal and an ideal which is apprehended as contrasted with present actuality. They ought and the must also know nothing of the feeling of self. Review of Related Literature Kant’s concept of the self Kant’s concept of the self is a response to Hume in part. Kant wished to justify a conviction in physics as a body of universal truth. The other being to insulate religion, especially a belief in immortality and free will (Brooks 2004). In the Inaugural Dissertation of 1770, Kant corrected earlier problems of a non-material soul having localization in space. Kant used inner sense to defend the heterogeneity of body and soul: â€Å"bodies are objects of outer sense; souls are objects of inner sense† (Carpenter 2004). In Kant’s thought there are two components of the self: 1. inner-self 2. Outer-self (Brooks 2004). There are two kinds of consciousness of self: consciousness of oneself and ones psychological states in inner sense and consciousness of oneself and ones states via performing acts of apperception. Empirical self-consciousness is the term Kant used to describe the inner self. Transcendental apperception or (TA) is used in two manners by Kant for the term. The first being a synthetic faculty and a second as the â€Å"I† as subject. One will note that logically this function would occur in inner sense (Brooks 2004). Kant states that all representational states are in inner sense include all spatially localized outer objects. The origin or our representations regardless if they are the product of a priori or outer objects as modifications of the mind belong to inner sense. Kant presents apperception as a means to consciousness to one’s self. Inner sense is not pure apperception. It is an awareness of what we are experiencing as we are affected by thought (Brooks 2004). Brooks cites three types of synthesis. Kant claimed, there are three types of synthesis required to organize information, namely apprehending in intuition, reproducing in imagination, and recognizing in concepts (A97-A105). Synthesis of apprehension concerns raw perceptual input, synthesis of recognition concerns concepts, and synthesis of reproduction in imagination allows the mind to go from the one to the other. † (Brooks 2004). Unity of experience and consciousness are integral to the concept of the self. Transcendental apperception has function to unite all appearances into one experience. This is a unity based on causal l aws. There is a synthesis according to concepts that subordinates all to transcendental unity. According to Kant the contents of consciousness must have causal connections to be unified (Brooks 2004). Kant argues that in the present progressive one can be aware of oneself by an act of representing (Kant 1789). Representation is not intuitive but a spontaneous act of performing or doing things. Man knows that by doing and fulfilling activities that these impressions cannot be simply sensations resulting from the senses. Representation fulfills three acts. An act of representing can make one conscious of its object, itself and oneself as its subject; the representational base of consciousness of these three items. Becoming conscious of our selves is simply an act of representation and nothing more (Brooks 2004). Kant postulates that there is a plurality of representations that gives rise to our view of self as a â€Å"single common subject†. This concept requires a constant undivided self. This concept is a continuation of global unity that spans many representations, one does not have to be conscious of the global object but of oneself as subject of all representations (Kant 1787). Kant’s self has a unity of self reference, â€Å"When we are conscious of ourselves as subject, we are conscious of urselves as the â€Å"single common subject† [CPR, A350] of a number of representations. † (Kant 1787). Here Kant confirms that the impressions we perceive have one single common aim and that is the self as subject of these experiences. Kant postulates both senses as empirical but with the object of inner self being the soul. Transcendental apperception is a priori. Kant ma intains the use of intuitive faculties of intuition and synthesis in inner self where innate material unites the spatially located objects from the outer self. Here, this permits a downward deductive operation to act from Kant’s theology while preserving an inductive operation from the sense world of our experience. The Essential Self through the Essence and Existence With the concept of rationality, we found ourselves moving from questions about pure reality and back to questions about ourselves and our own activities. In deed with the concept of subjective truth, we found a renewed emphasis on personal questions, questions about self rather than questions about the world. What is the self? What is to be a person? What do you know when you ‘know your self? What is someone telling you to be when he or she tells you ‘just to be yourself†? Real self, a self that does not vary from context. Philosophers have called the real self the essential self that is the set of characteristics that defines a particular person. The experience of our real, or essential, self is familiar to us in a great many circumstances. Self as Consciousness What am I? A thing which thinks. What is a thing which thinks? It is a thing which doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, which also imagines and feels. The theory that the essential self of self identity is the mind or self consciousness can be traced back to ancient times, but its best known defender is the philosopher Descartes, who presented a simple but elegant argument that the individual self is the first thing that each of us can know for certain and that this self, which is indubitable is nothings else but the thinking self, the self that is aware of itself. Kierkegaard: The Passionate Self It is impossible to exist without passion, unless we understand the world exist in the loose sense of a so called existence. Eternity is the winged horse, infinitely fast and time is a worn out nag; the existing individual is the driver, that is to say he is such a driver when his mode of existence is not an existence loosely so called; for then he is no driver but a drunken peasant who lies asleep in the wagon and lets the horses take care of themselves. To be sure he also drives and is a driver; and so there are perhaps many who also exist. The Self as an Open Question If self identity is defined by our answer to the question who am i? One possible answer is nothing yet, nothing definite. If one sees the self not as an inner soul which is in us from birth, but rather as a product of our actions and thought, then self identity is something to be earned, not an already existing fact to be discovered. The existentialist Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) would say that all of those theories which take the self to be found in consciousness are misconceived, the self is not simply thinking, not is it memory of past. The self lies always in the future; it is what we aim toward as we try to make ourselves into something. But this means that as long as we are alive there is no self at least, no fixes and finished self. The self is an open question. What this means is that there is no real self other than the self that we make for ourselves. Kierkegaard’s language all choices are subjective truths, true for the person who makes them but not necessarily true for anyone else. The self is what each of us chooses for ourselves, our protection into our future, our intentions to become a particular kind of person. But as we never wholly achieve this for even when our ambitions are fulfilled we can always change our mind, formulate new ambitions, and so on the self never really exists in full. It is always at best. Alternative Conceptions of Self as Consciousness Plato has defined self in terms of rational thought as opposed to mere thinking, which can be rational or irrational. The Self in Contextualized Action (Shaun Gallagher and Anthony J. Marcel) We identify two forms of self-consciousness, ecological self-awareness and embedded reflection, that (1) function within the kinds of contextualized activity we have indicated, and (2) can be the basis for a theoretical account of the self. Both forms of consciousness are closely tied to action and promise to provide a less abstract basis for developing a theoretical approach to the self. To get clear about philosophical problems, it is useful to become conscious of the apparently unimportant details of the particular situation in which we are inclined to make a certain metaphysical assertion. (Wittgenstein) The self that we are does not possess itself; one could say that it happens' (Gadamer) Overt action is indivisible . . . . It is the whole i ndividual who acts in the real environment (Neisser) Surprising and seemingly counter-intuitive results are not uncommon when philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists, employing a variety of first- and third-person approaches, search for an adequate model of the self. At least one philosopher equates the self with a momentary existence so that we are said to live through a large number of consecutive momentary selves (Strawson 1997). Other philosophers, introspectively exploring the stream of consciousness, fail to find anything at all that resembles a self (Hume 1739). When faced with a range of questions about self (questions pertaining to identity, experience of self, nature of self, and so forth) most theorists approach the topic in a manner that is abstract or detached from behavior and/or action normally embedded in contextualized situations. We also want to suggest that most of the controversies, problems, and paradoxes concerning the notion of self are the result of searching for the self within these abstract perspectives. We suggest a different starting point and strategy for developing models of a self which is more contextualized within the realm of action. First, we want to be clear that although this paper is centrally concerned with the nature of the self,   there is a necessarily related issue that we address, namely, the question of access to the self, and whether there can be certain forms of self-consciousness that are not abstractions from contextualized ituations. The promise of a sound basis for the development of a theoretical conception of a contextualized self is only good if in fact there are reliable forms of contextualized self-consciousness since the primary method for getting a grasp on the self is through first-person self-experience. Beyond this, however, the question of access is essentially l inked with the question of the nature of the self. Access (self-consciousness) is constitutive of self. Second, we wish to be clear that in sketching an approach to a conception of a self in contextualized action, we do not assume that there is only one kind of self or that an explanation of the contextualized self will be an explanation of every sense of self. Other approaches, such as the Meadian analysis of a socially constituted self, or the notion of an autobiographical self, can reveal important and valid conceptions of self. The Ethical Self What we want to call embedded reflection is not the same as the hyper reflective or introspective consciousness we identified in previous sections as a form of abstract, de contextualized behavior. We may state the difference in this way. Embedded reflection is a first-person reflective consciousness that is embedded in a pragmatically or socially contextualized situation. It involves the type of activity that I engage in when someone asks me what I am doing or what I plan to do. In such reflection I do not take consciousness or the self as a direct or introspective object of my reflection; I do not suddenly take on the role of a phenomenologist or theorist for the sake of answering the question. Rather I start to think matters through in terms of possible actions. I treat myself (I discover myself) as an agent. In such situations, my attention is directed not in a reflective inspection of consciousness as consciousness, but toward my own activities in the world where my intentions are already directed. Often my aim in such reflection is not to represent my self to myself, as if it were a piece of furniture in my mind, but to continue certain actions or to explain myself in terms of my action. What is the Self? The Numerical Self (Claro R. Ceniza) Two dimensions of identity of things; their generic and specific identities, on the one hand, and their numerical identities on the other. The generic and specific identities of object refer to their identities as classes, the generic identity having references to the larger class to which an entity belongs, and the specific identity referring to the lowest class to which the individuals belongs and this for our purposes could be the individuals itself. Generics identities may be arrange in a hierarchy of higher and higher classes, the highest class to which an individual belongs being called its SUMMUM GENUS that is in highest class. We may speak of identity in the sense of numerical identity. The numerical identity refers to the identity of individuals with itself. Numerical identity refers to the identity of an individual neither in terms of the classes to which it could belong nor to its properties, but to its history’s individual. For things, spatio- temporal continuities the general criterion although there are exception to this. For humans, memory is perhaps the ultimate criterion, although for ordinary cases. Spatio-temporal continuity is often regarded as adequate. Numerically one and the same. Another example is dotted lines obviously. These are not spatio-temporally continuous, but dotted lines may often be numerically distinguished from each other. With human the continuity of memory is more important than spatio-temporal continuity. When a person writes his bio-data, he more often than not to refer to his numerical identity and recounts his personal history and achievements as an individual. The greater importance of a continuous memory train as the more significant criterion for the numerical identity o persons is shown by the fact that, whether ones believes in it or not, the concept of reincarnation would be impossible, if not for the fact that the possible continuity of memory could be taken as more basic for The numerical identification of an individual, than spatio-temporal continuity, since clearly there is no spatio-temporal continuity between death of a previous embodiment and the birth of the next, spatio –temporal continuity is often considered adequate for the numerical identification of persons. We may regard the numerical identity of a person as his objective self. It is one’ self as seen by others, and as one sees himself objectively as part of a community of persons. What is the Self? The Generic Self The generic self of a person is the class or classes to which the person belongs, according to the way the custom has established these classes relative to him. Thus, a person may be classified as a father, a citizen, a teacher, husband, adult, etc. These classifications and the way he behaves accordingly are important to a person’s self-identity and self-identification and they usually determine his normal behavior, and what others expect. Confucius recognized the importance of role-playing in the society. He said that we all play roles in society- perhaps many roles for each one of us. A harmonious society is one where everyone plays his role at it should be played, according to the name given to that role. A person’s actions should be in accordance with the role or roles that he plays. A person is his roles, He may add to it the unique way he plays it well. Chapter 3 Methodology The researcher will use the comparative way of explicating the metaphysical philosophies of Nishida vis-a-vis Hume and the interrelation of the two philosophers to the centripetal morality of the Filipinos. All the materials are gathered from different libraries and internet research. A documentary abstraction guide will be used by the researcher as an instrument in gathering data. The researcher is able to come up to this topic because the essential part of being ness lies within the self, starts within the self before outpouring with the whole, a part that embedded the necessary significant towards metaphysical aspect to the paradigm of ethics. This study only discusses the definition, exposition of the comparative field of the East and West paradigm. For the philosophical metaphysics of Nishida and for Hume, the main idea regarding the two philosophers purports the essential connection imply with the centripetal morality of Filipinos. Analysis of Data The first level of discussion will discuss the metaphysical philosophy of Nishida and Hume. The second level of discussion will discuss the comparison and contrast, difference and similarities, of the Philosophers metaphysical thought and the relationship to the centripetal morality of Filipinos. Chapter 1 introduces the study. Chapter 2 discusses the different concepts philosopher regarding the self. Chapter 3 presents some concepts of the self and Nishida’s as well as Hume’s in relation to centripetal morality of Filipinos. Presentation and Analysis of Problems 1. What is the problem of the Self according to Nishida Kitaro? Nishida practiced Zen meditation in his early years and most of his work can be seen as an attempt to explore this experience. One of the fundamental questions that is considered between subject and object. His solution to the polarities of mind body, self world, me-other is to posit an original ground of existence that goes beyond such distinctions. In his first work, Zen No Kenkyo he writes variously on his topic: When one experiences directly one’s conscious state there is as yet neither subject nor object, and knowledge and its object are completely united, this is the purest form of experience. Why is love the union of subject and object? To love something is to cast away the self unite with that other. As emphasized in basic Buddhist thought, the self and the universe share the same foundation, or rather, they are the same thing. Nishida proposed a new thesis: that of ultimate reality as mu no basho, the place of absolute nothingness. Nothingness here corresponds closely to Nagarjuna’s concept shunyata or emptiness. This nothingness is not an absence of God or the self but an absence of quality, division or concept of all of the things which we need in order to define the separate existence of the ego self. By not being anything in particular, we are everything. Nishida eliminates the psychological terminology that had characterized his earlier work. Nishida’s Basho is a radically new concept. By imagining the self as Basho or place rather than as a point, consciousness or presence we move away from all ideas of individuality. Nishida sees in the extinguishing of the ego-self in the Basho the birth of the self as Basho. The basho has the power to unify the contradictions which underlie all existence, to effect the continuity of the discontinuity. In terms of Western logic, the basho violates the principles of contradictions and identity. Nishida claimed that the contradictions at the heart of everything were what caused the constant change and motion we observe in the universe. Only in the mu no basho are these dynamic oppositions reconciled. As a Buddhist, the ultimate good for Nishida is the realization of the true self, the Buddha nature. As a Zen Buddhist, Nishida argues that this realization should take place in he active world. His concept of acting intuition illustrates this the physical world of actions is expressive of the inner creativity of the basho. Only by living fully as historical individuals will the power of the self as Basho be made manifest. Nishida reminds us that â€Å"To study oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to realize oneself as all things. † For much of Japanese philosophy, in order to know our true self we must let go of the subject-object dichotomy with which we have been taken conditioned. We must let go of the voice of intellect in our pursuit and let our intuition open us up and allow awakening. In this awakening, not only do we awaken to our self, but we awaken to all reality. Before we look more closely at some Japanese Buddhist teachings, let us review some of ideas from the Neo-Confucian school. What can be constructed as the extreme positions with regard to the nature of the self? Self is an object or some thing Self is nothing Nishida Kitaro attempted to steer a path between these two extremes. For Nishida we cannot truly know the self if we take it to be either the subject or object of our knowing process. That is to say, the self is a place, or basho, that gives rise to knowledge. The self is neither the subject of an experience nor the object of knowing. The self is the experience discussing Nishida, Nishitani described this rapport between experience and self, â€Å"of which it is said not that there is experience because there is a self, but rather that there is a self because there is experience. † This confirms the long standing Buddhist teaching of no self. The actual self is a process. To this process, Nishida assigned a term, koiteki chokkan, acting intuition. Basho literally means â€Å"place† or â€Å"field† and suggests an all embracing environment within which all activity occurs. Because it is all embracing, this place o field is without boundaries and without a center of reference. Imagine an infinite circle without a circumference and without a center. As Yuasa stated: The basho is a fundamental restriction on being’ existence; without it, no beings can exist in the world. Even though basho is without boundaries, boundaries are in practice erected. They are constructed by our empirical self, or ego. Our empirical self, however, is not our true self, but instead the self as subject, a self –referential point of view whereby all else becomes the object for the empirical self. On other words, whereas Basho is a primordial field of oneness, discrimination now results from the construction of boundaries. The discriminating self, as subject, is not the true self. The genuine self, for Nishida and in line with Buddhist teachings, is thus a â€Å"self that is not a self. † This is why Nishida claimed that the self â€Å"lives by dying. † This is also why Nishida emphasized the faculty of intuition, not in a passive but in an active sense. It is through this active intuition that self realizes itself. Discursive, analytical knowledge is sufficient. For instance, consider the example of viewing a mountain. From one perspective the â€Å"I† is imbedded in a world of subject-object and mountain is the object of my knowledge. From another perspective, I realize the essential unity of all things. In this case, there is no subject-object duality, and the mountain is no longer separate from me. This native intuition maintains both perspectives at the same time. When this secret is mastered, living is dying and vice versa. Apparent contradictions are resolved. For Nishida, the self constitutes a unity of contradictions. Living is dying and dying is living. The opposition we normally pose between life and death is embraced in the Basho of self. We die and live at each single moment. This is the singular Buddhist truth of no substantiality; it reflects the paradox of our existence. When seem from our ordinary perspective, this paradox of life and death gives way to anxiety. When viewed from the perspective of the Basho of self, the paradox is embraced: My very existence is, therefore, an absolute contradiction, and it is this very realization that enables me to become truly self conscious. My individuality is my mortality, and my true nothingness is my immortality. I am a contradictory self, and my awareness of this is the ground of my religious awareness. Reality as Pure Experience, Nishida’s view is reminiscent of Zen Buddhism; he promotes Zen teachings using philosophical categories. Now Zen points directly to reality – what exists in its immediacy? Nishida viewed reality in much the same way; he directly pointed to pure experience as ultimate reality. Reality is that which underlies all our so called â€Å"experience. † We conventionally live in our ideas or images of the real, rather than in the real. Reality is the pure experience, which is the basis for conceptualization once conceptualization through reflection occurs, the experience becomes indirect. Reality remains the same unaffected by reflection. Reflection however gives birth to apparent modes of reality that are not in themselves truly real. When Nishida declares that reality is â€Å"pure experience† this means that reality within the present moment. Reality as Absolute Nothingness, all this is further sustained by his teaching concerning the primacy of â€Å"nothingness† over being. Absolute nothingness† is another phrase he ascribes to this pure experience. It is crucial to be aware that this â€Å"nothingness† is not the same as nihilism. Rather absolute nothingness transcends the opposition between being and nonbeing by embracing them. The term transcend can be misleading; it can give the impression of something beyond the realm of experience. The term immanent is also to be avoided becaus e it may lead to the impression of being immersed in our world if experience. Each of these terms implies the other. They each set up a dichotomy between being and nonbeing. Therefore for Nishida the preferred designation is absolute nothingness. Intellectual Intuition, a basic claim throughout Nishida is that we are able to directly experience this reality pure experience and absolute nothingness. The aim of his epistemology is to address more fully how this is possible. Nishida stressed an â€Å"intellectual intuition† that is able to acknowledge this reality. It is more of an immediate grasp of reality that is utterly transformative so much so that according to Nishida the experience is essentially religious. Our conventional or ordinary perception of thins is that we mistake what we conceive to be real with what is real. Yet what we conceive as being real is inspired by the force of our intellect and this drives us farther from the reality. Robert Carter’s metaphor of perching and flight is very appropriate: For Nishida to be aware of pure experience is not to deny conception and the various systematizations resulting from thinking but to ground them all in the original undifferentiated flow of pure flight. They are all perching and the only real error we make is to focus so fully on the perching the stable, fixed, resting places that we forget altogether how to fly. This ultimate reality points to the essential unity of all being. The awareness of this for Nishida religious consciousness. Nishida considered religion to be the fullest experiential integration of both world and self. This meant that God was equivalent to Nishida’s Absolute Nothingness. At the same time, God is also Absolute Being. Yet for Nishida, ultimate reality is not God, if by God we mean a separate self-subsistent reality. Neither is God an idea. God is this pure experience with out abstraction: And just as color appears to the eye as color and sound to the ear as sound so too God appears to the religious self as an event of one’s own soul. It is not a matter of God being conceivable or not conceivable in merely intellectual terms. What can be conceived or not conceived is not God. Nishida’s concept of the Self and Othe is that We can shift the focus from the action of the individual historical body to the interaction between distinct individuals, once again with the world as the mediating space of mutual formation. The relation between â€Å"I and Thou† was the first part that Nishida considered, although he continued to intertwine that relation with an internal relation in self-awareness. Where his previous analysis of individual self-awareness described it as a self-reflection of the universal of self-awareness, his description now incorporated the dimension of recognition. Each is a relative other to the self. . This other, recalling Nishidas notion of absolute, does not exclude the self; rather it constitutes self-identity as continually negating what it has been. Recognizing the absolute other within constitutes not simply a reflexive self-awareness but a self-awakening, a realizing of the â€Å"true self. † (Nishidas term jikaku translates as self-awakening, a Buddhist reading he undoubtedly intends, as well as self-awareness. ) Nishida allows for the Buddhist view that there is actually no self to awaken by referring to the self-awakening of absolute nothingness; its awaken ing is the awakening of the â€Å"true self. Absolute nothingness in action, as it were, entails a negation (of a substantial, self-same self) and an affirmation (of the true self). Nishida contends that toward the end of his life, perhaps thinking of the significance of death for understanding individuality, perhaps re-considering the theme of self-awakening as a kind of death and re-birth, Nishida delved deeper into the relation between the individual finite human self and the absolute or God. Experientially it comes to therefore in death. We will consider the meaning of death first, then the nature of God or the absolute in relation to the finite self. The theme of personal death is absent in Nishidas early work on pure experience and self-awareness, and mentioned only abstractly in essays on the historical world and the self, for example: â€Å"In absolute dialectics, mediation as absolute negation is mediation as absolute death, living by dying absolutely† Insofar as this is the finitude of the individual self, it also implies a logic of individuation where the role of other relative selves is dimished. If death is an ever-present opening, the other side of that opening so to speak is the absolute. To die is to stand vis-a-vis the absolute. If nothingness as opposed to being is implied, it is in the verbal sense of self-negating. The absolute arises through its own self-negation and inclusion of the relative self. God cannot be not wholly transcendent to or exclusive of the self or the world. To express the relation between a God and the relative finite self, Nishida introduces a new term, â€Å"inverse correspondence† or, we might say, contrary respondence (gyaku-taio). The more one faces ones death, the negation of ones life as an individual, the more acutely one is self-aware as an individual. The closer the finite self approaches God the stronger the difference between them becomes. This peculiar kind of relation implies that God and the relative self are inseparable but never dissolve into one another. If their distinction entails an undifferentiated source of their difference, an absolute nothingness, then the more that source is emphasized the stronger the distinction holds. 2. What is David Hume’s concept of the Self? The realization that the self can not be traced back to an impression is puzzling for Hume because on the one hand we have this feeling of our self but we also realize that we are to a certain extent always changing. Hume’s conclusion is that we are merely a bundle of impressions and that the self as something other than these impressions does not refer to anything. Hume believed that the entire contents of the mind were drawn from experience alone. The stimulus could be external or internal. In this nexus, Hume describes what he calls impressions in contrast to ideas. Impressions are vivid perceptions and were strong and lively. â€Å"I comprehend all our sensations, passions, and emotions as they make their first appearance in the soul. Ideas were images in thinking and reason. † (Flew 1962 p. 176). For Hume there is no mind or self. The perceptions that one has are only active when one is conscious. â€Å"When my perceptions are removed for any time, as by sound sleep, so long am I insensible of myself, and may truly be said not to exist. † (Flew 1962, p. 259). Hume appears to be reducing personality and cognition to a machine that may be turned on and off. Death brings with it the annihilation of the perceptions one has. Hume argues passions as the determinants of behavior. Hume also appears as a behaviorist believing that humans learn in the same manner as lower animals; that is through reward and punishment (Hergenhahn 2005). Skepticism is the guiding principle in what is no doubt non-recognition of meta-physics in this subject. Hume in the appendix to A Treatise on Human Nature addresses his conclusions (Hume 1789). In short there are two principles, which I cannot render consistent; nor is it in my power to renounce either of them, via, that all our distinct perceptions is distinct existences, and that the mind never perceives any real connection among distinct existences. Hume’s method of inquiry begins with his assumption that experience in the form of impressions cannot give rise to the constancy of a self in which would be constant to give reference to all future experiences. The idea of self is not one any one impression. It is several ideas and impressions in itself. There is no constant impression that endures for one’s whole life. Different sensations as pleasure and pain, or heat and cold are in a constant continuum that is invariable and not constant. â€Å"It cannot therefore be from any of these impressions, or from any other, that the idea of self is derived; and consequently there is no such idea (Hume 1789). It appears the closest thing that Hume could discuss as the self is similar to watching a film or a play of one’s life. These perceptions themselves are separate from one another and there is no unifying component as a self to organize such for long-term reference. Hume further deliberates over a position of identity of an invariable and uninterrupted existence. Hume confirms there is no primordial substance as to where all secondary existences of individual existence exist. Everything in our conscious state is derived from impressions. Objects in the outer world exist as distinct species that are separable from the secondary qualities in conscious thought. To negate any demonstration of substance Hume posits an analogy that if life was reduced to below that of an oyster, does this entity have any one perception as thirst or hunger? The only thing that would exist is the perception. Adding a higher complex of perception would not yield any notion of substance that could yield an independent and constant self. (Hume 1789). Hume’s model of the mind simply records data when such is manifestly conscious. The model abstracts and isolates objects and secondary qualities without any metaphysics. Unity of experience is one area, which Hume found elusive in his model and with such denied any configuration of self-reference only perceptions in the conscious (Hume 1789). He denies that we even have a self; all learning comes from sensory impressions. There does not seem to be a separate impression of the self that we experience, there is no reason to believe that we a self, thus it denotes a notion that there is no self at all. The idea of the self pass for clear and intelligible, one impressions that gives rise to every real idea but self or person is not any one impression. Self is supposed to exist after a reference, no impression constant and invariable. â€Å"I â€Å"can never catch myself at any time without a perception and never can observe anything but the perception. When my perception is removed for any time, as by sound sleep; so long an insensible of myself and may truly be said not to exist. † Distinct† idea of an object, that remains invariable and uninterested through a supposed variation of time; and this idea we call that of identity or sameness. â€Å"Distinct idea of several different objects existing in succession and connected together by a close relation and this to an accurate view affords as perfect a nation of diversity, as if there was no manner of relation among the objets†The nation of a self one soul is very likely s fiction â€Å"I am merely a bundle of perceptions. There is a consciousness of a continuing succession of experiences, but not of a continuing experiences; compatible view with the physicalist view of personhood. 3. What is the implication of their Metaphysical philosophies of the Self to the centripetal morality of the Filipinos? The Filipino Centripetal Morality denotes the elf as the basis of moral judgments and does the self as a standard. Filipino thought or diwang Filipino is generally an ethical or moralistic, predominantly socio-ethical, concrete and practical hence centripetal. Centripetal means â€Å"tending towards the center†. It refers then to people’s use of the SELF as the center and the basic commencement of the judgments. The Filipino moral judgment is understood as the people’s way of disclosing and explicating the golden precept the golden rule or mean which is base on living through moderate way. In Chinese term, this referred to â€Å"principle of measuring square†. Whatever measures you make is what you will be measured in return. Moreover, the implication is the centrality of the starting point which is the self always. The principle of non-moral judgment revolves around the self who is characterized by self-reflection and analysis. Eventually, this self-examination is an examination of the heart. Ultimately, Filipino centripetal morality considers the self as the standard by which one’s relationship with others ought to be regulated and ordered. â€Å"We† should do to others only that which is good to them and to us; â€Å"we† should not do anything detrimental to others and to ourselves. It demands a reciprocal between man and his fellowmen. That is men should not only mutually share the good but also mutually rid themselves of evil. Hence, one should know then so that you she or he knows other men. Because to know the good is to do the good. As what a used passage is that â€Å"Do unto others what you want others do unto you†. The transcendental self of a person, is the person identifies himself completely or well-nigh completely. The integrated summation of his ultimate values, the identity given is not generic identity wit the roles that he plays in his life ( it is even possible that he does not like the role or roles that he plays and therefore could not personally identify with them), nor with his numerical identity; for a person who knows who he is numerically, could still ask the question, who am I really? One’s transcendental is that which gives meaning and purpose to life the transcendental identity of a person is perhaps the more philosophically important the identity called transcendental because the answer usually lies beyond one’s self. The transcendental identity of a person therefore is generally other centered it is centered on what one regards as ultimate values the effect of that search for one’s Arche it is the being or concept that would integrate one’s life enables one to precede through life with at most certainty about his true Telos Since one transcendent identity is determinant of ultimate values. One’s ultimate concern is what gives meaning and direction to one’s life. One’s ultimate concern is what once identifies with completely. This is what one subjectively is without an ultimate concern one’s life is directionless and meaningless. Chapter 4 Summary Hume’s view on the Self and Nishida’s view on the Self The Affinity and Diversity HUME NISHIDA 1. These perceptions and impressions are identified by their self referential nature and that some perception of self seems to persist through time. This focal point of perception that continues through time and perceives its self in some fashion we choose to call me or I. . As a Buddhist, the ultimate good for Nishida is the realization of the true self, the Buddha nature. Nishida considered, although he continued to intertwine that relation with an internal relation in self-awareness. 2. This is known as Humes bundle theory of the self. Hume says, the mind has never anything present to it b ut the perceptions, and cannot possibly reach any experience of their connection with objects. The supposition of such connection is, therefore, without any foundation in reasoning. 2. Where his previous analysis of individual self-awareness described it as a self-reflection of the universal of self-awareness, his description now incorporated the dimension of recognition. Each is a relative other to the self. . 3. Hume means that we have no way of empirically establishing the independent existence of an external world, or what most of us call reality. The only world we can ever know is one of perceptions, ideas and experiences. 3. Nishidas notion of absolute, does not exclude the self; rather it constitutes self-identity as continually negating what it has been. Recognizing the absolute other within constitutes not simply a reflexive self-awareness but a self-awakening, a realizing of the â€Å"true self. † 4. Nevertheless, there are some that we are bound to accept in the everyday course of affairs. While they are ultimately approvable one needs these assumptions in order to function. a. such as the existence of the external world, b. the existence of other minds, c. The other minds have similar experiences as do you. d. the existence of the self, e. And the possible existence of some general intelligence pervading the universe. 5. Meaningful ideas are those that can be traced back to sense experience (impressions); beliefs that cannot be reduced to sense experience are not ideas at all, but meaningless utterances. Ideas are vague impressions of these impressions. No facts can be connected, proved, or explained by a priori reasoning. Space and time are the way in which impressions occur to us. Existence is not a separate idea. There is a distinction between matters of fact and relations of ideas. There is no power or necessity binding a cause to an effect. The mind is a bundle of impressions it is not a thing unto itself. . Nishida allows for the Buddhist view that there is actually no self to awaken by referring to the self-awakening of absolute nothingness; its awakening is the awakening of the â€Å"true self. † 5. Absolute nothingness in action, as it were, entails a negation (of a substantial, self-same self) and an affirmation (of the true self). â€Å"In absolute dialectics, mediation as absolute negation is mediation as absolute death, living by dying absolutely† Insofar as this is the finitude of the individual self, it also implies a logic of individuation where the role of other relative selves is dimished. If death is an ever-present opening, the other side of that opening so to speak is the absolute. To die is to stand vis-a-vis the absolute To express the relation between a God and the relative finite self, Nishida introduces a new term, â€Å"inverse correspondence† or, we might say, contrary respondence (gyaku-taio). The more one faces ones death, the negation of ones life as an individual, the more acutely one is self-aware as an individual. The closer the finite self approaches God the stronger the difference between them becomes. This peculiar kind of relation implies that God and the relative self are inseparable but never dissolve into one another. If their distinction entails an undifferentiated source of their difference, an absolute nothingness, then the more that source is emphasized the stronger the distinction holds 6. For Hume it is imagination, not reason or experiences that accounts for the persistent belief in the independent existence of an external world. Imagination ultimately overrides reason, and we cannot help believing in an independent, ordered, external world 6. The finite selves meets the asolute Nishida delved deeper into the relation between the individual finite human self and the absolute or God. Experientially it comes to therefore in death. We will consider the meaning of death first, then the nature of God or the absolute in relation to the finite self Conclusion The importance of the Self underlies the notion of essential attribution of being a ratio animalis towards the homo faber or towards the travel we seek to fonder through the capability of transcending our own selves into something, reaching the possibility of the impossibility as a creature of the being ness of God. The essential assertion of the two great thinkers enlighten the dark part of implicit notion regarding the individualistic one but develop the full potentiality that as a being we are capable of being different a unique creation. In David’s Hume Concept of the Self he denies that we even have a self; all learning comes from sensory impressions. These empirical notion that embedded a metaphysical configuration that there does not seem to be a separate impression of the self that we experience, there is no reason to believe that we a self, thus it denotes a notion that there is no self at all. The idea of the self pass for clear and intelligible, one impressions that gives rise to every real idea but self or person is not any one impression. Self is supposed to exist after a reference, no impression constant and invariable. â€Å"I â€Å"can never catch myself at any time without a perception and never can observe anything but the perception. When my perception is removed for any time, as by sound sleep; so long an insensible of myself and may truly be said not to exist. † Distinct† idea of an object, that remains invariable and uninterested through a supposed variation of time; and this idea we call that of identity or sameness. Distinct idea of several different objects existing in succession and connected together by a close relation and this to an accurate view affords as perfect a nation of diversity, as if there was no manner of relation among the objets†The nation of a self one soul is very likely s fiction â€Å"I am merely a bundle of percepti ons. There is a consciousness of a continuing succession of experiences, but not of a continuing experiences; compatible view with the physicalist view of personhood. In Nishida’s notion self is an object or some thing and self is nothing. The self is neither the subject of an experience nor the object of knowing. The self is the experience discussing Nishida, Nishitani described this rapport between experience and self, â€Å"of which it is said not that there is experience because there is a self, but rather that there is a self because there is experience. † This confirms the long standing Buddhist teaching of no self. The actual self is a process. To this process, Nishida assigned a term, koiteki chokkan, acting intuition. Basho literally means â€Å"place† or â€Å"field† and suggests an all embracing environment within which all activity occurs. Because it is all embracing, this place o field is without boundaries and without a center of reference. Imagine an infinite circle without a circumference and without a center. As Yuasa stated: The basho is a fundamental restriction on being’ existence; without it, no beings can exist in the world. Even though basho is without boundaries, boundaries are in practice erected. They are constructed by our empirical self, or ego. Our empirical self, however, is not our true self, but instead the self as subject, a self –referential point of view whereby all else becomes the object for the empirical self. On other words, whereas Basho is a primordial field of oneness, discrimination now results from the construction of boundaries. The discriminating self, as subject, is not the true self. The genuine self, for Nishida and in line with Buddhist teachings, is thus a â€Å"self that is not a self. † This is why Nishida claimed that the self â€Å"lives by dying. † This is also why Nishida emphasized the faculty of intuition, not in a passive but in an active sense. It is through this active intuition that self realizes itself. Discursive, analytical knowledge is sufficient. The comparative rapport which elucidates shows the diversity of both paradigm the perception regarding the self as a metaphysical boundaries because of the emptiness commencement of the place or the Basho and the no self which implicit denotes the impression of non-self. The divergence and similar view differs with regard to the concept of Buddhist connotation of dying, because the Western paradigm does not gives emphasis on such but the self as a bundle theory of impression per se. It shows the intertwine that sought to reality of the centripetal morality of Filipinos that we can see in everyday life. The way Filipino acts, thinks and live. But the challenge is that is really self nothing, is there really no self at all or is just a representation implying the fruitful transcendental aspect of living in the mundane, this a grasp that lies in individuality, in each one of us who has the ability to forsake the ambivalent way of living I the mundane part of our own being ness. The matter of our own body in realistic notion of living a spirited body and soul and the spirited soul which governs our body. The cause of everyday experiences is the long journey towards life as a traveling way of the right part in living the true horizon of governing towards God as the unifying substantive and essential creator of ours. In effect to the beyond port is the imaginative sort through reality and ideology which partakes individual preference to live trough eternally as a finite version of god enable for us to live in a natural and essentiality way of living throughout our own existence in an objective and subjective being ness. This serves as deeper commencement in metaphysical studies that everything rooted through metaphysical studies, thou the past is an end but an end without a period it is a comma that describes an everlasting continuation of learning a new field of knowledgeable affiliations, a modern period or even the time we have today, the contemporary age of today dealt with a big travails of accepting or disregard the information of learning by acquisition as an exemplary of the education per se but what really matters is the stability of being a rational individual capable of a moral altruism in thy self and towards the other that is the centrality of knowledge that even the longest period of time can not erase. The rise of the philosophy in metaphysical boundaries is the beginning of a continuous venture in life that is capable of acquiring new fruitful information that may influence our own individual personhood which regards a starting point of the endless point of learning through philosoph izing. We should not break or deconstruct what lies in our past what the history composed of because it helps us, the future sake to a more success venture regarding new discoveries that is why the modernization towards philosophy is a statue of wisdom. Thus, philosophy is a continuous process of learning through a rational state of existence. Remember that changes are not a hindrance for success. References Books Ayer, A. J. (1980). Hume, Oxford University Press Baillie, James (2000). Hume on Morality, Taylor and Francis Books Ltd. Burns, Kevin (2006). The Greatest Thinkers and Sages from Ancient to Modern Times, Arcturus Publishing Limited Ceniza, Claro R. (2001). Thought, Necessity and Existence: Metaphysics and Epistemology for Lay Philosophy, De La Salle University Press, Inc. Gaskin, J. C. A (1993). Dialogues and Natural History of Religion, Oxford University Press Masao, Abe (1990). An Inquiry into the Good, Yale University Press Mc Grea, Ian P. Greatest Thinkers of the Eastern World, Harper Collins Norton, David Fate (1993). The Cambridge Companion to Hume, Cambridge University Press Perry, John (1975). Personal Identity, University of California Press Pojman, Louis (2003). Theory of Knowledge, Wadsworth Thomson Learning Inc. Solomon, Robert C. (1996). Twenty Questions, Harcourt Brace and Co. Taylor, A. E. (1961). Elements of Metaphysics, Banes and Noble Inc. 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