Philosophic Principles of Creativity :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Philosophic Principles of Creativity ABSTRACT: The principle of universal significance of the creative process is promoted in this thesis. The principles of the ecology of creation and of the subject's humanistic orientation of the cognitive and practical activity, will also be investigated. 1. Nowadays the promotion of a new world outlook paradigm of global creativity has a place. The understanding of the nature of creation in the history of philosophy has always been connected with the explanation of the substance and of the mechanisms of creative activity. If asked - how creation in general is possible, what are its necessary premises and impulses - the answer was given aut of the trinity: God /Plato, G.W.F.Hegel, N.Berdyaev/, Nature /Epicurus, B.Spinoza, H.Bergson/, Human Being /C.A.Helvetius, K.Marx, J.P.Sartre/. Such abilities of the human beeng as intuition, imagination and fantasy have been united in the mechanisms of creation. Some thinkers have been explaining them through perceiving using "the eyes of mind" of evidently clear true ideas /R.Descartes, I.Kant, E.Husserl/, some others - just vice versa - opposed those concepts of mind and logic, finding in them the way to some instant perceiving of the essence of things - a sign of divine revelation and beneficy /St. Augustine, A.Shopenhauer, E.H.Gilson/. The principal difference in the idea of global creativity consists in the admission of the ontological status of creative processes, of their quality of being primary as some maximum totality. The attention is drawn to the subject's purpose - considering activity considered as a certain stage /link/ in the global teleological processes of the universal. Considering the metaphysical point of view, creation is a fundamental process of spontaneous transcendence of potentials and virtualities, of permanent development in the field of universal posibilities. All of the existing material, semiotic and ideal structures expose themselves as certain products /events/ of creative processes. Their former, actual and future existance finally depends on the different direction and on the forms of realisation of the potentials of creativity. 2. The new world outlook paradigm of global creativity correlates harmoniously with the fundamental principles of modern natural science. It is worth mentioning that the understanding of physical reality as a set of different assemblies of events and relations, having as a result, the appearance of separated substantial material objects /N.Bohr, K.Hubner/. An important methodological role in modern cosmology is played by the so called antropic principle. According to that principle the significance of the universal physical constants - and that means all the outlook of the Universe known to us - is the only one possible for the appearance and existence of the human being in it /S.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor is a very powerful Es

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor is a very powerful novel about the Logan family living in Mississippi in the 1930's. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor is a very powerful novel about the Logan family living in Mississippi in the 1930's. The story is told through the eyes of nine-year-old Cassie Logan, who has to learn throughout the entire book, how harsh the world truly is for blacks. Cassie has to learn that it is a white man's world out there, and that black people don't have much of a say in what goes on in it. There are many events in this book which lead me to say how prejudiced our country was at that time. One thing that stays on my mind is the conflict between Cassie and Lillian Jean, a white girl about the same age as Cassie. During Cassie's first visit to the town of Strawberry, she accidentally bumps into Lillian Jean. It is then that Lillian Jean starts calling Cassie names (comparing Cassie's "nasty little self" with "decent white folk"), and makes her apologize. Big Ma and Charlie Simms, Lillian Jean's father, force Cassie to do so, and Cassie is also told to call her, "Miz" Lillian Jean. Cassie does not understand why this must be so, and the idea of calling someone "Miz", who is the same age as herself, hits Cassie hard. She takes her revenge by beating Lillian Jean up, and also blackmailing her. It is the first time that Cassie realizes that white and black children are treated differently. It shows how black children are forced to feel inferior to white children. Another cause of racism is where the whites hate the Logan family for owning their own land. Throughout the book, there are many efforts from the white people- mainly, Mr. Granger- to get... ...is saved for the moment, though because of the fact that he is black, it is unlikely that T.J. will be saved. This situation just goes to show that the idea that all men are created equal in the U.S., does not apply to the blacks in Roll of Thunder. I can see from Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, that racism affected the black people in the Deep South, years after slavery was abolished. Everywhere you turn, you can see that this issue was a daily part of their lives. The law turned a blind eye to crimes committed against blacks. The education system for blacks was second-rate. Black children were separated from whites from the beginning, thus making the blacks hate whites, as they grew older. Whites did not want blacks to feel in any way equal to them. And from the book, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, I can better understand this issue. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor is a very powerful Es Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor is a very powerful novel about the Logan family living in Mississippi in the 1930's. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor is a very powerful novel about the Logan family living in Mississippi in the 1930's. The story is told through the eyes of nine-year-old Cassie Logan, who has to learn throughout the entire book, how harsh the world truly is for blacks. Cassie has to learn that it is a white man's world out there, and that black people don't have much of a say in what goes on in it. There are many events in this book which lead me to say how prejudiced our country was at that time. One thing that stays on my mind is the conflict between Cassie and Lillian Jean, a white girl about the same age as Cassie. During Cassie's first visit to the town of Strawberry, she accidentally bumps into Lillian Jean. It is then that Lillian Jean starts calling Cassie names (comparing Cassie's "nasty little self" with "decent white folk"), and makes her apologize. Big Ma and Charlie Simms, Lillian Jean's father, force Cassie to do so, and Cassie is also told to call her, "Miz" Lillian Jean. Cassie does not understand why this must be so, and the idea of calling someone "Miz", who is the same age as herself, hits Cassie hard. She takes her revenge by beating Lillian Jean up, and also blackmailing her. It is the first time that Cassie realizes that white and black children are treated differently. It shows how black children are forced to feel inferior to white children. Another cause of racism is where the whites hate the Logan family for owning their own land. Throughout the book, there are many efforts from the white people- mainly, Mr. Granger- to get... ...is saved for the moment, though because of the fact that he is black, it is unlikely that T.J. will be saved. This situation just goes to show that the idea that all men are created equal in the U.S., does not apply to the blacks in Roll of Thunder. I can see from Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, that racism affected the black people in the Deep South, years after slavery was abolished. Everywhere you turn, you can see that this issue was a daily part of their lives. The law turned a blind eye to crimes committed against blacks. The education system for blacks was second-rate. Black children were separated from whites from the beginning, thus making the blacks hate whites, as they grew older. Whites did not want blacks to feel in any way equal to them. And from the book, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, I can better understand this issue.

Platos Republic Essay -- Philosophy Justice Plato Papers

In reading the Republic, there is no reason to search for arguments which show that Platonic justice ('inner justice' or 'psychic harmony') entails ordinary justice. The relationship between inner justice and ordinary justice is of no importance in Plato's Republic. We note that Plato tries to argue from the very first book that the true source of normativity lies in knowledge attained by philosophical reason. What is crucial, then, is the relationship between inner justice and acts which brings about a just polis. I. The Unimportance of Ordinary Justice The issue of the relationship between inner justice and ordinary justice has been the subject of critical discussion since it was famously raised by David Sachs. (1) In this essay, I shall argue that the relationship between inner (or 'Platonic') justice and ordinary justice (conceived as doing acts which Glaucon, Adeimantus and the rest of the gathering consider to be just) was of no importance in Plato's Republic. (2) What was important, rather, was the relationship between inner justice and acts which bring about a just polis. My claim about the unimportance of ordinary justice in relation to inner justice is pre-empted to some degree by Gregory Vlastos and Julia Annas. Vlastos distinguished two senses of ordinary justice:(3) (a) the degenerate morality of those who see it as a path to gratification, and (b) the common morality of those who respect virtue and have a firm disposition to act justly ('justice' as Cephalus possessed, for example). Vlastos rejected any connection between inner justice and ordinary justice in the sense of (a), but assumed that inner justice entailed ordinary justice in the sense of (b) and argued for the connection. However, at least the... ...eligion, New York, 1971. (2)I have used the Jowett translation. (3) Gregory Vlastos, Platonic Studies, Chapter 5: "Justice and Happiness in the Republic", Princeton, 1981 (2nd edition), esp. pp. 135-136. (4)Julia Annas, An Introduction to Plato's Republic, Oxford, 1981, see esp. Chapter 6. (5) There are three different ways of dividing the soul in the Republic: i) the division into reasonable, feeling and appetitive parts; ii) the simile of the line which groups its cognitive capacities into understanding and reasoning on the one hand, and belief and imagination on the other; iii) the division in Book X between the knowing part and the perceptive part. The divisions of the line correspond to the divisions in Book X. In Book III, the feelings and appetites are contrasted with reason, so they naturally rely on perception and imagination and not on knowledge.

Meiji restoration Essay

Military: In 1872 the Japanese military started to use conscription. This is same as drafting in the U.S.A. All conscripts had to serve a three year period in military service, after which they were put to reserves for four years. This system was introduced by Yamagata Aritomo, and the next year this same man set up the Japanese Imperial army. He favored and used the army style of Germany, and the naval style of the British. Some years later the Samurai system was abolished totally†¦ Some Samurai were so upset, that they started a revolt. Economic: The Bakufu was ended on 1868. In 1871 the Daimyo’s were also dismissed, their land redistributed into smaller parts†¦ Unlike the samurai, the Daimyo received a large pension to compensate the loss of their land. In 1872 there was a land redistribution program. This was to become a more solid method than the previous system which relied totally on the price of rice†¦ A straight 3% tax was levied on the land. The government also started to sell industries which used to make Military hardware to the private buyers†¦These people later grew to become the Zaibatsu, which could be described as big industrial empires controlled by one family. Political: Feudalism in Japan was completely abolished during Meiji rule. Like most of Japan, also the parliament was altered heavily. Japanese government sent Ito Hirobumi to study the European parliament systems, and he especially favored the one of Britain. So the Japanese parliament, Diet, is based on the British parliament. It consists of Prime minister, upper and lower house. Hirobumi himself became the first prime minister and the upper house was made of the former nobility and the Daimyo’s. The lower house was chosen by the people. Also a privy council was set up to protect and review  the constitution, its sessions were lead by the Emperor Meiji himself†¦ Social:In 1872 it was ordered that all children, boys and girls both, were to attend primary school for six years. After this the girls would go home and learn more about life from their mothers, when some of the more successful boys on the other hand were allowed to go and study in a high school and then to university†¦Extremely high standards were expected, as students also had to learn a foreign language.

For Love, or Money? Essay

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel about Jay Gatsby’s constant quest to win over his love of the past, Daisy Buchanan. To Gatsby’s misfortune, he finds that Daisy is married to the wealthy but cocky Tom Buchanan. Daisy is a modern day â€Å"gold-digger† she fails to realize her own arrogance, and the success of her relationship with Tom is measured upon the size of his pocketbook. Tom’s secret lover, Myrtle Wilson becomes the victim of a hit-and-run. Tom shows Myrtle’s husband to the door of Gatsby. Gatsby is shot while swimming in his pool for the first time. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story, witnesses Gatsby’s failure to relive his past and recapture the love of his life. Although Nick admires Gatsby’s effort to use his newly acquired wealth for the intentions of love as opposed to Tom’s use of it to be reckless, he thinks Gatsby’s obsession is foolish. Before the war sent him packing, Jay Gatsby was seeing Daisy Fay. At that time Jay was not very wealthy, but he had high hopes as to what it would take to win over the girl of his dreams. After the war Gatsby was shocked, but not set off track when he found that Daisy married another man. Nick is constantly in awe of Gatsby’s undying affection towards a woman that is married to another man, and is the same woman that betrayed him in the past. At first Nick thinks that Gatsby is not able to see through Daisy’s lack of emotion until Gatsby says, â€Å"Her voice is full of money.†(127). Gatsby says this because he realizes Daisy is a different person than he once knew. Gatsby can almost hear the difference in the odd cheerfulness in her voice. At that point in the novel, Nick realizes that Gatsby does not care what Daisy is like now, but he learns instead that Gatsby is in love with the Daisy he knew before the war. Gatsby’s entire life and his only reason to become wealthy were to win over his love from the past. Tom Buchanan comes from â€Å"old-money†. â€Å"Old-money† is a term for people that have money passed down to them from different generations. He has never had to work for anything, and his incredibly large amount of money is sufficient enough to allow him to be as careless as he wants. He never thinks about his actions because he knows that money is on his side and everybody sides with  money. Tom cheats on his wife without a care in the world. His most recent desire is a Myrtle, the wife of a gas station owner. An example of Tom’s carelessness and brutality is when he intentionally whacks Myrtle’s face and breaks her nose after saying his wife’s name, â€Å"Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her [Myrtle] nose with his open hand.†(41). After doing this, Tom showed absolutely no signs of regret for his actions. This evil gesture of Tom’s was not by itself. He figured to show his ownership of her by buying her a necklace that is much like the collar Myrtle put on her new puppy that was given to her from Tom. Myrtle could not argue with receiving gifts. Myrtle does not mind any of Tom’s actions towards her because she sees him as her only ticket out of poverty. Tom figures that Myrtle is from a lower class than he is and therefore he can do whatever he wants with her. Another strange character in the novel is Daisy Buchanan (Daisy Fay). Before the war, she was the girlfriend of Jay Gatsby. At this time she probably did not care at all about how much money he made. At that time, all she knew was that she was going to wait for Gatsby to return from the war. This is when she changes. She changes from waiting for her poor boyfriend to come back from war to a person that would marry the first man she met as long as he was filthy rich. She too is now just as careless as her husband Tom Buchanan. All she cares about is herself, her child, and her money. She admits to never actually loving Tom when she tells Gatsby, â€Å"Why,-how could I love him-possibly?†(139). At this point in the novel she begins to question herself as to what she wants more. She now faces a situation where Tom and Jay both are loaded. The difference between the two is obvious. Jay is completely devoted to Daisy while Tom just keeps her for his image. The only reason that she could have married Tom without loving him was to dive into is riches. Now that Gatsby is even richer than Tom, Daisy is left trying to choose. Unfortunately she takes too long to choose and hits a speed bump that indirectly chooses for her. All the time in the novel Nick is just watching and occasionally speaking, but he never actually helps this troubled group that he is caught in the middle of. Instead he watches their problems escalate and through all this he never bothers to answer why. Nick understands all of the problems that  each character has, and he probably knows how to fix their problems. He has an opinion of each character after carefully studying their personalities and the problems they present. Throughout the novel the reader might wonder why Nick never steps in to set the characters straight when he knows exactly what should be happening. Nick has made his judgment, but like he said in the very beginning of the book, he remembers what his father told him, â€Å"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.†(5). This is the reason that Nick is almost completely detached. He was taught early to be the viewer rather than the actor. When Nick sees people with problems he calmly backs away from it and watches how they solve it. He won’t criticize or point any fingers because he simple believes that they might not have had the same advantages that he had. This is the reason that Nick is the narrator of the story. He does not interfere with anybody. In the end he notices things that stand out about people. In this case it was Gatsby’s great outlook on his life as opposed to Tom and Daisy’s reckless lifestyle. When people read a novel such as this, after the first two to three chapters the reader registers the â€Å"good guys† and the â€Å"bad guys†. Because of the nature of American film and literature it is needless to say that you can expect the â€Å"bad guys† to either get caught or killed, and the â€Å"good guys† save the day, get the girl, and live happily ever after. That is why it is such a shock to see Gatsby fail in his attempt to capture the women that he loves and save her from her beast of a husband. It is also very strange to see the narrator, Nick, just stand their and watch all these crazy things happen. Although Gatsby dies as a failure to his one goal, Nick does not see it that way. Nick sees Gatsby as a man that worked his way to the top. Nick admires Gatsby for his ambition. Gatsby did not care at all about fame and fortune unless it included Daisy. Nick understands Gatsby’s obsession, and he feels that out of all the characters that he has met throughout the story, Gatsby is far better than any of them.

The Empire Company Limited

In the Empire Company Limited Case, James Vaux, the associate director at Scotia Capital is the main decision maker. It is his job in September of 1998 to decide on a price at which The Oshawa Group Limited will sell their company/accept a takeover offer at. The Oshawa Group Limited (Oshawa) is a food retail, wholesale, and distribution firm. The Empire Company wants to expand beyond their Atlantic Canada roots; however, there are a few catches. The Wolfe family owns 100% of the voting shares of the company, and not only know the value of their company and expect to receive at least that much, but also a premium on top of that.Greg Rudka is the Managing Director at Scotia Capital; he has extensive background in the history of the grocery industry and was the one who noticed this opportunity as well as the person who assigned James Vaux to his assignment of the value of Oshawa. ISSUES There are two main issues at hand. First, Vaux needs to determine a value for both classes of shares that Empire would be willing to pay to the Wolfe family and Oshawa equity holders to acquire a position in the Oshawa Company without starting a bidding war.The second issue is that Vaux needs to find a way to finance the deal. There are a few minor issues in this case, starting with competition. The grocery industry is very competitive. There are only a few large firms involved in the industry. Of course, there are mom and pop stores all over North America, but they only make enough to live themselves and they are not bringing in the same profits as the major chains, so they are not legitimate threats to Empire. Next, the Oshawa Company’s entire voting shares are owned by the Wolfe family as mentioned above.This will add to the level of difficulty in the purchase or acquisition of Oshawa. Finally, the last issue is that in the grocery industry, it is cheaper to acquire a competitor’s company and chains than it is to open a new store. In other words, horizontal acquisi tions were the primary source of growth on the revenue side for the grocery business. People don’t like change and because of this, creating or changing the name of their â€Å"local grocery store† may upset or disrupt their previous shopping experiences.

Media Role in Everyday Life

Analyse the following quote: â€Å" it is because the media are central to our everyday lives that we must study them†¦ as social and cultural as well as political and economic dimensions of the modern world. † (Roger Silverstone, Why Study the Media? 1999. ) criteria understand respond to question construct logical argument key terms/concepts used accurately provide relevant examples where required Reading 1. 1 Why Media Studies is Worthwhile: Bazalgette ‘Media studies is controversial because it is still new and because it deals with things that are not only continuing to change but are also the focus of many anxieties. 2000:5 ‘Newspapers, film, radio, television and, increasingly, computer software and communications networks are generally considered to be immensely popular in ways that are not fully understood and about which there is little consensus. They are consequently blamed for all kinds of social ills, political problems and cultural degeneracy. Ea ch of these media has also, in its time, been seen as the harbinger of apocalyptic change – for better as well as for worse. Similar essay: Disagreement in Natural SciencesBut because the oldest of them – the mass circulation press – has only been in existence for little more than a century, the process of change has been too fast for anyone to arrive at definitive conclusions about what its social, political and cultural effects really are. ‘As much as everyone likes to think they rebel against their parents and teachers, and keep up to date with new ideas and technologies, we are all substantially formed through the frameworks of ideas and thought of earlier generations, and we all find change difficult. ‘ ‘Change almost always provokes strong feelings: excitement, anxiety, tension, fear, anger.The media, conspicuous and changing objects in a world that is itself changing, are a particularly public focus for these kinds of emotion and argument. There is therefore much disagreement about how the media should be understood, regulated and consumed. 2000:6 It is essential to r ecognise that media studies, even as we enter the twenty-first century is still new. ‘†¦. it is a subject still in the process of being formed. Full of disagreements and different claims as to what it is ‘really about'. It is also a hybrid subject: that is to say, the ideas and approaches that it draws upon come from many different sources. The mass circulation press, the cinema, radio, television, digital software and the internet each attracted comment, analysis and speculation from the start (2000:7) Everyone who spoke or wrote about these media was themselves already educated within existing academic disciplines and motivated by particular interests 2000:7 Nevertheless, hybrid disciplines do appear all the time: semiotics, structuralism, sociolinguistics, and many more. Media studies snaps them all up: there can never be too many different ways of analysing just what is really going on in those fleeting images. Those rapt audiences.Those smoke filled boardrooms of owners. Technology and theory 2000:8 – The media themselves change much faster than any theory. In fact it is often changes in the media – even basic technological changes – that impel changes in the academic construction of the subject. As I write this in the late 1990s we have moved into a period of what are profound changes brought about by digital technologies. Until the 1980s the term ‘media' meant what it said (although it was, and still is, widely misused as a singular noun). It refers to numbers of different ways of physically reproducing and carrying meanings.The whole point of a media text is that it moves and flows: the meaning is never ‘there' at a given moment, but in juxtaposition and sequence, in the tension between one moment and another. 2000:8 2000:9 Media studies is thus a catch-all title designating a wide variety of courses, and since these are all embroiled both in developing a coherent theoretical base and in keeping up with technological and institutional developments in the media themselves, does it even make sense to lump them all together? 2000:9 In media studies you are asked about the profit motive.In media studies you are asked this. You are asked to look at cinema and television as industries which employ large numbers of people and to understand how they work, how they are financed and why they produce what they do. 2000:10 In media studies you may be asked to think about films, television programmes or other ‘media texts' in the same way. But you will certainly also b asked to think about how they address you – or other people – as a member of a group: as British, say, or as a black person, or as a man, or even – but how often? – as all three.By asking you to think about texts in this way, and by making you investigate who made, say, a film or programme, and why, and in whose interests, media studies is essentially political. Every investigation of even quite short or trivial texts potentially leads into larger questions about power structures in society and how they are organised. 2000:10 – It is just as ‘political' to be asking questions about who owns this newspaper, who financed this film, and why; or perhaps more interestingly, who wouldn't finance that film and why, or how one kind of television programme is more likely to be made than another.The politics of the media affect our lives as much as the politics of Parliament or Congress, and can be more satisfying to investigate since the evidence is all around you every day. 2000:10 At the same time it is the inclusion of this political dimension that media students often find the most satisfying and worthwhile aspect of the subject. ‘You stop taking things at face value'. You should beware of media courses which render the subject down to a few handy maxims such as ‘the basic function of all media is to sell audiences to advertisers'.To object that this ca n hardly apply to public service broadcasting or a community video workshop is not to deny that these institutions will also have political roles to play and manipulative techniques to use. But it does reassert the principle that there is more than one way to look at any text. A political dimension to critical analysis should add complexity, not simplification 2000:10 So far, I have identified two basic principles that media studies courses are likely to have in common: using economic and political perspectives as key ways of understanding the media.These are the most characteristic differences between media studies and most other subjects. But no course will concentrate on these areas alone. 2000:11 One of the strengths – and also the challenges – of media studies is precisely that it asks you to consider texts from different and often sharply contrasting perspectives. What do you study in media studies? 2000:11 Just what – if anything – constitutes a va lid argument for studying one text, or one group of texts, rather than another? There are five main ways of answering this question? Popularity (2000:12) The emphasis might be on the phenomenon of mass audience pleasure and on understanding and legitimating the enjoyment people derive from these texts or in contrast, the aim of the analysis might be to reveal how audiences are manipulated and deluded by stereotypical or reactionary material Exemplification is an obvious ground for worthiness of study, especially when the aim is to illustrate an aspect of theory, such as genre or representation. Notoriety (2000:12)– is an interesting and useful reason for studying a text that can offer a way in to thinking about social, political and cultural contexts.Texts which are interesting to study in their own right, but whose notoriety reveals much about their conditions of production or consumption, include banned or controversial television documentaries etc ‘Such ‘case s tudies' form the starting point or central exemplar which can illuminate aspects of the media we don't normally think about or see. Turning points and groundbreaking texts could be included in the previous category, but texts can be significant without being notorious, especially in retrospect. Aesthetic value (2000:12-13) s a criterion that many media teachers would deny using as a way of selecting or judging texts. 2000:13 What is it all for? ‘It is also obvious that the media industries themselves are hard to get into and rely increasingly on freelancers, ‘2000:14: that a knowledge of history, politics, economics, accountancy, law – you name it – would be equally useful as a basis for working, as, say, a journalist or editor It is increasingly likely that, whatever job you do or whatever your domestic circumstances, there will be more opportunities for you to engage with the media, and not just as a consumer.Indeed, the field of ‘alternative' and s ubversive media production may be the one that grows fastest over the next few years (who knows? How could you tell? ) as access to technology and circulation systems widens Inside or outside the corporate producers, the new voices will come from the people who are already literate in the new media What media studies can really do is open up your understanding of how things work, how people become informed – or misinformed – and how the myths and ideologies that govern all our lives are created and sustained. Reading 1. Media and Communications: Theoretical traditions 2002:23 The field of Australian media and communications theory and research is in a unique position. On one hand, it is highly derivative†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. this is partly due to general globalisation of ideas today, but also to Australia's past as a British colony and in more recent decades, to its dependence on the United States. On the other hand, in Australia we are able to observe and compare the influences and models emanating from the metropolitan centres of the Northern Hemisphere and to selectively combine and modify them in accordance with our own national reality and place in the world -.. dentify the origins of the major paradigms or schools of thought which have arisen in European and American theory and research as they apply to media and communications; to trace the formative influence they have had on particular styles of work in Australia; and to show how they have become transformed in the process of being adapted to our experience here EUROPE VERSUS AMERICA 2002:23 .. ‘European means heavily interpretive and holistic in scope – that is, taking a macro perspective, looking down on society as a whole. Its sociopolitical stance is critical of society as it exists, and most often specifically Marxist.In its methods, it is deductive in that it applies general principles to the analysis of particular cases By contrast, the American approach is strongly empirical and micro in its scope – at its extreme, its form of knowledge relies on the direction observation of distinct phenomena, preferably controlled and measurable occurrences, like in a laboratory experiment. Its sociopolitical stance is said to be liberal or pluralistic – in other words, it is not aligned with any sector of society which has an interest in changing the world, but in that sense, it is really more conservative 002:24: However ideas do not belong to geographical territories and it is important to appreciate that, even if critical theory has traditionally been weak in the United States, Europe in fact has not only produced the characteristic critical and interpretive schools of thought, but also has a strong tradition of ‘positivism', which is much more aligned with ‘American' empiricism and functionalism (Giddens 1974). Positivism is basically the idea that the methods of natural science can and should be applied to understand and contr ol society and culture, which includes the media.Western Marxism and Ideological Critique 2002:24 In order to understand contemporary media studies, it is crucial to understand the significance of the Frankfurt School and its tradition A critique of the rise of the mass media (mainly the new media of cinema and radio in those days) which has defined one important direction for Marxist criticism ever since 2002:25 This is the ideological critique of the media Reading 1. 3 Self and Experience in a Mediated World Reading 1. 4 New Media and Technological Development A Beginner's Guide to Textual Analysis