Causality

Plato’s doctrine of the Forms finds its roots in his search for true knowledge. For Plato, true knowledge has to be something that is objective, unchanging, and universal. In his observance of the physical world around him he concludes that due to its changing nature, or flux, this true knowledge cannot reside in this reality. In turn, he concludes that to obtain this true knowledge one cannot rely on their senses as they are inadequate. To be unchanging and objective it therefore must reside…

Recognizing God’s existence has never been an easy task. From century to century, people continue to search for ways to find proof God does exist. In consulting with Foreman’s (2016) presentation, “Approaching the Question of God’s Existence” the use of proof to illustrate that God does exist is not a virtuous practice and the word “proof” should be avoided when wanting to claim God is real. He makes an effective point that there are some things in the world that have no complete explanation for…

The purpose of this memorandum is to complete a systems thinking analysis of the current dilemma facing EU Design and to recommend an effective course to ensure sustained growth and success. The organization is at a crossroads, lying in wait until a definitive direction is determined. A systems thinking approach can aid in this endeavor by providing insight, clarity and resolution. Therefore, I will identify the underlying structures in existence and provide causal loop graphs to further…

A functional behavior assessment is a systematic method of gathering and analyzing information about why an individual engages in specific behaviors which enables the identifying the potential functions, triggers, and abating influences (Mayer, Sulzer-Azaroff, & Wallace, 2014). In conducting a functional behavior assessment an attempt is made to identify which antecedents and consequences can be reliably associated with the occurrence of the behavior. Indirect assessment methods are utilized…

Sprint Corporation (“Sprint”) is a publicly traded company with millions of shareholders, over 30,000 employees, and over 57 million customers. In culmination hundreds of millions of people invest their trust and confidence in Sprint. As such, the success of this organization must be ensured in order to protect the interests of all. In order to effect such an assurance a comprehensive evaluation of every element of the organization should be conducted. It is a monumental task that no one person…

The Book of Job probes the question of the problem of evil in the world. This book is one of the more philosophical books in the old testament. It has spiritual value, but it also has a universal philosophical value that touches on the problem of evil. The main character is Job who is an upstanding gentile man of his town. He has a family, a farm, and status in his town. One-day God and Satan are talking and Satan says Job only loves God because he is blessed with a good life. So as a challenge…

Universal determinism is the thesis that every event is fully determined by an event or several events that proceeded it. It was Pierre Laplace who pointed out that the present state of the universe is the effect of its preceded state (Litch 121). It is the past that creates the present and it is the present that determines the future. Everything is what is now because it was determined by something in the past. According to Mary Litch, “Events in the past are determined and fixed: we may regret…

Inelastic collisions occur when the kinetic energy of an object is not conserved, but converted into other forms of energy, such as heat or potential energy. As such, they still obey the conservation of energy principle that energy cannot be created or destroyed. When two bodies undergo an inelastic collision, their combined initial kinetic energy is not equal to the final kinetic energy of the system. When a tennis ball bounces on the ground, the kinetic energy that the ball possesses just…

In the free will vs. determinism debate, hard determinism seems to be a dominant belief. Hard determinism is the belief that free will and determinism are incompatible ideas, and that it is not possible to truly believe in both without being logically inconsistent. Under hard determinism, there is a view called hard incompatibilism which Smilansky subscribes to. Hard incompatibilism is the belief that determinism is incompatible with both human freedom and moral responsibility. Saul Smilansky…

There is a highly controversial argument of using animals for scientific or commercial testing. Chimpanzees have 99% of their DNA in common with humans; furthermore, mice are 98% comparable to humans on a genetic level. The United States and Gabon are the main two nations that permit experimentation with chimpanzees (ProCon.org). “95% of animals” utilized in experimentation are not “protected by the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which excludes birds, rats and mice bred for research, and…