Thursday, October 31, 2019

Our bodies our politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Our bodies our politics - Essay Example Another article written by Rebecca Chalker examines this issue in its specific aspect, namely in terms of knowledge and understanding of the female sexuality and female genitalia. The author concludes that women around the world do not have enough knowledge about their sexuality and the structural features of their female reproductive system. In turn, in her article, Emily Martin conducts an even deeper analysis of the problem. This allows her to come to the conclusion that modern notions of masculinity and femininity have an impact on scientists ideas about the features of the reproductive functions of men and women. In particular, Martin points out that science considers the process of menstruation as a phenomenon, which marks the death of the female eggs (failed production), while the process of maturation of sperm is being evaluated solely from the positive point of view as a surprising phenomenon that allows men to produce millions of spermatozoons. Finally, the value of the vid eo from Betty Dodson is that it provides an opportunity for all women to obtain important information about the structure of their genitals, namely the internal clitoris. In addition, the value of a given video is also in the fact that Betty draws attention to the fact that â€Å"that women get erections just like men.† This information allows all women to improve their sexual experience and make their sexual pleasure more diverse. As one can see, the main reason for the problems identified in all of these articles is related to gender stereotypes that continue existing in modern culture and science. Femininity is seen as a phenomenon associated with such qualities as weakness, passivity and inertia. For this reason, masculinity presupposes the rejection of any characteristics that suggest its association with femininity. In science, this has led to the fact that the features of female

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Mind-Body Problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Mind-Body Problem - Essay Example The five theories include behaviorism, dualism, reductionism, functionalism, and eliminative materialism and each of them has its own tenet in explaining the behavior of a person in a certain context (Turner 4-6). According to dualism perspective of looking at human life, there are different sides of life that conflict or complement each other in the process of an individual acting in a context. For example, according to the theory, one person behaves in a certain way because of the moral dualism that exists between the people and which explains that there are two sides of morality. This means that a person’s actions can be either towards morality or against it, which is shaped by the various ways of defining morality from different contexts and societies or societal description of it (Turner 39-41). Behaviorism is a theory that explains the actions of an individual from the context of the past behavioral actions to predict because the theory argues on the bases of human exper ience in society. This theory argues that what is manifested physically by a person can be used to explain the differences that are in the mind of the individual and people can use clear analysis of behaviors to give explanations that are relevant to predicting their behavior. This means that according to behaviorists, the behavior of a person is consistent according to the things they do or the things they engage themselves and if a person can be able to identify the trends of behavior of another, he or she can be able to predict the way the first person will respond to a situation (Turner 76). According to the functionalist theory, the mental constructs exist because of its function it serves and without such, it cannot be important to the individual who has them. This means the beliefs, desires, and pain exist in the mind of a person because that person needs them to perform an action in the context he or she finds himself or herself. This implies that according to functionalist, mental constructs are void and irrelevant if they do not exist to serve any purpose in the person who has them whether they are perceivable to be good or bad (Turner 78). According to the perspective of the reductionist, a system that is complicated and has many constituents has an influence on the small constituents and they can be used to explain the constituent. According to these theorists, for example, in a society, the general culture shapes the behavior of individuals and these individuals can be used to explain the reasons why culture is the way it is. This means that the individuals in a certain context are dependent on the general context of behavior and therefore, one of them in that context can be used to explain why the groups behave the way it does (Turner 93-94). The theory of eliminative materialism argues that there are no neural bases that can be used to explain various contexts of desire or beliefs of a person since they have poor definitions.  

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Impacts of Climate Change on Womens Rights

Impacts of Climate Change on Womens Rights Impacts of Climate Change on Women’s Human Rights: Bangladesh perspective 1. Introduction At present, the consequences of climate change including increased temperature, increased sea level, excess precipitation, droughts, biodiversity loss, natural disasters and reduced food production threaten human rights and social justice. These consequences have brought more adversely impacts on low-income countries, which have produced less greenhouse gases. In particular, some vulnerable groups such as women are more vulnerable to climate change because they have weaker ability to address the challenge of climate change. As one of the least-developed countries in the world, Bangladesh faces the enormous challenges of the global climate change. Women in Bangladesh have been seriously affected by the climate change, with their human rights under great threat. This essay will analyze how climate change affects the human rights of Bangladeshi women and find potential pathways to tackle these problems. It will achieve this by firstly giving definitions and basic analyses about climate change and human rights. Following this it will look at how Bangladeshi women’s rights to life, health and education were affected by climate change. Finally, it will seek to give effective advice for better response to these impacts. 2. Climate Change and Human Rights 2.1 Climate Change There are two major definitions of climate change that are widely used. The two different definitions are presented by Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). According to FCCC(1992) as cited by Pielke (2004), FCCC that focused on international policy, described climate change as â€Å"a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity, that alters the composition of the global atmosphere, and that is in addition to natural climate variability over comparable time periods†. On the other hand, IPCC that focused on scientific assessments defined climate change as â€Å"a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer†(Qin, Stocker & IPCC, 2013 : p123-125). It is clear that IPCC give climate change a br oader definition than FCCC. On the ground of FCCC definition, the reduction of vulnerability cannot be realized except though greenhouse gas emissions. But according to IPCC definition, there are some measures including adaption policies effective to address ecological or societal vulnerability brought by climate change. In this paper, both of this will be taken into consider. 2.2 Human Rights Facts and studies have shown that climate change poses a great challenge to human rights issues. Human rights are the inherent rights of every individual, regardless of our nationality, place of residence, sex, ethnicity, religion, language or any other status (Ariella Azoulay,2015). As United Nations (n.d.) have noted, â€Å"human rights included the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more†. It is worth mentioning that the concept of human rights does not remain at the theoretical level, but is described and protected by International human rights law (IHRL) and some national laws. For example, in Britain the Human Rights Act 1998 was introduced to protect human rights. As womens human rights are gaining increasing attention in the context of advocating gender equality, some research and related institutions begin to focus on the impact of climate change on womens human rights and do some work to help local women in the climatic vulnerable areas. 3. Climate Change’s Effects on Women’s Human Rights in Bangladesh Bangladesh is one of the countries most likely to suffer adverse impacts from climate change. This is mainly influenced by two factors, one of which is its special geographical location and the other is its social and economic underdevelopment. The total land area in Bangladesh is 147,570 square kilometers, including 80% of the floodplains. As a result, during the rainy season, most parts of the country (except the Northwest Highlands) are prone to flooding. Saleemul Huqï ¼Ë†2001ï ¼â€°compared Bangladesh with the Netherlands, indicating that geographical location is not the only reason why Bangladesh is affected by severe climate change. Bangladesh and the Netherlands are both low-lying deltaic countries, but the Netherlands possesses enough financial and scientific capacity to build higher seawalls for protecting its citizens against natural disasters, but Bangladesh cannot. 3.1 Effect of Climate Change on the Right to Life Climate change has caused frequent natural disasters in Bangladesh. Gender issues have always been a marginalized topic in the context of climate change, but we can still find some gender-related data in related climate change studies. Women are less able to escape from natural disasters. For example, during the 1991 Bangladesh Cyclone, the mortality rate of women was five times higher than that of men among the 20-44 age group(UNEP,2005). The reasons why there was a such difference are as follows. First, there is an imbalance of information between men and women in Bangladesh. Men can communicate with each other in public places for access to information, while women are mostly at home, unable to obtain timely and useful warning messages. Secondly, most Bangladeshi women lack the skills to swim or climb trees, and their dresses are not conducive to their escape from the disaster. In addition, it is more difficult for women to get rescuing resources to deal with damage and loss from extreme weather events because of the long-standing social bias. In other words, the gender inequality in Bangladesh society contributes to the vulnerability of local women. 3.2 Effect of Climate Change on the Right to health As a result of climate change, womens work has become even more dangerous and difficult in the society of Bangladesh. In most poor communities, getting drinking water for their families is the responsibility for women, just as Bangladesh. Climate change causes problems of drought and salinization of water in Bangladesh (Aguilar Revelo, 2009). Women in families have to walk a long distance to obtain water resources, which consumes a large amount of their time and leads to high risks of injury and even death in the process. Climate change have driven child marriage risks in Bangladesh, with women’s right to health damaged. Natural disasters such as floods and droughts aroused by climate change have made thousands of people become displaced and lose their financial sources (e.g. crops). In this â€Å"hopeless† situation,   many parents have to marry their young daughters off. Girls Not Brides (2017) noted that Bangladesh already had one of highest rates of child marriage in the world at 52%. Around 30% of girls in Bangladesh are married before their 15th birthday. Early marriages make these girls more vulnerable to domestic violence, and pregnancy at a young age is harmful for women’s health. 3.3 Effect of Climate Change on the Right to Education High temperatures, droughts and floods have made farmers in rural areas lose their land, crops and livestock, then these people have to migrate from villages to the so-called â€Å"climate change refuges†in Dhaka. Education is free in rural Bangladesh, while it is not free in Dhaka   (Jabeen,2014).   In the face of high tuition fees and living costs, parents choose to let the girls give up education. Gender bias in Bangladesh society also contributes to the choice. Families often prefer to give boys the limited educational opportunities and the girls should make an effort for boys. Also, gathering water and producing crops become increasingly difficult due to extreme weather in Bangladesh so that girls have to stay at home to share the housework. It becomes more and more difficult for local women to participate in decision-making process of climate change policy and measures due to lack of education. As a result, many policies and measures for dealing with climate change are formulated almost entirely by men and can not accurately satisfy the demands of women. 4. Possible Solutions Protecting women’s human rights from climate change needs transboundary cooperation including international institutions, local government, NGOs. There are some suggestions to address the issue and to improve women’s human rights in the context of the climate change in Bangladesh. First, women’s empowerment in the decision-making process is of vital importance. Actually, this concept has been clearly stated in some policies or agreements, but it still faces many challenges in its practical application. For example,â€Å"The Paris Agreement†explicitly requires that gender equality and womens empowerment should be taken into account in addressing climate change, and gender differences should be considered in actions and capacity building to address climate change(Guiot,2016). However, in poor countries, womens empowerment is not easy to realize in practice because of social prejudices and the low educational level of women. For better empowerment, local governments should provide education subsidies or free education for these climate refugees. Relevant policies should be introduced to demand that all children including girls receive basic education. Compulsory education gives girls more employment opportunities and enables them to participate in the stages of social decision-making, making their voices heard in the area of addressing climate change issue. Moreover, womens education optimizes the demographic structure andthus has a positive impact on climate change. This creates a virtuous circle. Secondly, the infrastructure should be improved. As mentioned earlier, water is greatly affected by climate change, and womens access to water becomes more difficult and vulnerable. It seems impossible to change this culture in Bangladesh that women should get water for their families, but infrastructure projects can be implemented in local area to help them get watereasier. For example, local governments, corporations or international organizations can invest money and technology to establish water factories to enable local residents to use clean tap water directly. In addition, construction of the roads and schools in local villages can also reduce the time and distance to go to school. As a result, the way of getting water becomes safe and women can have more time for education. Finally, womens access to early warning information and the basic skills to deal with disasters should be improved. For example, the local government and other non-governmental organizations can provide local women with free disaster-resistant training. Considering the low-level education of local women, training materials should be designed easy to understand. And a special information transmission team including female should be set up to timely transmit important information to women groups and reflect the demands of women. 5. Conclusion Women in Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable groups when it comes to the impact of climate change. With the impact of climate change, women not only need to spend more time in domestic work, but also becomes more vulnerable in the process. Climate change has aggravated the problem of poverty, leading to the emergence of dropouts and child marriages. In fact, women’s rights to life, health and education have been adversely affected by climate change. Fortunately, more and more agencies and researchers have been aware of this issue and done some related research. These research outcomes have been gradually affecting the governments policies about climate change. However, increasing the human rights of women in Bangladesh will require more efforts from multiple agencies. The essay also provides some possible ways in practice to deal with the problem, including women’s empowerment in decision-making process, constructing tap water factories, improving local roads, disaster prevention training for women. 6. References [1] Qin D, Stocker T. & Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Working Group I. (2013) Climate change 2013: the physical science basis, p123-125. [2] Pielke, R.A.(2004) What is Climate Change? Energy & Environment. 15 (3), 515-520. [3] Ariella Azoulay. (2015) What Are Human Rights? Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 35 (1), 8-20. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-2876056 [Accessed Nov.3th 2017]. [4] United nations. (n.d.) Human Rights. Available: http://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/human-rights [Accessed Nov.4th 2017]. [5] Saleemul, Huq. (2001) Climate Change and Bangladesh. Science (New York, N.Y.), 294(5547), p.1617. [6] United Nations Environment Programme. (2005) Mainstreaming Gender in Environmental Assessment and Early Warning. Available: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11822/8559[Accessed Nov.4th 2017]. [7] Aguilar Revelo, L. (2009) Training Manual On Gender and Climate Change. Gland, Switzerland, IUCN, pp.120-122. [8] Girls Not Brides.(2016) How Is Climate Change Driving Child Marriage? Available: https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/hidden-connections-climate-change-child-marriage-bangladesh/[Accessed Nov.5th 2017] [9] Jabeen, H. (2014) Adapting the built environment: the role of gender in shaping vulnerability and resilience to climate extremes in Dhaka. Environment & Urbanization. 26 (1), 147-165. [10] Guiot, J. & Cramer, W. (2016) Climate change: The 2015 Paris Agreement thresholds and Mediterranean basin ecosystems. Science. 354 (6311), 465-468.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Chaucers Canterbury Tales - Biblical Allusions in The Shipmans Tale E

The Canterbury Tales, - Biblical Allusions in The Shipman’s Tale There is no doubting Chaucer’s mastery at paroemia; that his adaptations of his many and varied sources transcended their roots is attested by the fact that, unlike many of his contemporaries or authorities, his works have not â€Å"passen as dooth a shadwe upon the wal†[1]. Yet while his skill as a medieval author is undisputed, the extent of his subtlety is not always fully appreciated. In The Canterbury Tales, for instance, while some tales were rapid in drawing academic interest and scholarly interpretations, others were quickly dismissed as ribald tales, as simple fabliaux hardly worthy of more than a cursory examination. The Shipman’s Tale was one of these. That â€Å"[It] may be Chaucer’s earliest fabliau† and â€Å"relatively simple in design and execution†[2] seemed, for a period of time, to be the general consensus on this piece; the primary concern of scholars was in unearthing its sources (which proved to be uncharacteristically problematic), not in analysing its structural complexities or for insights into medieval society and life. Yet recent research[3] has renewed interest in this first tale from The Canterbury Tales’ Fragment VII, and it can now be seen as a fabliaux, yes, but as one that is as rich a tapestry – woven of biblical allusions, literary techniques, intertextuality, and social commentary – as any of the other tales. By pulling out and examining the care and skill with which Chaucer inserted just one of these multiple threads – in this case, the biblical allusions within The Shipman’s Tale – it can be shown that this is as significant a tale as any other. There are a limited number of methods by which Chaucer can integrate a biblical all... ...timis finibus pretium eius.† ; â€Å"Who shall find a valiant woman? far and from the uttermost coasts is the price of her.† (Douay Translation). [13]Theresa Coletti, in â€Å"The Meeting at the Gate: Comic Hagiography and Symbol in The Shipman’s Tale†, associates the meeting of the merchant and his wife at the household gate (after his successful business venture) with the meeting of Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem. Assuming that the apocryphal tale was well known, Chaucer’s audience would have recognized the iconographic significance of a meeting by a gate. Gail McMurray Gibson, in â€Å"Resurrection as Dramatic Icon in the Shipman’s Tale† in Signs and Symbols in Chaucer’s Poetry, suggests that the tale alludes to the Resurrection, especially via Christ’s meeting with Mary Magdalene. Unfortunately, I was unable to secure a copy of that work for this essay.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 8

The Dress-up Dinner Ronnie finally comes to visit me in my basement and says, â€Å"I'm on my way home, so I only have a few minutes.† As I finish my set of bench presses, I smirk because I know what that statement means. Veronica does not know he has come to see me, and Ronnie needs to keep it quick if he does not want to get caught doing something without Veronica's permission – something like saying hello to his best friend, whom he has not seen for a long time. When I sit up, he says, â€Å"What happened to your face?† I touch my forehead. â€Å"My hands slipped yesterday, and I dropped the bar on myself.† â€Å"And it made your cheek all puffy like that?† I shrug because I do not really want to tell him my father punched me. â€Å"Man, you really have trimmed down and bulked up. I like your gym,† he says, eyeballing my weight bench and Stomach Master 6000, and then he sticks out his hand. â€Å"Think I could come over and work out with you?† I stand, shake his hand, and say, â€Å"Sure,† knowing the question is only yet another one of Ronnie's false promises. â€Å"Listen, I'm sorry I never came to see you when you were in Baltimore, but we had Emily, and well, you know how it is. But I felt like the letters kept us close. And now that you're home, we can hang out all the time, right?† â€Å"As if – ,† I start to say, but then bite my tongue. â€Å"As if – what?† â€Å"Nothing.† â€Å"You still think Veronica hates you?† I keep my mouth shut. He smiles and says, â€Å"Well, if she hated you, would she be inviting you over for dinner tomorrow night?† I look at Ronnie, trying to gauge whether he is serious or not. â€Å"Veronica's making a big meal to welcome you home. So are you coming, or what?† â€Å"Sure,† I say, still not believing my ears, because Ronnie's promises usually do not come with specific words like â€Å"tomorrow† attached. â€Å"Great. Be at my house at seven o'clock for drinks. Dinner's at eight, and it's going to be one of the wife's formal candlelit three-course meals, so wear something nice, okay? You know how Veronica is about her dress-up dinners,† he says, and then hugs sweaty me, which I tolerate only because I am so shocked by Veronica's invitation. With a hand on my shoulder, Ronnie looks me in the eye and says, â€Å"Man, it's good to have you home, Pat.† As I watch him jog up the stairs, I think about how much trash Nikki and I would talk about Ronnie and Veronica if apart time were over and Nikki was going to the dress-up dinner with me. â€Å"Dress-up dinner,† Nikki would say. â€Å"Are we in elementary school?† God, Nikki hates Veronica.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Hard Times and Utilitarianism Essay

â€Å"NOW, what I want is, Facts†, and so starts Charles Dickens novel Hard Times which first appeared as a serial publication in 1854. Dickens regularly took inspiration from the prevailing conditions as topics of his writings and proceeds to make social commentaries through his brand of creative fiction. Examples of these are Oliver Twist (Dickens, 1837) and Bleak House (Dickens, 1952). Hard Times was similarly inspired. The novel is mainly a critic of Utilitarianism, the dominant philosophy at the time the novel was written. As Geoffrey Scarre (1996) stated in his book entitled Utilitarianism, â€Å"The eighteenth century was the green youth of utilitarianism, as the nineteenth was its prime† (p. 49). The term utilitarianism was first coined by Jeremy Bentham in 1781 (Bailey, 1997, p. 3). His ideas were much derided even then and at the House of Commons at that when Lord Brougham dismissing Bentham as, â€Å"’having dealt more with books than with men† (Mack, 1963, p. 2). Yet, despite his seeming notoriety the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 was passed which defined and classified the poor and outlined how should be handled. â€Å"The Act was and is seen as more or less Benthamite† as concluded by Peter Stokes (2001) in his article entitled Bentham, Dickens and the Uses of the Workhouse (p. 711). It was against this Act that Dickens created Oliver Twist. Dickens’ continues his propaganda against such philosophy with Hard Times. While personifying the basic tenets of utilitarianism in his book, he is, on the other hand, equally condemning it in the same breath. This is already evident as you read the second paragraph where he strips his purported hero of facts of any semblance of respect when he describes the character that is Thomas Gradgrind rather comically with his hair and head as â€Å"a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie† (Dickens, 2007, p. 10). This is a deliberate ploy to set an image in the reader’s mind which can effectively cloud anything the character will expound upon even if it may lean towards the rational and acceptable. Dickens’ use of various figures of speech is also ironic as it runs contrary to the basic tenets his character is espousing. This form of mockery can be seen all throughout the novel up until the end when Gradgrind sees the lights and begins â€Å"making his facts and figures subservient to Faith, Hope, and Charity†(Dickens, 2007, p. 387). What is it about utilitarianism that Dickens’ seems to be vehemently opposed to? Several of its principles were taken up in the book. Dickens took a one-sided approach and presented it on an extreme scale and argued against it. We will explore how these were countered by Dickens by using excerpts from the book. In Bentham’s (1996) An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation he declared that â€Å"An action then may be said to be conformable to the principle of utility . . . when the tendency it has to augment the happiness of the community is greater than any it has to diminish it† (p. 12-13). Simply, put, as long as the number of people who are happy is greater that those who are not happy, then all is well. However, this main concept was methodically censured by Dickens by using examples that touched heavily on human interest which therefore, from the perspective of the humane, such reasoning would not be justified at all. A question on prosperity was posed to girl number twenty to which she replied: I thought I couldn’t know whether it was a prosperous nation or not, and whether I was in a thriving state or not, unless I knew who had got the money, and whether any of it was mine. But that had nothing to do with it. (Dickens, 2007, p. 82) With this illustration, it is maintained that the individual good should not be relegated to any mathematical computations. The point was further driven home with the next example. And he said, This schoolroom is an immense town, and in it there are a million of inhabitants, and only five-and-twenty are starved to death in the streets, in the course of a year. What is your remark on that proportion? And my remark was – for I couldn’t think of a better one – that I thought it must be just as hard upon those who were starved, whether the others were a million, or a million million. And that was wrong, too. (Dickens, 2007, p. 82) It is thus contended that such principle cannot and should never be adapted in the formulation of policies and the establishment of institutions when it comes to people’s well-being as we are more than mere data and statistics. This, however, is not the case in Coketown. Coketown is the community where the all the main characters worked and dwelled, survived and tarried about. This was where the major events occurred. Since it has already been established early on that following the tenets of fact can not lead to anything fanciful, it is not surprising that Coketown was depicted to be very spartan and has retained only â€Å"what was severely workful† (Dickens, 2007, p. 37). It is an industrial town that is generally void of lively entertainment and distractions if one can see through the smoke with the textile plant as the main source of income and employment for the â€Å"Hands†, a rather curt label to its workers as if there are no living and feeling beings attached to those appendages. Coketown, as John R. Harrison (2000) described it in his essay, â€Å"represents the domination of an inhuman, utilitarian, industrial ethos† (p. 115). Yet, Coketown can be viewed as the reality of fact. It embodies the concrete representation of the theories of utilitarianism which further belies its effectivity on a community that lives to live and not just survive. Within the town, there is the school run by schoolmasters who share Gradgrind’s methods and beliefs. It can be gathered that they have great memorization skills and would most likely be able to rattle off any observable characteristics of any person, place or thing. The teaching is so rigid that there is simply no place for any sort of creativity. There is just black and white. â€Å"Murdering the Innocents† indeed as the chapter is aptly called. That in itself plainly shows Dickens’ disapproval of such a stiff approach in education where minds are dictated to rather than molded. A further commentary on the misleadingly laudable wealth of knowledge was given, â€Å"If he had only learnt a little less, how infinitely better he might have taught much more! † (Dickens, 2007, p. 18). Another argument against utilitarianism is its apparent support of inequality while still following the happiness principle of the greater good. Utilitarianism claims that a relevant reason for tolerating inequalities is a gain in efficiency; that is, we should be prepared to tolerate the fact that some persons’ lives go less well than others if some aggregate of personal good is greater. (Bailey, 1997, p. 10) This principle is personified in the book by Josiah Bounderby, owner of the textile mill, owner of the bank, owner of the loudest mouth in Coketown. How he came about his wealth was not detailed in his narration of his rags-to-riches story. However, he is not one who attracts admiration and awe for his accomplishments. On the contrary, he is morally ruined by choosing only what he deems to be advantageous to him. He fully appreciates what he has with no regard to level off the disparity. Instead, he maintains and continues to attempt to raise his status even more by denigrating the lives of others. It was a fundamental principle of the Gradgrind philosophy that everything was to be paid for. Nobody was ever on any account to give anybody anything, or render anybody help without purchase. Gratitude was to be abolished, and the virtues springing from it were not to be. Every inch of the existence of mankind, from birth to death, was to be a bargain across a counter. And if we didn’t get to Heaven that way, it was not a politico-economical place, and we had no business there. (Dickens, 2007, p. 375) Dickens demonstrates here that the greater good is subject to a lot of interpretations and it is normally self-serving in that the one who seems to be higher on the scale will never relinquish his power to those who had now been branded as the lesser good. However, the tentacles of the stick-to-the-facts approach did not stop within the boundaries of the town. It must be noted that Gradgrind was being aided by a government official during his discourse with the students in the first chapter who more than willingly shared his beliefs and even went on to imply that these teachings must be applied at all times, at every opportunity and in every aspect of one’s life even at something as mundane as papering your walls or carpeting your floors. Do not do anything that is contrary to reality. There is no form merely function. What is all the more alarming is that Gradgrind was later made a Member of Parliament, â€Å"one of the representatives of the multiplication table, one of the deaf honourable gentlemen, dumb honourable gentlemen. . . â€Å" (Dickens, 2007, p. 127). Dickens makes it known that despite the fallacies and inhumane improbabilities of the radical teachings of utilitarianism, it can still muster followers and influence policies. Therefore, Dickens continues with more events and inevitable results and consequences in his book to trample any other doubt remaining as regards unyielding adherence to facts. One thing that can be said about living things is that their behavior can never be predicted. Take, for example, the white tiger which mauled the magician Roy Horn in spite of it being with them for several years without any incident. More so with people whose thinking processes are more complex. One cannot take a general rule and expect that all will react and comply with it unvaryingly. Current studies have now shown that â€Å"all aspects of personality are fundamentally unique and idiosyncratic to each individual† (Deary, 2003, p. 6). Despite lack of any scientific proof, Dickens’ had already concluded that even individuals who practically grew up living, studying, acting out a way of life are merely suppressing their true nature and would inevitably fight back one way or the other. With these, let us now take a look at Tom, the whelp and Louisa. Tom and Louisa first made their appearance in the book in Chapter III aptly entitled The Loophole. The â€Å"eminently practical father† was basking in his conviction that his children were the models of factual upbringing when he came upon his two eldest children one peeping through a hole in the wall and other peeping through the crack underneath the wall. It could be imagined that time came to a stop with all three just looking at each other with incredulous expressions on their faces. It was bound to happen that children’s innate curiosity will get the better of them and explore realms outside their scope. The rule of thumb is when met with rules, immediately find ways to go around it; look for loophole. There were already indications of deviations from the inflexible path provided them. The mere fact that Louisa has began to wonder even if she was chastised to â€Å"never wonder† (Dickens, 2007, p. 71). There is no room for sentimentality or â€Å"fancy†, if you will, and is simply not allowed for the logical reason that it is e not concrete. It is not based on the real. It has no parts that can be broken down and studied. It cannot be calculated. Utilitarianism hinders that aspect that distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom and that is the ability to feel and think in abstracts. Utilitarians, may contend however, that anatomically, it would be the opposable thumb that sets us apart. The gradual breakdown of the children who had such an upbringing took on different routes but both led to a destruction of their seemingly perfect lives. Tom gave much credence to his pseudo-freedom from the stifling rigidity of science and math and into the arms of vice. No productive outlet or substitute was provided for his suppressed emotions and was therefore easily addicted and resorted to get-rich quick schemes. Louisa, on the other hand, had no choice but to give in to expectations of her and that is to get married which led to the further repression of her emotions. Questions on social issues can be gleaned from the discussion of marriage between Gradgrind and his daughter where Gradgrind, typical of a man and worse, a man blinded by facts and practicality could not read between the lines as he itemizes the pros and the cons of the proposal of marriage as if it is a mere business proposal and must be approached with much objectivity. What should take precedence when it comes to marriages? Should it be for practical purposes or tests of compatibility? If neither is no longer present, should one cut ties altogether? Anyway, as Gradgrind continues to be practical, his daughter laments as she is about to enter into next phase of adulthood when she has yet to experience childhood. ‘Why, father,’ she pursued, ‘what a strange question to ask me! The baby-preference that even I have heard of as common among children, has never had its innocent resting-place in my breast. You have been so careful of me, that I never had a child’s heart. You have trained me so well, that I never dreamed a child’s dream. You have dealt so wisely with me, father, from my cradle to this hour, that I never had a child’s belief or a child’s fear. ’ (Dickens, 2007, p. 138) And to this, â€Å"Mr. Gradgrind was quite moved by his success, and by this testimony to itâ€Å" (Dickens, 2007, p. 138) only to listen and break down and do some soul-searching himself when Louisa has finally allowed herself several years later to break free from her suppression and made her father understood the misery in her heart and the consequences it will ultimately bring. Another hapless victim was Mrs. Gradgrind herself who was reduced to something quite insignificant as she had been unable to cope with the academic precepts. She was however given the chance to salvage what remained of her true self and only because she gave up trying to absorb the useless facts that cluttered and rattled in her mind. It also makes a resounding statement that the redeeming characters in the book were only partly or not at all exposed to the tenets prescribed by Gradgrind. There was Sissy Jupe a. k. a. Cecilia to Gradgrind a. k. a.  girl number twenty to her schoolmasters. She only joined the family later on and while she was not spared the rigors of fact bombardment, she was able to escape intact having had a solid upbringing in an atmosphere of discipline, fun and love. On impulse and on love, she was able to right the wrongs. She was able to persuade Harthouse, Louisa’s intended lover from leaving not through logic but by faith. She was able save Jane, Gradgrind’s younger daughter from the plight of Louisa by opening to her a childhood not before experienced in that household. Then there was Rachael, a Hand in the textile mill who did not have any formal schooling. Yet, this did not belittle her in the reader’s eyes because she had enough compassion to carry the whole town. Then there were the circus people. They were the only community who consistently showed a semblance of emotion, of camaraderie, of caring. Even the dog, Merrylegs, manifested human attributes and possibly gained more sympathy than Bounderby who publicly embarrassed himself for lying about his own mother and denying his heritage. All the proponents of utilitarianism met their downfall while those who showed humanity led fulfilling lives. Gradgrind himself has discovered that aside from the â€Å"wisdom of the Head. . . there is the wisdom of the Heart† (Dickens, 2007, p. 295) and Dickens was magnanimous enough to give his character a chance at true happiness. We end this paper with words from Sleary, circus owner and philosopher as he sums up how it is and how it should be when dealing with your fellow men and when dealing with life.