Marx and Freud: Comparing Their Views Of Human Nature Essay

In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels present their view of human nature and the effect that the economic system and economic factors have on it. Marx and Engels discuss human nature in the context of the economic factors which they see as driving history. Freud, in Civilization and Its Discontents, explores human nature through his psychological view of the human mind. Marx states that history ‘†¦is the history of class struggles’ (9). Marx views history as being determined by economics, which for him is the source of class differences. History is described in The Communist Manifesto as a series of conflicts between oppressing classes and oppressed classes. According to this view of history, massive changes occur in a society when new technological capabilities allow a portion of the oppressed class to destroy the power of the oppressing class. Marx briefly traces the development of this through different periods, mentioning some of the various oppressed and oppressing classes, but points out that in earlier societies there were many gradations of social classes. He also states that this class conflict sometimes leads to ‘†¦the common ruin of the contending classes’ (Marx 9). Marx sees the modern age as being distinguished from earlier periods by the simplification and intensification of the class conflict. He states that ‘Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps†¦ bourgeoisie and proletariat’ (Marx 9). The bourgeoisie, as the dominant class of capitalists, subjugates the proletariat by using it as an object for the expansion of capital. As capitalism progresses, this subjugation reduces a larger portion of the population to the proletariat and society becomes more polarized. According to Marx, the polarization of society and the intense oppression of the proletariat will eventually lead to a revolution by the proletariat, in which the control of the bourgeoisie will be destroyed. The proletariat will then gain control of the means of production. This revolution will result in the creation of a socialist state, which the proletariat will use to institute socialist reforms and eventually communism. The reforms which Marx outlines as occurring in the socialist state have the common goal of disimpowering the bourgeoisie and increasing economic equality. He sees this socialist stage as necessary for but inevitably leading to the establishment of communism. Human beings, which are competitive under capitalism and other prior economic systems, will become cooperative under socialism and communism. Marx, in his view of human nature, sees economic factors as being the primary motivator for human thought and action. He asks the rhetorical question, ‘What else does the history of ideas prove, than that intellectual production changes its character in proportion as material production is changed?’ (Marx 29). For Marx, the economic status of human beings determines their consciousness. Philosophy, religion and other cultural aspects are a reflection of economics and the dominant class which controls the economic system. This view of human nature as being primarily determined by economics may seem to be a base view of humanity. However, from Marx’s point of view, the human condition reaches its full potential under communism. Under communism, the cycle of class conflict and oppression will end, because all members of society will have their basic material needs met, rather than most being exploited for their labor by a dominant class. In this sense the Marxian vie w of human nature can be seen as hopeful. Although human beings are motivated by economics, they will ultimately be able to establish a society which is not based on economic oppression. Freud, in Civilization and Its Discontents, presents a conception of human nature that differs greatly from that of Marx. His view of human nature is more complex than Marx’s. Freud is critical of the Marxist view of human nature, stating that ‘†¦I am able to recognize that the psychological premises on which the [communist] system is based are an untenable illusion. In abolishing private property we deprive the human love of aggression of one of its instruments†¦but we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness, nor have we altered anything in its nature’ (Freud 71). Freud does not believe that removal of economic differences will remove the human instinct to dominate others. For Freud, aggression is an innate component of human nature and will exist regardless of how society is formulated. He sees human beings as having both a life instinct (Eros) and an instinct for destruction. In Freud’s view of human reality, the source of conflict, oppression, and destruction in human society is man’s own psychological makeup. Because of Freud’s view of human nature as inherently having a destructive component, he does not believe that a ‘transformation’ of humans to communist men and women will be possible. Marx’s belief that the current capitalist society will evolve into a communist society is not supportable under Freud’s conception of human nature because the desires of human beings are too much in conflict with the demands of any civilized society. This conflict does not exist because of economic inequalities, according to Freud, but rather because it is in human nature to have aggressive desires which are destructive to society. Freud’s approach to the possibility of reducing conflict among humanity focuses on understanding the human mind, the aggressive qualities of human nature, and how human beings’ desires can come into conflict with the demands of human society. He does not believe that the problems of human conflict, aggression, and destruction can be solved by a radical reordering of society as the philosophy of Marx suggests. Instead, Freud looks inside ourselves to explore these problems. At the close of his work, Freud states, ‘The fatef ul question for the human species seems to me to be whether and to what extent their cultural development will succeed in mastering the disturbance of their communal life by the human instinct of aggression and self-destruction’ (Freud 111). Freud does not offer any radical solutions to human aggressiveness, but rather sees it as something that humans must continually strive to overcome. He states ‘†¦I have not the courage to rise up before my fellow-men as a prophet, and I bow to their reproach that I can offer them no consolation†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Freud 111). Freud can not offer some vision of a human utopia, but can only suggest that there is some possibility for the improvement of the human condition and society, but also warns that our success at overcoming destructive instincts may be limited. Marx offers a radical philosophy which also sees conflict as one of the constants of prior human existence. Unlike Freud, Marx believes that the aggressive and conflict-oriented aspects of human nature will disappear under the communist society which he sees as the inevitable product of capitalism. This is the hopeful element of Marx’s philosophy. However, if communism is not seen as inevitable or the possibil ities for reducing human conflict before a socialist revolution are considered, then Marx’s view of human nature locks humanity into constant conflict. If the future is to be like Marx’s version of history, then there is little hopefulness in this view of human nature. Works Cited Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. Ed. James Strachey. New York: W.W. Norton, 1961. Marx, Karl and Frederick Engels. The Communist Manifesto. New York: International Publishers, 1994.

Problems in Total Quality within the Workplace Assignment

Problems in Total Quality within the Workplace - Assignment Example Unfortunately, this in itself has been a perplexing task since TQM has had various definitions for different people. The TQM philosophy revolves around assumptions that are manifested in people, quality, corporations and the role of top management (Hackman & Wageman, 1995). The strategy outlines four core principles that bring about quality improvement. The first pertains to the process control and design which requires training at all levels of the organization (Hackman & Wageman, 1995). The second pertains to elimination of uncontrolled variance in process standards (Hackman & Wageman, 1995). The third relates to the methodical collection of data and finally, the fourth pertains to continuous improvement (Hackman & Wageman, 1995). However, the implementation of TQM and its application to industries is not as simplistic as its explanation; it is plagued by several problems. Recent research suggests that more than 80% of TQM efforts have failed to achieve desired tangible results since top management fails to set SMART goals (Kearney, 1992). Most organizations have failed to realize significant competitive edge through initiation of these efforts. TQM requires a culture whereby organizations are devoted to increasing quality, often at the expense of short term profits. However, several profit organizations take a myopic view when they aim for short term profits rather than quality. In organizations in the public sector, the issue is that of excessive government intervention and influence on the organization’s activities (Sarkar, 1991). State run organizations are often bureaucratic in nature and tend to deviate from quality improvement activities. In such organizations it is difficult to embed the TQM culture. Furthermore, in certain developing countries the culture is such that it negates change and does not encourage empowerment that is fundamental to the achievement

Ppaper on Illegal Physical or Internet Intrusion Essay

Ppaper on Illegal Physical or Internet Intrusion - Essay Example This paper discusses why data security is of importance to an organization. Furthermore it throws light upon what might be the physical or internet based threats to an organization’s database and lastly converges with a few suggestions that can be embedded in order to strengthen database security. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO SECURE AN ORGANIZATION’S DATA? An organization’s data is of imperative importance to it. The success of any setup is directly proportional to the security and integrity of that environment. This study is aimed at discussing the scope of threats that an organization faces with respect to its data. It highlights what measures could be taken in order to keep the data within the database of an organization secure from any kinds of physical and internet intrusions. The Deputy Commissioner and internal control officer of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue John Mynihan is said to have quoted as follows about the threats to the data of an organizatio n: â€Å"Any organization that collects data has to acknowledge that people are abusing it because they have access to it ... It's human nature.† (Mynihan, 2007) Database security is of inevitable importance because any malfunctioning done with the data in it, whether physical or virtual, if not corrected in a timely manner can result in the loss of system or data integrity. This, in turn can have severe consequences on the business processes themselves. The continued usage of corrupted data and thus the corrupted database system can result in the outcome of fraudulent and inappropriate decisions. In addition to this, unintentional and unauthorized disclosure of any sensitive data pertaining to the organization and its stakeholders can result in the loss of confidence of the organization’s stakeholders with it. Moreover, it can even lead to severe legal issues and stern embarrassment against the organization. TRUSTING INDIVIDUALS? A renowned fact that spreads widely wi thin business circles is that individuals should never be trusted such that an organization’s critical should be left at their disposal. This task of storing critical data and enabling it’s readily and convenient access is assigned to databases. Database stores all the critical data of an organizational setup. Since they hold so very much importance, their security is also a key concern for the organization. Senior director of security for Oracle, Wynn White mentions his observations about database security in the following words: â€Å"According to one recent Forrester study, 80 percent of data security breaches involve insiders, employees or those with internal access to an organization, putting information at risk. The big challenge for companies today – particularly as email and the Internet make sharing and distributing corporate information easier than ever - is to strike the right balance between providing workers with appropriate access and protecting s ensitive information as much as possible.† (White) The following text evaluates what a database’s security is and what are the potential threats faced by it. THE POTENTIAL THREATS The potential threats that are faced by a database with respect to its security can be summarized as follows: PHYSICAL INTRUSION/THREAT: This involves dangers such as theft fire/flood, power outage, earthquake or malicious damage. HUMAN ERROR: Mistake on the part of the authorized personnel manipulating the database. This may

Two Icons of Renaissance Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Two Icons of Renaissance Art - Essay Example While many renowned names involve in this artistic stream, there are few who hold their stands unmatched as the propagators of artistic cultures. Two of such names are Botticelli and Raphael who introduced and developed a personal insightful depiction of some contemporary concepts and universal portrayals. Two notable works of art from Botticelli and Raphael are The birth of Venus (Botticelli) and Mond Crucifixion (Raphael). Those two works of art are very much the representing pieces for their contemporary culture picking up classical foundations to mount with artistic rendering of subtle individual depictions. Heritage of classical ages During renaissance, new developments and imaginations of most artists had come out of the classical traditions of arts. Notably, modernism had not touched the world and breaking of rules was limited only up to the imaginations of artists. Thus, artist of earlier renaissance period opted to provide their insights to some traditional themes. Both The Birth of Venus and Mond crucifixion are grounded in deep Christian imagination of human conditions. As in The birth of Venus, the iconography does not entail a violation of themes dwelling in contemporary consciousness. Similarly, in Mond Crucifixion depiction of Jesus is portrayed as a calm figure even when crucified. Theological icons as Venus and Jesus had a very specific place in classical artistic culture. On the other hand church’s influences were quite dominant over artistic depictions till renaissance. However, during renaissance most of the painters and artists had been associated and were adorned by the church too. It is mostly the style, imaginative depiction of surrounding and use of different shades which had put those arts on steps ahead of the classical ages. Materials, Style and Colors As Botticelli belonged to an era when Oil paintings were not popularized up to an extent The birth of Venus was painted on tempera while Mond Crucifixion arrived at a time when popularity of oil paintings had overtook the use of tempera around whole Europe. Historically too, Oil paintings proved to be more facilitative compared to tempera. Tempera dries very fast and painters had to be very accurate in mixing the paint. Oil painting proved to be easier to use enhancing numerous opportunities to painters to use fast brushstrokes. Comparing The birth of Venus to Mond Crucifixion, the use of oil in the later provides much scope to paint the background while in The birth of Venus background is dissolved into sea with very keen strokes till the end which is quite essential in a tempera material. In both the paintings, use of colors and lights is straight away comparable as The birth of Venus provides a little fading effect towards the third dimension while Mond Crucifixion holds sharper colors and clearer lights to sustain with the aura of Jesus which is essentially to be preserved in the painting. The birth of Venus is visualized with the imaginative beauty of painter’s convictions to the relevant matter described by many earlier artists. Instead of the three Hours of Homer's hymn and Poliziano's poem, he shows us one fair nymph, in a white robe, embroidered with blue corn-flowers, springing lightly forward to offer Venus a pink mantle sown with daisies. In the laurel groves along the shore, we see a courtly allusion to the "Laurel who sheltered the

Messaging apps Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Messaging apps - Research Paper Example Some of the most common messaging apps that allow users to send free messaging texts, images, photos and free calls over a data connection include Whatsapp, Tango, Viber and iMessage, Skype among others (Olson, 2013). These apps have been a threat to the conventional message carriers considering that they have done away with the fees that people used to pay for the same services. As such, the traditional message carriers have to close shop or innovate better ways to attract customers. Therefore, the use of messaging Apps in sending contents through mobile networks has led to a transformation in the usage of mobile phones, making them ideal gadgets to communicate and receive content in real time. Messaging apps have challenged the incumbent social messaging sites such as Facebook and Alibaba. The apps facilitate chatting and sending of different contents a much better way compared to the conventional methods of sending the same contents. Tango is one of the most commonly used messaging apps. Currently, Tango has over 70 million monthly active users and enables members to send video and voice calls along text messages in real time (Kan 2014). Tango has capitalized on the fact that most of the calls that people make are not answered, especially at nights. As such, the company has come with special services to users that facilitate recording of messages, which are then viewed later after the person wakes up (Kan, 2014). Thus, the company has to store such messages in their servers, where they are accessible to any member with an android device, devices using apple operating system or through any web browser (Kan, 2014). The company plans to start making money by requiring that users pay minimal charges on using special services such as the Tango surprises that allows animations of messages. For instance, users of the Tango Surprises will get a single animation free of charge

There are many qualities that are needed to be a good leader or Essay

There are many qualities that are needed to be a good leader or manager. To what extent can these be learnt through study and tr - Essay Example While most management instructors now concur that headship is a behaviour and a skill, which displays that skilfulness, this dual explanation has bred additional incongruity over the extent to which leadership can be trained or taught. That query is the prime focus of this paper. Perceptions on Teaching (And Studying) Leadership Leadership has now occupied a conspicuous place within management education and research. Leadership has similarly become an inescapable subject of managerial research, practice and education. Leadership magazines have increased and leadership curriculums are nowadays a fragment of almost every key business school course in the country. Furthermore, there is a wide range of leadership investigation programs, institutes, and centres outside and within business institutes (Cunningham & Gephart 2008). Can Leadership Be Learned Some individuals have a predisposition to acquire some skills faster or efficiently than others, and evidently, some persons reflect more likable or charismatic features than others do.   However, many distinguished managers are not those that are featured on Fortune and Time covers.   Great leaders learn to attain outstanding results during their own environments.   Just like effective parenting has to be learned and enhanced so can effectual leadership. Work experiences, special projects, bosses, role models, and education all contribute in headship development (Hencley 2000). For instance, utilizing an analogy with sporting, not everybody can turn into an exceptional player regardless of coaching, however, most will gain and enhance their ‘game’. Few will continue to become leads or exceptional leaders through coaching, wide-ranging experiences, as well as personal drive.† Can Leadership Be Taught Assenting that some features of leadership may be acquired is not similar to stating that they may be taught, at best in the proper sense. A good number of the management instructors agree that c ertain leadership aspects can be taught; though there are variances on how efficaciously leadership abilities can be fostered through formal coaching and courses. Rendering to the many experts, the capacity to teach leadership is contingent upon the student and the teacher (Hencley 2000). Leadership can be trained, though only certain facets. Leadership is conjured of three dissimilar scopes: skills, dispositions, and perspectives. Much leadership expertise can be imparted, and slightly perspectives can be enhanced and developed via education. For instance, one can be taught how to communicate more brilliantly and present concepts more convincingly. People can be taught about facets of strategic thinking to broaden an individual perspective. Simultaneously, there is an acute contextual aspect to strategic reasoning that is an invention of involvement in one’s discipline and a mental aptitude to reason more theoretically (Stogdill 2010). These are hard to impart. In respect to dispositions, these are an outcome of family, life, and perhaps genes (Cunningham & Gephart 2008). Therefore, the last cannot be trained. For instance, a person cannot be taught to be determined or to remain more exposed to taking risks–  those are dispositional traits. The knowledge needed to perform strategic leadership contains both tacit and explicit elements. The

Database security in the cloud Essay Example for Free

Database security in the cloud Essay This chapter is mainly concerned with providing the research methods and the tools that were used to get the views of the respondents. They contribute a lot in the conclusion of the research. The methods that were employed in this research include sampling, questionnaires, and online surveys. With Web 2. 0 being in full force today, there are more avenues that have made it possible to get views from clients. These avenues include web forums, blogs, and review sites like ZDNet, and ZNet sites. This was a good method that was of paramount importance in this research. Use of interview This method was also a vital component of my research as its combination with other methods like observations and other statistical techniques yields optimum results. I ensured that I maintained the balance of emphasis which kept on shifting with the frame of reference and objectives of this study. Interviews also proved highly flexible especially given the fact that I handled it with care and achieved a considerably liberal atmosphere since questions that were not easily grasped by interviewees were rephrased and/or repeated emphatically and explanations given where it proved necessary. The use of interviews helped me in the study of human behaviour during the process and helped me to secure very intimate and personal knowledge about my study. However, they had the following limitations: the use this tool proved to be time consuming as I had to conduct personal visits to the sample population severally due to some absentee interviewees which forced me to conduct several revisits and some appointments that I made sure to catch up to the required information (McEvoy, Schulze, 2008). Records and documentations also helped me in analyzing the legal basis of businesses, their past, current and projected status as regards capital input and output enabling me to deduce the history of ideas, prime philosophies and scientific thoughts that come with the projections (McEvoy, Schulze, 2008). Journals were also useful in my research as I got relevant information and used it for my analysis and compilations. Expressive Documents including personal letters; life or case histories in the form of diaries and accounts of small-group processes which created a solid background for sourcing information in this research. 4. 1. 2 Use of questionnaires I employed the use of close-ended questions where I provided the respondents with a variety of choices to pick from that reflected the trends and use of Information Technology and also open ended questions in which I gave the respondents room to formulate their own answers to my questions. Although its use proved to be cost effective, easy to analyze, familiar to most of the respondents and reduced biasness, their use has shown that they have low response rates which is a real curse to statistical analysis and can reduce the reliability of the results (Jha, Merzky, Fox, 2008). But I ensured a well designated study approach to the use of questionnaires to produce consistent and high response rates. 4. 1. 3 Online surveys/use of the internet The Internet proved very interactive in providing me with relevant information besides being affordable to administer, easy to modify and gave instant results for the study. The tool also had an advantage of making it easy to automate data creation, manipulation and reporting and made it user friendly. Although the use of the internet was efficient, it still had weakness of difficulty in determining and controlling selection probabilities, which is a hindrance to quantitative analysis of data collected (McEvoy, Schulze, 2008). 4. 2 Procedures The results were from 5 companies which have widely dealt with cloud computing and are concerned with the security of the databases stored in the clouds. These companies have their representatives and program officers who were very helpful in this research. This is because they are the leading in the development and development of cloud computing. Data was collected using SPSS program. The views from the employees of these companies were captured in a questionnaire which was sent online. They were asked how they perceive their achievement of the database security in cloud computing. They were then asked of their personal feel of the extent to which the war against attacks in the cloud has been achieved. In part 1, the respondents were told to give the things they feel are important when one is implementing cloud computing. They were told to give the issues they feel were paramount in implementing security in cloud computing environments. Participants were then asked a series of questions related to database security in cloud computing: the type of cloud computing they wish to implement (attribute vs. consensus), the type of information source (personal vs. impersonal), type of heuristics (independent self-related vs. interdependent self-related), decision speed, consideration set, product involvement, and product knowledge. In part 2, participants were asked a series of individual differences in their technologies they wished to b implemented. In part 3, participants were presented with demographic questions such as age, gender, nationality, race/ethnicity, and cultural identity. Once a participant finished the questionnaire, he/she was thanked and dismissed. McEvoy, G. , Schulze, B. (2008). Using clouds to address grid limitations. In Workshop on Middleware for Grid Computing (article 11). Retrieved May 19, 2010, from ACM Digital Library database. Jha, S. , Merzky, A. , Fox, G. (2008). Cloud computing and grid abstraction. Retrieved on May 17, 2010, from Open Grid Forum Web site: http://ogf. org/OGF_Special_Issue/cloud-grid-saga. pdf