Essays on Selves

The document on shamanism prevents a detailed, in-depth look at the major aspects of the modality and how it is applied. The interesting thing about the text is its approach: despite the spiritual nature of its subject matter, it manages to present a no-nonsense approach to the topic. Every chapter in the document contains a combination of descriptions, directions, vignettes, caveats that entertain as well instruct (Anon. 1-77). It may be tempting to dismiss the text as New Age “mumbo-jumbo” due to its non-empirical nature. However, it has a very methodical, organized, matter-of-fact communication style that warrants at least ...

Identity and Information in the Internet Age

Today’s generation of kids and adults are dealing with technologies like no generation before. The major engine in this truly unique period is social media and the Internet. This has forever changed how we interact with one another as well as how we get information. We can interact with people all around the globe, with different cultures and nations, and do so all from our own living room. This new way of interacting with one another has had a great affect on how we form our self-identity. Social media and the Internet have made inaccuracies of information much ...

Today, the internet is a prime avenue among the youths as well as adults for social interactions. Through internet tools and applications such as chat rooms, email, newsgroups, instant messaging as well as other means, individuals share all sorts of information such as their interests with others, aspects pertaining to their daily lives and keep in touch with their friends and family members. In essence, today, the primary use of mobile phones and personal computers is social interaction. In the process, online social interaction has also brought about people seeking to form relationships with others whom they have met ...

Summary of Thinking, fast, and slow by Daniel Kahneman

George Mason University Summary of Thinking, fast, and slow by Daniel Kahneman Introduction The author, Daniel Kahneman, hopes that the readers would benefit from the reading of his book, which is about biases of intuition. According to the author, it can be a tough choice between what we believe and what we want. Friends and colleagues help us in making and evaluating choices. The thinking process is one conscious thought leading to another. The mental work creates impressions and intuitions silently in our minds. We allow our beliefs, feelings and preferences to feel confident about our decision, even if ...

The modern society places huge expectations of conformity on the individual, forcing them to question their identity and place in the society. Parental presence and acceptance, class, income, race and physical appearance become important in how well individuals get accustomed to the often rigid demands of the society they live in. Philosophers, poets and novelists throughout history have written about the feeling of abandonment by a parental figure or a class and the resultant agony it brings to their protagonists. Werther in The Sorrows of Young Werther, the creature in Frankenstein, Lily Briscoe in To The Lighthouse and Bartleby ...

Gun control

Part 1A: The proposal, The agent is California legislature acting for California supports the gun control. Where as the republicans disagree. The goal is that there will be specific situations to own a gun control in the U.S.

3A- Restrict the sale of guns, for example, by imposing waiting periods.

3B- Democratic Party introduced assembly bills 1663, 1664, 1673 and 1674, which restrict the sale of the guns. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton supports this proposal with other many politically powerful people. The agent is California legislature acting for California support the gun control. Where as the republicans disagree. The goal is that there will be specific situations to own a ...

Technology exists as a creation of people, produced through the various ideas to help make the lives of people easier and more productive. However, technology has become too deeply integrated in people’s lives that they start being overly dependent on it, even to the point of stating that they are not able to live without it. Such an idea, significantly evident in today’s society is the thematic background of E.M Forster’s The Machine Stops, serving as a prescient warning of its implications. The isolation and shunning of human nature and a worship of technology will eventually ...

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a contradiction of people who are authentic such as Sybil and Henry and those who are hiding their true selves behind deceptions, like Dorian and Basil. This paper will look at the use of “smoke and mirrors” in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. “Smoke and Mirrors” is a metaphor that refers to the hiding of truth behind a veil of deception. This is a concept that is popular in Victorian Literature and helps to drive the plot as the conflict is often times essential to the advancement of the storyline. ...

Ex-offenders are largely stigmatized in almost every society. They are looked down upon even after completing their sentence and trying to return back to a normal life. The reason why this happens is because people are adamant on believing that a person who once commits a crime can never redeem their former selves and become sincere members of society like the rest of the people. Moreover, others fear that they cannot be trusted as they will redo their crime if they get the chance. This makes them avoid ex-offenders, and this discrimination persists for quite some time which makes ...

In a 1979 piece titled “In Defense of Masks” by Kenneth Gergen, the eminent psychologist talks about the difficulty of selecting from multiple voices made against a self. Gergen argues that multiple selves exist in one person, and each self makes claims and demands on its subject. Gergen suggests that multiple selves is a pragmatic adaption of the self. The main argument of Gergen is that people tend to have multiple identities represented in the form of social masks, but that this does not make our interactions inherently superficial because of the underlying nature of our basic identities themselves. ...

The Vimalakirti is essential in understanding vague passages of the Koan for it details the concept of enlightenment through Buddha’s words through the use of narratives derived from Buddha’s conversation with the Bodhisattvas. The purpose of this paper is to explain how the Vimalakirti can be a useful reference in reading the Koan. In this respect, two texts dealing with the argument have been tackling the issue of attaining enlightenment. According to the Vimalakirti sutra, when the Buddha was asked by his fellow men in order to attain enlightenment, they gave him gifts to become an enlightened ...

According to the Journal of Vision, clutter is defined as “the state in which excess items, or their representation or organization, lead to a degredation of performance at some task” (Rosenholtz, 17). The popularity of home improvement shows such as ‘Hoarders’, has made the topic of decluttering a mainstream trending topic. Experts believe that decluttering one’s home leads to a direct revelation of one’s true self. However, in this essay, I argue that there are exercises other than decluttering, that cn expose us to our true paths. Marie Kondo, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, ...

Privacy is Theft?

Modern technology gives a lot of possibilities for people in everyday life. It is easier to stay in touch with your family and relatives, work more efficiently and make shopping. But more and more people nowadays are concerned about the privacy of their lives and security in digital age, as all their information becomes available for everyone who wants to know it via social media resources. The topic has been raised all the time by many people, but we always postpone it, thinking that it is not a right time to consider it. But it has found its literal ...

The Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman nowadays is perhaps the world's most influential psychologist. In his TED talk "The Riddle of Experience vs. Memory" he talked about important concepts of two selves – perceiving and remembering and their interaction. He pointed out that we have two distinct selves – one who perceives, acts, and feels at the present moment – the perceiving self, and another one who memorizes the events and judges them by the impression they leave. Specifically, he presented these concepts in relation to happiness. He suggested that it is better to speak about two separate entities – happiness and wellbeing. Happiness ...