The meaning of life Essay Example for Free

The meaning of life Essay During our brief time, spinning on this ball of rock, dust and water, there are questions that haunt almost every person on Earth. Why are we here? What is our purpose? And, what is the meaning of our life? These questions have been rattling around in great minds since the beginning of history, and will continue on until mankind’s eventual extinction. Many people have pondered the relevance of their lives, but finding the true meaning is knowledge that is reserved only for God. Though these questions may never truly be answered, many philosophers, authors, academics and holy men have given this question their full attention. I will explore two of these great minds, compare their philosophies, and try my best to explain my own life’s philosophy. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama The first man we will discuss is a world-renowned lover of peace and happiness; he has had a major motion picture made his life and its exploits, and is actually still alive to this day. His name is Tenzin Gyatso, otherwise known as His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The reason I chose the Dalai Lama, is because of the trials and difficulties he has endured. The Chinese forced him into exile from his home in Tibet to India because of his beliefs about peace. His strengths are admirable and he won the Nobel Peace Prize for attempting to free the Tibetan people from Chinese rule without violence (The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, n. d. ). The Dalai Lama’s theory on the meaning of life stems from Buddhist religion and I will do my best to convey this wisdom in my own words. According to the Dalai Lama’s philosophy on the purpose of life (n. d. ) â€Å"the purpose of life is to be happy† (The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama). That seems simple enough, right? That statement is essentially the very beginning of his writings on the meaning of life. He continues on to elaborate on how this seemingly easy task can be accomplished, and how one can attain a life of meaning through happiness. The way that I interpreted his teachings is that, at every human being’s core, we are all after one thing, and that is love. Love is something we crave from a very young age and that life’s meaning is derived from love and the acts of love that we all give and receive in our day-to-day lives. I also believe that the Dalai Lama’ s meaning of life teaches individuals to be dependent by nature, and that our relationships with those whom we associate ourselves are generally based on love (The Office of His Holiness The Dalai Lama, n. d. ). His Holiness believes that we gain our life’s purpose from our interpersonal relationships. These relationships can be our colleagues at work, teachers and fellow students at school. The Dalai Lama believes that our primary ambition in all of these relationships is to earn love. For example, at work we all strive to do our best in order to earn more money. However, for many of us, it is not the money we are after, but the esteem from our superiors and subordinates for a job well done. We want to feel valuable to that company, feel an importance, a cog within the great machine. I believe that deep down these feelings stem from our inborn need to be loved. While love is a fundamental part of the Dalai Lama’s philosophy, he also speaks of the role compassion plays in our lives. The Dalai Lama teaches that life’s meaning can be attained through true compassion, which should be derived from reason, not emotions, and that it should never waiver; regardless of whether a person is being negative or positive toward you (The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, n. d). Aristotle The second philosopher we will discuss is one of the most notable to come out of the Ancient Greek Empire, Aristotle. Aristotle is to the day one of the most globally recognized philosophers, and was a student of Plato and teacher to Alexander the Great. I chose the philosopher Aristotle because his ethical beliefs are good ones to live by in order to obtain the meaning of life. His studies give off the impression that he knows the answer to the question, why? I was unfamiliar with his direct philosophies, but my research allowed the ability to understand his point of view. Aristotle’s works focus primarily on theoretical, practical and productive sciences. He â€Å"identifies the highest good with intellectual virtue; that is, a moral person is one who cultivates certain virtues based on reasoning† (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2005). He was extremely knowledgeable and able to absorb enough of an understanding of these sciences to be able to interpret how life worked in a way to achieve happiness. Using his theories of practical science, Aristotle was able to establish explanations relating to the actions and conducts of individuals within society (Cohen, 2008). He could easily comprehend how society clicked and how the individuals within society adapted. Productive sciences are those relating to the crafts of individuals, what they produce, and how they have evolved. By using the basis of these three sciences, Aristotle was able to establish a sense of ethics and rules of logic. He educated individuals throughout society to spread his beliefs and his understandings of the way of life. Aristotle used many factors when coming to an understanding about the philosophy of life. His main philosophy pertains to living one with nature and relating to society by simply being happy. He compares being happy to being Godlike; however, happiness is not just being happy, but instead living a life that teaches you to be happy by living virtuously (Aristotle, 350 B. C. E). Aristotle understood the meaning of life and would live and teach with that understanding. The choices individuals would make pertain to the ultimate goal of achieving actual happiness. This happiness triggers an unknown pleasure within an individual and essentially becomes a desire and drives one to maintain that happiness. With his education of theoretical, practical and physical sciences, Aristotle was able to make sense of it all. His beliefs of obtaining happiness were collected together by using knowledge and pure goodness. He felt as if knowledge, like happiness, needed to be learned through education and life experience. Aristotle believed that, â€Å"there is nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses,† meaning that our knowledge is mainly absorbed through our experiences (Turner, 1907). To Aristotle, happiness cannot just be found; one has to be able to live their lives in a virtuous way to obtain honor and the greater good. Individuals need to understand what the reality of what happiness is and how to be a rational being in order to obtain it (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2005). His meanings and interpretations have made a significant influence to many and still continue to influence and educate. Both, the Dalai Lama and Aristotle share similar feelings relating to their philosophies of life. The main objective for the both of them is essentially to obtain pure happiness through compassion and pleasure. The Dalai Lama strives to use love and peace to reach this goal, where on the other hand, Aristotle uses virtue and knowledge. They imply to live a life that one would be proud of, taking the trials that life gives to you and turning them into an experience and strive towards happiness and love. My Philosophy My own life’s philosophy is probably pretty cliche, but I firmly believe that if something makes you happy, do more of it, and that one must work to live and not live to work. I believe that if all you do is work then you miss out on all of the things the world has to offer outside of whatever structured work environment you may be a part of. That is not to say that some people do not love their work and that for them their work is their purpose. I think that is what everyone should strive for, but I believe that once work takes precedence over your family, your friends, and most of all your happiness, then it threatens all you’re working for. I have seen this in too many career soldiers, and unfortunately, myself. I can admit that my steadfast attention on work during my last deployment was without a doubt, a contributing factor in a failed relationship. Since that time in my life, I have become determined not to let that happen again, and to let happiness be my purpose in life. Earlier I said that if something makes you happy, do more of it. This means that if you love to sing, but can’t carry a tune, then sing. If you love to work on cars, but can’t find the time, make time. For me, it is making people laugh, I love to do it, and so I will! Life is cruelly short, so let’s all find just a little time to do what makes us happy. In comparison with the Dalai Lama, I feel that my philosophy is quite similar. We both feel that life’s meaning is directly derived from happiness. He feels that we gain this happiness from love and those that surround us, while I feel that we have additional happiness to gain in life if we could just find the time to do the things that make us happy. I feel that my philosophy differs from his in the area of work. I believe that you must work to live and that your work should not come before those you love, yourself or whatever it is you work for. As for Aristotle’s philosophy and my own, I believe that his theory on using virtue and honor to obtain happiness is very accurate. I too believe that living a life filled with honor can lead to a sense of pride that is able to coincide with being happy. I also support his opinion on happiness leading to pleasure. Being happy is like an addiction and the more happiness that you attain, the more that you strive for. However, Aristotle also believes that happiness corresponds to making decisions backed by knowledge and experience. I somewhat disagree and believe that life experience does not necessarily have to be a main factor pertained to happiness. If you want to be happy, then just be, and live your life honestly and virtuously. The main things that I have learned from the teachings of the Dalai Lama that I would like to apply to my own life, is that happiness is the meaning of our life’s and that we should show patience and compassion towards everyone no matter what. If even 25% of the world could manage that, we would not be in the state of constant war we’ve been in for the past decade. I would also like to take away his capacity for love, I think his philosophy of life involving love is inspiring and makes me want to live a more peaceful, loving life. Aristotle on the other hand, has taught me to be more open-minded to knowledge and experience. To take in an experience as a lesson learned instead of just another day on the calendar and to just appreciate every moment, good or bad, and use it to the best of your advantage. References Aristotle. (350 B. C. E). Nicomachean ethics. Trans. W. D. Ross. Retrieved from: http://classics. mit. edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen. 1. i. html Cohen, M. (2008). Aristotle. Retrieved from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/aristotle/ Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2005). Aristotle (384—322 BCE). Retrieved from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www. iep. utm. edu/aristotl/ The Office of His Holiness The Dalai Lama (n. d. ). A brief biography. Retrieved from: http://www. dalailama. com/biography/a-brief-biography Turner, W. (1907). Aristotle. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved April 17, 2012 from New Advent: http://www. newadvent. org/cathen/01713a. htm.

The Importance of Being Earnest Essay -- Literary Analysis

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is a timeless comedy of manners in which two young, light-hearted men, pretend their names are ‘Ernest’ in a bid to impress their love interests, who both believe the name Ernest bestows magical qualities on the possessor. Throughout the play, Wilde uses a mix of social drama, melodrama and farce to appeal to the audience. Through his gentle use of parody Wilde is able to ridicule his contemporaries and attack the values and attitudes of Victorian society, such as; wealth, hierarchy, respectability, morality and self- interest. Via satirical dialogue and dramatic irony Wilde is able to reveal the moral hypocrisy at the heart of the Victorian era. The title â€Å"The importance of being Earnest† places an ironical importance on a plot about men leading ‘double lives’, lying to family and friends about their private lives, so they can take trips away and do the things they really want to do. Both Jack and Algernon lead a double life, a life separate from their family and friends; Jack uses his imaginary brother ‘Ernest’ to escape his life in the country. Whilst Algernon uses his imaginary friend ‘Bunbury’ to escape social gatherings, suggesting that both men find the stresses of society and their lives extremely restrictive, and in order to escape the constraints of society they must lie or deceive. Via his play Wilde claims that the majority of Victorian society wears some sort of social mask. Many critics have argued that each character depicted in the play is an extension of Wilde himself, and that Algernon and Jack’s ‘double life’ represent Wilde’s own alter ego which hid his homosexuality and many of his illicit affairs from a society that frowned upon homosexual acts. Through his p... ...being Earnest and other plays page 325 http://www.shmoop.com/importance-of-being-earnest/writing-style.html Oscar wilde the importance of being earnest and other plays page 304 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/earnest http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/earnest/themes.html Donohue and Berggren 1995, p.281 http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/111841-The-Title-The-Importance-Being-Earnest.aspx Kumaraditya Sarkar York notes, the importance of being earnest, pg. 6 The importance of being earnest and other plays Page 297 http://www.gradesaver.com/the-importance-of-being-earnest/study-guide/about/ 22/04/2012 http://sexualityinart.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/the-importance-of-being-earnest-a-comedy-of-manners-and-culture-revealing-double-lives-and-universal-truths/ 6/04/2012 http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/the-importance-of-being-earnest/ 6/04/2012

Group Reflection Exercise

In the recent group activity. I was a member In a group of four. I had been absent from class when the groups were allocated and the two members present were given the task of choosing each of our roles. I felt they chose the more difficult roles for themselves, the introduction and conclusion, although I base that on the knowledge of my own strengths and weaknesses, with no knowledge of theirs. They assigned the work conflict to me, which I thought was a logical choice, given my occupation as a police officer.I believe we worked well together, particularly as we had only very recently met and were four distinctly different personalities. We communicated using email, as we had a number of work and/or study commitments in the week the presentation was due, which prevented us from meeting in person. The group member who had offered to produce the Powering presentation, had a last minute computer problem. I suggested we each write our own section for the Powering and asked the Introduci ng member If he minded putting It together. He was happy with that and presented an easy to follow highlight of our talk.I thought our presentation was relevant and the exercise was quite successful, given that we were only able to meet during the practical. Our negotiation techniques were clearly identified and explained by our introducing member and our concluding member related them back specifically to the scenarios. The only area I can identify that may have made the exercise better, was if we had been able to meet as a group, prior to the presentation. That would have given us the opportunity to rehearse and make any changes that may have been needed. That is something I would put more effort into achieving In the future.

Marketing strategies in achieving competitive advantage - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1739 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Marketing Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? Strategy that is a term used by armies for defining their stance against enemies is now common in corporate world. In past we saw various firms competing against each other. They took defensive stances or they took aggressive stances against each other and tried to knock out their rivals. Sometimes they forgot the ethical limits in this rivalry. Example of Coke and Pepsi is there in history. They used each and every tactics that they could do to unravel each other until and unless they decided their market shares through this hustle. This forms the background of my research. General description of the project topic Keeping in view the importance of strategies in corporate environment research topic will focus on the historical success of companies in their selected strategy and their failure due to wrong strategies. This Research report will analyze various grand strategies and generic strategies adopted by communication companies of Europe. In order to limit the scope of the work two major competitors are selected namely O2 that belong to UK and Orange that has a French origin. Both these companies compete in various markets internationally. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Marketing strategies in achieving competitive advantage" essay for you Create order Rationale for the project The project is based on the rationale of learning through the experiences of the others. It will bring out the strategic options opted by existing companies and will make clear guideline for the new entrants in the market. In this growing sector of economy, there is a great room for new entrants but few market leaders are holding such a huge share of market that it seems difficult for new entrants to get through competition. Aims Objectives Clearly defined aim Aim of this dissertation report is to look critically at the competing strategies of O2 and Orange for identifying appropriate competitive strategies for both companies in present situation and suggest competitive strategies for new companies entering the industry. Appropriate objectives Objectives of this report will be as follows: To investigate competitive marketing strategies adopted by each company throughout its history Identify relevance and appropriateness of current strategies of both companies Suggest future strategies Suggest new companies better strategies for entering in communication industry Literature Review Competitive strategy is a three decades old concept however it remained a question to assess its adequacy as a descriptive system and analyse its propositions in relation to performance as a result of different strategic designs (CAMPBELL-HUNT, 2000). It is thought that this is mainly due to no work yet for accumulating and comparing the research work on this field (CAMPBELL-HUNT, 2000). Cost and differentiation designs are the two high level discriminators of competitive strategy designs proposed yet. However many important propositions of these designs need further research. It is proposed that competitive research should recover something where it has been silent till now (CAMPBELL-HUNT, 2000). Other findings show that both cost and differentiation influence responsive market orientation and perspective market orientation. These orientations then determine organizational performance. It is observed that differentiation strategy has stronger relation with responsive market orient ation and perspective market orientation as compared to cost strategy. Moreover it is discovered that perspective market orientation has greater influence on performance that responsive market orientation (Voola OCass, 2010). Another study found that competitive priority mode proved valid. It further identified that four constructs better explain the variance in corporate competitive strategies. It is observed that high performing companies strongly emphasize on quality and delivery services for better performance and differentiation than on low cost strategy. While low performing companies place almost equal influence on all the competitive capabilities. Lack of ability to identify the at which strategy a firm must emphasize more may be a reason for low business performance (Chi, 2010). Importance of strategic alignment with objectives along with its interaction with general environment, in the form of various environmental factors, is the question of the day. For example adopt ion of advanced technology in a market before competition starts can avail opportunity for a firm to differentiate its offering (Qawasmeh Bataineh, 2010). Orange in Jordan applied this strategy successfully. Project Strategy Approach and strategy to be adopted The project is a basic research that is exploration of secondary research data for investigating strategies adopted by two major competitors in Telecom industry in Europe. Some deductive approach will be applied for driving strategic solution for the new entrants in market. Types of information required For the purpose of this research, literature and research data on competitive strategies will be required. Another type of information will come from the historic and current data for Orange and O2. This will provide information about Strategies of Orange and O2 companies. Secondly, general data for other industry players will also be helpful. Literature on strategy will also be helpful in this regard. It will also form a considerable part of the final report. In short, we can say that we will need theoretical data for competitive strategy from literature on strategy and practical data on strategy from Orange and O2. Secondary data identified Primary data sources will include Orange and O2 executives and managers. Secondary data for report will be gathered through published sources of information in the form of various reports most importantly annual reports, articles, books and magazines. Major sources of articles will include databases like Emerald, newspapers and magazines etc. few journals are listed below for identification of data. New industrial service pricing strategies and their antecedents: empirical evidence from two industrial sectors by Kostis Indounas and George Avlonitis Strategic capabilities, competitive strategy, and performance among retailers in Argentina, Peru and the United States by John A. Parnell Organizational learning as an antecedent of technology transfer and new product development by Juhaini Jabar, Claudine Soosay and Ricardo Santa Knowledge Transfer Barriers Between Research and Development and Marketing Groups Within Taiwanese Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprise High-Technolo gy New Product Development Teams by Chung-Ming Huang, Han-Chao Chang and Steven Henderson Annual report of Orange Annual report of O2 Research Type As my work is related to research on strategy and management, so I can say that epistemologically my work is phenomenological. As phenomenology can be described as In phenomenology here the principle is that only phenomena and hence knowledge confirmed by the senses can be genuinely be knowledge (Nightingale, 1989). My research will take data from peoples whether directly or indirectly but there is no direct involvement of me for observing and experimenting so it can be regarded as phenomenological work. Ontologically my work is based on realist approach. It comes at mid-way between positivist and interpretivist approach. It admits that Real structures exist independent of human consciousness, but that knowledge is socially created (Flowers, 2009). My research work is neither focused on the interviews and relative understandings of people for the issues nor is it based on testing of hypotheses. So it can neither be regarded as interpretivist nor can it be positivist. It is related to determining solution of problems that can be done only through a mix of both approaches. Thus it can be regarded as realist approach. Strategy I will apply case study approach to my research. As defined by Dul and Hak A case study is a study in which (a) one case (single case study) or a small number of cases (comparative case study) in their real life context are selected, and (b) scores obtained from these cases are analyzed in a qualitative manner (Dul Hak, 2008). This approach will be most suitable as my work is related to the companies who compete in a market. There will be number of case studies related to the successful and unsuccessful organizations who implemented various strategies. Further the outcomes of case studies analysis will be interlinked and some fruitful results will be inferred from these case studies. As my work is a constructive type of research so it is inductive and aimed at deriving some solutions to problems of entry in market for new entrants (Jeffrey A. Gliner, 2000). Data Collection As most of the work is based on case studies so the data collection will be through secondary research. As my topic is very specific so it will be difficult to trace the executives and managers of those companies who had failed and discontinued operation or have disappeared from the markets. Further it is not yet clear that which companies will like to share their success and failure through interviews or questionnaires. So at this time it will not be possible to set off for primary data collection. But this option is not closed. Where it will be suitable and feasible I will prefer to collect primary data through interviews and open end questionnaires. The second reason for focusing on secondary data is the availability of data. As strategy study is emerging issue of current environment so there is already a plenty of data available through books, journals and articles. Research Ethics Research ethics will be taken into account. As most of the work is from previously published work so data will be easily available. Further all companies selected will be publically traded companies so further data will be easily available. Time Scale and Resources The whole of the work will be conducted as described below: Selection of data for research and prioritizing data collection method (primary or secondary) for each company will be completed in one month. Data collection through secondary research will be completed in next one month. Questionnaire or interview design for any possible and feasible primary data collection will be completed in next fifteen days. Primary data collection will be completed in next fifty days. Data analysis and short listing of case studies for dissertation will be completed in next one month. Dissertation out lay preparation will be completed in next fifteen days. Writing of dissertation will be completed in next one month. Dissertation will be proof read and finalized for presentation in next fifteen days. Gantt Chart for Research Report No. Project 2010 2011 Jan 1/2 Feb 1/2 Feb 1/2 Mar 1/2 Mar 1/2 Apr 1/2 Apr 1 Phase 1        2 Phase 2       3 Phase 3        4 Phase 4        5 Phase 5        6 Phase 6        7 Phase 7        8 Phase 8        The whole research and dissertation will be completed in a period of four months from the date of approval of this proposal. Fifteen days are kept spare for any contingency in deadlines. Thus total work will take a maximum of eight months. Resources will be adequate for preparation of this dissertation as most of the data is to be collected from secondary research. Primary research that can be more costly is limited and subject to selection of companies and feasibility of data collection.