Political Philosophy Essay

Introduction: Abu Nasr Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Tarkhan al-Farabi was born at Wasij, a village near Farab, a district of Transoxania. He was one of the greatest philosophers that the Muslim world had ever produced. He mainly studied in Baghdad and after gaining considerable proficiency in the Arabic language, he became an ardent pupil of the Christian savant Abu Bishr Matta bin Younus, quite prominent as translator of a number of works by Aristotle and other Greek versatile writers. Being a first Turkish philosopher, he left behind lasting and profound influence upon the life of succeeding Muslim Philosophers. Being a great expositor of Aristotle’s logic, he was aptly called al-mu’alim al thani (the second teacher). According to Ibn-e-Khaldoon, no Muslim thinker ever reached the same position as al-Farabi in Philosophical knowledge. Al-Farabi is the first Muslim philosopher to have left political writings, either in the form of commentaries or in treaties of his own based upon Plato. Al-Farabi’s works was preserved from ravages of time contain five on politics as under: 1. A Summary of Plato’s Laws 2. Siyasatu’l-Madaniyah 3. Ara’u ahli’l-Madinatu’l-Fadilah. 4. Jawami’u’s-Siyasat 5. Ijtima’atu’l-Madaniyah Contribution of Al-Farabi to Islamic Political Thought â€Å"In pure philosophy, Farabi became as famous as any philosopher of Islam, and it is said that a savant of caliber of Avicenna found himself entirely incapable of understanding the true bearing of Aristotle’s Metaphysics until one day he casually purchased one of Farabi’s works and by its help he was able to grasp their purport. †Ã‚  (Sherwani) Al-Farabi was a renowned philosopher of his age and deeply reverenced in all ages. Al-Farabi’s insatiated enthusiasm led him to study Philosophy, Logic, Politics, Mathematics and Physics. He left his indelible impact upon the succeeding generations through his works, which are still read, learnt and discussed with great passion and literal zest. His sincerity, profound moral convictions and his genuine belief in liberty and in the dignity of human being united with his moderation and humanitarianism made him the ideal spokesman of his age, which was full of rivalries, corrosions and false vanities. Sherwani was of the view,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"A man with such learning had no place in the ninth-century Baghdad and as we have pointed out, we find him regularly attached to Saif-ud-Dowlah’s court. In 946 Saif took Damascus and Al-Farabi became permanent resident of that delightful place, spending his time in the gardens of the erstwhile Umayyad capital discussing philosophical questions with his friends and writing down his opinions and compositions sometimes in a regular form, sometimes in an irregular form, sometimes, on merely loose leaves. †Ã‚  Al-Farabi renunciated from the worldly matters and he never pursued the pleasures and luxuries like other middle class Abbasids. He led exemplary simple life with full contentment with what he got to eat and to wear. It can be very well asserted that al-Farabi was in the truest sense â€Å"the parent of all subsequent Arabic Philosophers†. The great Christian scholars namely Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquines acknowledged their indebtedness to al-Farabi in the development of their own political theories. Al-Farabi laid down several rules for teachers honestly striving to train the young students in philosophy. No scholar should start the study of philosophy until he gets very well acquainted with natural sciences. Human nature rises only gradually from the sensuous to the abstract, from the imperfect to the perfect. Mathematics in particular is very important in training the mind of a young philosopher, it helps him pass from the sensuous to the intelligible and further it informs his mind with exact demonstrations. Similarly, the study of logic as an instrument to distinguish the true from the false should precede the study of philosophy proper. Al-Farabi voluminously wrote mainly on pure philosophy and there is no doubt that he had to draw on neo-Platonic ideas current in the Arab world of those days in his commentaries on Aristotle, Porphyry and Ptolemy. Sherwani says that  we might accept the proposition that he was inspired by Plato, in this setting up of the Ideal City, but as there is a mass of new material in his political writings not found in Plato and taken from local sources, it is a matter of importance that such material should be analyzed and Farabi be given his rightful place on the scene of political philosophy. Al-Farabi died at the ripe age of nearly eighty years in 950. His name and works are everlasting and echoed in the corridors of time. Al-Farabi’s Ideal Head of State Every Islamic state is ruled by the ruler, or as later European Political scientists would call him the Sovereign. Plato after developing the matter of the government of his ideal city in his Republic had made the omnipotent and omniscient philosopher sovereign who should have no other interest but that of the affairs of state. Al-Farabi starts from the nature of the workers of leadership and impresses his readers that what is wanted for the office is the power of making proper deductions. According to Al-Farabi, his Rais should be such superior man, who, by his very nature and upbringing, does not submit before any power or instructions of others. He must have the potentialities to convey his sense to others for complete submission. Rosenthal was of the view, â€Å"He is the Imam, the first ruler over the ideal city-state, over the ideal nation and over the whole inhabited earth. The philosopher-prophet, in the opinion of Al-Farabi, is alone qualified to help man, a citizen to reach his true human destiny, where his moral and intellectual perfection permit him to perceive God, under the guidance of the divinely revealed Shariat. Those ruled by the first ruler are the excellent, best and happy citizens. † Al-Farabi contemplatively points out the virtuous qualities of his ideal Head of State, who should be competent to control the actions of all in the State and must be in possession of latest intellect as well as the gained intellect. All such refined and high qualities including his political and literal caliber make him an Ideal Sovereign for the overall interest of the society and the nation. He enumerated tweleve attributes of an ideal Sovereign: 1. He must possess persuasion and imagination to attain perfection as well as a philosopher skilled in the speculative science. 2. He must be physically sound with meticulous understanding. 3. He must have visualization of all that is said. 4. He must have a retentive and sharp memory. 5. He should discuss the matters with least possible arguments and must have authority to get the work done. 6. He must have power to convey to others exactly according to his wish and he has profound love of learning and knowledge. 7. He must have perfect capacity for a comprehensive knowledge and prescription of the theoretical and practical sciences and art, as well as for the virtues leading to good deeds. 8. He must shun off playfulness and control over anger and passions. 9. Al-Farabi’s ideal Rais must have love of truth, persuasion of justice and hatred of hypocrisy, knavery and duplicity. 10. He must vie for utmost happiness to his subjects and he should do away with all forces of tyranny and oppressions. 11. He must have power to distribute justice without any effort, fearless in doing things as he thinks best to be done. 12. He must serve the people of his state from all internal and external dangers. He must be in possession of considerable wealth, so that he should not prone to greed and lust. Al-Farabi fully realizes that these fine qualities cannot be found in one single human being, so he says that one without just five or six of these qualities would make a fairly good leader. If however, even five or six of them are not found in a person, he would have one who has been brought up under a leader with these qualities, and would thus seen to prefer some kind of hereditary leadership, with the important condition that the heir should follow the footsteps of his worthy predecessor. In case even such a person is not available, it is preferable to have a council of two or even five members possessing an aggregate of these qualities provided at least one of them is a Hakim, i-e one who is able to know the wants of the people and visualize the needs of the state as a whole. This Hakim is to Farabi a desideratum of every kind of government, and if such a one is not procurable then the State is bound to be shattered to atoms. Kinds of State Al-Farabi describes the varieties of the states other than the Ideal States and the remarkable contribution of this philosopher are very much alive and given serious considerations even today. Al-Farabi divides states into following categories: 1. State of Necessity (Daruriya): Its inhabitants aim, at the necessities of the life, like food, drink, clothing, a place to live and carnal gratification and they generally help each other in securing these necessities of life. 2. Vile State (Nadhala): Its citizens strive for wealth and riches for their own sake. The account in the Siyasa includes a description of its ruler. Ibn-e-Rushd also succinctly touches upon this state. 3. Base and Despicable State: Its inhabitants concentrate on the pleasures of the senses, games and other pastimes. This state is the one in which men help one another to enjoy sensual pleasure such as games, jokes and pleasantries and this is the enjoyment of the pleasures of eating and merry-making. This state is the happy and fortunate state with the people of ignorance, for this state only aims at attaining pleasure after obtaining first the necessities of life and then abundant wealth to spend. 4. Timocracy (Madina Karama): It contains a variety of honours. Since the Arabic source of Al-farabi is lost in the wealth of legend, we are unable to determine whether this lengthy and diffuse description goes back to it or represents Al-Farabi’s own amplification. The latter seems to be more correct. The citizens of these honor-loving states assist each other in gaining glory, fame and honor. The honors fall into two groups. The first is a personal relationship between one who is worthy to be honored because of some virtue in him, and the others who accord him honor and respect because they recognize him as their superior. The second kind of honor is accorded to men because of their wealth, or because of they have been victorious, exercise authority or enjoy other distinctions. This state in the opinion of Al-Farabi is the best of all the states. 5. Tyranny (Taghallub): It receives from the aim of its citizens; they co-operate to give victory over others, but refuse to be vanquished by them. Al-Farabi sets out to distinguish between despotic states and define tyranny or despotism according to aim, mastery over others and over their possessions for power’s sake, within or externally, by force and conquest or by persuasion and achieving enslavement. His despotic rule is a mixed one and thus often resembles timocracy or plutocracy. Ibn-e-Rushd avoids this by following Plato’s description of tyranny and the tyrannical man, and the transition from democracy to tyranny and of the democratic to the tyrannical man but done to their common source both Al-Farabi and Ibn-e-Rushd similarly define tyranny as absolute power. Rosenthal  was of the view,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Tyranny has even more variations for Al-Farabi than timocracy; as many as the tyrant has desires, for this despotism expresses itself in imposing his will on his subjects and making them work for his personal ends. Al-Farabi knows of two kinds of tyranny within which these variations occur, internal and external tyranny. The first consists in the absolute mastery of the tyrant and his helpers over the citizens of the state, and the second is the enslavement of another state or people. † 6. Democracy (Madina Jama’iya): It is marked by the freedom of its inhabitants to do as they wish. They are all equal and no body has master over another. Their governors only govern with the explicit consent of the governed. Democracy contains good and bad features and it is therefore not impossible that at some time the most excellent men grow up there, so that philosophers, orators and poets come into being. It is thus possible to choose from its elements of the ideal state. Apart from the afore-mentioned classification of the states, which seems to be idealistic, Al-Farabi has a definite place for the trait of political character over other nations. He initiates reasons for this mastery and says that it is sought by a people owing to its desire for protection, ease ort luxury and all that leads to the satisfactions of these necessities. In this powerful state, they might be able to get all the desire. There is nothing against human nature for the strong to over power the weak, so nations which try to get other nations under their control consider it quite proper to do so, and it is justice both to control the weak and for the weak to be so controlled, and the subdued nation should do it for the good of its masters. There is no doubt that all the lapse of centuries and the international ideology which is the current coin in politics, the psychology of the nations today is much the same as described by the Master centuries ago. Al-Farabi  said,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"But the more chivalrous among them are such that even when they have to shed human blood they do so only face to face, not while their opponent is asleep or showing his back, nor do they take away his property except after giving him proper warning of their intentions. Such a community does not rest till it thinks it has become supreme forever, nor does it give any other nation an opportunity of over powering it, always regarding all other peoples their opponents and enemies and keeping itself on Guard. † Colonies: Al-Farabi is comprehensively clear about the principles of colonization. He opines that the inhabitants of a State must scatter hither and thither in different parts of a State because they have been overpowered by an enemy or by an epidemic or through economic necessity. There are only alternatives to the colonists, either to migrate I such a way as to form one single commonwealth or divide themselves in different political societies. It may come to compass that a large body of these people are of opinion that it is not necessary to change the laws which they have brought from their mother country; they would then simply codify existing laws and begin to live under them. It will thus be clear to understand that A-Farabi not only contemplates colonization but also self-Government of a republican kind which is closer to the modern conceptions.

An Empty Hook

As the years go by and new technologies come and go, the world seems to be moving at a constant frantic pace. In our modern, consumer driven society its sometimes hard to find the time to stop and appreciate what we have. The American working world is thriving and competitive, every obstacle we face consumes us, making it easy to get trapped in the seemingly non-stop race of life, forgetting what really matters. For our own sake, it is time to take a step back from our frantic life style and learn to appreciate the little things in life. Its a commonplace story to hear of the work alcoholic man or woman who worked and worked until they were old and rich, and then realized they had nothing in the end. If more people took the time to appreciate the little things, more often then not they’ll find life is a lot more rewarding. Of course that reward can comes in many different forms: Love†¦memories†¦fish. Fishing is a fine art. It takes the refining of cast off methods, and the honing of the proper technique to fully master the art of the reel in, not to forget lots of patience. Nothing is slower than waiting for that subtle tug at the end of your line. My dad taught me how to fish. My twin brother and I used to practice in the front yard with a rod and a weight in the place of a hook, fishing for twigs. Ive caught lots of things before, grass, rocks, other fishing rods, but never a fish. After spending some time with a fisherman you learn that they mean serious business and youre mad to think that theyd share tips or bait. Over the past summer, my dad and grandma and I went fishing together. We needed a break from the constant rhythm of our everyday life. I was having my usual luck, which is no luck at all, and my dad had already caught three fish, my grandma, one. Wed been fishing for hours and still no luck I was sun burnt and riddled with mosquito bites. Id cast off my line and reeled it in hundreds of times and my patience was wearing thin. My dad suddenly felt a jerk in his line, another fish. He was starting to reel it in when he called me over. He handed me the rod. I was excited and scared at the same time. After several c lose calls I finally managed to reel in the fish. My dad came over and untangled the hook from the fishs mouth. My grandma replied, thats true love, meaning my dad must really love me to have let me reel in his fish. Even though this took place in the span of a few minutes, now when I look back I can remember in great detail the feel of the fishs scales and the resistance as I pulled it in. I can recall these moments with more ease and meaning than what happened last week or who did what to who. With applications and auditions upon me I dont look back on my frantic, routine school days but moments like this that are singular and unique. Catching a fish may seem like a small thing but Ive often found that it is the little things in life that make hardship worth while and when you take the time life is given purpose, however whimsical a purpose that may be, but if I constantly cast off and reel in all Ill pull out is grass and an empty hook.

Theorists have argued that in order for service operations to be Essay - 1

Theorists have argued that in order for service operations to be successful, they must adopt a production line approach to their delivery - Essay Example According to Gallouj and Weinstein (1997), discretion of products is the core enemy to its order, standardization, and quality. A production line approach aims at emulating an assembly line in production in that no products are discretely prepared by the employee to reduce the risk of poor quality or differentiation as the employee will engineer the product according to his personal interests thus the outcome is highly unpredictable same as the customer response to the same product. On the other hand using a completely automated and controlled production line approach will ensure consistency in all the products thus the consumers will always know what to expect in terms of quality and consistency. The advantages of a production-line approach to service operations include increased, efficient, cheap, high volume lucrative service operations and an increased satisfied customer database. According to Levitt (1976), if a service operation takes place with a management rationality and tactics copied from the manufacturing division it is bound to prosper because the manufacturing sector tends to think and act technologically while the rational service operations approach tends to look for solutions in the empowerment of the person giving the service. The conveyor belt/production line approach in service operation is considered as an old but effective method in increasing a films production as exhibited by its use in fields such as banking, airlines, and maintenance. This approach has been implemented in companies and firms such as IBM which produces computers for worldwide consumption, Citibank which is one of the biggest banks worldwide and McDonalds. These strategy approach is an efficient, capital-intensive system, automatic and discrete system that involves preplanning and routinizing employee activities to ensure consistency and simplicity of the process. Theorists argue that this approach

Starbucks Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Starbucks Case Study - Essay Example The location for the first store was, in Seattle in the â€Å"touristy Pikes Place Market†. The name of the store was Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spice. The setting of the store was to quote the website â€Å"modest, hand-built nautical fixtures†. On one wall was filled with whole bean coffees while another had shelves of coffee products. Peet owned a store called Peet’s Coffee and Tea. It was in this store that Peet thought of how these three would-be founders of how to brew the coffee beans in a manner that brought out their flavour (Thompson and Gamble 1997). In the beginning, according to the official company website, the method of brewing this coffee was the European way. This method was chosen because it brought out the full flavour of the beans. In addition, the name of the company was drawn from a character in the Moby Dick who loved coffee. The company logo was in continuance of this romantic ideal which was a two-tailed mermaid encircled by the companyâ⠂¬â„¢s name (Thompson and Gamble 1997). Between 1982 and 1985, the company hired Howard Schultz as head of marketing and overseeing retail stores. By then, the company had four stores within Seattle. After a while of experience, a lot of a challenges, as well as, resistance from the top management, Schultz quit to form his own company called â€Å"II Giornale†. This was the company that in 1987 purchased Starbucks and by 1992 had established 161 stores. It was after 1992 that the company went public in a highly successful initial Public Offering (Thompson and Gamble 1997). Starbucks Culture as per Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Hofstede a Dutch social psychologist came up with four dimensions, which were later reversed upward to six (Piepenburg 2011). In his opinion, these dimensions influence human thinking, organizations and institutions in a certain, predictable manner (Piepenburg 2011). These dimensions are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/colle ctivism, and masculinity/femininity. According to Hofstede, the first dimension is Power Distance Index (PDI). In this dimension, the main focus is on how a society or organization is stratified. Equality or inequality is the major reference point of this dimension (Piepenburg 2011). Going back to the Starbucks, there is a difference in terms of the Power Distance. Under the original founding partners, the company did not seem to hold the employees in high esteem. A case in point was the request for the extension of healthcare to part time workers, which had been turned down. Under Schultz, the company took a different path. This involved extending the coverage to all employees working 20 or more hours, and it was similar to the coverage extended to the fulltime employees (Thompson and Gamble 1997).This was mainly driven by Schultz’s humble background and the desire to not let others go through what his father had to endure. Another dimension is Uncertainty Avoidance Index (U AI). This dimension is defined as the extent to which people within a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations (Thomson and Baden-Fuller 2010).Accordingly Uncertainty Avoidance Index is higher in countries that citizens are more emotional and motivated by inner nervous energy (Thomson and Baden-Fuller 2010). In this case, the UAI in the United States was lower than it was in France when Starbucks was making a foray into this country. This indicates that the general French conservative citizens preferred their traditional coffee houses to the

The Colonialism in the Philippines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Colonialism in the Philippines - Essay Example One of the most significant contributions of Colonial Spain’s arrival in 1521 in the Philippines is the widespread of Christianism in the country today. Spain brought the Christian religion in the Philippines which started in Cebu as Ferdinand Magellan baptized Rajah Humabon and his wife with the Christian religion . The said ceremony made Humabon as the local chieftain or representative of the king of the Spain. About 800 Filipinos were baptized as Christians that day, April 14, 1521. However, Magellan’s entry into the country and for the hope to subjugate the whole nation under the name of the Spain was not that essentially smooth flowing knowing that other local leaders such as recalcitrant chief Lapu-lapu strongly opposed the presence of Spaniards in the country as far as the colonial threats, economic and political issues were concerned. Thus, on April 27, 1521, the battle in Mactan was set by Lapu-lapu against Magellan which killed the latter . This same scenario continued until the following years to come for the Philippines under the Spanish regime. Filipinos learned to fight for their rights and many were able to realize they had to fight for their right for their land and stood up to beat anything related with colonial oppression. Among of them were renowned and recognized Philippine heroes today such as Jose Rizal, Andress Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, Emilio Aguinaldo and many more. These people fought for the Filipinos’ rights to experience independence from colonial rule and oppression.... This same scenario continued until the following years to come for the Philippines under the Spanish regime. Filipinos learned to fight for their rights and many were able to realize they had to fight for their right for their land and stood up to beat anything related with colonial oppression. Among of them were renowned and recognized Philippine heroes today such as Jose Rizal, Andress Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, Emilio Aguinaldo and many more. These people fought for the Filipinos’ rights to experience independence from colonial rule and oppression. After forty four years of Magellan’s death, Christianism was reintroduced by another conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. This made it at present that 84 percent of the Filipinos are Roman Catholics, 10 percent Protestants and other related religious groups and about 4 percent Muslims5. Filipinos are Malayo-Polynesian in the Pacific Islands who compared to the Spaniards in the early time were not that advanced in polit ical and military supremacy. Filipinos then were gullible and not yet accustomed with the advanced economic and political thoughts compared with the Spaniards. The Spain was the first to take advantage of this, and they invaded the entire country, influenced them with certain religious beliefs and exploited the country’s bountiful resources. However, this unfairness did not take that long when Spaniards were defeated by the Americans in the Spanish-American war which end up in 1898. This means that the Philippines was then under the rule of Americans and become the loyal allies of the United States in Asia in the long run. In 1898, Philippine independence was declared and Emilio Aguinaldo became the first president of the country. However, months just passed after the

Children and Homelessness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

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MARKETING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

MARKETING - Essay Example ith only Apple products and hence the sales people are equipped with knowledge about the company products and this brings about customer satisfaction. In order to retain its customers, Apple continues to design and unveil new products like computer, iPods and iPhones among others (Schneiders, 14). Branding has to do with having desirable products, ideas, manifestos among other things and not solely about the name or logo of the company. Apple has adopted the emotion branding where it aims to connect with the emotions of the customers which emphasizes that their products are not just for physical but also emotional gratification. It has succeeded in this through having Apple Brand Personality where customers express their imagination, aspirations and dreams when using Apple products (Schneiders, 33). This explores issues of pricing, architecture, consistency among other issues that the company holds of value. In Apple, their value strategies mainly revolve around the monolithic architecture of all their products in such a way that they are recognizable by anyone. They have also ensured consistency of the products they make and especially the computer quality and technological desirability. Compared to other companies that are competitors of Apple, this company’s product prices are fair and match the quality of their products (Schneiders,