The Social Contract Theory of John Locke Essay Example for Free

The Social Contract Theory of John Locke Essay John Locke was born in Wrington , Somerset , England on August 29 1704 to John Locke and Agnes Keene , who were both Puritans (Uzgalis 2001 , Wikipedia 2006 , Microsoft Encarta 2006 . His father , after whom he was named , served as captain of cavalry for the Parliamentarian forces in the early part of the English Civil War . His family later moved to Pensford and Locke grew up in a rural Tudor house in Belluton . He attended the Westminster School in London in 1647 under Alexander Popham , a member of Parliament and his father s former commander. Then he was admitted at the Christ Church College at Oxford University , where he developed greater interest in modern philosophy , such as Rene Descartes , than the school s classical material . He earned a bachelor s degree in 1656 , a master s degree in 1658 and a bachelor of medicine degree in 1674 . He worked with renowned scientists and thinkers , like Robert Boyle , Thomas Willis , Robert Hooke and Richard Lower . In 1666 , he met Anthony Ashley Cooper , the first Earl of Shaftesbury , who was then seeking treatment for a liver infection . Cooper got impressed with Locke and convinced him to move into Lord Ashley s home in 1667 as his personal physician . Locke then resumed his medical studies under Thomas Sydenham who would later influence Locke s thinking . Meantime , Locke coordinated with several other physicians on the life-threatening condition of Shaftesbury s liver condition and persuaded the latter to submit to surgery to remove the cyst . The surgery was successful and Shaftesbury credited Locke with saving his life . In that period , Locke served as Secretary of the Board of Trade and Plantations and as Secretary to the Lords and Proprietors of the Carolinas (Microsoft Encarta , Wikipedia , Uzgalis Shaftesbury was a founder of the Whig Movement and thus had great influence on Locke s political thinking (Wikipedia 2006 , Microsoft Encarta 2006 , Uzgalis 2001 . Locke got involved in politics when Shaftesbury became Lord Chancellor in 1672 . Around 1679 , Locke wrote his two treatises of government in defense of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and to oppose the philosophy of Sir Robert Filmer and Thomas Hobbes . While in the Netherlands in 1683 , he had the chance to rework his Essay and to compose his Letter on Toleration . After the Glorious Revolution , he accompanied the wife of William of Orange back to England in 1688 . He spent time at the country house of his friend , Lady Masham where he met and discussed matters with prominent thinkers like John Dryden and Isaac Newton . He had bouts of asthma and his health continued to decline until he died in 1704 . Locke never married or have any children . Main events , which occurred in his lifetime , were the English Restoration , the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London . He was unable to witness the Act of Union of 1707 although the same monarch ruled both England and Scotland in his lifetime . Constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy were new during that period . Locke s influence was most marked on philosophy and politics , particularly liberalism , and specifically on Voltaire . His arguments on liberty and social contract had impact on the written works of Thomas Jefferson James Madison and other founding fathers of the United States . His critics say that Locke was a major investor in the English slave-trade through the Royal Africa Company and that he participated in the drafting of the Fundamental Constitution of the Carolinas while serving as Shaftesbury s secretary . This Constitution , Locke s critics say established a feudal aristocracy and absolute power over slaves . They believe that Locke s statements on un-enclosed property as justifying the displacement of Native Americans . His opposition to aristocracy and slavery , expressed through his writings , is viewed as proof of his hypocrisy and his partiality for liberty only of English capitalists (Wikipedia , Microsoft Encarta , Uzgalis.

Sport Is The Greatest School Of Vanity :: essays papers

Sport Is The Greatest School Of Vanity It is two o’clock on Saturday the 22 February 2000. It is the day of the annual Hilton VS Michael House rugby game. In the stands, five hundred schoolboys eagerly await the arrival of the fifteen so-called â€Å"Gods† dressed in the black and white to come racing onto the field. As the â€Å"Titans† take the field all five Hundred of them jump up and praise them in one euphoric roar. The out come of the game is eight to five in Hiltons favor. They all run on and form a circle around the fifteen victorious â€Å"Gladiators† and as they sing O’ boys the spirit and not to mention the ego’s are raised to an all time high. It is three o’clock on Saturday the 12 November. It is the Natal Witness inter-schools chess championship and Hilton College has made it to the finals. The best players from either side are competing for one of the most prestigious chess titles in South Africa. In the stands, nobody, as usual. The pressure is getting to both of the boys, but in the end Hilton pulls through with a tight win. The boys get into the bus and go back to school. Monday morning comes and the whole school is â€Å"bowing† down to the almighty fifteen who by this stage are over flowing with arrogance and contemptuous pride. The praise that they receive is almost overwhelming. Monday morning comes and no one even says good morning to the members of the chess team. The praise that they receive for their good effort is non-existent. This is the case in many schools all over the world where students are praised for their performance on the sports fields and not in the classroom. The question one has to ask him or her is what are students actually sent to school for is it to succeed on the sports field or is it to achieve in the classroom. Many say that it should be a careful and equal balance between the two, yet very often it leans too much in favor of sport. This is when schools start getting the attitude that sport comes first and work comes second. Average students that are good at sport are given scholarships instead of the knowledge hungry hard workers who want to succeed in life not sport. Sport Is The Greatest School Of Vanity :: essays papers Sport Is The Greatest School Of Vanity It is two o’clock on Saturday the 22 February 2000. It is the day of the annual Hilton VS Michael House rugby game. In the stands, five hundred schoolboys eagerly await the arrival of the fifteen so-called â€Å"Gods† dressed in the black and white to come racing onto the field. As the â€Å"Titans† take the field all five Hundred of them jump up and praise them in one euphoric roar. The out come of the game is eight to five in Hiltons favor. They all run on and form a circle around the fifteen victorious â€Å"Gladiators† and as they sing O’ boys the spirit and not to mention the ego’s are raised to an all time high. It is three o’clock on Saturday the 12 November. It is the Natal Witness inter-schools chess championship and Hilton College has made it to the finals. The best players from either side are competing for one of the most prestigious chess titles in South Africa. In the stands, nobody, as usual. The pressure is getting to both of the boys, but in the end Hilton pulls through with a tight win. The boys get into the bus and go back to school. Monday morning comes and the whole school is â€Å"bowing† down to the almighty fifteen who by this stage are over flowing with arrogance and contemptuous pride. The praise that they receive is almost overwhelming. Monday morning comes and no one even says good morning to the members of the chess team. The praise that they receive for their good effort is non-existent. This is the case in many schools all over the world where students are praised for their performance on the sports fields and not in the classroom. The question one has to ask him or her is what are students actually sent to school for is it to succeed on the sports field or is it to achieve in the classroom. Many say that it should be a careful and equal balance between the two, yet very often it leans too much in favor of sport. This is when schools start getting the attitude that sport comes first and work comes second. Average students that are good at sport are given scholarships instead of the knowledge hungry hard workers who want to succeed in life not sport.

Production function

No matter the objective of any business organization, achievement of efficiency in production or cost minimization for a given production activity appear to be one of the prime concern of the managers In the manager's effort to minimize production costs, the fundamental questions he or she faces are: (f) How can production be optimized or costs minimizes? (g) What will be the behavior of output as inputs increase? (h) How does technology help In reducing production costs? 0) How can the least-cost combination of Inputs be achieved? J) Given the technology, what happens to the rate of return when more plants are added to the firm? The Theory of Production Production theory generally deals with quantitative relationships, that is, technical and technological relationships between inputs, especially labor and capital, and between inputs and outputs. An Input Is a good or service that goes Into the production process. As economists refer to It, an Input Is simply anything which a firm bu ys for use In Its production process. An output, on the other hand, is any good or service that comes out of a production process.Economists classified inputs as (I) labor; (II) capital; land; (iv) raw materials; and, (v) time. These variables are measured per unit of time and once referred to as flow variables. In recent times, entrepreneurship has been added as part of the production Inputs, though this can be measured by the managerial expertise and the ability to make things happen. Inputs are classified as either fixed or variable Inputs. Fixed and variable inputs are defined in both economic sense and technical sense. In economic sense, a fixed input is one whose supply is inelastic in the short run.In technical sense, a fixed input is one that remains fixed (or constant) for certain level of output. A variable input is one whose supply in the short run is elastic, example, labor, raw terrestrial, and the like. Users of such inputs can employ a larger quantity in the short run . Technically, a variable Input Is one that changes with changes In output. In the long run, all Inputs are variable 3. 1 The Production Function Production function is a tool of analysis used in explaining the input-output relationship. It describes the technical relationship between inputs and output in physical terms.In its general form, it holds that production of a given commodity depends on certain specific Inputs. In Its specific form, it presents the quantitative relationships between Inputs and outputs. A production function may take the form f a schedule, a graph line or a curve, an algebraic equation or a mathematical model. The production function represents the technology of a firm. An empirical production function is generally so complex to include a wide range of inputs: land, labor, capital, raw materials, time, and technology.These variables form the Independent variables In a firm's actual production function. A firm's long- run production function Is of the form: where Old = land and building; L = labor; K = capital; M = materials; T = technology; and, t = time. For sake of convenience, economists have reduced the number of variables used in a reduction function to only two: capital (K) and labor (L). Therefore, in the analysis of input-output relations, the production function is expressed as: Q = f(K, L) (3. 1. 2) Equation (3. . 2) represents the algebraic or mathematical form of the production function. It is this form of production function which is most commonly used in production analysis. As implied by the production function (equation (3. 1. 2)), increasing production, Q, will require K and L, and whether the firm can increase both K and L or only L will depend on the time period it takes into account for increasing production, that is, whether he firm is thinking in terms of the short run or in terms of the long run.Economists believe that the supply of capital (K) is inelastic in the short run and elastic in the long run. Thus, in the short run firms can increase production only by increasing labor, since the supply of capital is fixed in the short run. In the long run, the firm can employ more of both capital and labor, as the supply of capital becomes elastic over time. In effect, there exists two types of production functions: The short-run production function; and, The long-run production function

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