Thursday, October 31, 2019

A trip to Sequoia National Park Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A trip to Sequoia National Park - Essay Example In addition to this natural resource, Sequoia National Park comprises of many other natural features, which include the giant sequoia trees, among them being the greatest tree on earth, known as the General Sherman tree (White, 24). Additionally, the park consists of the giant forest, which occupies approximately 202, 430 of old-growth forests in conjunction with the neighboring Kings Canyon National Park. This park comprises of one of the most natural and unaltered environments, ranking it among the major national parks that have preserved the natural ecosystem without much alterations. Additionally, the geology of this national park is yet another key feature that makes it unique among the National Parks in the US with an exclusive landscape (Scott and Kay, 52). The region surrounding this area was initially occupied by the Monachee Native Americans, who did not exploit the natural resources in the major sequoia giant forest but coexisted in an eco-friendly manner. However, the arr ival of the white settlers threatened to cause destruction to the forests, but only for a little while, before they discovered that the Sequoia trees were not suitable for timber (White, 22). This made them cease to cut down the trees, and the park was declared a national park in 1890, by the USA government. The logistics required to visit the park Most parts of this park are not accessible by the means of road or rail, making trekking the most viable option for accessing the park from different directions. However, the logistics involved in visiting the park entails parking the required personal effects, which will be used during the stay or the visitation period in the park. Then, the second step will be taking a flight to Visalia Airport, which is a destination that requires one to take an average 1 hour’s drive to the park (Scott and Kay, 46). On reaching Visalia Airport, there is no need to hire transport or to have own car, because there are already various means of tra nsport from the airport into the park, which are convenient for the visitors. There are many Sequoia Shuttles, which transports visitors from the Visalia city to the National Park, passing through the Three Rivers, and then going up to the Giant Forest Museum (White, 21). The cost of this transport is affordable, since an individual requires paying only $15 as the ticket price for the shuttle ride. Before boarding the shuttle, it is important to ensure that one signs the time to and from the park, to ensure that the last shuttle will not leave an individual in the park. However, the greatest advantage, which makes this visit simpler logistically, is the fact that it is possible for one to walk back from the park, in case he/she is left by the last shuttle (Scott and Kay, 47). Once an individual arrives at the park, it is vital to go through the Lodgepole Visitor Center or the Giant Forest Museum, where more information regarding the visitation sites and ideas are given to the visito rs, as well as the accommodation and hospitality options available in the parks and its immediate environs (Scott and Kay, 50). After the individual has obtained sufficient information regarding the visitation areas and ideas, they can select the location to start visiting and plan the rest of the schedule. In case the individual does not want to go back the same day, there are various accommodation facilities available within the park and even in the immediate surroundings. The accommodation facilities within the park include the Wuksachi Lodge and the he John Muir Lodge, while those outside but in the immediate

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Should NCAA Division Football Players Get Paid Assignment

Should NCAA Division Football Players Get Paid - Assignment Example Putting aside for the moment that these athletes that participate in the more popular sports earn millions of dollars for the university and that other students reap these benefits as well, athletes are denied the same lack of restrictions to earn while they learn and as a result, should be somewhat compensated.    The sum of this stipend is arguable but a reasonable amount of, for instance, $100 per month does not seem out of line. â€Å"The problem is the athletes who help schools and conferences make that money do not see a dime of it. They may receive scholarships, but so do students who don’t help the school make money in any way. Players should get a stipend on top of their scholarships so that they see some of the money they helped the school make. If schools can profit off of student-athletes, why should those athletes not be paid for helping schools make money?† (Zivic, 2006). This paper will examine the various reasons why college football players should be paid. The NCAA alone makes more than $200 million each winter on the bowl games that follow the regular football season, an amount that doesn’t count the dividends the individual conferences enjoy. Now add up ticket and concession proceeds, corporate sponsorships and money gained from merchandise sales that without the presence of sports would not be funneled into a university annually. The athletes know that they generate literally many billions of dollars for their schools, yet are not allowed to earn even pocket change while at school, giving they're all for ‘ole State U. Athletes are allowed only the most meager of existence under NCAA regulations. Meanwhile, they witness other students with money enough at least for an occasional date and their coach earning a multi-million dollar salary but know that they are the ones that make the greatest sacrifices. â€Å"Athletes see what’s in it for everybody else.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Synthesis And Characterization Of Glycerol Based Polymer Biology Essay

Synthesis And Characterization Of Glycerol Based Polymer Biology Essay In oleochemical industry, glycerol (1,2,3-propanetriol) is always produced as a by-product in the manufacturing of acids, soaps, methyl esters, alcohols or nitrogen-containing derivatives. It can also be made from propene via epichlorohydrin (1-chloro-2,3-epoxypropane). However, the petrochemical supply route is less important due to the increasing supply of glycerol from oleochemical industry, the high price of propene and the demand for epichlorohydrin for other purposes (Gunstone Henning, 2004). Figure 1.1 Glycerol Glycerol possesses a unique combination of physical and chemical properties which are utilized in many commercial products. It is hygroscopic, colourless, odorless, viscous, sweet-tasting, low boiling point, non-toxic, emollient, a good solvent, and water soluble. Besides, it is easily biodegradable (Gunstone Henning, 2004). Furthermore, it is very stable under normal storage conditions, compatible with many other chemical materials, non-irritating in its various uses, and does not have negative effects on the environment (Pagliaro Rossi, 2008). The glycerol market is currently undergoing radical changes, driven by very large supplies of glycerol arising from biodiesel production. The effort to reduce the dependence on foreign oil has increased the production of biodiesel and glycerol is the major co-product from the transesterification process used to produce biodiesel. Hence, there is a need to find new uses for glycerol. Polymerization is one of the methods which large amount of glycerol can be used (Wyatt et al., 2006). There two types of polymerizations. First, soluble products are obtained regardless of the extent to which the reaction is carried toward completion. The products formed are mainly linear polymers. The second type of polymerization is those that lead to gelled or insoluble products, provided that the reaction is carried far enough. The reactants are capable of producing large three dimensional molecules (Flory, 1941). According to Flory (1941), gelation occurs only when there is the possibility of unlimited growth in three dimensions. It is a significant characteristic of polymerizing systems to have a sharply defined gel point at a certain critical extent of reaction which is independent of temperature, amount of catalyst and so on. Through polymerization of glycerol, the pre-polymers synthesized could be further reacted to produce longer chains of hyperbranched polymers. Hyperbranched polymers belong to the family of macromolecules known as dendrimers. Dendrimers are highly branched monodispersed molecules produced by multistep syntheses. Preparation of dendrimers requires a high degree of purity of the starting material and high yields of the individual synthetic step. On the other hand, hyperbranched polymers are randomly branched molecules prepared by a simple one-step reaction (Wyatt et al., 2006) via polyaddition, polycondensation, radical polymerisation, and so forth, of an ABn monomer (Vogtle et al., 2009). Due to their unique combination of low viscosity, excellent solubility, and facile synthesis, hyperbranched polymers have received significant attention (Lin, Q Long, T.E., 2003). Reaction of the functional A groups with the functional B (coupling) groups of a second monomer molecule gives rise to randomly branched molecule. Since the C groups are present in excess (n à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ 2), crosslinking are avoided from the outset. Reaction can be brought to a standstill by addtion of stopper components. Since the synthesis of hyperbranched polymers does not involve coupling to core molecule, but only ABn monomers react with one another. Both branched molecules and linear sequences maybe formed (Vogtle et al., 2009). Hyperbranched polymers produced from diacids (A2) and glycerol (B3) are an example of the AB2 system. AB2 monomers are not readily available and kinetic calculations show that the first condensation reaction, which produces an AB2 species, is faster than the subsequent polymer propagation. Thus, the remainder of the reaction progresses as polycondensation between AB2-type species prior to the gel point. Several methods have been used to avoid gelation in A2+B3 systems, including performing the reactions in dilute solutions or reacting them in the absence of solvents while monitoring. This glycerol-based polymer is expected to show similar properties and characteristics as polyalkylene glycol (PAG). A polyalkylene glycol having the general formula: HO-[R-O-]n H in which n has a value of at least 2 and R is an alkylene radical containing at least 10 carbon atoms. PAG liquid are used as synthetic lubricants in many diverse applications. Thus, glycerol-based polymers could also have the potential to be use as high performance lubricant, coolant or as a lubricant additive (such as viscosity modifier). Materials with polymeric structures can be used in lubricant to enhance its properties, such as viscosity, pour point and so on. It can be used as starting material for certain types of additives. These polymeric additives can be viscosity modifier, pour point depressants, emulsifiers and demulsifiers, and foam inhibitor in lubricants (Totten, G.E. et al., 2003). Oils can be effective lubricants at low temperature. However, at higher temperature, they become less effective. To overcome this problem, viscosity modifiers are useful in minimizing viscosity variations with temperature. Viscosity modifier is a polymer with average molecular weights of 10000 to 150000. At all temperatures, viscosity modifier is able to increase oils viscosity. The thickening of oil at lower temperature is less than that at higher temperature. At low temperatures, the polymer molecules occupying a small volume have a minimum association with the bulk oil. The situation is reversed at high temperatures as the polymer chains expand due to the increased thermal energy. Besides, at higher temperatures, polymers are more soluble and therefore cause the viscosity to increase(Totten, G.E. et al., 2003). There are two types of viscosity modifiers available commercially: olefin-based polymers and ester polymers. Polyisobutylenes (PIBs), olefin copolymers (OCPs), and hydrogenated styrene-diene (STDs) polymers. Ester polymers include polymethacrylates (PMAs) and styrene ester polymers (SEs) (Totten, G.E. et al., 2003). Literature Review In a research done by Wyatt and his co-workers (2006), novel oligomeric prepolymers were synthesized by acid-catalyzed condensation of glycerol with iminodiacetic. The prepolymers were obtained after purification by chromatography in an average yield of 62%. The compounds were characterized by using 13C NMR, 1H NMR, matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry, and gel permeation chromatography. It was discovered that linear products bearing cyclic urethane structures were obtained in the reaction between iminodiacetic acid and glycerol. Qi Lin and Timothy E. Long (2003) studied the polymerization of A2 with B3 monomers to produce hyperbranched poly(aryl estrer)s. A dilute bisphenol A (A2) solution was added slowly to a dilute 1,3,5-benzene tricarbonyl trichloride (B3) solution at 25 °C to prepare hyperbranched poly(aryl ester)s in the absence of gelation. The molar ratio of A2:B3 was maintained at 1:1. The maximum final monomer concentration was ~0.08 M. The phenol functionalities were quantitatively consumed during the polycondensation. This was showed in 1H NMR spectroscopy and derivitization of terminal groups. Two model compounds were synthesized to identify 1H NMR resonances for linear, dentritic, and terminal units. The final degree of branching was determined to be ~50%. The hyperbranched polymers exhibited lower glass transition temperatures compared to their analogues. J.F. Stumbe and Bernd Bruchmann (2003) also used the A2+B3 approach to prepare hyperbranched polyesters with controlled molecular weights and properties. The process was carried out by reacting glycerol and adipic acid without any solvents. Tin catalysts was used. The products were evaluated by size exclusion chromatography(SEC) analysis and NMR spectroscopy to determine molecular weights and degrees of branching. A study was also carried out on the glycerol esters from reaction of glycerol with dicarboxylic esters. The glycerol esters were synthesized by the base catalyzed reaction of glycerol with aliphatic dicarboxylic acid esters (such as dimethyl oxalate, dimethyl glutarate, dimethyl adipate, etc). Various parameters that may affect the transesterification were studied in order to optimize the yield of products. The reactions were carried out by varying the glycerol/ester molar ratios. The optimum ratio was 4:1, whereby the quantity of the monoester was 60% after 8 h. The conversion decreased slightly when the molar ratio exceeded 4:1. At higher temperatures, the amount of monoester in the reaction mixtures increased and it reached a maximum level after 6 h when the reaction was carried out at 100  °C to 120  °C. It took 8 h at a lower temperature. However, the overall yield at the end of the reaction was not affected by the temperature. The formation of both monoester and diester wer e produced in an overall yield of 80% after 15 h of reaction time (Cho et al., 2006). Sunder et. al. (1999) carried out a controlled synthesis of hyperbranched polyglycerols by ring opening multibranching polymerization. Hyperbranched aliphatic polyethers with controlled molecular weights and narrow molecular weight distribution were prepared via anionic polymerization of glycidol with rapid cation-exchange equilibrium. Glycidol which represents a cyclic AB2 monomer was polymerized in a ring-opening multibranching (ROMBP). The anionic polymerization was carried out under slow addition conditions with partially deprotonated (10%) 1,1,1-tris(hydroxymethyl)propane (TMP) as the initiator. 13C NMR, MALDI-TOF spectrometry, vapor pressure osmometry (VPO), and GPC were used to characterize molecular weights and polydispersities of the polyols formed. The 13C NMR spectra used to assess the degree of branching (DB) ranged from 0.53-0.59. A complete attachment of hyperbranched polymers to TMP initiator and the absence of macrocyclics were showed in MALDI-TOF spectra. There was n o macrocyclics or hyperbranched macromolecule obtained, due to slow addtion. T.J. Mulkern and N.C. Beck Tan (2000) studied a series of blends of hyperbranched polyester with high molecular weight polystyrenes. The processability and compatibility in the blends were investigated as a function of volume fraction of hyperbranched polyols (HBP) added and reactivity of the matrix phase. Due to its low viscosity and high reactivity, HBP polymers are suitable for reactive polymer blending. Through processing and rheological studies, it was found that HBPs are effective processing aids. A significant drop in the blend viscosity occurs immediately on addition of HBP, even at levels as low as 2 vol. %. In 1934, Herman Bruson discovered a synthetic oil additive when he was exploring the synthesis and possible applications of longer alkyl side chain methacrylates. Brusons invention, polymethacrylates (PMAs) was found to have the potential to function as thickener or viscosity index improver for mineral oils. It increases viscosity at higher temperature more than at lower temperatures (Kinker, B.G., 2009). The alkly group in the ester portion of the polymer can be altered to obtain products with better oil solubility and viscosity-improving properties. It also have good compatibility with a large number of refined and synthetic basestocks. In a study by Duncan and Turner (1997), blends of lubricant basestocks with high viscosity complex alcohol esters were produced. The blend comprises of a polyhydroxyl compound R(OH)n, a polybasic acid and a monohydric alcohol. The complex alcohol ester showed a pour point of less than or equal to -20 °C and a viscosity in the range about 100-700 cSt at 40 °C. The lubricating oil according to Duncan and Turners invention has excellent lubricity as determined by engine performance, vane pump test, Yamaha Tightening Test, and reduced valve sticking. Besides, it has good stability as evidenced by the results of RBOT and Cincinnati Milacron tests. The lubricant has also unexpected biodegradability as measured by Sturm test (Duncan et al., 1997). Hunt et al. (1993) carried out supercritical fluid extraction to analyse liquid poly(alklene glycol)(PAG) lubricants and sorbitan ester formulations. The PAG matrix was adsorbed onto silica and the selectivity obtained by this method was compared with that obtained by the direct extraction of adsorbed and unadsorbed PAG. Extraction was also done for unadsorbed PAG through the in-line column and it was successful in separating additives from all but the lowest molecular mass PAG oligomers. This extraction procedure enabled fractionation of the product and could be used as a sample preparation technique for further spectroscopic analysis. It is difficult to produce polymers with narrow molecular weight distributions by traditional methods. Supercritical fluid technology is applied to overcome the conventional methods. The solubilty parameter of supercritical fluid can be tailored. Selective extraction and fractionation are possible from multi-component mixtures. The key to making high quality polymers is to ensure precise control of molecular weight and polydispersity at high yield while keeping residual contaminants below acceptable tolerance levels. Hernandez et. al. (2005) tested the rolling fatigue of three polyglycols (PAG-9, PAG-12 and BREOX-B-135X). Polyglycols (also called PAG or polyalkylene glycols) are widely used in the lubrication industry. These compounds have very high viscosity indexes, very low pour points, a high thermal conductivity with respect to mineral oils, hydrolytic stability, etc. Rolling fatigue tests were carried out using IP-300 standard in order to obtain the characterization of the fluids. A four ball test machine was used and 10% life (L10) and 50% life (L50) were obtained. The stress-time curves for L10 and L50 were also determined. All polyglycols were tested under boundary lubrication regime (ÃŽÂ » In oils of the same family, the pressure-viscosity coefficient is relatively constant. An increase in viscosity improved the minimum film thickness with the consequent increase of the ÃŽÂ » ratio. Fatigue life is largely a function of the ratio of lubricating film thickness to composite surface roughness (ÃŽÂ » ratio). Differences in ÃŽÂ » ratio for the three polyglycols resulted in different asperity interactions and rolling contact fatigue lives. With regard to rolling contact fatigue, the choice of viscosity class should avoid asperity interaction, so that the only mode of failure will be subsurface failure. Although average pressure in the contact was the same, increase in viscosity from PAG-9 to BREOX-B135X improved the ÃŽÂ » ratio from 0.18 to 0.34. At less ÃŽÂ » An investigation was then carried put by Garcia and co-workers on PC-SAFT volumetric and phase behavior of carbon dioxide + PAG or POE lubricant systems. The densities of synthetic PAG oil was measured from 283.15 K to 333.15 K while the solubilities of CO2 in this oil was measured from 253 K to 333.15 K. Molecular weight of the lubricant was estimated using fast atom bombardment (FAB). Molecular weight and experimental densities were used to calculate characteristic parameters of PC-SAFT model for several commercial PAG oils. Transferable characteristic parameters were used for POEs. The thermophysical properties and phase behaviour of CO2-lubricant oil mixtures is important for the design of refrigeration and air-conditioning. The circulating fluid comes into contact with the lubricant used in compressors and a portion of the oil is transported into the refrigeration circuit with various effects in terms of performance. If the oil is immiscible with the refrigerant, the compressor may be damaged due to poor oil return to the compressor. Oil may accumulate inside the heat exchanger tubes reducing heat transfer capabilities, enthalpy change and resulting in an overall decrement of the refrigeration capacity and cycle performance. In addition, high solubility of the refrigerant in the lubricant may reduce the viscosity of the oil-rich phase and results in lower lubrication properties which gives rise to breakdown of the compressor mechanical parts. Hauk Weidner (2000) studied the thermodynamic and fluid-dynamic properties of carbon dioxide with different lubricants in cooling circuits for automobile application. The datas of the binary mixture were measured at temperatures between 5 and 100  °C under pressure of up to 150 bar. The phase behavior was observed qualitatively in a hugh-pressure view cell and was determined in an autoclave based on a static-analytical method. The viscosity of the lubricant saturated with carbon dioxide was measured with an integrated quartz viscosimeter. The applicability of lubricants in car-climatization systems can be evaluated with the knowledge of phase behavior and the resulting viscosity of gas-saturated lubricantsThe phase behavior of oils with carbon dioxide can be divided into three different types which are binary systems with closed miscibility gaps, systems with open miscibility gaps, and systems that show barotropic phenomena. Oils that show barotropic behavior in contact with compressed carbon dioxide are not recommended as lubricants. Oils with complete or limited miscibility with carbon dioxide may be used. Firdovsi Yagoub (2006) investigated the synthetic heat carrier oil compositions based on polyalklene glycols. Thermal stability, mass loss on vaporisation at 250  °C, 350  °C and changing the specifications after heating at 300  °C for 10 h were also studied. The prepared PAGs have been taken as basic components for heat carrier oil compositions. It was discovered that the specifications of PAGs such as viscosity indices, pour points, acid number and flash points changed dramatically upon heat treating. In order to improve the thermal stability and viscosity indices, anti-oxidant and anti-foaming additives were added to the base material to reach optimum compositions. The obtained heat carrier oils showed comparable improved properties in comparison with commercially available heat carriers. Methodology This project will be divided into 2 stages as listed below. Poly(glycerol-diacid) polymer will be prepared by using different hydrocarbon chain length of diacids (such as azelaic, succinic and adipic acid). The products will be analysed in order to study their chemical and physical properties. Phase 1 : Chemical reactions of glycerol with different hydrocarbon chain length of diacid compounds (e.g. azelaic, succinic or adipic acid) at different mole ratios, are carried out under N2. The mixtures were charged to a reaction vessel equipped with distillation apparatus. The reaction product is allowed to react at the desired temperature and time. Acid value (AV), hydroxyl value (OHV) and glycerol content will be measured to maintain the reaction progress. Optimization of the reaction parameters will be studied by varying different reaction parameters such as type and amount of diacid, reaction time, temperature and pressure. The final product will be washed, dried and characterised. Phase 2 : The products obtained will be analysed by using both High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). Other instrumentation such as Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) will also be utilised to further confirm their molecular structure. Physical properties of the products obtained such as viscosity, solubility, flash point, fire point, density, specific gravity, biodegradability, and oxidative stability will be performed. Expected result: Polymers resulting from the copolymerisation of glycerol with diacids of varying carbon chain length, molecular structure, and composition will be obtained. Structures having more than two free acid functionalities at the end-terminals can occur only after branching. As the time of reaction proceeds, the viscosity increases which limits the interaction between the reactants and the growing polymers. The water solubilty of the oligomers decreases with increasing chain length of the diacid monomers of the diacid monomers used in preparing the oligomers. This glycerol based polymers are expected to possess wide range of applications such as cosmetics and lubricants.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Global Warming Essays -- greenhouse gases climate change

Global Warming The greenhouse effect occurs when gases such as methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and CFCs trap heat in the atmosphere by acting as a pane of glass in a car. The glass lets the sun light in to make heat but when the heat tries to get out the gases absorb the heat. Holding this heat in causes heat waves, droughts and climate changes which could alter our way of living. The main gases that cause the greenhouse effect are water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane, which comes mainly from animal manure. Other gases like nitrogen oxide and man made gases called chlorofluorocarbons get caught in the atmosphere as well. The decay of animals and respiration are two main but natural sources of carbon dioxide. There are many steps we can take to slow down the emissions of greenhouse gases. There are already so many gasses in the atmosphere, and we may not be able to correct the damage done, but we can’t prevent further damage. Over the last 100 years the global temperatures have been increasing slowly but steadily. Since 1980 the temperature has risen 0.2 degrees C (0.4 degrees F) each decade. Scientists predict that if we continue putting the same amount of gas into the atmosphere by the year 2030 the temperature will be rising as much as 0.5 degrees C (0.9 degrees F) or more per decade. Over all the global temperature could rise anywhere from 5 to 9 degrees over the next fifty years. If the temperatures do rise as predicted several things co...

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Impact of New Media on Society – Smartphones

Impact of New Media on Society: Smartphones The term ‘new media’ is one that is constantly evolving, and on a daily basis, encompassing more as well as newer and innovative elements in it. In the broadest sense, it is the opposite of ‘traditional media’, which includes print, television and film, and radio. According to New Media Basics, new media is essentially interactive, and it includes a host of communication mechanisms that revolve around the internet, and include elements such as e-mail, social networks, websites, blogs, online videos and pictures etc.And new media also includes new media devices and technologies such as laptops, tablets, mobile phones, i-pods, and a host of other devices, which also includes smartphones, the main emphasis of this paper. New media tools have enabled increased collaboration between people across the world, and has thus accelerated the pace and reach of globalization. It has allowed an unparalleled connectivity with wid espread information, and most significantly, it has allowed for creativity, inventions and inno vations, as well as entrepreneurship.This paper will focus on the impact of smartphones on society, focusing on the education, business, health and government sectors, as well as on an individual’s personal life. It will weigh the argument from multiple sides, with the support of theories put forth by specialists and theorists within this realm. The IBM Simon, released in 1993, was the first ever ‘smartphone’ known to man. This propelled Nokia and Ericsson into the creation of their own superior versions, the ‘Communicator’ and GS88 respectively.It was in 2002 when the smartphones as we know them came into being with the Pocket PC, Palm OS and most significantly, the first Blackberry 5810. It was after this point that smartphones began to flood the market, with Apple’s I-Phone line, the Google Android, the Motorola Droids, HTC’s, and the Sams ung line of smartphones. Smartphones have had a dizzying and echoing impact on society, with its effects being felt in nearly every aspect of life. In regards to reach and richness, no doubt it is wide spread, and rich in content, options, accessibility etc. According to Colin Dean Murphy of University ?of? KwaZulu?Natal South Africa, it has been statistically proven that mobile phones are the most widespread and predominant ICT’s (Information and Communications Technology) of this day and age. For starters, â€Å"they are generally cheaper than computers, offer mobility, and are densely converged platforms. † And most importantly Murphy states, that this has led to ‘globalized convergence’. It has supported and significantly enhanced links to global networks. Smartphones have enabled constant connectivity, which one could argue is also allowed by computers, but what distinguishes the smartphone from a laptop or desktop, is the factor of mobility.Mobile ph ones enabled connectivity between people via phone calls and text messages, however smartphones have disrupted this, as they have allowed connectivity that is almost unparalleled. It has allowed people to interact on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, with all of these creating applications for the multiple smartphones out there. This does not only allow for enhanced communication but has enabled people to, for example via Facebook, to ‘check in’ and thus publically state their current location, allowing for others to physically access them more easily; it has also enabled eople to share precious moments such as holidays, graduations, holidays, a baby’s first steps etc. with their friends and family as soon as the picture is snapped with the smartphones cameras. It has brought about ease and efficiency in the workplace, and have allowed for employees, employers and coworkers to constantly be accessible officially via e-mail for instance, and important documents and information can be exchanged constantly. The browsers are available just as they are on a laptop or desktop, and enables students and the work force alike to promptly search for things, translate documents, and research topics and so on.Students have found it to enhance their learning, and even enabled them to do entire assignments while being on the go. Additionally, smartphones are a source of entertainment, ranging from music, to fun apps, games and videos. It is for these smartphones that a whole range of apps have been created. Some apps are entertainment oriented, such as those surrounding photographs, music and games; others allow you to book flights or do bank transactions, while some are designed to accelerate knowledge and learning.There is no genre that has not been explored by apps, and no lifestyle and culture, preferences and tastes that they have not catered to. We will now examine the effects, both negative and positive, of smartphone in detai l across different sectors. Education Sector: In ‘The Impact of Mobile Access on Motivation: Distance Education Student Perceptions’, by Penn State University, students were interviewed in regards to their usage of smartphones, as well as the benefits and drawbacks they perceived and experienced.Overall, students found smartphones to expedite learning and information, while offering the gift of mobility. Students we re able to access textbooks and course materials on their smartphones, their study time knew no barriers, as they could access the information at their ease and convenience. It was easier for them to seek help and get advice, as well as getting important class course updates from online groups and communities. Another favorite was flashcards, which students would download on their phones and study, especially if they were commuting, for instance on the subway.Students can even download or stream class podcasts on their phones, and listen to it at a later tim e, and to utilize otherwise ‘dead time’ (for instance, commuting, travelling, waiting for lift/cab etc. ) This paper explored an up and coming sector, which has accelerated, and has also come to be entir ely defined by smartphones: ‘m-Learning’. M stands for ‘mobile’, which in turn stands for ‘on the move’. MLearning evolved from eLearning, since in this day and age, with the spread of smartphones and tablets, people are mobile, on the go, while they are acquiring knowledge, skill and information.According to Tella, an m-Learner can access and work on his smartphone at any given point, at any given time, and thus it means the decentralization of information handling. According to USA Today, schools and universities globally are spending a large part of their budget on smartphones and tablets as a mode to attract students to their institutions as they have realized that it is such an important element in supplementing education. How ever, students are not all praise either for their smartphones. They have found smartphones to be very intrusive.With the ever increasing pressure of studies, they feel that they cannot get away, as their smartphones are always with them, allowing them to get notifications and calls for duty by their class mates and professors alike. Also, it has made students lazy to a degree, and encouraged several to do their work in the last minute, which in turn results in many of them plagiarizing content and handing it in to the teacher right before class. Smartphones offer such an attraction and constant entertainment that students are sucked into the online world, that it greatly hinders interaction with nature and the value of face to face communication.Business Sector: The Blackberry was initially marketed as a phone for the business man, and smartphone services initially were primarily for the business and industrial sector. Forrester Consulting conducted a study on RIM to ascertain the economic impact of a blackberry solution in North American enterprises. Blackberry smartphones, as well as other smartphones offer invaluable services and features to enterprises, such as ‘wireless voice and data applications including push e-mail, wireless calendaring, voice, text messaging, multimedia applications, and Web browsing’, to name a few.Forrester Consulting found that with the introduction of Blackberry smartphones and services, (and thus we can apply this to all smartphones over all) there was an increased productivity, greater efficiency, less wastage and a more economical utilization of time and resources. Smartphones allow enterprises and businesses to constantly be connected. Business decisions can be made promptly; important files and documents can be sent, accessed, read and approved as soon as they crop up. However, a major criticism to this development is the fact that the line between ‘work time’ and ‘leisure time’ has be en blurred.No longer can an individual be separated from his work life, and it keeps invading his personal life, family time, meal hours and so on. Mazmanian, in her 2006/2007 study on Blackberry handhelds and services pointed out several benefits and drawbacks experienced by Blackberry users, and their gains and costs, can effectively be applied to other smartphones. On the one hand, she said it enabled monitoring communication flow and controlling message receipt, but conversely, there was a compulsion to always check your blackberry, and an inability to disengage yourself from it.There are major implications in the realm on social relations, as it reduced the quality of social life, and quality time spent with family and friends, and instant messaging applications such as Whatsapp and BBM, resulted in people spending less time together, and actually engaging in verbal communication and physical contact. Health Sector According to Boulos, Wheeler, Tavares and Jones, the health sec tor has found smartphones very advantageous to their industry. It has allowed for immediate access to medical sites by doctors and patients alike.Patients are able to make their appointments on their smartphones, with several hospitals and clinics having their own apps for this purpose. Also, patients of various diseases have apps, specific to their diseases and treatments on their phones, which allow them to monitor their health regularly and efficiently. Government Sector: The government sector as well has initiated and embraced the age of m-Government, an enhanced, and rather mobile form of e-Government, as explained by Pierre Rossel, Matthias Finger and Gianluca Misuraca in â€Å"Mobile† e-Government Options: Between Technology-driven and User-centric.Through this the government attempts to invest in research and development in ICT’s. It aims to maximize productivity and innovation in areas of public administration. It also aims to create a link and relationship be tween the government and the users of their services. As we can see from the world around us, new media is a very powerful medium, which creates a ripple effect all over society, and smartphones is just one of its tools. There are several disadvantages that this technology depicts, but it is hard to compete with the advantages and progress it offers across the board, in every sphere of human life.It offers limitless possibilities, and has offere d solutions and innovations in the various facets of society, from education to business, entertainment to health, whilst catering to the old and the young, cutting through cultures, nations and any other tangible or intangible barrier.BIBLIOGRAPHY: New Media Basics Aids. gov http://aids. gov/using-new-media/new-media-basics/ Mobile? Convergence? and? Mobile? Adoption? Colin Dean Murphy University? of? KwaZulu? Natal South Africa http://146. 230. 128. 141/jspui/bitstream/10413/6320/1/Murphy_Colin_Dean_2012. df ‘The Impact of Mobile Acc ess on Motivation: Distance Education Student Perceptions’, Penn State University http://learningdesign. psu. edu/research/MLRTWhitePaper. pdf M-Learning—Cybertextual Travelling or a Herald of Post-Modern Education? Sappo Tella, 2003 University of Helsinki http://www. helsinki. fi/~tella/mlearningtella. pdf Economic Impact Of A BlackBerry Solution In North American Enterprises Forrester Consulting, 2009 http://us. blackberry. com/content/dam/blackBerry/pdf/whitePaper/northAmerica/english/Economic_I mpact_Of_BlackBerry_Devices_2. df UBIQUITOUS EMAIL: INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES AND ORGANIZATIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF BLACKBERRY USE Mazmanian, Yates and Orlikowski MIT Sloan School of Management http://seeit. mit. edu/publications/blackberry_aom. pdf How smartphones are changing the face of mobile and participatory healthcare. Boulos, Wheeler, Tavares and Jones, 2011 http://www. biomedical-engineering-online. com/content/10/1/24 â€Å"Mobile† e-Government Options: Between Te chnology-driven and User-centric Pierre Rossel, Matthias Finger and Gianluca Misuraca Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, College of Management of Technology Switzerland http://issuu. com/academic-conferences. org/docs/ejeg-volume4-issue2-article81 http://www. bitrebels. com/technology/the-evolution-of-smartphones-infographic/ http://www. usatoday. com/educate/devry/devry1. pdf http://sheryllam. wordpress. com/2012/06/06/the-impact-of-electric-telegraph-and-iphone-on-socialrelationships/ http://thetamnews. org/2011/09/editorial-the-impact-of-smartphones-on-student-life/ http://www. marketingtimes. com/2011/01/whats-the-impact-of-smartphones-social-media-on-ourlives/

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Critique of Pure Reason Essay

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is the central figure in modern philosophy. He synthesized early modern rationalism and empiricism, set the terms for much of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy, and continues to exercise a significant influence today in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and other fields. The fundamental idea of Kant’s â€Å"critical philosophy† — especially in his three Critiques: the Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787), the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and the Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790) — is human autonomy. He argues that the human understanding is the source of the general laws of nature that structure all our experience; and that human reason gives itself the moral law, which is our basis for belief in God, freedom, and immortality. Therefore, scientific knowledge, morality, and religious belief are mutually consistent and secure because they all rest on the same foundation of human autonomy, which is also the final end of nature according to the teleological worldview of reflecting judgment that Kant introduces to unify the theoretical and practical parts of his philosophical system. 1. Life and works Immanuel Kant was born April 22, 1724 in Konigsberg, near the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Today Konigsberg has been renamed Kaliningrad and is part of Russia. But during Kant’s lifetime Konigsberg was the capitol of East Prussia, and its dominant language was German. Though geographically remote from the rest of Prussia and other German cities, Konigsberg was then a major commercial center, an important military port, and a relatively cosmopolitan university town. [1] Kant was born into an artisan family of modest means. His father was a master harness maker, and his mother was the daughter of a harness maker, though she was better educated than most women of her social class. Kant’s family was never destitute, but his father’s trade was in decline during Kant’s youth and his parents at times had to rely on extended family for financial support. Kant’s parents were Pietist and he attended a Pietist school, the Collegium Fridericianum, from ages eight through fifteen. Pietism was an evangelical Lutheran movement that emphasized conversion, reliance on divine grace, the experience of religious emotions, and personal devotion involving regular Bible study, prayer, and introspection. Kant reacted strongly against the forced soul-searching to which he was subjected at the Collegium Fridericianum, in response to which he sought refuge in the Latin classics, which were central to the school’s curriculum. Later the mature Kant’s emphasis on reason and autonomy, rather than emotion and dependence on either authority or grace, may in part reflect his youthful reaction against Pietism. But although the young Kant loathed his Pietist schooling, he had deep respect and admiration for his parents, especially his mother, whose â€Å"genuine religiosity† he described as â€Å"not at all enthusiastic. † According to his biographer, Manfred Kuehn, Kant’s parents probably influenced him much less through their Pietism than through their artisan values of â€Å"hard work, honesty, cleanliness, and independence,† which they taught him by example. [2] Kant attended college at the University of Konigsberg, known as the Albertina, where his early interest in classics was quickly superseded by philosophy, which all first year students studied and which encompassed mathematics and physics as well as logic, metaphysics, ethics, and natural law. Kant’s philosophy professors exposed him to the approach of Christian Wolff (1679–1750), whose critical synthesis of the philosophy of G. W. Leibniz (1646–1716) was then very influential in German universities. But Kant was also exposed to a range of German and British critics of Wolff, and there were strong doses of Aristotelianism and Pietism represented in the philosophy faculty as well. Kant’s favorite teacher was Martin Knutzen (1713–1751), a Pietist who was heavily influenced by both Wolff and the English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). Knutzen introduced Kant to the work of Isaac Newton (1642–1727), and his influence is visible in Kant’s first published work, Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces (1747), which was a critical attempt to mediate a dispute in natural philosophy between Leibnizians and Newtonians over the proper measurement of force. After college Kant spent six years as a private tutor to young children outside Konigsberg. By this time both of his parents had died and Kant’s finances were not yet secure enough for him to pursue an academic career. He finally returned to Konigsberg in 1754 and began teaching at the Albertina the following year. For the next four decades Kant taught philosophy there, until his retirement from teaching in 1796 at the age of seventy-two. Kant had a burst of publishing activity in the years after he returned from working as a private tutor. In 1754 and 1755 he published three scientific works — one of which, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755), was a major book in which, among other things, he developed what later became known as the nebular hypothesis about the formation of the solar system. Unfortunately, the printer went bankrupt and the book had little immediate impact. To secure qualifications for teaching at the university, Kant also wrote two Latin dissertations: the first, entitled Concise Outline of Some Reflections on Fire (1755), earned him the Magister degree; and the second, New Elucidation of the First Principles of Metaphysical Cognition (1755), entitled him to teach as an unsalaried lecturer. The following year he published another Latin work, The Employment in Natural Philosophy of Metaphysics Combined with Geometry, of Which Sample I Contains the Physical Monadology (1756), in hopes of succeeding Knutzen as associate professor of logic and metaphysics, though Kant failed to secure this position. Both the New Elucidation, which was Kant’s first work concerned mainly with metaphysics, and the Physical Monadology further develop the position on the interaction of finite substances that he first outlined in Living Forces. Both works depart from Leibniz-Wolffian views, though not radically. The New Elucidation in particular shows the influence of Christian August Crusius (1715–1775), a German critic of Wolff. [3] As an unsalaried lecturer at the Albertina Kant was paid directly by the students who attended his lectures, so he needed to teach an enormous amount and to attract many students in order to earn a living. Kant held this position from 1755 to 1770, during which period he would lecture an average of twenty hours per week on logic, metaphysics, and ethics, as well as mathematics, physics, and physical geography. In his lectures Kant used textbooks by Wolffian authors such as Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762) and Georg Friedrich Meier (1718–1777), but he followed them loosely and used them to structure his own reflections, which drew on a wide range of ideas of contemporary interest. These ideas often stemmed from British sentimentalist philosophers such as David Hume (1711–1776) and Francis Hutcheson (1694–1747), some of whose texts were translated into German in the mid-1750’s; and from the Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), who published a flurry of works in the early 1760’s. From early in his career Kant was a popular and successful lecturer. He also quickly developed a local reputation as a promising young intellectual and cut a dashing figure in Konigsberg society. After several years of relative quiet, Kant unleashed another burst of publications in 1762–1764, including five philosophical works. The False Subtlety of the Four Syllogistic Figures (1762) rehearses criticisms of Aristotelian logic that were developed by other German philosophers. The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God (1762–3) is a major book in which Kant drew on his earlier work in Universal History and New Elucidation to develop an original argument for God’s existence as a condition of the internal possibility of all things, while criticizing other arguments for God’s existence. The book attracted several positive and some negative reviews. In 1762 Kant also submitted an essay entitled Inquiry Concerning the Distinctness of the Principles of Natural Theology and Morality to a prize competition by the Prussian Royal Academy, though Kant’s submission took second prize to Moses Mendelssohn’s winning essay (and was published with it in 1764). Kant’s Prize Essay, as it is known, departs more significantly from Leibniz-Wolffian views than his earlier work and also contains his first extended discussion of moral philosophy in print. The Prize Essay draws on British sources to criticize German rationalism in two respects: first, drawing on Newton, Kant distinguishes between the methods of mathematics and philosophy; and second, drawing on Hutcheson, he claims that â€Å"an unanalysable feeling of the good† supplies the material content of our moral obligations, which cannot be demonstrated in a purely intellectual way from the formal principle of perfection alone (2:299). [4] These themes reappear in the Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Magnitudes into Philosophy (1763), whose main thesis, however, is that the real opposition of conflicting forces, as in causal relations, is not reducible to the logical relation of contradiction, as Leibnizians held. In Negative Magnitudes Kant also argues that the morality of an action is a function of the internal forces that motivate one to act, rather than of the external (physical) actions or their consequences. Finally, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime (1764) deals mainly with alleged differences in the tastes of men and women and of people from different cultures. After it was published, Kant filled his own interleaved copy of this book with (often unrelated) handwritten remarks, many of which reflect the deep influence of Rousseau on his thinking about moral philosophy in the mid-1760’s. These works helped to secure Kant a broader reputation in Germany, but for the most part they were not strikingly original. Like other German philosophers at the time, Kant’s early works are generally concerned with using insights from British empiricist authors to reform or broaden the German rationalist tradition without radically undermining its foundations. While some of his early works tend to emphasize rationalist ideas, others have a more empiricist emphasis. During this time Kant was striving to work out an independent position, but before the 1770’s his views remained fluid. In 1766 Kant published his first work concerned with the possibility of metaphysics, which later became a central topic of his mature philosophy. Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics, which he wrote soon after publishing a short Essay on Maladies of the Mind (1764), was occasioned by Kant’s fascination with the Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), who claimed to have insight into a spirit world that enabled him to make a series of apparently miraculous predictions. In this curious work Kant satirically compares Swedenborg’s spirit-visions to the belief of rationalist metaphysicians in an immaterial soul that survives death, and he concludes that philosophical knowledge of either is impossible because human reason is limited to experience. The skeptical tone of Dreams is tempered, however, by Kant’s suggestion that â€Å"moral faith† nevertheless supports belief in an immaterial and immortal soul, even if it is not possible to attain metaphysical knowledge in this domain (2:373). In 1770, at the age of forty-six, Kant was appointed to the chair in logic and metaphysics at the Albertina, after teaching for fifteen years as an unsalaried lecturer and working since 1766 as a sublibrarian to supplement his income. Kant was turned down for the same position in 1758. But later, as his reputation grew, he declined chairs in philosophy at Erlangen (1769) and Jena (1770) in hopes of obtaining one in Konigsberg. After Kant was finally promoted, he gradually extended his repertoire of lectures to include anthropology (Kant’s was the first such course in Germany and became very popular), rational theology, pedagogy, natural right, and even mineralogy and military fortifications. In order to inaugurate his new position, Kant also wrote one more Latin dissertation: Concerning the Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible World (1770), which is known as the Inaugural Dissertation. The Inaugural Dissertation departs more radically from both Wolffian rationalism and British sentimentalism than Kant’s earlier work. Inspired by Crusius and the Swiss natural philosopher Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728–1777), Kant distinguishes between two fundamental powers of cognition, sensibility and understanding (intelligence), where the Leibniz-Wolffians regarded understanding (intellect) as the only fundamental power. Kant therefore rejects the rationalist view that sensibility is only a confused species of intellectual cognition, and he replaces this with his own view that sensibility is distinct from understanding and brings to perception its own subjective forms of space and time — a view that developed out of Kant’s earlier criticism of Leibniz’s relational view of space in Concerning the Ultimate Ground of the Differentiation of Directions in Space (1768). Moreover, as the title of the Inaugural Dissertation indicates, Kant argues that sensibility and understanding are directed at two different worlds: sensibility gives us access to the sensible world, while understanding enables us to grasp a distinct intelligible world. These two worlds are related in that what the understanding grasps in the intelligible world is the â€Å"paradigm† of â€Å"NOUMENAL PERFECTION,† which is â€Å"a common measure for all other things in so far as they are realities. † Considered theoretically, this intelligible paradigm of perfection is God; considered practically, it is â€Å"MORAL PERFECTION† (2:396). The Inaugural Dissertation thus develops a form of Platonism; and it rejects the view of British sentimentalists that moral judgments are based on feelings of pleasure or pain, since Kant now holds that moral judgments are based on pure understanding alone. After 1770 Kant never surrendered the views that sensibility and understanding are distinct powers of cognition, that space and time are subjective forms of human sensibility, and that moral judgments are based on pure understanding (or reason) alone. But his embrace of Platonism in the Inaugural Dissertation was short-lived. He soon denied that our understanding is capable of insight into an intelligible world, which cleared the path toward his mature position in the Critique of Pure Reason (1781), according to which the understanding (like sensibility) supplies forms that structure our experience of the sensible world, to which human knowledge is limited, while the intelligible (or noumenal) world is strictly unknowable to us. Kant spent a decade working on the Critique of Pure Reason and published nothing else of significance between 1770 and 1781. But its publication marked the beginning of another burst of activity that produced Kant’s most important and enduring works. Because early reviews of the Critique of Pure Reason were few and (in Kant’s judgment) uncomprehending, he tried to clarify its main points in the much shorter Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Come Forward as a Science (1783). Among the major books that rapidly followed are the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), Kant’s main work on the fundamental principle of morality; the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786), his main work on natural philosophy in what scholars call his critical period (1781–1798); the second and substantially revised edition of the Critique of Pure Reason (1787); the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), a fuller discussion of topics in moral philosophy that builds on (and in some ways revises) the Groundwork; and the Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790), which deals with aesthetics and teleology. Kant also published a number of important essays in this period, including Idea for a Universal History With a Cosmopolitan Aim (1784) and Conjectural Beginning of Human History (1786), his main contributions to the philosophy of history; An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? (1784), which broaches some of the key ideas of his later political essays; and What Does it Mean to Orient Oneself in Thinking? (1786), Kant’s intervention in the pantheism controversy that raged in German intellectual circles after F. H. Jacobi (1743–1819) accused the recently deceased G. E. Lessing (1729–1781) of Spinozism. With these works Kant secured international fame and came to dominate German philosophy in the late 1780’s. But in 1790 he announced that the Critique of the Power of Judgment brought his critical enterprise to an end (5:170). By then K. L. Reinhold (1758–1823), whose Letters on the Kantian Philosophy (1786) popularized Kant’s moral and religious ideas, had been installed (in 1787) in a chair devoted to Kantian philosophy at Jena, which was more centrally located than Konigsberg and rapidly developing into the focal point of the next phase in German intellectual history. Reinhold soon began to criticize and move away from Kant’s views. In 1794 his chair at Jena passed to J. G. Fichte, who had visited the master in Konigsberg and whose first book, Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation (1792), was published anonymously and initially mistaken for a work by Kant himself. This catapulted Fichte to fame, but he too soon moved away from Kant and developed an original position quite at odds with Kant’s, which Kant finally repudiated publicly in 1799 (12:370–371). Yet while German philosophy moved on to assess and respond to Kant’s legacy, Kant himself continued publishing important works in the 1790’s. Among these are Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (1793), which drew a censure from the Prussian King when Kant published the book after its second essay was rejected by the censor; The Conflict of the Faculties (1798), a collection of essays inspired by Kant’s troubles with the censor and dealing with the relationship between the philosophical and theological faculties of the university; On the Common Saying: That May be Correct in Theory, But it is of No Use in Practice (1793), Toward Perpetual Peace (1795), and the Doctrine of Right, the first part of the Metaphysics of Morals (1797), Kant’s main works in political philosophy; the Doctrine of Virtue, the second part of the Metaphysics of Morals (1797), a catalogue of duties that Kant had been planning for more than thirty years; and Anthropology From a Pragmatic Point of View (1798), based on Kant’s anthropology lectures. Several other compilations of Kant’s lecture notes from other courses were published later, but these were not prepared by Kant himself. Kant retired from teaching in 1796. For nearly two decades he had lived a highly disciplined life focused primarily on completing his philosophical system, which began to take definite shape in his mind only in middle age. After retiring he came to believe that there was a gap in this system separating the metaphysical foundations of natural science from physics itself, and he set out to close this gap in a series of notes that postulate the existence of an ether or caloric matter. These notes, known as the Opus Postumum, remained unfinished and unpublished in Kant’s lifetime, and scholars disagree on their significance and relation to his earlier work. It is clear, however, that these late notes show unmistakable signs of Kant’s mental decline, which became tragically precipitous around 1800. Kant died February 12, 1804, just short of his eightieth birthday. 2. Kant’s project in the Critique of Pure Reason. The main topic of the Critique of Pure Reason is the possibility of metaphysics, understood in a specific way. Kant defines metaphysics in terms of â€Å"the cognitions after which reason might strive independently of all experience,† and his goal in the book is to reach a â€Å"decision about the possibility or impossibility of a metaphysics in general, and the determination of its sources, as well as its extent and boundaries, all, however, from principles† (Axii. See also Bxiv; and 4:255–257). Thus metaphysics for Kant concerns a priori knowledge, or knowledge whose justification does not depend on experience; and he associates a priori knowledge with reason. The project of the Critique is to examine whether, how, and to what extent human reason is capable of a priori knowledge. 2. 1 The crisis of the Enlightenment To understand the project of the Critique better, let us consider the historical and intellectual context in which it was written. [5] Kant wrote the Critique toward the end of the Enlightenment, which was then in a state of crisis. Hindsight enables us to see that the 1780’s was a transitional decade in which the cultural balance shifted decisively away from the Enlightenment toward Romanticism, but of course Kant did not have the benefit of such hindsight. The Enlightenment was a reaction to the rise and successes of modern science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The spectacular achievement of Newton in particular engendered widespread confidence and optimism about the power of human reason to control nature and to improve human life. One effect of this new confidence in reason was that traditional authorities were increasingly questioned. For why should we need political or religious authorities to tell us how to live or what to believe, if each of us has the capacity to figure these things out for ourselves? Kant expresses this Enlightenment commitment to the sovereignty of reason in the Critique: Our age is the age of criticism, to which everything must submit. Religion through its holiness and legislation through its majesty commonly seek to exempt themselves from it. But in this way they excite a just suspicion against themselves, and cannot lay claim to that unfeigned respect that reason grants only to that which has been able to withstand its free and public examination (Axi). Enlightenment is about thinking for oneself rather than letting others think for you, according to What is Enlightenment? (8:35). In this essay, Kant also expresses the Enlightenment faith in the inevitability of progress. A few independent thinkers will gradually inspire a broader cultural movement, which ultimately will lead to greater freedom of action and governmental reform. A culture of enlightenment is â€Å"almost inevitable† if only there is â€Å"freedom to make public use of one’s reason in all matters† (8:36). The problem is that to some it seemed unclear whether progress would in fact ensue if reason enjoyed full sovereignty over traditional authorities; or whether unaided reasoning would instead lead straight to materialism, fatalism, atheism, skepticism (Bxxxiv), or even libertinism and authoritarianism (8:146). The Enlightenment commitment to the sovereignty of reason was tied to the expectation that it would not lead to any of these consequences but instead would support certain key beliefs that tradition had always sanctioned. Crucially, these included belief in God, the soul, freedom, and the compatibility of science with morality and religion. Although a few intellectuals rejected some or all of these beliefs, the general spirit of the Enlightenment was not so radical. The Enlightenment was about replacing traditional authorities with the authority of individual human reason, but it was not about overturning traditional moral and religious beliefs. Yet the original inspiration for the Enlightenment was the new physics, which was mechanistic. If nature is entirely governed by mechanistic, causal laws, then it may seem that there is no room for freedom, a soul, or anything but matter in motion. This threatened the traditional view that morality requires freedom. We must be free in order to choose what is right over what is wrong, because otherwise we cannot be held responsible. It also threatened the traditional religious belief in a soul that can survive death or be resurrected in an afterlife. So modern science, the pride of the Enlightenment, the source of its optimism about the powers of human reason, threatened to undermine traditional moral and religious beliefs that free rational thought was expected to support. This was the main intellectual crisis of the Enlightenment. The Critique of Pure Reason is Kant’s response to this crisis. Its main topic is metaphysics because, for Kant, metaphysics is the domain of reason – it is â€Å"the inventory of all we possess through pure reason, ordered systematically† (Axx) — and the authority of reason was in question. Kant’s main goal is to show that a critique of reason by reason itself, unaided and unrestrained by traditional authorities, establishes a secure and consistent basis for both Newtonian science and traditional morality and religion. In other words, free rational inquiry adequately supports all of these essential human interests and shows them to be mutually consistent. So reason deserves the sovereignty attributed to it by the Enlightenment. 2. 2 Kant’s Copernican revolution in philosophy To see how Kant attempts to achieve this goal in the Critique, it helps to reflect on his grounds for rejecting the Platonism of the Inaugural Dissertation. In a way the Inaugural Dissertation also tries to reconcile Newtonian science with traditional morality and religion, but its strategy is different from that of the Critique. According to the Inaugural Dissertation, Newtonian science is true of the sensible world, to which sensibility gives us access; and the understanding grasps principles of divine and moral perfection in a distinct intelligible world, which are paradigms for measuring everything in the sensible world. So on this view our knowledge of the intelligible world is a priori because it does not depend on sensibility, and this a priori knowledge furnishes principles for judging the sensible world because in some way the sensible world itself conforms to or imitates the intelligible world. Soon after writing the Inaugural Dissertation, however, Kant expressed doubts about this view. As he explained in a February 21, 1772 letter to his friend and former student, Marcus Herz: In my dissertation I was content to explain the nature of intellectual representations in a merely negative way, namely, to state that they were not modifications of the soul brought about by the object. However, I silently passed over the further question of how a representation that refers to an object without being in any way affected by it can be possible†¦. [B]y what means are these [intellectual representations] given to us, if not by the way in which they affect us? And if such intellectual representations depend on our inner activity, whence comes the agreement that they are supposed to have with objects — objects that are nevertheless not possibly produced thereby? †¦[A]s to how my understanding may form for itself concepts of things completely a priori, with which concepts the things must necessarily agree, and as to how my understanding may formulate real principles concerning the possibility of such concepts, with which principles experience must be in exact agreement and which nevertheless are independent of experience — this question, of how the faculty of understanding achieves this conformity with the things themselves, is still left in a state of obscurity. (10:130–131) Here Kant entertains doubts about how a priori knowledge of an intelligible world would be possible. The position of the Inaugural Dissertation is that the intelligible world is independent of the human understanding and of the sensible world, both of which (in different ways) conform to the intelligible world. But, leaving aside questions about what it means for the sensible world to conform to an intelligible world, how is it possible for the human understanding to conform to or grasp an intelligible world? If the intelligible world is independent of our understanding, then it seems that we could grasp it only if we are passively affected by it in some way. But for Kant sensibility is our passive or receptive capacity to be affected by objects that are independent of us (2:392, A51/B75). So the only way we could grasp an intelligible world that is independent of us is through sensibility, which means that our knowledge of it could not be a priori. The pure understanding alone could at best enable us to form representations of an intelligible world. But since these intellectual representations would entirely â€Å"depend on our inner activity,† as Kant says to Herz, we have no good reason to believe that they conform to an independent intelligible world. Such a priori intellectual representations could well be figments of the brain that do not correspond to anything independent of the human mind. In any case, it is completely mysterious how there might come to be a correspondence between purely intellectual representations and an independent intelligible world. Kant’s strategy in the Critique is similar to that of the Inaugural Dissertation in that both works attempt to reconcile modern science with traditional morality and religion by relegating them to distinct sensible and intelligible worlds, respectively. But the Critique gives a far more modest and yet revolutionary account of a priori knowledge. As Kant’s letter to Herz suggests, the main problem with his view in the Inaugural Dissertation is that it tries to explain the possibility of a priori knowledge about a world that is entirely independent of the human mind. This turned out to be a dead end, and Kant never again maintained that we can have a priori knowledge about an intelligible world precisely because such a world would be entirely independent of us. However, Kant’s revolutionary position in the Critique is that we can have a priori knowledge about the general structure of the sensible world because it is not entirely independent of the human mind. The sensible world, or the world of appearances, is constructed by the human mind from a combination of sensory matter that we receive passively and a priori forms that are supplied by our cognitive faculties. We can have a priori knowledge only about aspects of the sensible world that reflect the a priori forms supplied by our cognitive faculties. In Kant’s words, â€Å"we can cognize of things a priori only what we ourselves have put into them† (Bxviii). So according to the Critique, a priori knowledge is possible only if and to the extent that the sensible world itself depends on the way the human mind structures its experience. Kant characterizes this new constructivist view of experience in the Critique through an analogy with the revolution wrought by Copernicus in astronomy: Up to now it has been assumed that all our cognition must conform to the objects; but all attempts to find out something about them a priori through concepts that would extend our cognition have, on this presupposition, come to nothing. Hence let us once try whether we do not get farther with the problems of metaphysics by assuming that the objects must conform to our cognition, which would agree better with the requested possibility of an a priori cognition of them, which is to establish something about objects before they are given to us. This would be just like the first thoughts of Copernicus, who, when he did not make good progress in the explanation of the celestial motions if he assumed that the entire celestial host revolves around the observer, tried to see if he might not have greater success if he made the observer revolve and left the stars at rest. Now in metaphysics we can try in a similar way regarding the intuition of objects. If intuition has to conform to the constitution of the objects, then I do not see how we can know anything of them a priori; but if the object (as an object of the senses) conforms to the constitution of our faculty of intuition, then I can very well represent this possibility to myself. Yet because I cannot stop with these intuitions, if they are to become cognitions, but must refer them as representations to something as their object and determine this object through them, I can assume either that the concepts through which I bring about this determination also con.