Friday, January 31, 2020

Term “integrity” Essay Example for Free

Term â€Å"integrity† Essay Integrity It is necessary to outline that the term â€Å"integrity† is considered polysemantic meaning it is provided with lots of meanings. Integrity is the most important terms used in virtue ethics, for example. Integrity is used in the scientific and technological fields. Therefore, this term is often puzzling and perplexing. Sometimes people use integrity as a synonym to â€Å"moral† trying to distinguish that person is acting with integrity. However, researchers noted that people of integrity may act immorally, even if they are unaware of their immoral actions. Thus it is necessary to say that a person may be of integrity even if he holds importantly mistaken perspectives on ethics and morality. Firstly, integrity is defined a quality of a person’s character. Then people thinking of integrity of wilderness region or ecosystem, art forms, computerized database, etc. Integrity is applied mostly to the objects and it suggests purity, intactness and wholeness of an object. These meanings are often applied to people. Speaking about regions, integrity means that a region isn’t corrupted by side-effects of development and its advance. Region of integrity suggests wilderness and uncorrupted or virgin. In computer science, integrity means that computer database is able to maintain power and resist to errors, integrity of defense systems suggests that system isn’t breached. In music, for example, musical work has integrity if its musical structure is provided with completeness which is coordinated and has related music ideas. Simply saying integrity in music means that music piece is whole, intact and pure. Integrity is found in many aspects of human’s life. For example, there are ideas of intellectual, professional and artistic integrity. Nevertheless, integrity has found its application mostly in philosophy meaning human’s general character. As it is noted â€Å"philosophers have been particularly concerned to understand what it is for a person to exhibit integrity throughout life†. In philosophy, when a person acts with integrity on a particular occasion it means that integrity is explained as broader feature of person’ character. There is a claim that person should possess integrity. Ordinary discourse about integrity involves two fundamental intuitions: first, that integrity is primarily a formal relation one has to oneself, or between parts or aspects of ones self; and second, that integrity is connected in an important way to acting morally, in other words, there are some substantive or normative constraints on what it is to act with integrity. How these two intuitions can be incorporated into a consistent theory of integrity is not obvious, and most accounts of integrity tend to focus on one of these intuitions to the detriment of the other. Integrity is a matter of persons integrating various parts of their personality into a harmonious, intact whole. Understood in this way, the integrity of persons is analogous to the integrity of things: integrity is primarily a matter of keeping the self intact and uncorrupted. A related approach to integrity is to think of it primarily in terms of a persons holding steadfastly true to their commitments, rather than ordering and endorsing desires. â€Å"Commitment† is used as a broad umbrella term covering many different kinds of intentions, promises, convictions and relationships of trust and expectation. One may be, and usually is, committed in many different ways to many different kinds of thing: people, institutions, traditions, causes, ideals, principles, projects, and so on. The self-integration and identity views of integrity see it as primarily a personal virtue: a quality defined by a persons care of the self. Persons of integrity treat their own endorsements as ones that matter, or ought to matter, to fellow deliberators. Calhouns account of integrity promises to explain why it is that the fanatic lacks integrity. It seems intuitively very plausible to distinguish between fanatical zeal and integrity, but the self-integration and identity views of integrity threaten to make the fanatic a paradigm case of a person of integrity. References Graham, Jody L. (2001). Does Integrity Require Moral Goodness? Ratio 14, 2, 234-251. Harcourt, Edward (1998). Integrity, Practical Deliberation and Utilitarianism. Philosophical Quarterly, 48, 189-198. Herbert, Mark R. (2002). Integrity, Identity and Fanaticism. Contemporary Philosophy 24, 25-29.

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Creating a Vending Machine with Lego Mindstorm :: Robotics

Creating a Vending Machine with Lego Mindstorm Abstract: Vending machines have come a long way, since their introduction to human society thousands of years ago. Although the basic concept of a vending machine has not changed, modern day technology has significantly enhanced them. Our vending machine is no different. Although our vending machine is not top of the line, it is also not such a bad one either. We started out with building the five main components of a vending machine: the dispenser, trough, selection device, and payment reader entirely out of LEGOs. We decided on a door like dispenser and buttons as a selection device. The payment we decided to accept were barcodes. The only component that was actually giving us trouble was the dispenser. Our first dispenser design was severely flawed. After coming up with a door like mechanism, the dispenser was easily fixed. Although we did prove our hypothesis to be correct, there are still many improvements that we could make such as improving the design to make it easier to maintain. Question: Is it possible to create an operational candy machine with only LEGOs? Purpose: To build a candy machine that is capable of:  · Reading a barcode  · Detecting if it is a fake or not  · Sending a signal to the other RCX to allow to user to: 1) Select the candy 2) While making sure that the machine remains stationary Background: The History of Counterfeiting the US Currency The counterfeiting of money is one of the oldest crimes in history. Therefore I needed to find out the ways I could use a LEGO RCX to recognize a correct bill and reject it if it is fake. The History: During the American Revolution, the British counterfeited U.S. currency in such large amounts that the Continental currency soon became worthless. "Not worth a Continental" became a popular expression that is still heard today. During the Civil War, one-third to one-half of the currency in circulation was counterfeit. At that time, approximately 1,600 state banks designed and printed their own bills. Each bill carried a different design, making it difficult to detect counterfeit bills from the 7,000 varieties of real bills. A national currency was adopted in 1862 to resolve the counterfeiting problem. However, the national currency was soon counterfeited and circulated so extensively that it became necessary to take enforcement measures. Therefore, on July 5, 1865, the United States Secret Service was established to suppress the wide-spread counterfeiting of this nation's currency. Although the counterfeiting of money was substantially suppressed after the establishment of the Secret Service, this crime still represents a potential danger to the Nation's economy.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Cultural Difference between Ancient Egypt and Ancient China Essay

The Cultural Development of ancient Egyptians and ancient Chinese civilizations were fairly similar but were different on certain ideas. From the way historians looked at the number of gods/goddesses each civilization worshipped, to the inventions and tools the craftsman made to make life less difficult shows the similarity of the two civilization. Both couture’s buried their dead with items of value, practiced ancestor worship, had elaborate systems of Bureaucratic systems of administration and, had rudimentary concepts of Mathematics and Medicine. Ancient Chinese religion based upon Confucianism. Both Taoism and Confucianism began at about the same time, around the sixth century B.C.E. China’s third great religion, Bu. The religion of Ancient Egypt was a polytheistic (many gods) religion with one short period of monotheism (one god). Their religion hosted about 700 different gods and goddesses. Despite the similar concepts of the 2 civilization ancient Chinese: In Egypt, people were buried with thought to preservation, as they believed that the dead would be able to use their bodies in the afterlife. Chinese burial style depended on the province as well as the main religion of the person. But both civilizations were polytheistic (belief in many gods). Ancient Egypt belief system relied heavily on the tales of the many deities that they worshiped. In Ancient Egypt, it was believed that, when a Pharaoh passed away, he was met with many tests. If successful, the Pharaoh would ascend and become the sun god, Ra. However ancient Chinese belief system relied on three major religions: Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Taoism was founded during the Zhou Dynasty in the 6th century by Lao-Tzu. The idea of Yin and Yang comes from Taoism. They believed that everything in nature has two balancing forces called Yin and Yang. Confucianism was born in 551 BC. Confucius was a philosopher and thinker. Confucius’ teachings focus on treating others with respect, politeness, and fairness. He thought that honor and morality were important qualities, family was important, and honoring one’s relatives was required. Buddhism was based on the teachings of Buddha. Buddha was born in Nepal, just south of China, in 563 BC. Buddhists believe in a â€Å"rebirth† of the self, and the concept named Karma (all actions have consequences). What makes these two civilizations similar, Egypt and China had similar governments in which they were both monarchies. Both ancient Chinese and ancient Egypt made tools and technology to improve their lives, and make everyday tasks easier. Also both civilizations also required an irrigation system to help regulate and utilize the nearby rivers’ sources. However, this is where the similarities of technology end. Egyptians focused primarily on the afterlife. They built grand pyramids as burial sites and afterlife protection for Pharaohs and important nobles. The Chinese spent their efforts building roads for easier trade and canals for efficient, improved farming. Ancient Egypt and ancient Chinese used paper. China and Egypt are also similar in the fact that they all took use of bronze metallurgy. But although they both used bronze, China was better adapted to it and benefitted more from it. Egypt was slow to develop the use of bronze, and the high cost didn’t allow them to use it much. Ancient Chinese made paper (Papyrus- a tall plant that is like grass and that grows in marshes especially in China). Ancient Egypt are known for their pyramids. The size, design, and structure of the pyramids reveal the skill of these ancient builders. The pyramids were great monuments and tombs for the kings. The Egyptians believed that a king’s soul continued to guide affairs of the kingdom even after his death. To ensure that they would continue to enjoy the blessings of the gods, they preserved the pharaoh’s body through the mummification process. They built the pyramids to protect the pharaoh’s body; the pyramid was a symbol of hope, because it would ensure the pharaoh’s union with the gods. Ancient Chinese rich people had fancier houses, and people also built fancy temples and palaces. All ancient Chinese architecture was built according to strict rules of design that made Chinese buildings follow the ideas of Taoism or other Chinese philosophies. The design idea was that buildings should be long and low rather than tall – they and symmetry: both sides of the building should be the same, balanced, just as Taoism emphasized balance. Both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Egypt were both river civilizations that faced the challenge of flooding of their nearby rivers, which made irrigation systems and tracking floods important. While researching ancient Chinese and ancient Egypt I saw that each civilization had the same ideas but they took their prior knowledge and bulled on it, in different ways. Based on this evidence and facts I gathered I conclude that ancient Egypt and ancient China are the strongest and longest lasting civilizations because of their organization. Also since each civilization’s location was closed off, intruding and trying to conquer weren’t a major issue. While writing this paper I learned that with each civilization’s advanced tools and inventions it impacted everything and influenced all the technology we have today.

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

5 Differences Between Italian and English Capitalization

While there aren’t a ton of differences between Italian and English when it comes to areas like punctuation or writing style, there are a handful you should know about in the realm of capitalization. Many words that are capitalized in English are not capitalized in Italian, and while knowing this won’t increase your spoken conversational ability, it will make your written communication, like emails and text messages, feel more natural. Differences in Capitalization Between Italian and English Italian and English capitalization differs in these areas: Days of the weekMonths of the yearProper adjectivesTitles of books, movies, plays, etc.Personal titles such as Mr., Mrs., and Miss. Days of the Week Here are some examples with the days of the week.   Arriva domenica. - He is arriving on Sunday.Ci vediamo lunedà ¬! - We’ll see each other on Monday! / See you Monday!Sei libero giovedà ¬? Ti va di prendere un aperitivo? - Are you free on Thursday? Do you want to get an aperitivo with me?A mercoledà ¬! - To Wednesday! (This is a common way to tell someone that you’ll be seeing them for the plans you made. In this case, the plans are on Wednesday.) Months of the year Il mio compleanno à ¨ il diciotto aprile. - My birthday is April 18.Vado in Italia a gennaio. Sicuramente si gelerà  ! - I’m going to Italy in January. It’s going to be really cold!A marzo, ho appena finito un corso intensivo di italiano. - I just finished an intensive Italian course in March. TIP: Notice how the preposition â€Å"a† goes before the month. Proper adjectives Proper adjectives are the descriptive form of the noun. For example, she’s from Canada (proper noun), which makes her Canadian (proper adjective). Lei à ¨ russa. - She’s Russian.Penso che siano canadesi. - I think they’re Canadian.Riesco a capire dal suo accento che lui à ¨ italiano. - I can tell from his accent that he’s Italian. Titles of Books, Movies, Plays, Etc. If you’re writing about a recent book or movie that you just read, you won’t capitalize the beginning of each letter in the title (excluding articles and conjunctions). Abbiamo appena visto â€Å"La ragazza del fuoco† L’hai visto anche tu? - We just saw Catching Fire. Did you also see it?Hai letto â€Å"L’amica geniale† di Elena Ferrante? Ti à ¨ piaciuto? - You read My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante? DId you like it? Personal titles such as Mr., Mrs., and Miss. Il signor Neri à ¨ italiano. - Mr. Neri is Italian.Il mio nuovo capo si chiama signora Mazzocca. - My new boss’s name is Mrs. Mazzocca. TIP: You can use both forms with personal titles. In a formal context, like an email or a reference letter, you’ll want to capitalize all of the titles, like Prof. Arch. Dott. or Avv. minuscole a b c d e f g h i l m n o p q r s t u v z maiuscole A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T U V Z