Crucible Analyzing John Proctor Essay Example for Free

Crucible Analyzing John Proctor Essay Analyzing John Proctor as a Tragic Hero In the Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, John Proctor is the tragic hero. A tragic hero is defined as someone who has great courage that ends up dying at the end of the story. The reason John Proctor is the tragic hero of this play is because he has so much to lose. John Proctor fulfills my requirements of a tragic hero throughout the play. He decides to go to court and expose the girls. The girls turn on him and he gets accused. He is only trying to do well, but gets falsely accused. John Proctor is also a very intelligent man who can detect others as being fraudulent, however he questions his own moral. He questions himself because of his affair with Abigail which was his only flaw throughout the play. In spite of this I still consider him an honorable man. Another thing he did was save his wife from being put to death, and also refusing to confess practicing witchcraft. He proves he is a tragic hero when he explains to the judge that since he gave his soul to leave his name. With this plea, Proctor has eliminated all hopes of living and has established himself as the tragic hero. John Proctor is a man of sufficient stature in that he is given the choice to save himself at the end of the play, but does not. He does keep his affair secretive, but that is only thing that made him seem like the villain. He did not deserve to die at the end of the play, but that is one of the requirements to make him considered a tragic hero. Proctor serves as the voice of justice in the play. He came out and told everyone about Abigail falsely accusing others of being witches. He also came out and ripped the warrant and told the men to leave. In the end, he comes close to confessing being a witch but realizes it disgraces his good name, which is all his children will know him by. The issues leading to John Proctors death are not universal. I believe that he should not have been the one getting the punishment in the end, but that is why he is the tragic hero. Throughout the play he was a man of integrity and nobleness. He confessed to practicing witchcraft, in which he really  didnt. This is why he died; saving his wife from death.

Amendments to the Constitution Essay -- First Amendment, Second Amend

The framers of our Constitution knew that time has a way of changing countries and their citizens. Our country was in a whirlwind of change in 1789 as people were experiencing freedom from the tyranny of England for the first time in their lives. Our country was being molded and formed into a great nation by the founding fathers. Expectations and rules had to be set to protect the rights of the minorities and majorities. Amendments to the Constitution were written to ensure equality for all in changing times. The First Amendment is one of the most recognized rights in the Bill of Rights. It is a basic right that seems to help define each person as an individual yet as part of an association. The amendment states that â€Å"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances† (Constitution, Amendment 1) This amendment gave the right to secure and practice any religion. Religion was the reason that the Puritans left England. They wanted to be free to start their own churches and be free from religious persecution. The first amendment allows individuals the right to be part if any religion, if any, of their choosing. The vast majority of religious associations attest to this amendment: Catholics, Protestants, Scientologists, Jews, Hindus, and many, many more. United States citizens also enjoy the right to express themselves and their opinions in printed form or verbally. This is known as the freedom of the press. There are restrictions within reason, such as restrictions on libel and slander, and obscene act... ...ad a ban on handguns for 32 years. The ruling states that the Second Amendment guarantees the individual right to posses a firearm, even if they have no connection to a military organization, as long as the firearm is for law abiding reasons, such as self-defense in the home. (Fields, 2010). The First and Second Amendments will forever be ‘contemporary issues’. The rights that are guaranteed to us are the same ones that allow us to question our government and allow for change. It will be a challenge for our courts to keep up with the changing times yet keep our rights intact. These rights are part of the foundation of our society. The framers had insightful intent to include the basic rights of all people for generations. Our great nation has flourished because of these rights- they allow each all of us to be unique individuals while being completely whole.

History of Nature and Nurture Essay

Abstract Nature vs. nurture has been discussed by philosophers in the past and by scientists most recently. Philosophers such as Plato argued that all knowledge was inherited through your parent and when you were told something you didn’t learn it you were just reminded of it. Aristotle however argued that all humans were born with a blank slate and built on it with influence from there environment. In the 1700’s the empiricists and the internalists took over the argument. They fought through letters explaining there point of views and denouncing the others. This leads to Pavlov coming up with the idea of behaviorism in the early 1900? s. Behaviorism became the new wave of Psychology and influenced a lean towards the nurture side. It was not effectively argued against until 1928 when Watson published his book. This opened up the floodgates for environmental influences studies. Soon the idea of nurture was the popular excuse for behavior. Studies using animals were the most popular was in which scientists used to prove a theory, or disprove a theory. The newest studies use human twins to prove nature vs. nurture. An age-old question has been asked for generations before us. What is the reasons behind the development of human behavior? There have been many theories formulated to explain why humans behave the way they do. Explanations vary from demonology to magnetic fluids controlling people’s behaviors. Over time, two theories have remained popular in academic fields such as philosophy and psychology. The surviving theories for behavior stem from physiological and sociological explanations. However, the two explanations have not always been compatible with each other. The famous nature vs. nurture debate over human behavior resulted from conflicting views between proponents of the physiological (nature) and sociological (nurture) explanations. Throughout history, research has swayed popularity back and forth between the theories. Yet, theorists have broken down the line separating nature and nurture. Today, people us both explanations in research to advance the knowledge of human behavior. Thousands of years before the field of psychology, philosophers pondered on human behavior. As early as 350 BC, such philosophers as Plato and Aristotle tried to understand behavior. The question of nature or nurture as the primary drive can be traced to these times. Plato believed behavior and knowledge was due to innate factors. Author Fiona Cowie states, â€Å"The claim that the character of our mental furniture is to a large extent internally rather than environmentally determined found its first substantive defense in the works of Plato†¦ † (Cowie, 1999, p. 3). Plato theorized, and Descartes later agreed, that all knowledge is present at birth. Plato also believed that the environment played a part in human processes, but he thought it had an unique role. He believed the environment did not teach people anything new, but its purpose was to remind people of information they already knew (Cowie, 1999). Although Plato’s views are not supported today, he laid the groundwork for other researchers to follow. On the other hand, philosopher Aristotle theorized a different idea about human behavior. He presented the idea that humans are born into the world with a â€Å"blank slate† and people’s behavior and thoughts are due to experience (Ashcraft, 1998). His tabula rasa explanation believed that the environment and experience were the important influences in human behavior. Unlike Plato, Aristotle hypothesized that humans were not born with knowledge, but they acquire it through experience (Ashcraft, 1998). Aristotle’s idea of the tabula rasa is not believed today. Nevertheless, his belief that the environment was a vital factor in behavior influenced many empiricists throughout history. During the late 1700s, the nature vs. nurture debate began to heat up between philosophers. Internalists (nature) and empiricists (nurture) wrote literature back and forth trying to prove their beliefs and disprove the other’s theories. Two philosophers, G. W. Leibniz and John Locke, were main representatives of their respected explanations. Leibniz promoted the internalism point of view. Cowie states, â€Å"†¦ Leibniz’s position on this issue is, of course, that the tabula is far from rasa: ? The soul inherently contains the sources of various notions and doctrines, which external objects merely rouse up†¦ ‘ † (Cowie, 1999, p. 7). Leibniz argued against Locke and other empiricists stated that â€Å"†¦ there is no way ideas which come into the mind from outside can be formed into beliefs and judgments without the operation of specific internal mechanisms† (Cowie, 1999, p. 17). At the same time, John Locke and his fellow philosophers campaigned for empiricism. Like Aristotle, the philosophers believed that humans’ thoughts and actions were determined not by innate factors, but by the their unique experiences (Ashcraft, 1998). Locke argued against the internalists by examining different human processes such as logic and reasoning. He would ask how it was possible to use logic and reasoning if people were born with all of the knowledge they would ever acquire (Cowie 1999, p. 19). The contrasting views of the two groups had begun the nature vs. nurture debate, which would linger in the fields of philosophy and psychology for decades. A point should be made that even though the interalists and empiricists felt strongly about their theories, the explanations were not entirely opposite of each other. Cowie explains, â€Å"? rhetoric aside, both empiricists and nativists are both internalist and externalists about the origin of what is in our minds†(Cowie, 1999, p. 17). Even Leibniz and Locke stated that the philosophies sometimes were only different by the choices of words they used to describe their theories. Leibniz once wrote that fundamentally their views were the same about the nature vs. nurture question (Cowie, 1999). Over the next couple hundred years, popularity was split between nature and nurture. However, in the early 1900s Ivan Pavlov accidentally discovered what eventually became labeled as behaviorism. Behaviorists believed that the environment was the greatest factor in shaping behavior. The theory quickly gained notoriety in psychology and swayed popularity to the nurture side. One of the leaders in behavioral research was John Watson, who is most recognized for his work in conditioning â€Å"Little Albert. † In 1928, Watson published a book that included his idea that infants were like clay. Watson stated that he could make an infant anything he desired by manipulating the environment (Barnet, 1998). Watson wrote, â€Å"Give me a dozen healthy infants†¦ and my own special world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one†¦ and train him to become any type of specialist†¦ â€Å"(Amsel, 1989, p. 24). In the 1960s, Skinner also became well known for his research in behaviorism. Most of his work dealt with behavior modification with animals (Amsel, 1989). Probably Skinner’s most famous research is when he conditioned pigeons to guide missiles (Modgil, 1987). However, Skinner, and others in his field, began to receive scrutiny for ignoring the biology of humans. Yet, Skinner responded by saying, â€Å"The objection to inner states is not that they do not exist, but that they are not relevant in a functional analysis† (Modgil, 1987, p. 228). From the 1920s to 1950s, behaviorism and nurturism dominated psychology. The domination did not go without any challenges, and it did not last forever. As early as 1929, behaviorism came under attack by psychologists who believed genes were the key to human behavior. To begin, Arnold Gesell questioned the environmental view of Watson. Author Myrtle McGraw states, â€Å"Gesell contended that there was nothing one could do through training young infants to accelerate their development; one simply had to wait until the cells of the nervous system ? ripened'†(McGraw, 1995, p. 264). The biological research continued to build against behaviorism, and its popularity began to decrease. In 1959, the final attack that swayed popularity to the nature side of development originated with Noam Chomsky and other psycholinguists. Chomsky attacked behaviorism’s scientific empiricism, especially dealing with the acquisition of language (Amsel, 1989). Ashcraft (1998) explains, â€Å"†¦ Chomsky argued not only that the behaviorist account of language was seriously wrong and misguided, but that behaviorism was unable in principle to provide useful scientific knowledge of language† (p. 22). In addition, research developments in physiology and new studies involving genetics, such as adoption studies, and studies on twins, popularized genetic influence over environmental. The most resent studies that have been done on twins and adoption use both identical and faternel twins. This consists in the studying of twins that were separated at birth and grew up in separate homes. Identical twins are 100% genetically similar and offer exact genetic replicas to study, where fraternal twins are the same as any other siblings at 50% similar (Vanderbilt pg6). Some of the final results of these studies show astonishing similarities between identical twins, yet others show little evidence of these similarities. With fraternal twins there is some similarities but none that are complete evidence of the nature theory. These studies fuel the pot for both the nature and the nurture ideas. The nature vs. nurture debate over the last forty years has reached an agreement that they both influence the development of human behavior. In the 1960s, researchers from both theories began to study the interaction of the genes and the environment (Devlin 1997). Dr. Ann Barnet explains, â€Å"Even in an unborn baby, genes and environment interact almost from the moment of conception†(Barnet, 1998, p. 10). The interaction between nature and nurture can be summed up by the statements of Dr. Fausto-Sterling and Dr. Evan Balaban. Fausto-Sterling states, â€Å"People want simple explanations for hard-core problems. If there was an antitestosterone drug that we could to inject to make young boys nice†¦ it would be easier and cheaper than transforming schools†¦ or whatever is at the heart of the problem† (Barnet, 1998). However, Balaban replies, â€Å"†¦ don’t hold your breath if you think looking for genes to help you understand violence. I would put my money on some clever environmental manipulations, because in the end you’re going there anyway† (Barnet, 1998, p. 206). The nature vs. nurture debate has produced many research advances in the area of human development. Even though evidence proves that there is an interaction between genes and the environment, people will continue to study the effects of each in development. In these future studies, more groundbreaking advances will be made to aid humans in better understanding human behavior. In the end, that is what both sides of the nature vs. nurture debate intended to accomplish. Bibliography Amsel, A. (1989). Behaviorism, Neobehaviorism, and Cognitivism in Learning Theory. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum,. Ashcraft, M. (1998). Fundamentals of Cognition. New York, NY: Longman. Barnet, A. (1998). The Youngest Minds. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Cowie, F. (1999). What’s Within?. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Devlin, B. (1997). Intelligence, Genes, and Success. New York, NY: Copernicus. Deutschmann, Linda B. (2002). Deviance and Social Control Third Edition. Scarborough, ON: Nelson Thomson Learning. Fujita, Frank. (2000). Nature vs. Nurture. 3/15/2002 from http://folk. uio. no/roffe/faq/node 11. html McGraw, M. (1995). Beyond Heredity and Environment. San Francisco, CA: Westview Press. Modgil, S. (1987). B. F. Skinner: Consensus and Controversy. New York, NY: Falmer Press. Myers, David G. (2001). Psychology Sixth Edition. New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Sociological Reflection - 1258 Words

Tashe’ Wilkerson Dr. Shahid Shahidullah Soc 205-09 11 Dec 2017 Take Home Final When most people think about sociology they generally think of the study of sociology. However, sociology is much deeper than just the study of sociology. It displays a plethora of sub topics such as: crime, deviance, bureaucracy, culture, criminality, socialization, economy, politics, religion, education, social class and many more. Throughout this fall semester this sociology course has taught me things that I could never imagine. To be more specific there were actually ten topics that I learned in this course that was very important to me. Those topics were: crime, deviance, bureaucracy, nature of science, philosophy, religion, common sense, scientific†¦show more content†¦Shortly after the modernization time period there becomes a development of key ideas/ sociological ideas from Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim. The most interesting thing about learning their key ideas were and where they originated. August Comte obtained the key ideas of the Renaissance an d the formation of a good society that consisted of a â€Å"good society† of exploitation, poverty, inequality, and degradation.Karl Marx’s key ideas were composed of the mode of production,class systems,bourgeoisie,the rise of socialism and communism, capitalist system and the working class. Make a comparison of the sociology of Karl Marx and Max Weber. Give examples. Karl Marx and Max Weber had different views and perspectives on society. For example, Karl Marx believed that the capitalist system of society would disintegrate due to the revolt of the working class. However, Max Weber preferred the study of social and rational action, he thought social action was meaningful. Max also speculated that capitalism is a constellation of social actions. The major sociological ideas of Emile Durkheim were: collective consciousness, social facts, and industrial society. In the industrial society he believed that there would have been more crime and deviance because of the b reakdown for the balance between moral absolutism and individual freedom.Durkheim’s theory on egoistic suicide was based on a society where excessive individualism and low socialShow MoreRelatedSociological Reflection938 Words   |  4 Pagesdifferently with some of the things I have learned throughout the course. A lot of the sociological concepts that I have learned have impacted my way of thinking in a positive manner. Every new unit that we are taught is an eye opener for me because of how enlightened I have become from viewing myself and society by more of an open mind. 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