A Devoted Christian Essay - 1644 Words

A Devoted Christian Christian teaching reflects on what they believe. Different groups of the Christian religion believe slightly different things, yet their views on death and the afterlife are always defined. It is clear from the teaching of the Bible that Christians believe death is not the end. Evidence of this is depicted in the Christian hymn title; It is not death to die. After the death of a much~loved friend or relation, Christians will always hold a funeral ceremony. A funeral is an event to celebrate the life, and to mourn the death of a close friend or relative who has recently passed away. At a funeral, the body can either be buried or cremated, and this choice varies†¦show more content†¦This idea can be supported with the quotation from the First Corinthians 15:20 in the Bible; When the body is buried it is mortal. When it is raised it is immortal. Christians believe that God will judge them when they die as to whether they have lived a good, honest life. They believe that they will either go to Heaven, Hell or Purgatory. Apostles Creed says; He will come again to judge the living and the dead. From the Bible, Luke 14:15 describes Heaven as a party. Revelation 21:3~4 says; He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared. This suggests to Christians that heaven is a place of peace and pleasure, where there is no pain or trouble. It is also depicted as a place to get away from the bad things in life, as in heaven, they do not exist. Different Christians will have slightly different views on what they think heaven is like, but these ideas will generally all be along the same lines. Many Christian Hymns and Painting are on the subject of Heaven as it is a very positive thought. Some of these Christian Hymns include; When we all go to heaven, and There is a land of pure delight. The first verse of There is a land of pure delight demonstrates a typical Christian view of heaven. Its reads; ThereShow MoreRelatedAp World Dbq Christian and Islam Attitude Towards Merchants Essay1403 Words   |  6 Pagescontrast the differences of Christian and Islamic attitudes towards merchants until about 1500. From a review of the 7 documents presented, it is clear that Christianity and Islam condemned inequitable trade, which led to many Christians and Muslims to look down upon merchants; however, honest business, especially as a merchant, is honored highly. In fact, the Quran compares fair merchants to martyrs which were some of the holiest people of all [D2]. However, many Christian and Muslim believers foundRead MoreEssay on Edmond Rostands Cyrano De Bergerac1195 Words   |  5 Pagesprotect Christian despite his love for Roxane. This brings out a side of Cyrano that most of us had not seen before he died. He was loyal to Roxane and did not want to see her upset if he did not agree to protect her own love. Accompanying his love for Roxane, Cyrano was the person who had been writing her all those letters. I would like to accentuate that Cyrano was also the most devoted and patient man I have ever met. If you do not remember, Cyrano sent Roxane a letter from Christian twice aRead MoreChristianity During The Roman Empire1526 Words   |  7 Pagesthe most popular being Christianity. Christianity developed during the time of the Roman Empire. It began as a minority religion and grew into something much more than that. Christianity’s importance to the empire increased over time. At first, Christian values seemed different than those of pagan Roman civilization and Romans were not sure how to react to this growing minority religion. The difference between the two religions became clearer as Christianity became more prominent. Paganism was presentRead MorePersecution And Martyrdom Among Devotees Of Different Religions1329 Words   |  6 Pageson piety, persecution of anyone who defied the rule was seen as just punishment. Christian martyrdoms and persecution greatly prevailed. A martyr is a Greek word referring to a person who suffers persecution because of advocating or failing to denounce religious beliefs, which may either be religious or secular in nature. The most common and notable deaths are those resulting from advocating Christianity. Christians were mostly persecuted through mass-slaughter under the command of Roman officialsRead MoreThe Book Of Philippians A Couple Years Ago967 Words   |  4 Pagesthe Christian life can be described in terms of slavery to Christ. Five Parallels SlaveSo what does it mean to be a slave in the biblical sense? In his excellent book, entitled simply, Slave, John MacArthur outlines five parallels between biblical Christianity and first-century slavery. The first is exclusive ownership. Slaves are owned by their masters. As Paul says to believers so clearly in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20: â€Å"You are not your own. You have been bought with a price.† See, Christians do notRead MoreCathedrals: Implied Glory and Importance to Christianity Essay example1683 Words   |  7 Pagestheir very nature, they are holy places of worship for Christians. Unlike churches which are basic places of worship that are apt for most of the critical requirements of Christianity, Cathedrals are massive places of worship which act as the headquarters for the local diocese, or districts, of the certain sect of Christianity around it and are also where the Bishops resides. They serve as one of the holiest places of worship for Christians, but why ? They’re massive, they’re the headquarters ofRead MoreEssay on A City Upon a Hill by John Winthrop695 Words   |  3 PagesAmerica. Winthrop firmly believes that the people who are willing to be fully devoted to God must start a new life in America and be unified and come together as one. Winthrop has very comprehensive ambitions for the immigrating Puritans. He wants their religion to be a â€Å"City Upon a Hill†, or a model for other Christian churches. Winthrop is planning a rather perfect society in which everyone is 100 percent devoted to their religion and God. He tells the Puritans that they are a part of a specialRead MorePatrick Henry Led Early America with his speeches Essay732 Words   |  3 Pagesknown for his incredible words and messages he had shared in the past. This speech went over the top compared to former speeches. As a known Christian man, Henry referenced an array of Biblical subjects throughout his speech â€Å"Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death†, in which his audience could take time to deeply digest. During this era, most Americans were Christians, making it easy for Henry to never quotes scripture directly, but imply it for his audience to grasp. Patrick Henry communicates the ideaRead MoreEssay about Beowulf as a Messianic Narrative1027 Words   |  5 PagesMonsters and Critics. He quotes Donaldson, â€Å"While Christian is a correct term for the religion of the poet and of his audience, it was a Christianity that [had not] succeeded in obliterating an older [paganism],† and responds, â€Å"Donaldson describes what I have read: a heroic poem, [and] no-one reading the poem would find Beowulf a particularly Christian hero...Courage is the prime virtue exalted in Beowulf,†. Bloom and Donaldson argue that whilst Christian elements are present, heroic paganism is moreRead MoreReligion And Its Impact On Society1310 Words   |  6 Pagesconquered Jerusalem. Once in control, they slaughtered 3,000 Christians visiting the Jerusalem. It was common then for devoted Christians to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and its significant holy areas and it was not until the Turks took control of the holy land that they were no l onger allowed to do so. The Greek Emperor, Alexius Comnenus, sent urgent letters to Pope Urban II asking for help to halt the Turks who were killing Christians and burning down all non-Islam churches. Pope Urban II then

An Ethical Dilemma - 1276 Words

| An Ethical Dilemma | | Mary Ryan 8/27/2012 | Ethical dilemmas come up often within the workplace and can be difficult to handle when an employee needs to choose between what’s right and what’s wrong based on their own morals and principals. Handling ethical issues should be pursued in a steady and cautious approach towards matters that can potentially be dangerous or illegal. (Mayhew) One ethical dilemma that I was caught in the middle of left me in a position where I was almost forced into firing a person because of their sexual orientation. I felt this was an unethical request, and really made me think twice about the company I was working for and representing. A few years ago I worked for a company as a home†¦show more content†¦I refused to fire Sally and told the owner that if she wanted her fired then she would have to do it herself. Later on that week when I seen Sally, she told me that she thought the owner had a problem with her. I told Sally what happened and that I refused to fire her because I feel her sexual orientation is her business, and should not affect her employment. After our heated conversation, my attitude towards the owner had changed and I really did not have much respect left for her. Sally stayed employed for a while, but put up with a lot of unfair treatment from the owner. The owner really had me upset about this issue, and I felt I needed to stand up for Sally. I started doing some research on the issue of sexual orientation and finding out if it was illegal or not to discriminate against this issue. I was a bit surprised to find that it is not illegal, here in Michigan, to fire someone based on their se xuality. Today it is perfectly legal to fire; refuse to hire or refuse to promote someone because an employer thinks that a person is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. It is also legal to deny these people rental housing, or refuse to serve them in stores, restaurants and other public accommodations. They are not offered any kind of protection under the state law and have very few options when dealing with discriminatory actions. (equality michigan/ discrimination, ) After finding out that it was (is) perfectly legal to discriminate againstShow MoreRelatedEthical Dilemmas Of The Workplace1538 Words   |  7 Pages1. Discuss an ethical dilemma that you have had to face in the workplace. Ethical dilemmas often occur when a manager or an employee is faced with two or more conflicting choices. Give as many facts and details as possible in describing your dilemma. The most difficult ethical dilemma I have dealt with was a summer job I had this past summer, while I was working for a bakery in my hometown. This past particular summer really tested what I believe is right and wrong and how to speak up. One of myRead MoreEthical Dilemmas Of The Workplace1291 Words   |  6 PagesEthical Dilemmas in the Workplace As a manager, you are the role model for staff. You set the standards, adhere to guidelines, and exemplify what you expect staff to model. By doing so, you are establishing and sustaining an organizational culture of ethics and integrity, which is the backbone of all successful endeavors. However, even the best structured organizations face ethical dilemmas in the workplace. It is how management recognizes and addresses these occurrences that will either set themRead MoreEthical Dilemma Assignment1766 Words   |  8 PagesCONSENT FORM Thank you for being willing to take part in this interview exploring ethical conflict or turbulence. I would like to transcribe the content of this interview to form a written document to be submitted to Sheffield Hallam University as a piece of assessed piece of coursework. It is important that you only take part in this interview if you want to. As such I would be delighted if you would complete and sign this confidentiality questionnaire prior to the interview taking place. (i)Read MoreCase Analysis : Ethical Dilemma1318 Words   |  6 PagesTitle of Paper: Ethical Dilemma One INTRODUCTION Mrs. Smith, is an 81-year-old widow. She has been widowed for over twenty years. She has been very independent with some assistance from neighbors due to her son living out of the area and unable to assist. Recently, she has had issues with her independence. She has set two accidental fires that caused damages to her apartment, as well as had a recent fall in the bathtub. These issues have gained her son’s attention which has led him to requestRead MoreEthical Dilemma at Workplace Essay1192 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Introduction – What is an ethical dilemma? Ethics is the term we give to our concern for good behavior.   It is human nature to not only be concerned with our own personal well being, but also that of others and of human society as a whole.   The difference between moral dilemmas and ethical ones, philosophers say, is that in moral issues the choice is between right and wrong.   In ethical ones, the choice is between two rights. Everyday Im faced with decisions of right and wrong, most of whichRead Moret Types of ethical dilemmas Mastery67Questions123Materials Essay2477 Words   |  10 PagesTypes of ethical dilemmas Mastery 67% Questions 1 2 3 Materials on the concept: Typical Moral Dilemmas Confronting Business Communicators Ethics and Law for Management Communication Top of Form 1. As part of an effort to hire younger workers, a multinational organization assures applicants that they will get to visit its offices in other countries and work with the employees there. However, only two out of every nine workers actually get selected for such projects. What moral dilemma best fitsRead MoreThe Ethical Dilemmas of Collecting Data and the Consequential Revision of Commodities, Culture and the Politics of Representations Definitions 1751 Words   |  7 Pagesinformation or data has become assets to companies, being regarded as property to be bought and sold to between companies. However, this has put forward the following primary ethical dilemmas surrounding human rights: the right to informed consent and the right to personal data. In addition to the creation of ethical dilemmas, the collection of human data has brought about a need for a revision of definitions. Commodities are known as a raw material or primary agricultural product that can be boughtRead More Will the Real Lupe Garza Please Stand Up? Essay1216 Words   |  5 PagesAn ethical dilemma is defined as a moral issue, where a situation has two equivalent undesirable alternatives and neither choice will resolve the ethical predicament. Lupe Garza, mother of two children, is a temporary employee at a plant. Garza is an excellent and talented worker, and supervisors have taken notice in her skills. A human resource specialist named Sara Jones, mislead Garza in thinking she would unquestionably obtain a permanent job position at the plant, causing Garza to turn downRead MoreThe Ethical Principles Of Respect For Autonomy984 Words   |  4 Pagesthe nurse to administer blood despite Mark’s refusal. This situation presents an ethical dilemma to the health professionals involved in Mark’s care. The ethical dilemma is whether to uphold his decision not to receive the blood and therefore risk his life or give him the blood to save his life despite knowing his religious status and beliefs. There are several ethical principles involved in this scenario. The ethical principles of respect for Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence, Veracity and FidelityRead MoreDuty to Warn Essays1522 Words   |  7 PagesDuty t o Warn Jessica Hall PSYCH/545 09/4/2011 Dr. P. Duty to Warn The ethical dilemma I wish to explore is The Duty to Warn. This refers to the duty of a counselor, therapist to breach one of the most important bonds between a client and a therapist; the law of confidentiality. The therapist has the right to break confidentiality without the fear of being brought up for legal action. If the therapist believes that the client poses a danger, or is a threat to himself, someone else, or society

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Chapters 4 Free Essays

He frowned a little. â€Å"What’s real y going on. What Riley’s up to. We will write a custom essay sample on The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Chapters 4 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Why he keeps bringing the most random kids to her. Why it doesn’t seem to matter to Riley if it’s someone like you or if it’s someone like that idiot Kevin.† It sounded like he didn’t know Riley any better than I did. â€Å"What do you mean, someone like me?† I asked. â€Å"You’re the kind that Riley should be looking for – the smart ones – not just these stupid gang-bangers that Raoul keeps bringing in. I bet you weren’t some junkie ho when you were human.† I shifted uneasily at the last word. Diego kept waiting for my answer, like he hadn’t said anything weird. I took a deep breath and thought back. â€Å"I was close enough,† I admitted after a few seconds of his patient watching. â€Å"Not there yet, but in a few more weeks†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I shrugged. â€Å"You know, I don’t remember much, but I do remember thinking there was nothing more powerful on this planet than just plain old hunger. Turns out, thirst is worst.† He laughed. â€Å"Sing it, sister.† â€Å"What about you? You weren’t a troubled teen runaway like the rest of us?† â€Å"Oh, I was troubled, al right.† He stopped talking. But I could sit around and wait for the answers to inappropriate questions, too. I just stared at him. He sighed. The scent of his breath was nice. Everybody smel ed sweet, but Diego had a little something extra – some spice like cinnamon or cloves. â€Å"I tried to stay away from al that junk. Studied hard. I was gonna get out of the ghetto, you know. Go to col ege. Make something of myself. But there was a guy – not much different than Raoul. Join or die, that was his motto. I wasn’t having any, so I stayed away from his group. I was careful. Stayed alive.† He stopped, closing his eyes. I wasn’t done being pushy. â€Å"And?† â€Å"My kid brother wasn’t as careful.† I was about to ask if his brother had joined or died, but the expression on his face made asking unnecessary. I looked away, not sure how to respond. I couldn’t real y understand his loss, the pain it stil clearly caused him to feel. I hadn’t left anything behind that I stil missed. Was that the difference? Was that why he dwel ed on memories that the rest of us shunned? I stil didn’t see how Riley came into this. Riley and the cheeseburger of pain. I wanted that part of the story, but now I felt bad for pushing him to answer. Lucky for my curiosity, Diego kept going after a minute. â€Å"I kind of lost it. Stole a gun from a friend and went hunting.† He chuckled darkly. â€Å"Wasn’t as good at it then. But I got the guy that got my brother before they got me. The rest of his crew had me cornered in an al ey. Then, suddenly, Riley was there, between me and them. I remember thinking he was the whitest guy I’d ever seen. He didn’t even look at the others when they shot him. Like the bul ets were flies. You know what he said to me? He said, Want a new life, kid?'† â€Å"Hah!† I laughed. â€Å"That’s way better than mine. Al I got was, Want a burger, kid?'† I stil remembered how Riley’d looked that night, though the image was al blurry because my eyes’d sucked back then. He was the hottest boy I’d ever seen, tal and blond and perfect, every feature. I knew his eyes must be just as beautiful behind the dark sunglasses he never took off. And his voice was so gentle, so kind. I figured I knew what he would want in exchange for the meal, and I would have given it to him, too. Not because he was so pretty to look at, but because I hadn’t eaten anything but trash for two weeks. It turned out he wanted something else, though. Diego laughed at the burger line. â€Å"You must have been pretty hungry.† â€Å"Damn straight.† â€Å"So why were you so hungry?† â€Å"Because I was stupid and ran away before I had a driver’s license. I couldn’t get a real job, and I was a bad thief.† â€Å"What were you running from?† I hesitated. The memories were a little more clear as I focused on them, and I wasn’t sure I wanted that. â€Å"Oh, c’mon,† he coaxed. â€Å"I told you mine.† â€Å"Yeah, you did. Okay. I was running from my dad. He used to knock me around a lot. Probably did the same to my mom before she took off. I was pretty little then – I didn’t know much. It got worse. I figured if I waited too long I’d end up dead. He told me if I ever ran away I’d starve. He was right about that – only thing he was ever right about as far as I’m concerned. I don’t think about it much.† Diego nodded in agreement. â€Å"Hard to remember that stuff, isn’t it? Everything’s so fuzzy and dark.† â€Å"Like trying to see with mud in your eyes.† â€Å"Good way to put it,† he complimented me. He squinted at me like he was trying to see, and rubbed his eyes. We laughed together again. Weird. â€Å"I don’t think I’ve laughed with anybody since I met Riley,† he said, echoing my thoughts. â€Å"This is nice. You’re nice. Not like the others. You ever try to have a conversation with one of them?† â€Å"Nope, I haven’t.† â€Å"You’re not missing anything. Which is my point. Wouldn’t Riley’s standard of living be a little higher if he surrounded himself with decent vampires? If we’re supposed to protect her, shouldn’t he be looking for the smart ones?† â€Å"So Riley doesn’t need brains,† I reasoned. â€Å"He needs numbers.† Diego pursed his lips, considering. â€Å"Like chess. He’s not making knights and bishops.† â€Å"We’re just pawns,† I realized. We stared at each other again for a long minute. â€Å"I don’t want to think that,† Diego said. â€Å"So what do we do?† I asked, using the plural automatical y. Like we were already a team. He thought about my question for a second, seeming uneasy, and I regretted the â€Å"we.† But then he said, â€Å"What can we do when we don’t know what’s happening?† So he didn’t mind the team thing, which made me feel real y good in a way I didn’t remember ever feeling before. â€Å"I guess we keep our eyes open, pay attention, try to figure it out.† He nodded. â€Å"We need to think about everything Riley’s told us, everything he’s done.† He paused thoughtful y. â€Å"You know, I tried to hash some of this out with Riley once, but he couldn’t have cared less. Told me to keep my mind on more important things – like thirst. Which was al I could think about then, of course. He sent me out hunting, and I stopped worrying†¦.† I watched him thinking about Riley, his eyes unfocused as he relived the memory, and I wondered. Diego was my first friend in this life, but I wasn’t his. Suddenly his focus snapped back to me. â€Å"So what have we learned from Riley?† I concentrated, running through the last three months in my head. â€Å"He real y doesn’t tel us much, you know. Just the vampire basics.† â€Å"We’l have to listen more careful y.† We sat in silence, pondering this. I mostly thought about how much I didn’t know. And why hadn’t I worried about everything I didn’t know before now? It was like talking to Diego had cleared my head. For the first time in three months, blood was not the main thing in there. The silence lasted for a while. The black hole I’d felt funneling fresh air into the cave wasn’t black anymore. It was dark gray now and getting infinitesimal y lighter with each second. Diego noticed me eyeing it nervously. â€Å"Don’t worry,† he said. â€Å"Some dim light gets in here on sunny days. It doesn’t hurt.† He shrugged. I scooted closer to the hole in the floor, where the water was disappearing as the tide went out. â€Å"Seriously, Bree. I’ve been down here before during the day. I told Riley about this cave – and how it was mostly fil ed with water, and he said it was cool when I needed to get out of the madhouse. Anyway, do I look like I got singed?† I hesitated, thinking about how different his relationship with Riley was than mine. His eyebrows rose, waiting for an answer. â€Å"No,† I final y said. â€Å"But†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Look,† he said impatiently. He crawled swiftly to the tunnel and stuck his arm in up to the shoulder. â€Å"Nothing.† I nodded once. â€Å"Relax! Do you want me to see how high I can go?† As he spoke, he stuck his head into the hole and started climbing. â€Å"Don’t, Diego.† He was already out of sight. â€Å"I’m relaxed, I swear.† He was laughing – it sounded like he was already several yards up the tunnel. I wanted to go after him, to grab his foot and yank him back, but I was frozen with stress. It would be stupid to risk my life to save some total stranger. But I hadn’t had anything close to a friend in forever. Already it would be hard to go back to having no one to talk to, after only one night. â€Å"No estoy quemando,† he cal ed down, his tone teasing. â€Å"Wait†¦ is that†¦? Ow! â€Å" â€Å"Diego?† I leaped across the cave and stuck my head into the tunnel. His face was right there, inches from mine. â€Å"Boo!† I flinched back from his proximity – just a reflex, old habit. â€Å"Funny,† I said dryly, moving away as he slid back into the cave. â€Å"You need to unwind, girl. I’ve looked into this, okay? Indirect sunlight doesn’t hurt.† â€Å"So you’re saying that I could just stand under a nice shady tree and be fine?† He hesitated for a minute, as if debating whether or not to tel me something, and then said quietly, â€Å"I did once.† I stared at him, waiting for the grin. Because this was a joke. It didn’t come. â€Å"Riley said†¦,† I started, and then my voice trailed off. â€Å"Yeah, I know what Riley said,† he agreed. â€Å"Maybe Riley doesn’t know as much as he says he does.† â€Å"But Shel y and Steve. Doug and Adam. That kid with the bright red hair. Al of them. They’re gone because they didn’t get back in time. Riley saw the ashes.† Diego’s brows pul ed together unhappily. How to cite The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Chapters 4, Essay examples

Language Essay Example For Students

Language Essay IntroductionTo awaken from the dream means recognizing the illusory nature of this constricted self concept and perception of the body and mind, not as a means as of gasping at the ephemeral pleasures of the world or as a prison enclosing the self, but as an instrument for learning and communicating in various languages. Before the MoveTwo months before moving to New York, my friend William, thought he would be kind enough to warn me about the vast culture of the, Big Apple. William begins by telling me that I would not be able to survive the cultural diversity and I would not be able to get a good paying job or housing because of my ethnicity. Well, was he very wrong. Since I commuted to and from New York three times, a week I decided to put in a transfer from the company I was employed with to work in their satellite office in New York. When speaking with Cindy, one of the customer service representatives already living and working in New York, I mentioned to her that I was relocating to the New York office but did not have a place to live. Immediately, Cindy who I did not meet at the time offered me full living quarters with all the amenities for a charge of $445.00 a month. Gleefully, I accepted without even looking at the place. Moving dayI had two oversized suitcases and my brother at my side, who kept telling me to, You can make it. Because I was somewhat familiar with my surroundings, it was no problem for me to jump on the E train from Manhattan to Queens, New York. It was not until my brother Jerry and I got to Jamaica Queens that Williams words replayed in my mind. You will not be able to survive the cultural diversity. There were so many people from different cultural background gathered in one place ranging from: Jamaican, Guyanese, Trinidadians, Indians, Hispanics, Caucasians, Blacks and Mexicans. They were shopping, walking, talking, waiting for the bus and catching the dollar vans, going to their different destinations. After I stood there for a moment (relieving myself of the shock), while almost getting knocked down, I called Cindy on my cell phone to let her know I had arrived at the arranged pick-up spot. Prior to that day, when speaking with Cindy, I never knew she masked her Trinidadian accent. I heard her loud in clear, when she said, Chile Ill be dere and what cha look like. I told her I was black, with golden blond wavy hair, tall, medium built, wearing blue jeans, brown penny loafers and an oxford shirt. Veil of IllusionWhen Cindy drove by four times in her red pathfinder looking for me, I laughed. I had to wave my company backpack so that she would be able to find me. She jumped out of her truck, ran over to me, hugging and touching my face as if she could not believe I was black. Quite naturally, I had to grab her hand to let her know, I am live and in living color. Cindy blurted out, I just knew you were white and no one at the company would give me a description of how you look, and they just told me wait and see. I was curious to know why Cindy responded to me they way she did. Therefore, I asked Cindy, What eluded her to think that I was not black. Sure enough, she told me, it was the way I spoke and how I pronounced and annunciated my words. It was at that moment when I began to realize the misconception people have when it comes to language and communication. A month after I settled in apartment at Cindys house, I went to go and meet William at the Puerto Rican Day Parade. I saw a few of my co-workers and they began speaking Spanish to me, Como su el fin de samana? Buena, habla manana por la manana en trabajo (How is your weekend, Good, speak with you tomorrow at work). William had this incredulous look of surprise on his face, because he never new that I spoke Spanish. Since when did not verbally express his surprise, I told him that I learned to speak Spanish when I was taking voice lesson. In addition, I refuse to limit my learning abilities to not understanding others. Persuasive Essay: "Defining Freedom As Found In The Theme(S) Of The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn"Brother John maintains, for instance, that he need not tell himself the words tape recorder, magnetic tape, red button on the left, turn, push and so forth . . . in order to be capable of properly operating a tape recorder. . . . (Roche Lecours and Joanette, p.20) The Deaf who lack Signa group whose numbers are diminishing today, thank goodnesslack Brother Johns specific language-mediated apprenticeships, but we simply dont knowyetwhat structures in their brains are indirect products of the language that most of their ancestors in recent millennia have shared. The evidence that Donald adduces for the powers of language-less thought is thus potentially misleading. These varieties of language-less thought, like barefoot waterskiing, may be possible only for brief periods, and only after a preparatory period that includes the very feature whose absence is later so striking. There are ind irect ways of testing the hypotheses implied by these doubts. Consider episodic memory, for instance. When a dog retrieves a bone it has buried, it manifests an effect on its memory, but must the dog, in retrieving the bone, actually recollect the episode of burying? (Perhaps you can name the current U. S. Secretary of State, but can you recall the occasion of learning his name?) The capacity for genuine episodic recollectingas opposed to semantic memory installed by a single episode of learningis in need of careful analysis and investigation. Donald follows Jane Goodall in claiming that chimpanzees in the wild are able to perceive social events accurately and to remember them (p.157)as episodes in memory. But we have not really been given any evidence from which this strong thesis follows; the social perspicuity of the chimpanzees might be largely due to specialized perceptual talents interacting with specialized signssuppose, for instance, that there is something subtle about the posture of a subordinate facing a superior that instantlyvisuallytells an observer chimp (but not an human observer) which is subordinate, and how much. Experiments that would demonstrate a genuine capacity for episodic memory in chimpanzees would have to involve circumstances in which a episode was observed or experienced, but in which its relevance as a premise for some social inference was not yet determinedso no inference could be drawn at once. If something that transpired later suddenly gave a retrospective relevance to the earlier episode, and if a chimpanzee can tumble to that fact, this would be evidencebut not yet conclusive evidenceof episodic memory. Another way of testing for episodic memory in the absence of language would be to let a chimpanzee observeoncea relatively novel and elaborate behavioral sequence that accomplishes some end (e.g., to make the door open, you stamp three times, turn in a circle and then push both buttons at once), and see if the chimpanzee, fa ced with the need to accomplish the same end, can even come close to reproducing the sequence. It is not that there is any doubt that chimpanzee brain tissue is capable of storing this much informationit can obviously store vastly more than is required for such a simple featbut whether the chimpanzee can exploit this storage medium in such an adaptive way on short notice. And that is the sort of question that no amount of microscopic brain-study is going to shed much light on. 7. The art of making mistakes: the next storyThis brings me to my final step up the Tower of Generate-and-Test. There is one more embodiment of this wonderful idea, and it is the one that gives our minds their greatest power: once we have languagea bountiful kit of mind-toolswe can use them in the structure of deliberate, foresightful generate-and-test known as science. All the other varieties of generate-and-test are willy-nilly. The soliloquy that accompanies the errors committed by the lowliest Skinnerian creature might be Well, I mustnt do that again! and the hardest lesson for any agent to learn, apparently, is how to learn from ones own mistakes. In order to learn from them, one has to be able to contemplate them, and this is no small matter. Life rushes on, and unless one has developed positive strategies for recording ones tracks, the task known in AI as credit assignment (also, known, of course, as blame assignment!) is insoluble. The advent of high-speed still photography was a revolutionary technological advance for science because it permitted human beings, for the first time, to examine complicated temporal phenomena not in real time, but in their own good timein leisurely, methodical backtracking analysis of the traces they had created of those complicated events. Here a technological advance carried in its wake a huge enhancement in cognitive power. The advent of language was an exactly parallel boon for human beings, a technology that created a whole new class of objects-to-contemplate, verbally embodied surrogates that could be reviewed in any order at any pace. And this opened up a new dimension of self-improvementall one had to do was to learn to savor ones own mistakes. But science is not just a matter of making mistakes, but of making mistakes in public. Making mistakes for all to see, in the hopes of getting the others to help with the corrections. It has been plausibly maintained, by Nicholas Humphrey, David Premack and others, that chimpanzees are natural psychologistswhat I would call second-order intentional systemsbut if they are, they nevertheless lack a crucial feature shared by all human natural psychologists, folk and professional varieties: they never get to compare notes. They never dispute over attributions, and ask for the grounds for each others conclusions. No wonder their comprehension is so limited. Ours would be, too, if we had to generate it all on our own. **Let me sum up the results of my rather swift and superficial survey. Our human brains, and only human brains, have been armed by habits and methods, mind-tools and information, drawn from millions of other brains to which we are not genetically related. This, amplified by t he deliberate use of generate-and-test in science, puts our minds on a different plane from the minds of our nearest relatives among the animals. This species-specific process of enhancement has become so swift and powerful that a single generation of its design improvements can now dwarf the R-and-D efforts of millions of years of evolution by natural selection. So while we cannot rule out the possibility in principle that our minds will be cognitively closed to some domain or other, no good naturalistic reason to believe this can be discovered in our animal origins. On the contrary, a proper application of Darwinian thinking suggests that if we survive our current self-induced environmental crises, our capacity to comprehend will continue to grow by increments that are now incomprehensible to us. Further ReadingRodney Brooks, 1991, Intelligence Without Representation, Artificial Intelligence Journal, 47, pp.139-59. William Calvin, 1990, The Ascent of Mind: Ice Age Climates and the Evolution of Intelligence, New York: BantamRichard Dawkins, 1976, The Selfish Gene, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. Daniel Dennett, The brain and its boundaries, review of McGinn, 1990, in TLS, May 10, 1991 (corrected by erratum notice on May 24, p29). Jared Diamond, 1992, The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal, New York: HarperMerlin Donald, 1991, Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. PressRichard Gregory 1981, Mind in Science, Cambridge Univ. Press. Ray Jackendoff, 1987, Consciousness and the Computational Mind, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/A Bradford Book. Julian Jaynes, 1976, The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Boston: Houghton MifflinFrank Keil, forthcoming, The Origins of an Autonomous Biology, in Minnesota Symposium, details forthcomingAlan Leslie, 1992, Pretense, Autism and the Theory-of-Mind Module, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1, pp.18-21. Colin McGinn, 1990, The Problem of Consciousness, Oxford: Blackwell. Allen Newell, 1990, Unifed Theories of Cognition, Harvard Univ. Press. Howard Margolis, 1987, Patterns, Thinking and Cognition, Univ. of Chicago Press. Andre Roche Lecours and Yves Joanette, Linguistic and Other Psychological Aspects of Praoxysmal Aphasia, Brain and Language, 10, pp.1-23, 1980. John Holland, Complex Adaptive Systems, Daedalus, Winter, 1992, p25. Nicholas Humphrey, 1986, The Inner Eye, London: Faber Faber. David Premack, 1986, Gavagai! Or the Future History of the Animal Language Controversy, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. B. F. Skinner, 1953, Science and Human Behavior, New Yorkl: MacMillan. Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson, 1986, Relevance: a Theory of Communication, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press. L. Wilsson, 1974, Observations and Experiments on the Ethology of the European Beaver, Viltrevy, Swedish Wildlife, 8, pp.115-266. Endnotes1. See the discussion of Steven Kosslyns concept of visual generativity and its relation to language, in Donald, 1991, pp.72-5. 2.This is an elaboration of ideas to be found in my Why the Law of Effect Will Not Go Away, 1974, Journal of the Theory of Social Behaviour, 5, pp.169-87, reprinted in Brainstorms, 1978. 3. For more on the relationship between luck and talent (and free will and responsibility), see my Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting, 1984. 4.R. Dawkins, 1976, The Selfish Gene, Oxford Univ. Press. See also my discussions of the concept in Memes and the Exploitation of the Imagination, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 1990, 48, pp. 127-35. and in my book, Consciousness Explained, 1991. 5.This idea is defended in chapters 7 and 8 of Consciousness Explained. 6.See my review of Newell, forthcoming in Artificial Intelligence, special issue devoted to Newells book. 7. Cf. Dennett, 1991, Mother Nature versus the Walking Encyclopedia, in W. Ramsey, S. Stich, and D. Rumelhart, eds., Philosophy and Connectionist Theory, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 8. Such belief-like states are what I have called opinions (in Brainstorms, ch. 16.)9.In Consciousness Explained, I deliberately made upas an implausible but possible fictiona case of temporary total aphasia: there is an herb an overdose of which makes you incapable of understanding spoken sentences in your native language . . , adding that for all I knew, it might be fact, not fiction (p.69). If Brother Johns epilepsy could be brought on by an overdose of an herb, the case would be completeif Brother Johns case is the fact it seems to be. A review of the original report (Roche Lecours and Joanette, 1980) leaves unanswered questions, but no grounds for dismissal that I could detect.