Knowledge management and policy working document celltech

Knowledge management and policy working document celltech This report discusses a number of knowledge management frameworks and techniques which are more relevant for CellTechs business and operations. We begin with analyzing the knowledge environment in CellTech case study over various stages of the organizational change and mapping that knowledge toward the KM models and frameworks to understand the practical use of the techniques in real time. The famous techniques or frameworks which are discussed in this report are Exploration and exploitation, cultural web, SECI, Garvins 5 block of learning organization, I-Space and emotional intelligence. Using these techniques or framework we will understand the potential contribution and importance of knowledge management in organizational growth. Finally the review will evaluate the possible issues surrounding the creation and transfer of knowledge in CellTechs knowledge management policy. Understanding of CellTech case study Celltech Europes one of the oldest biotechnology organization into Biologics and Therapeutics development of drugs. The firm had different management approach from 1980 1996 with its conversional business of contract manufacturing and biologics research to creation of innovative drugs and then toward the collaboration with leading large pharmaceutical companies. From the understanding of the case study I classified the CellTech to three periods, During 1980s Two business, contract manufacturing and in-research. Contract manufacturing is the prime revenue generating business and the costs involved in researches are cover by the contract manufacturing. More number of employee were working on biologics research and contract manufacturing Therapeutics research was done in-house and Biologics was with contractors. Shareholders were not happy with CellTech revenue and cash burn for 2 years seems to be an overall concern. Early 1990s New CEO was appointed to bring new ideas to change CellTechs progress (Dr. Peter Fellner). Want to focus on new drug development and seen the potential of innovative drugs manufacturing (Therapeutic). Flat organization structure was created and business was divided into two divisions (Biologic and therapeutic), and Fellners vision to expand therapeutic division RD. Interdisciplinary teams were formed in research to build new capabilities among scientists. Market penetration through clinical trials Bayer collaboration and gain marketing knowledge. To change the cash burn situation through Bayers collaboration Milestone payment. New skills on therapeutics were required so scientists were recruited to replace the clubs of old. Late 1990s Biologics division of the company was sold since profit margin was going down. Change in focus to develop new innovative drugs to advance the human health. CellTech created strong partnership with world leading pharmaceutical companies for the therapeutic drugs discovery and development. Senior management gained experience in both pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector. To monitor the progress on various functions different review systems were setup. By the end of 1996 CellTech had a good market position in UK biotech sector. Balancing between Exploitation and Exploration CellTech Exploitation is defined as the use of already exiting things like exiting product information, organization structure or other word its the firms core competencies. Exploration means pursue of new things which might come to be known otherwise exploring opportunities for building something new (Levinthal and March, 1993). Exploitation and exploration mainly focus and revolve on the Core competency of the organization i.e. exploitation is the use currently known core competency and exploration is to pursue new core competency. Core competences are ability by which organization deploy resources for their activities and process to get competitive advantage over the others so that it cant be imitate or obtained. According to Cohen and levinthal (1990), for the success a firm has to maintain balance between exploitation and exploration and March (1991) believe that the primary factor for the survival and success in long run would be balance between these two. In the case of CellTech, they wanted move out of cash burn and to be a financial successful organization through exploration such as collaboration. CellTech core competences during 1980 were contract manufacturing and they developed world class antibodies with contract companies. This can be viewed as the Levinthal and Marchs (1993) exploitation the use of development of things already known. Exploration Dilemma When the organization wanted for new management, to bring new thoughts and culture through appointment Dr. Fellner as CEO and when Fellner came into the organization, he brought new idea to change the current organization style. Following are the some changes came through new CEO and this give the view of Levinthal and Marchs (1993) exploration, Restructuring the organization with more flat structure (two division Biologic and therapeutic to have control and monitoring). Investment on Therapeutics new drugs development and also to bring more interdisciplinary team approach to build multi-skilled scientist. Recruitment of new scientists in Therapeutic to bring new skills on the drug development. Collaboration with Bayer on the clinical trials The First balancing factors from the CellTech was, When Dr.Fellner seen more business opportunities in therapeutic RD, he divided the organization with exiting competency (Biologic, exploitation) and new competency (Therapeutic, exploration). In the initial stage therapeutic business was like a cost centre, more depending on the revenue from contract manufacturing and later emerged as profit centre new employees were recruited on therapeutic side while club of old from biologic moved out. In the late 1990s when the Therapeutic side was doing well with more clinical trial on pipe line and new collaborations with market leading and selling out the Biologic company see to be the second balancing factor. CellTech initial collaboration with Bayer helped them to establish better relationship with other later. The Bayer collaboration actually bailed them out from cash burn and to invest on therapeutic research. According to March (1991), balancing factor between exploitation and exploration is difficult and complicated, learning can contribute to imbalance. Levinthal and March (1991) believes competency trap will be the outcome of inappropriate learning i.e. excess exploitation or exploration can lead to imbalance. I do agree that imbalance can rise but in this case study the application toward balancing the horses (Exploitation and Exploration) were well managed like bringing interdisciplinary team, flat organizational structure, slow increase of employee in therapeutic research and utilizing the learns learned from Bayer collaboration to other collaborations. Culture Knowledge Sharing in Organization Culture can described as how thing are done and it is the combination of values, behavior, belief and paradigm (taken for granted assumptions). Organizational culture is the value and beliefs which forms an integral part of organization what is chosen to see and absorb (Davenport Prusak 2000). It includes opinion on the shared reality, regarding how things are acting now and how it should be in future. In a growing organization, knowledge and knowledge sharing are the inseparable culture. Following are three levels of culture which exist in an organization (Schein 1992), Artifacts mean the visible elements in the organization such as processes, organization structure, and fixed assets. These elements can only understood inside the organization and from the outside it not understood why things are done in such ways. Espoused values are beneath the artifacts to support the organizations functions such as strategies and goals. These values are created by the leaders or the management in the organization and if these values are not framed correctly then the management is in big trouble. Assumptions are the actual core value of the culture which largely present at unconscious level of the organizations human resource like thought and feelings. Davenport Prusak (2000) believes that knowledge sharing culture plays an important role to enable the transfer and creation of knowledge within the organization. In order to make knowledge management as practice, the employees of the organization much cooperate to share their knowledge with others (Interdisciplinary learning). The leader of the organization also should understand the culture from the overall organization and community level to share knowledge. New CEOs approach towards organizational culture change The first change Dr. Fellner brought to the organization is to separate the company into two divisions and to bring more focus on the therapeutic in-house research. Then he changed the organization to a flat structure with more focus towards new drug development. Interdisciplinary teams to focus on cross sectional learning within the organization to develop multi skilled scientists. The collaboration with Bayer was the major milestone for the CellTech from the financial side but when we see the knowledge perspective it was the clinical trial phase II knowledge transmission to Bayer. Mapping to Cultural Web Johnson and Scholes (2002) explains cultural web as the indentifying factor to describe various factors influencing organizational cultural both for current and future. The below figure 1 shows the culture web mapping towards the CellTech(after Dr. Fellners change), Figure 1: Cultural Web Paradigm: The assumptions set by the organization on the whole for the long run. Rituals and Routines: These represent the way the things are do around here. The ways that organizations member behave each others. Stories and myths: The different stakeholders of the organization pass on common beliefs of the past events and reinforcing the peoples behavior by telling the importance of the organization. Symbols: The elements of the organizations, including titles, language and dress codes. Control Systems: The various review set by the organization to measure the outcome of polices and to reward people based on the performance. Organizational Structures: It is the formal structure of the firm, how the chain of command flows from the top to bottom. Power structures: It is the key element tells about how the power is distributed in the organization, the paradigm is more shaped by the people or the group has more power. The knowledge sharing for CellTech is considered more important since the companys focus not only on the drug development but also on the collaboration. For instance we take the Bayer initial collaboration where CellTech was responsible for developing the drug up to phase II and then pass it on to Bayer for further development. Here passing it to Bayer means a huge amount of knowledge in terms of test results and the experiences of the scientists at various stages are documented and shared. As mentioned by Dr.Bloxham lessons were learned which were applied to the late, post 1992 collaboration, here knowledge is not only shared but being gained. CellTech not only wanted to share knowledge with other competitor as collaborator but also wanted the own scientists to share knowledge by having an interdisciplinary team approach in the drug development team. Building Biochemist would be a good example of CellTechs initiative on the interdisciplinary skill development on it scientists. According to Knight and Howes (2003) there are behaviors which are heavily inbuilt in each and every workplace to restrict the effectiveness of the knowledge sharing. To initiate knowledge management it is important to know which of the behaviors can and cannot be changed and Cultural Web model categorize the influencing factors on the peoples behavior. Knight and Howes (2003) believes cultural web can be used an auditing tool to analysis what is currently valued in the organization and to define the how best future culture is required for the organization. To keep competitive advantage in the market to changing circumstances, culture and structures have to be altered by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness (Bali, Wickramasinghe, Lehaney (2009). The cultural changes are required when a new strategy is to be implemented and in this changing world its going to be a cyclic process. Knowledge generation and transfer SECI Social interaction is the means by which the Knowledge generation and transfer happens and it is the generation and transfer of tacit and explicit knowledge between individual and group. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) come up with a model called SECI to understand process involved in the nature of knowledge creation and effective management of knowledge in the dynamic environment. The idea of the model to highlight importances of the knowledge possessed by individual is shared with other individual or group. Explicit Knowledge CellTech Explicit knowledge is the knowledge which can be expressed in a systematic formal language and shared in form of specifications, policies and form of data. The knowledge here is captured and documented in a physical form and it is very direct to understand and easy source to be obtained through papers (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). ). From CellTech case study we can see explicit knowledge right from the begin and following are some of them, Financial status of the CellTech especially the cash burn was known by everyone in the organization and should have been know by the balance sheet report. Restructuring the organization to a flat structure Contract manufacturing to research and development redefining the focus of the company by new CEO The trail phases handed over to collaboration companies here the CellTech transfers the intellectual knowledge to other company to further development and it should have been done with more documentation and knowledge transfer sessions. All the review systems setup to monitor the progress of the organization Tacit knowledge CellTech Tacit knowledge is the knowledge which is very hard to formalize or documented and it is more deeply rooted on the action and emotion. The most part of the tacit knowledge is acquired by previous experience and more internal and this knowledge can be transferred in a verbal formal to another (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). From CellTech case study we can see tacit knowledge right from the begin and following are some of them, Scientists gaining knowledge in the Biologic and therapeutic research Interdisciplinary leaning from scientists in therapeutic research The skills of the new employees in therapeutic research The lessons learnt from the Bayer collaboration for the management to explore more collaboration later with other pharmaceutical companies SECI Spiral According to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), creation of knowledge is a spiral process involving explicit and tacit knowledge interactions and this will lead to new knowledge creation. The explicit and tacit knowledge combination in SECI model is been conceptualized into four stages and the figure 2 shows the four stages, Figure 2: SECI Knowledge Spiral Socialization in SECI believes that knowledge creation begins with the tacit acquisition of knowledge by people i.e. from people who know to people who dont know (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995: 62-4). From CellTech point of view it can be the new skills from the new scientists to the clubs of old and from the clubs of old the organizational process like research and development focus can be shared to the new employee. CellTech also created opportunity for the employee to socialize by having breakout area near the drug development labs. Externalization is the second stage in knowledge conversion where tacit knowledge is converted to explicit. Here individual tacit knowledge comes out and become explicit group knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995: 66). From the CellTech point of view the interdisciplinary learning will give opportunity to the team to learn the skills which they dont possess like chemist helping biologist team. Combination is the next stage where the knowledge is systematized and it happened when group of people synthesis various explicit source of knowledge into plans, documents or reports (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995: 67). From the CellTech point of all the review systems setup to monitor all the functions of the organizations will be the systemizing process for the knowledge management. Internalization is the fourth stage in the SECI and described as a process of personifying the explicit to tacit knowledge. Internalization can also be mention as learning explicit knowledge and doing thing through tacit knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995: 69). In CellTech case study we can see internalization when clinical trials move from one phase to another scientist pass on the experience drugs development and when CellTech used the Bayer collaboration experience to make more successful future collaboration also can be considered internalization. The knowledge conversion is considered to be a social process where from individual to group at different organizational levels the knowledge is amplified and crystallized as part of the organization knowledge network (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995: 73). This model assists the organization to manage the knowledge creation at various levels. The understanding of tacit and explicit knowledge in an organization is important before considering the knowledge capturing and creation and good understanding of both will help to identify what part of knowledge is important and to be shared. The controlled way of managing knowledge will help the organization to achieve the strategic goal easily. Coming to CellTech like organization where there is plenty of tacit knowledge, has to be formalized to a process to make it explicit. Hereby make it explicit help the organization to develop and create awareness of the knowledge i.e. clinical drug development experience from individual can be formally docum ents from the individual team and circulated to the other development teams so everyone will be aware of the particular situation or incident. Other Frameworks Learning Organization Garvins 5 Blocks As commonly said, to be ahead of competition, organization constantly must enhance the way the business is done. To enhance the business, organization must learn things much faster than their competitors. But more such enhancements in business fail because many mangers do not realize the importance of learning (Garvin, 1993). Garvin (1993) say if an organization wants to become a learning organization then it is recommended to master these five activities, Systematic problem solving Dont solve problem on gut instinct but rather used data. Experimentation with new approaches Bring small experiments to existing process and gain knowledge. Learning from their own experience and past history Review and use of learns learnt from the past Learning from the experiences and best practices of others Use of knowledge from the macro environment like competitor. Transferring knowledge effectively throughout the organization Initiating interdisciplinary and cross disciplinary learning environment to exchange and share knowledge. Social Learning I Space I-Space is a social learning conceptual model that relates to data structuring to data sharing within the organization (Boisot, 1995). This framework helps to analysis the dynamic flow of knowledge in two aspects i.e. structure and sharing of information, more you structure information more faster and extensively used. I-Space is otherwise represented as three dimensional model (figure 3) codification, abstraction and diffusion. Structuring of information will be presented by the codification and abstraction dimension and sharing of information will diffusion dimension (Boisot, 1995). Dalkir (2007) feels Boisot model is the integration of theoretical foundation of social learning and provides the link between information and knowledge management in a best way. He also suggest through this I-Space social cycle organization can manage their knowledge assets well we compare to other KM models. Figure 3: The Social Learning Cycle [Boisot 1998:60] Emotional Intelligence and Knowledge Transfer Emotional intelligence is being well aware of own feelings and of others in an organization, managing emotions well within our self and in others relationship (Mortiboys, 2005:7). According to McKenna (2006) it is more concerned with emotional action and social skill of individual. Nonaka (1994) belief the success and failure of knowledge management in an organization depends how the individual employee create and transfer knowledge with others so employee is the ultimate responsible person deciding the success. Higgs and Dulewicz (2002) discuss about seven elements like self awareness, emotional motivation and management, managing relationship with others will help individual more intelligent on any situation and also contribute towards team working. Knowledge Management potential issues and overcome CellTech Excess of exploitation or exploration competency trap During the 1980s CellTech was more comfortable in doing contract manufacturing and this period refers to Exploitation. When new CEO shifted the focus of the company to product development through RD collaboration and this period can be referred exploration. So as of the case study CellTech seems to have managed a balance between exploitation and exploration but considering the period of 10 years in contract manufacturing with very little focus on exploration gives a picture that CellTech prefers to stay on the comfort zone with exploration. When CellTech got into the cash burn and lost the support of share holders, then only realized to do something different from the usual. According to March (1991) organization prefer to stay either on exploitation or exploration in long run so this competency trap lead the organization for an inappropriate learning. To avoid competency trap CellTech should constantly create core competencies in its business to stay ahead of the competition and since core competencies are the ones which are not easily copied by other competitor. Change Management During the organizational change culture regularly becomes the focus of attention. Culture has vast impact on output and working environment of an organization (Boonstra, 2004). In the CellTech case study when the organizational change was going on after the appointment of new CEO, organizational cultural elements were not be considered for the change but instead top management were pushed to talk short term improvement decision to change current situations. Davenport Prusak (2000) believes the leader of the organization should understand the culture from the overall organization and community level to share knowledge. The change management will bring changes in the working culture of the individual and can impact the social learning cycle. Johnson and Scholes (2002) cultural web will help the organization to identify the cultural impact using the paradigm. CellTech should definitely use Culture web when going for any change management to audit the current cultural element and define the future culture based on the paradigm. This will help to re-mould value and behavior of the individuals and make then to feel better place to work and share knowledge. Classification of Knowledge Goh (2002) says Effectiveness of knowledge transfer depends on Type of knowledge that s being shared so CellTech should always recognize the different type of knowledge available and created in the organization i.e. the tacit and explicit knowledge. CellTech should use SECI model to develop supportive structure that encourage the transfer of knowledge between tacit and explicit. This framework will help CellTech to bring the tacit individual knowledge out to the group and final make other individual to internalize it. Since the focus of CellTech is in RD, there will be more tacit knowledge created at the end of each new development like personal experience of certain drug symptoms during the research. Relationship between source and recipient For the knowledge transfer to be effective the recipient and source should be in an intention to share and receive knowledge and if the recipient lack interest to absorb and retain the knowledge then it become a barrier to the knowledge transfer (Szulanski, 1996). The Clubs of old versus new scientist would be the best instance to take from CellTech, creating emotion intelligence among individuals and teams to make them aware of organization value of sharing and transferring knowledge. By increasing the value through emotional intelligence will create awareness subconsciously to drive everyone to share knowledge without drawing any boundaries. Creating breakout areas near lab will help certain extend to socialize people but creating awareness emotional will drive them to create opportunities by themselves. This would be the more share of tacit to tacit knowledge. Conclusion From the CellTech we can see the knowledge evolution and existence during different growth stages and it draws the organization to manage the knowledge effectively. By see the end part of the case study, it is clear that CellTech wanted to learn and monitor the organization by setting-up various review systems. This working document also have reviewed few potential issues in implementing knowledge management policy and the workaround solution to overcome using frameworks also have been suggested to understand knowledge cycle. Gavins (2002) say that Learning organizations are not build overnight and it has to be cultivated, processed steadily over time. In this report we have discussed various models and frameworks as part of knowledge management which can bring CellTech a great advantage in managing its business and stay competitive in the market. To form a learning organization it is highly reliant on exchange of experience and knowledge with others and as a result implementation of knowledge management will lead to increase in competitiveness.

Presocratic Philosophy Essay

Although Aristotle’s statement is too slight to serve as a sure foundation for judgment, it seems more likely that Thales was arguing for the broader presence of life forces in the world than most people imagined, rather than that the real in its totality is alive. Anaximander Thales’ younger contemporary from Miletus, Anaximander, born toward the end of the seventh century B. C. E. , found the explanatory principle of things in what he called ‘‘the apeiron,’’ a word that might be translated as ‘‘the indefinite,’’ ‘‘the boundless,’’ or both. This opens up the possibility that the apeiron is both immeasurably large in its temporal and physical extent and also qualitatively indefinite in that it is without measurable inner boundaries. The apeiron is further described, according to Aristotle, as being ‘‘without beginning,’’ ‘‘surrounding all things,’’ ‘‘steering all things,’’ ‘‘divine,’’ ‘‘immortal,’’ and ‘‘indestructible. ’’Some have inferred that Anaximander’s barely concealed purpose was Western philosophy’s first attempt at demythologization. Equally striking is Anaximander’s description of the universe as a closed, concentric system, the outer spheres of which, by their everlasting motion, account for the stability of our earth, a drum-shaped body held everlastingly in a state of equipoise at the center. Whatever the inadequacy in certain details (the stars are placed nearer to the earth than the moon), with Anaximander the science of cosmological speculation took a giant step forward. As far as life on earth is concerned, Anaximander offered another striking hypothesis. The first living things, according to him, were ‘‘born in moisture, enclosed in thorny barks’’ (like sea urchins), and ‘‘as their age increased, they came forth onto the drier part’’ (as phrased by Aetius [first to second century C. E. ]). Pythagoras Although we know that Pythagoras was a historical figure, it is difficult to determine exactly what Pythagoras himself taught. He wrote nothing, and the ideas of other members of the community were attributed to him as a sign of respect and as a way of lending weight to the ideas. Plato and Aristotle rarely assign ideas to Pythagoras himself, although Pythagorean ideas seem to have influenced Plato’s philosophy. Pythagoreans asserted that number is the first principle of all things. They were the first systematic developers of mathematics in the West and discovered that natural events could be described in mathematical terms, especially as ratios. To the Pythagoreans, the â€Å"principle of number† accounted for everything. Number was a real thing. Somehow, numbers existed in space, not just as mental constructs. According to Pythagorean doctrine, the entire universe is an ordered whole consisting of harmonies of contrasting elements. The Greek for â€Å"ordered whole† is cosmos. The Pythagoreans were the first philosophers to use the term cosmos to refer to the universe in this way. The â€Å"celestial music of the spheres† is the hauntingly beautiful phrase the Pythagoreans coined to describe the sound of the heavens as they rotate according to cosmic number and harmony. Xenophanes A fourth Ionian philosopher, Xenophanes of Colophon, born around 580 B. C. E. , s the first we know of to overtly attack the anthropomorphism of popular religious belief, in a series of brilliant reductio ad absurdum arguments. His own view has been understood, ever since Aristotle, as pantheistic. Xenophanes was also the first philosopher we know of to ask what degree of knowledge is attainable. In B34 we read: ‘‘the clear and certain truth no man has seen, nor will there be anyone who knows about the gods and what I say about all things. ’’ Several ancient critics took this to be an indication of Xenophanes’ total scepticism. On this basis of moderate empiricism and scepticism, Xenophanes offered a number of opinions of varying plausibility about the natural world, one of which—a strong, evolutionary interpretation of the discovery on various islands of fossils of marine animals—is enough to constitute a major claim to fame in natural philosophy and ranks with his other significant steps in epistemology (the theory of knowledge dealing with what we know, how we know it, and how reliable our knowledge is), logic (the study of rational inquiry and argumentation), and natural theology (the attempt to understand God from natural knowledge). Heraclitus One of the most important and enigmatic of the Presocratics, Heraclitus (fl . 500 b. c. e. , d. 510–480 b. c. e. ), said that ignorance is bound to result when we try to understand the cosmos when we do not even comprehend the basic structure of the human psyche (soul) and its relationship to the Logos. The complex Greek word logos is intriguing. It could and at times did mean all of the following: â€Å"intelligence,† â€Å"speech,† â€Å"discourse,† â€Å"thought,† â€Å"reason,† â€Å"word,† â€Å"meaning,† â€Å"study of,† â€Å"the record of,† â€Å"the science of,† â€Å"the fundamental principles of,† â€Å"the basic principles and procedures of a particular discipline,† â€Å"those features of a thing that make it intelligible to us,† and â€Å"the rationale for a thing. † The Heraclitean capital L Logos is like God, only without the anthropomorphizing (humanizing) of the earlier philosophers and poets who attributed human qualities to the gods. According to Heraclitus’s impersonal view of God, the Logos is a process, not an entity. As such, the Logos is unconcerned with individuals and human affairs, in much the same way that gravity affects us but is unconcerned with us. More radically yet, Heraclitus asserted that even though things appear to remain the same, â€Å"Change alone is unchanging. † Traditionally, it has been held that Heraclitus went so far as to claim that everything is always changing all the time. But whether he really meant that everything is always changing, or that individual things are held together by energy (change), remains unclear. Anaximenes Anaximander’s younger contemporary, Anaximenes, who lived during the sixth century B. C. E. appears to revert to a prior and less sophisticated vision in claiming that the earth, far from being a drum-shaped body held in equipoise at the center, is flat and ‘‘rides on,’’ supported by air. The same might be said of his contention that the basic, ‘‘divine’’ principle of things was not some indefinite entity but something very much part of our experience; namely, air. Anaximenes’ view would also no doubt have seemed to be corroborated by the fact that the universe, commonly understood as a living thing and hence needing a soul to vivify it, possessed in air that very ‘‘breath’’ that for most Greeks constituted the essence of such a soul. Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (fift h century b. c. e. ) radically transformed the early philosophers’ interest in cosmology, the study of the universe as a rationally ordered system (cosmos), into ontology, the study of being. By common agreement he was the giant among the pre-Socratics. According to Parmenides, none of his predecessors adequately accounted for the process by which the one basic stuff of the cosmos changes into the many individual things we experience every day. In his search for a solution to the problem of â€Å"the one and the many,† Parmenides turned to a reasoned analysis of the process of change itself. According to Parmenides, all sensations occur in the realm of appearance. This means that reality cannot be apprehended by the senses. Change and variety (the many) are only appearances; they are not real. If this is true, then our most commonly held beliefs about reality are mere opinions. The senses cannot recognize â€Å"what is,† much less can they discover—observe—it, ever. In other words, whatever we see, touch, taste, hear, or smell is not real, does not exist. Perhaps most unsettling of all, Parmenides â€Å"solved† the problem of the appearance of change by concluding—in direct opposition to Heraclitus’s insistence that everything is always changing—that the very concept of change is self-contradictory. What we think of as change is merely an illusion. The logic runs as follows: â€Å"Change† equals transformation into something else. When a thing becomes â€Å"something else,† it becomes what it is not. But since it is impossible for â€Å"nothing† (what is not) to exist, there is no â€Å"nothing† into which the old thing can disappear. (There is no â€Å"no place† for the thing to go into. ) Therefore, change cannot occur. Empedocles posited, against Parmenides, change and plurality as features of reality, but affirmed the eternality of anything that is real; the sphere-like nature of the real when looked at as a totality and the fact that the real is a plenum, containing no ‘‘nothingness’’ or ‘‘emptiness’’. Anaxagoras likewise posited change, plurality, and divisibility as features of reality, yet also affirmed the eternality of the real (understood by him as an eternally existent ‘‘mixture’’ of the ‘‘seeds’’ of the things currently constituting the world, rather than the eternal combinings and recombinings, according to certain ratios of admixture, of four eternally existent ‘‘roots’’ or elemental masses). Leucippus Leucippus of Miletus (c. fi ft h century b. c. e. ) and Democritus of Abdera (c. 460–370 b. . e. ) argued that reality consists entirely of empty space and ultimately simple entities that combine to form objects. T is materialistic view is known as atomism. Leucippus is credited with being the originator of atomism and Democritus with developing it. Rather than reject Parmenides’ assertion that change is an illusion, Leucippus argued that reality consists of many discrete â€Å"ones ,† or beings. Zeno Zeno, who was born early in the fifth century B. C. E. , was a friend and pupil of Parmenides. In his famous paradoxes he attempted to show by a series of reductio ad absurdum arguments, of which the best known is perhaps that of Achilles and the tortoise, the self-contradictory consequences of maintaining that there is a real plurality of things or that motion or place are real. The prima facie brilliance of many of the arguments continues to impress people, though it soon becomes clear that the paradoxes turn largely on the failure or unwillingness of Zeno, like so many Pythagoreans of the day, to distinguish between the concepts of physical and geometrical space. Zeno’s way of constructing the problem makes it seem that his primary object is to defame pluralists by attacking the logical possibility of explaining how there can be motion in the world. Gorgias Gorgias has achieved fame for the stress he laid upon the art of persuasion (‘‘rhetoric’’), although whether he wrote the baffling On What Is Not as a serious piece of persuasive reasoning or as some sort of spoof of the Eleatic philosophy of Parmenides and others remains disputed. Its basic, and remarkable, claim is prima facie, that nothing in fact is (exists /is the case [esti] or is knowable or conceivable. Any exiguous plausibility that the arguments supporting this claim possess turns on our overlooking Gorgias’s failure, witting or unwitting, to distinguish carefully between knowing and thinking, along with his various uses of the verb ‘‘to be. ’’ If the failure was witting, the document can be seen as a skillful device for the spotting of fallacies as part of training in rhetoric and basic reasoning. If it was unwitting, Gorgias still emerges as what he was claimed to be—a deft rhetorical wordsmith on any topic proposed to him. Protagoras Perhaps the greatest of the Sophists was Protagoras of Abdera (481– 411 b. c. e. ). Protagoras was an archetypal Sophist: an active traveler and first-rate observer of other cultures who noted that although there are a variety of customs and beliefs, each culture believes unquestioningly that its own ways are right—and roundly condemns (or at least criticizes) views that differ from its own. Based on his observations and travels, Protagoras concluded that morals are nothing more than the social traditions, or mores, of a society or group. The details of Protagoras’s beliefs remain disputed. When he said, for example, that ‘‘anthropos [humanity] is a/the measure for all things, of things that are, that they are, and of things that are not, that they are not,’’ it is unclear whether he is talking about one person or the sum total of persons; about ‘‘a’’ measure or ‘‘the’’ measure (there is no definite article in Greek); or about existence or states of affairs or both. The Platonic reading in the Theaetetus, which takes ‘‘anthropos’’ as generic and ‘‘measure’’ as exclusive, led to the assertion that the logical consequence was total (and absurd) relativism. ______________________________ References: The Columbia History of Western Philosophy. Richard H. Popkin. Columbia University Press. 1999. Archetypes of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy. 7th ed. Douglas J. Soccio. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. 2010.

The Undeniable Truth About Essay Topics California Bar Exam That Nobody Is Telling You

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Teenage and Mass Communication on the Good Web - 795 Words

The Good Web It was a gloomy Sunday when I walked into Dave’s room. He was lost deep in his thoughts sitting in front of his laptop. On the screen was an open webpage which had pictures of refugees from an African country. I wasn’t sure which country. He was so lost that he did not even realize my presence inside the room till I said, â€Å"Penny for your thoughts.† He was startled and turned around to look at me. He had the look of a person who had been deeply disturbed. â€Å"Hi Charley† he said without any enthusiasm. I have always known Dave as an outgoing friend and always kept himself and the others around him cheerful even during the worst of our times at school like a surprise mathematics test. He always had something funny to say.†¦show more content†¦Yes. In fact we have to do something.† â€Å"About what?† I was confused. â€Å"About these refugees. African refugees.† There was a kind of intensity on his face that I had rarely seen him. â€Å"Listen Dave I think you are taking this a little too seriously.† I tried to laugh. But he looked at me so intently that my smile froze. â€Å"Ok Dave what do you think we should do? After all we are not leaders of the world. We are just tenth graders.† â€Å" I know. Let us do whatever is possible at our level. I have a plan.† â€Å"Tell me about it.† â€Å"I am going to prepare a documentary based on the info that I got from the net about the plight of these refugees and I want our class to view that at school.† I was still not sure where he was getting. My confused look was obvious. â€Å"Listen we have been using the internet till now for our assignments and project reports. But now I propose to use it to bring about a change. A change in our attitude towards those who are less privileged.† â€Å"You mind translating that into English† I said unable to conceal the heavy sarcasm in my voice. I could see he was hurt but he was far from giving up. In fact my sarcasm kind of spurred him on. â€Å"That’s exactly what I want to change. You think that we cannot do anything about the troubles of others and that we are too young to make a difference. We use our age as an excuse to be silly and irresponsible. Let me tell you about this young girl called Malalah of Afghanistan who had theShow MoreRelatedHow Media Affects Self Image1232 Words   |  5 PagesTeenage and college women are overly obsessing about their body images and constantly think that they need to be much skinnier, when they are not even fat. Many women today have the wrong idea of what the perfect body is, since there is no such thing as a perfect body. Every person is different and there can be no â€Å"perfect†. Being skinny is not the thing to strive for, but rather being healthy is. 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