Ways Models May Help Or Hinder The Search For Knowledge Philosophy Essay

Ways Models May Help Or Hinder The Search For Knowledge Philosophy Essay A model is a simplified representation of some aspect of the world. In what ways may models help or hinder the search for knowledge? Q10. A model is a simplified representation of some aspect of the world. In what ways may models help or hinder the search for knowledge? The search for knowledge is an ongoing process through which certain humans intend to find answers and confirmations to questions and statements which continually arise in our society. The use of models as representations may help this task; however these may come in many forms. Different people will have a different opinion on what can be considered a model. I believe the word model implies people as role models of a community, recreation of happenings, exemplary of ideas and any possibly fitting set of information which can be made to represent something. These may be divided into categories such as physical, conceptual or mathematical amongst others depending on the way they have been brought together, what they represent and when and how they are used. An Area of Knowledge in which models may be thought to help is in the Natural Sciences. Scientists try to prove laws and theories with them but there is a great jump between a model and the real life situation. For example, a few months ago I was doing the capture/recapture method estimating population size of an organism. In order to do this we used boxes to represent habitats and beans to represent specie. We tried to prove that the smaller the habitat the less percentage error as well as the greater the habitat the more specie found in it. This was the result expected, nevertheless we all had different ways of looking for the beans, some students did not follow the rules and others had their boxs sides flop out. Consequently, our data was not accurate. The environment had been controlled and human fault made results less realistic. This model helped understand the concept and attain knowledge from its simulation but also hindered the latter as there was room for error. Another example is maps. These are a representation of the world on paper; they transmit geographical information and specific characteristics. Maps guide and help to understand the placement of things on earth. They help the search for knowledge as they are easy to comprehend; they show clear and important objects through which an individual can know where he is standing or going to next visually. However, maps also hinder as roads may be added or changed and information is limited as if absolutely everything was to be drawn on them things would overlap each other and make the search for knowledge difficult rather than clear and easy. Interpreting symbols may be confusing, scales may not be accurate and maps may not always be updated. All these factors alter the quality of knowledge that this model provides. Another example is when a company is to manufacture a product to launch onto the market. Before the real product is made, a prototype is produced. This is the closest representation to the final product. It may be used to change functions or features like shape and colour. It is a base which offers knowledge on how the final product will be like and therefore allows people to work on it to achieve the desired result. This however can be limited by technology, scarcity of adequate resources or perception in the sense that it may not come across in the same way to different people. Some may think the prototype is perfect while others may argue it is not exactly what they wanted. Another important area of knowledge where models are used is in history. Historians try to reconstruct the past with sources such as books written at the time, pictures or other documents. They create models for events to acquire knowledge from an earlier period of time. Here we should question to what extent are models accurate and therefore reliable. For example, the plane crash into the Twin Towers on September 11th was not perceived by everyone in the same way. People who were inside the building and survived will give a different account to that of someone who just witnessed the event on the street or on the news. Based on perspective and emotion, these two people would provide a different re-enactment of what they claim to know. How do we know which one to trust? In this case the accuracy of media and its manipulation of language will also have to be an important factor in the search for knowledge for what really happened and how. In addition, the use of ways of knowing is fairly important when attaining knowledge from a model. Are we using reason or emotion and whether this reason is deductive, Everyone who eats chocolate is fat. John eats chocolates. Therefore, John is fat. Or inductive, All of the Spanish girls we have seen are brunettes. All Spanish girls are brunettes. The latter implies a generalization in which assumptions are problematic because truth is suggested but not ensured. Consequently, the conclusion reached may not be right and result in misleading knowledge which then may be preceded by a wrongful model. Models are created by humans who are led by either language, reason, emotion or perception which make them somehow biased. Models have an input, a processor and an output. Hence, the way we intake information is vital as it will vary our way of seeing the model and detecting to what extent our findings are being hindered or helped. The language in relation to models is also significant. We must examine whether professionals in each field of the areas of knowledge would refer to models in the same way. Would an artist see a model and the information it provides with the same eyes a mathematician would? The same model may not be equally useful to both and the extent to which it hinders or helps what they are looking for may be different to each. This may depend on what they are seeking and what they already know. Take for example Mozarts music. If a mathematician and an artist where to listen to it, a mathematician may be finding a mathematical structure in terms of notes, beat or rhythm whereas the artist may be looking at the emotion the harmony provides. The model is the same, but they both look into it differently. We could think that if they were both to find the same specific information from it which was more inclined to one area of knowledge than the other; one would obtain better results as he is more of an expert in it. Another example of models helping the search and understanding of knowledge is in economics. Graphs, for example, help students understand trends and social behavior. However, these may not always be right as they tend to generalize. Not all people concerned with the study represented may have had a say in it so assumptions have been taken. When thinking of models we should consider whether there are any for resolving ethical situations. Is there a model we can look at for moral direction? For example, if someone comes up to you and asks what they should do if a ship were sinking and they had to save either a relative on one side or a newborn on the other, Is there a model to which we can refer to, to solve this dilemma? We should consider whether models can tell us how to behave, if so, who is to design such models and can they really be universally trustworthy to lead us to a right decision. A table of results may be considered a representation of a community in some aspect. Take for example a set of data which shows a survey on whether the death penalty should be adopted in a country or not. This would help the search for knowledge of peoples opinion on this. Similarly, it would hinder it as different people would have based their answers on different principles. How do we know that the methods used to obtain the results are precise? Can we be certain that it is a true reflection of the countrys view on this topic? Have we considered peoples backgrounds, culture or religious beliefs and if this affects the answer given? Likewise, stereotypes may be seen as role models. For example, Homer, a character from The Simpsons may be seen as a white American stereotype. He is a negative example of what some people may think is the typical American; fat, lazy and not very bright. This may help to understand the qualities and characteristics an American may have, but is it right for people to prejudice a group of individuals on the image a series gives of them? Does this mean they are all like that? How do we know to what extent the series portrays the real American or provides a misleading view of it? In conclusion, models are an important part of our daily life. They may be treated differently in the distinct areas of knowledge and may help or hinder to different extents. When looking at models some of the key factors are baring in mind assumptions, limitations, perspectives and reliability. Can we define the accuracy of knowledge? Probably not, but models do help attain a close representation of reality which contribute significantly to the search for knowledge.

Double-crest Cormorant

The Double-crest Cormorant is more or less uniformly distributed throughout the country. It is seen in temperate climates with most concentrated in the upper half of the United States. Judging from the map, they seem to be attracted to heavily wooded areas such as northern California and Oregon, the Dakota’s in the Midwest and northern New England. The exception to this is the relatively concentrated population in south east Florida. Because of their seeming desire for temperate wooded areas, I would say that this bird is a specialist. Great Blue Heron The Great Blue Heron is definitely a generalist.It is spread all throughout the country with heavy concentrations mostly in the southern part of the United States. It seems as though it does best in the Midwestern and southern parts of the country but also has significant populations in the desert areas of Arizona and New Mexico and the harsh winter climates of the most northern parts of the country. Wood Stork The Wood Stork is definitely a specialist. Its populations are seen exclusively in the South and the Southeastern parts of the country with its heaviest populations in Florida and more so in south Florida.It seems to do best in hot climates with high humidity and is never seen any further North than Tennessee. American Robin The American Robin is by far the most populous bird in this group. It is seen in nearly ever state in the country, with the exceptions being Florida and much of Texas, making it a generalist. Its most significant populations are in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest but it is generally well distributed throughout the whole country. Work Citied â€Å"Breeding Bird Survey Summary and Analysis. † USGS Bird Population. USGS. 28 Mar. 2006 .

Online Social Network

Online Social Network: Advantages & Disadvantages Social network is a place for people to interact with each other from around the world, it’s also gave benefits for us to make a new friend. It’s also gave us bad effect. From this assignment we can created a few objective. The objective is †¢We can make a difference between good and bad effect of social network. †¢We can gain more knowledge about social network. †¢Improve communication and productivity by disseminating information among different people. †¢Gain higher GPA, intelligence and general knowledge. IntroductionSince their introduction, social network sites (SNSs) such as MySpace, Facebook, Cyworld, and Bebo have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices. As of this writing, there are hundreds of SNSs, with various technological affordances, supporting a wide range of interests and practices. While their key technological features are fa irly consistent, the cultures that emerge around SNSs are varied. Most sites support the maintenance of pre-existing social networks, but others help strangers connect based on shared interests, political views, or activities.Some sites cater to diverse audiences, while others attract people based on common language or shared racial, sexual, religious, or nationality-based identities. Sites also vary in the extent to which they incorporate new information and communication tools, such as mobile connectivity, blogging, and photo/video-sharing. Scholars from disparate fields have examined SNSs in order to understand the practices, implications, culture, and meaning of the sites, as well as users' engagement with them.This special theme section of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication brings together a unique collection of articles that analyze a wide spectrum of social network sites using various methodological techniques, theoretical traditions, and analytic approaches. By c ollecting these articles in this issue, our goal is to showcase some of the interdisciplinary scholarship around these sites. The purpose of this introduction is to provide a conceptual, historical, and scholarly context or the articles in this collection. We begin by defining what constitutes a social network site and then present one perspective on the historical development of SNSs, drawing from personal interviews and public accounts of sites and their changes over time. Following this, we review recent scholarship on SNSs and attempt to contextualize and highlight key works. We conclude with a description of the articles included in this special section and suggestions for future research. Social Network Sites: A DefinitionWe define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. While we use the term â€Å"social network site† to describe this phenomenon, the term â€Å"social networking sites† also appears in public discourse, and the two terms are often used interchangeably.We chose not to employ the term â€Å"networking† for two reasons: emphasis and scope. â€Å"Networking† emphasizes relationship initiation, often between strangers. While networking is possible on these sites, it is not the primary practice on many of them, nor is it what differentiates them from other forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC). What makes social network sites unique is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks.This can result in connections between individuals that would not otherwise be made, but that is of ten not the goal, and these meetings are frequently between â€Å"latent ties† (Haythornthwaite, 2005) who share some offline connection. On many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily â€Å"networking† or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network. To emphasize this articulated social network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we label them â€Å"social network sites. While SNSs have implemented a wide variety of technical features, their backbone consists of visible profiles that display an articulated list of Friends1 who are also users of the system. Profiles are unique pages where one can â€Å"type oneself into being† (Sunden, 2003, p. 3). After joining an SNS, an individual is asked to fill out forms containing a series of questions. The profile is generated using the answers to these questions, which typically include descriptors suc h as age, location, interests, and an â€Å"about me† section. Most sites also encourage users to upload a profile photo.Some sites allow users to enhance their profiles by adding multimedia content or modifying their profile's look and feel. Others, such as Facebook, allow users to add modules (â€Å"Applications†) that enhance their profile. The visibility of a profile varies by site and according to user discretion. By default, profiles on Friendster and Tribe. net are crawled by search engines, making them visible to anyone, regardless of whether or not the viewer has an account. Alternatively, LinkedIn controls what a viewer may see based on whether she or he has a paid account.Sites like MySpace allow users to choose whether they want their profile to be public or â€Å"Friends only. † Facebook takes a different approach—by default, users who are part of the same â€Å"network† can view each other's profiles, unless a profile owner has decide d to deny permission to those in their network. Structural variations around visibility and access are one of the primary ways that SNSs differentiate themselves from each other. After joining a social network site, users are prompted to identify others in the system with whom they have a relationship.The label for these relationships differs depending on the site—popular terms include â€Å"Friends,† â€Å"Contacts,† and â€Å"Fans. † Most SNSs require bi-directional confirmation for Friendship, but some do not. These one-directional ties are sometimes labeled as â€Å"Fans† or â€Å"Followers,† but many sites call these Friends as well. The term â€Å"Friends† can be misleading, because the connection does not necessarily mean friendship in the everyday vernacular sense, and the reasons people connect are varied (boyd, 2006a). The public display of connections is a crucial component of SNSs.The Friends list contains links to each Fr iend's profile, enabling viewers to traverse the network graph by clicking through the Friends lists. On most sites, the list of Friends is visible to anyone who is permitted to view the profile, although there are exceptions. For instance, some MySpace users have hacked their profiles to hide the Friends display, and LinkedIn allows users to opt out of displaying their network. Most SNSs also provide a mechanism for users to leave messages on their Friends' profiles. This feature typically involves leaving â€Å"comments,† although sites employ various labels for this feature.In addition, SNSs often have a private messaging feature similar to webmail. While both private messages and comments are popular on most of the major SNSs, they are not universally available. Not all social network sites began as such. QQ started as a Chinese instant messaging service, LunarStorm as a community site, Cyworld as a Korean discussion forum tool, and Skyrock (formerly Skyblog) was a French blogging service before adding SNS features. Classmates. com, a directory of school affiliates launched in 1995, began supporting articulated lists of Friends after SNSs became popular.AsianAvenue, MiGente, and BlackPlanet were early popular ethnic community sites with limited Friends functionality before re-launching in 2005-2006 with SNS features and structure. Beyond profiles, Friends, comments, and private messaging, SNSs vary greatly in their features and user base. Some have photo-sharing or video-sharing capabilities; others have built-in blogging and instant messaging technology. There are mobile-specific SNSs (e. g. , Dodgeball), but some web-based SNSs also support limited mobile interactions (e. g. , Facebook, MySpace, and Cyworld).Many SNSs target people from specific geographical regions or linguistic groups, although this does not always determine the site's constituency. Orkut, for example, was launched in the United States with an English-only interface, but Portugu ese-speaking Brazilians quickly became the dominant user group (Kopytoff, 2004). Some sites are designed with specific ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, political, or other identity-driven categories in mind. There are even SNSs for dogs (Dogster) and cats (Catster), although their owners must manage their profiles.While SNSs are often designed to be widely accessible, many attract homogeneous populations initially, so it is not uncommon to find groups using sites to segregate themselves by nationality, age, educational level, or other factors that typically segment society (Hargittai, this issue), even if that was not the intention of the designers. A History of Social Network Sites The Early Years According to the definition above, the first recognizable social network site launched in 1997. SixDegrees. com allowed users to create profiles, list their Friends and, beginning in 1998, surf the Friends lists.Each of these features existed in some form before SixDegrees, of cours e. Profiles existed on most major dating sites and many community sites. AIM and ICQ buddy lists supported lists of Friends, although those Friends were not visible to others. Classmates. com allowed people to affiliate with their high school or college and surf the network for others who were also affiliated, but users could not create profiles or list Friends until years later. SixDegrees was the first to combine these features. SixDegrees promoted itself as a tool to help people connect with and send messages to others.While SixDegrees attracted millions of users, it failed to become a sustainable business and, in 2000, the service closed. Looking back, its founder believes that SixDegrees was simply ahead of its time (A. Weinreich, personal communication, July 11, 2007). While people were already flocking to the Internet, most did not have extended networks of friends who were online. Early adopters complained that there was little to do after accepting Friend requests, and most users were not interested in meeting strangers.From 1997 to 2001, a number of community tools began supporting various combinations of profiles and publicly articulated Friends. AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, and MiGente allowed users to create personal, professional, and dating profiles—users could identify Friends on their personal profiles without seeking approval for those connections (O. Wasow, personal communication, August 16, 2007). Likewise, shortly after its launch in 1999, LiveJournal listed one-directional connections on user pages. LiveJournal's creator suspects that he fashioned these Friends after instant messaging buddy lists (B.Fitzpatrick, personal communication, June 15, 2007)—on LiveJournal, people mark others as Friends to follow their journals and manage privacy settings. The Korean virtual worlds site Cyworld was started in 1999 and added SNS features in 2001, independent of these other sites (see Kim & Yun, this issue). Likewise, when the Swedish we b community LunarStorm refashioned itself as an SNS in 2000, it contained Friends lists, guestbooks, and diary pages (D. Skog, personal communication, September 24, 2007). The next wave of SNSs began when Ryze. com was launched in 2001 to elp people leverage their business networks. Ryze's founder reports that he first introduced the site to his friends—primarily members of the San Francisco business and technology community, including the entrepreneurs and investors behind many future SNSs (A. Scott, personal communication, June 14, 2007). In particular, the people behind Ryze, Tribe. net, LinkedIn, and Friendster were tightly entwined personally and professionally. They believed that they could support each other without competing (Festa, 2003). In the end, Ryze never acquired mass popularity, Tribe. et grew to attract a passionate niche user base, LinkedIn became a powerful business service, and Friendster became the most significant, if only as â€Å"one of the biggest d isappointments in Internet history† (Chafkin, 2007, p. 1). Figure 1. Timeline of the launch dates of many major SNSs and dates when community sites re-launched with SNS features Like any brief history of a major phenomenon, ours is necessarily incomplete. In the following section we discuss Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook, three key SNSs that shaped the business, cultural, and research landscape. ttp://jcmc. indiana. edu/vol13/issue1/boyd. ellison. html Content Pros Of The Social Networking Sites †¢The best advantage of social networking sites is that these sites allow you to keep in touch with your friends, classmates, and relatives. It is also the most cost effective way to keep in touch with your people. Here geographical locations are no barrier to stay in touch. †¢These sites allow you to send and receive messages, upload photos, and videos. As such, they are very interactive as you can get to see what your friends and relatives are up to. With social networki ng sites, you are not bound by any geographical and cultural differences. You get to meet and know a variety of people whose interests are similar to your own. These sites are a window to different cultures and places. †¢You can build a network of contacts and interact with a lot of people at the same time. As such, you can spread your thoughts and interests to a large number of people. †¢The social networking sites also facilitate you to procure information on any subjects from anywhere. These sites also make it easier and faster to collect the information. Social networking sites can also be a tool to promote your business, services, products, or websites. Due to the huge number of people who regularly use networking sites it has found huge favors among advertisers. http://wiki. answers. com/Q/What_are_the_advantages_and_disadvantages_of_social_networking The Cons Of Social Networking Sites †¢The most glaring disadvantage of social networking sites is the risk of id entity theft and fraud. The personal information of users can be used by dubious people for illegal activities. Information like the e-mail address, name, location, and age can be used to commit online crimes. Also, many people pretend to be someone else and prepare their online profiles with false information, so as to dupe unsuspecting users. So, if you do not know the person face to face then it will be very hard for you to find the real identity. †¢Another cause of concern is cases of online harassment and stalking. Since the social networking sites, are very poorly regulated so it can be a very fertile ground for people trying to get even with you. They can spread malicious humor among your friends and also download and morph your photos. http://wiki. answers. com/Q/What_are_the_advantages_and_disadvantages_of_social_networking

What Is The Relationship Between Memory And Emotions Free Essay Example, 2000 words

Different research has been conducted by different psychologists and scholars on this crucial subject, the result has shown that most vivid autobiographical memories tend to be those related to emotional events, which are often recalled frequently and with much clarity as compared to neutral events happening in our environment3. It should be understood that artificially inducing this instinct through traumatic physical or emotional stimuli has the potential to essentially create the same psychological condition that intensifies memory retention ability through exciting neuro-chemical activity, that affects the specific areas of the brain that concern with encoding and recalling memory. The effect that enhances memory has often demonstrated in a variety of laboratory studies by use of different kinds of stimuli that range from words to pictures, visual and audio-visual factors as well as autobiographic memory studies. Over the past century, there have been important advances in the field of psychology, in order to establish the relationship between memory and emotion. One of the important developments that have been witnessed is the growing recognition that there is a high number of memory systems that are directly governed by distinct and interacting neural substrates. We will write a custom essay sample on What Is The Relationship Between Memory And Emotions or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The main aim of these research activities has always been to find out any existing potential relationship between emotions and memory in human beings over their different activities of life. Different investigations that have been carried out on the influence of emotions on memory have tended to focus on two medial temporal lobe systems in the human brain. The first one is usually linked to amygdala; this one is more or less specialized in a certain way so that it only deals with the processing of different kinds of information that is encoded in the brain of a person. The hallmark of this memory system is that it is essential in the acquisition as well as expression of fear conditioning, in this process; a neutral stimulus acquires aversive properties by the virtue of having to be paired with an aversive event. The second system is that which is linked to the hippocampal complex, this one is necessary for the declarative or episodic memory, in some special cases, this kind of memory has often been thought of as a primary memory system in humans. This is because of the fact that it regulates and controls memory, that is, the process of recollection of various events that happened before at will.