Per Clausewitz’s On War Essay Example for Free

Per Clausewitz’s On War Essay Per Clausewitz’s On War focal points on how victory can be achieved, reader see a keen interest in how to disarm the enemy using reciprocal and proportionate â€Å"efforts to his powers or resistance. † This implies that to win a war you might use all means, strength, and resources within your power to deliver the best strategy possible. Using â€Å"calculation of probabilities† victory can achieved by fully knowing what is at stake and how to attack at the right time. Being aware of the political agenda and reasoning behind a war allows for more awareness of political and military alliances in order to achieve victory in war. In addition, by understanding that there are tactics and strategy which must be used in war a victory can be acquired (website, Handel). To Clausewitz this means that â€Å"preparations for War† and the â€Å"War itself† must be seen as distinct entities. By preparing for the War you are acquiring all needed provisions and equipment, and comprehending the enemy and terrain in which the battles might be fought (Clausewitz Book 6). Sun too indicates that preparation for War is strongly required, and that without it practicality of strategy is lost. This would include any tactics to be used, calculations which can done, deriving rules or â€Å"even systems for the conduct of war†, and understanding that knowledge can be â€Å"converted into real power†. Clausewitz considers that â€Å"war is science when mere knowing; art, when doing. † This law of action must include strategy. This in turn â€Å"links together the series of acts which are to lead to the final decision† or finality of victory. Because these strategic elements are key to achieving victory, this author insists that the â€Å"use of engagements†¦. be classified into: moral, physical, mathematical, geographical, and statistical† aspects. This elements manifest within the process and act of War, and encompass the idea that strategic assembly of forces enables victory. Clausewitz indicates that the use of battle leads to the destruction of the enemy’s military, and that a great results is achieved by battle (KLINGER 79-89).

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STATEMENT OF PURPOSE During my undergraduate studies in the department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering at the PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India, I had a strong inclination towards courses like Probability & Statistics and Object-Oriented Programming that were closely related to applied mathematics and software programming. My final year project at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore furthered my interest in these subjects. The project involved usage of structured programming and mathematical modelling techniques to estimate the accurate chemical composition for Electroless nickel plating process of aircraft engines. Even prior to the undergraduate course, I had an affinity for mathematics and computational science. I had secured 97% in mathematics and 95% in computer science at my high school examinations. I was a chess player at school and college, this was crucial in shaping my analytical thinking and problem solving skills. My first job at Mu-Sigma Business Solutions, Bangalore, a leading data science and decision analytics firm, served as the ideal platform to start exploring the world of analytics. The key responsibility as a Business Analyst in the company was to use applied mathematics, statistical techniques and software packages such as Statistical Analytics Software (SAS), Structured Query Language (SQL) and the R programming language in order to provide data-driven business solutions to the client by using. My first project at Mu-Sigma involved employing ‘predictive analytics’ to determine the projected sales of the signature drug of a ‘Fortune-500’ pharmaceutical company. The results of this project were used by the client in making important decisions on their inventory management process. ... ...s and processes that would permit educational institutes to improve student performances, reduce drop-out rates and increase enrolment at higher levels. On the other hand, I would like my work to equip students with the capacity to make informed decisions about their educational and vocational prospects. I firmly believe that the strong course curriculum at the University of San Francisco, its luminous faculty, its strategic geographical location and, most importantly, its unique and impactful practical course ‘Analytics Practicum’ that is founded on live client projects will empower me in pursuing my goals. I am fully aware of the challenges involved in a demanding course as this and I strongly trust that my professional experience, technical expertise and personal commitment will allow me to make significant contributions to the research at your university

René Descartes Essay

â€Å"My purpose is to persuade all those who think metaphysics worth studying that it is absolutely necessary to pause a moment and, regarding all that has been done as though undone, to propose first the preliminary question, ‘Whether such a thing as metaphysics can be even possible at all? ’† (Kant 233) These types of questions asked by philosopher Immanuel Kant revolutionized the way humans make sense of the world, and more specifically how the human mind functions. Kant shed a light on prior theories and analogies, eliminating some of the most important beliefs as â€Å"unjustifiable†. He synthesized the two prior beliefs of Rationalism and Empiricism, and preached that in our world, â€Å"Concepts without intuitions are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind†. (Fehir) I believe that Kant’s Constructivism is a superior alternative to Rationalism and Empiricism. Before Kant’s idea of constructivism, philosopher David Hume made a claim that all objects of human reason or enquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds; relations of ideas, and matters of fact. In simpler terms, all knowledge must either be classified as a prior (prior knowledge), or posteriori (post knowledge). Kant’s put this theory to a test and asked â€Å"if a truth is not true because of our experiences, nor is it true because of the grammar or meanings of the sentences of our language, how else could it be defined? †(Higgins and Martin 232) Kant synthesized rationalism and empiricism by discarding their flaws and combining their strengths. Grisell 2 Kant agrees with philosophers such as Pluto and Descartes that there are innate ideas. Knowledge of the nature of reality derives from ideas of the intellect, not the senses. The concept of self, substance, and identity do not need to be tested through science; we know they exist simply by thinking and understanding. Furthermore, Kant agrees that the self is real and discernible through immediate intellectual intuition. This understanding relates to Cogito ergo sum, a statement from Descartes, which recognizes that someone wondering whether or not he or she exists is, in and of itself, proof that something, an â€Å"I†, exists to do the thinking. Kant also agrees with philosophers such as Aristotle and Hume who state that our senses are the primary, or only, source of knowledge of world. For example, we know that water boils at 212 degrees because we have observed it through experience. Kant explains that there are two different worlds; the phenomenal (apparent) world versus the noumenal (real) world. The phenomenal world is a world of things, publicly observable, describable by science, known to the senses, and determined by physical laws. In this world, we can generate facts through trial and experiment, using our senses to determine a definitive answer (e. g. water boils at 212 degrees). Through Kant’s improved theory of constructivism, he can make conclusions based upon his findings. Both rationalism and empiricism are wrong when they claim that we can know things in themselves. Rationalists are wrong not to trust senses; in the phenomenal world, senses are all we have. Hume is wrong when he claims the concept of self is unsupported by senses, and therefore false. Rather, the experiencing self is a pre-condition for having any experience at all (Descartes was right). Kant’s â€Å"Copernican revolution of the mind† synthesized rationalism and empiricism. What Kant suspected, and what many philosophers believe today, is that â€Å"our â€Å"ideas†-our Grisell 3 concepts and our language- do not just correspond to reality but in some sense shape and â€Å"set-up† the world, impose upon the world (and) the structures we experience. † (Higgins and Martin 230) He believes that objects conform to knowledge. An example that displays this type of thinking is the Abraham Lincoln analogy. If a fuzzy picture of Abraham Lincoln is displayed to someone who is familiar with what Abraham Lincoln looks like, they can make sense of the image and acknowledge what they are seeing. A person who has no clue what Abraham Lincoln looks like will have no understand of what their eyes are viewing. This requires prior knowledge from a person, gained through personal experience using their eyes. Although it is simply an analogy, this type of idea was what gave Kant the principle of Synthetic a prior. Kant’s revolution changed our conception of reality, our conception of knowledge, and most importantly, our concept of ourselves. I personally believe that Kant gave philosophers a definitive solution to how the mind and our reality interact. He gave philosophers a renewed ideal of certainty, for he argued that we can be certain of the rules of our own experience. I think Kant says it best when he says, â€Å"reality is the world of our experience, as we constitute it through the concepts of our understanding† (Kant 232) Grisell 4 Work Cited Higgins, Kathleen M. , and Clancy Martin. â€Å"Knowledge; Kant’s Revolution. † Introducing Philosophy. By Robert C. Solomon. 10th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. 230-33. Print. LaFave, Sandra. â€Å"Kant: The â€Å"Copernican Revolution† in Philosophy. † Kant: The â€Å"Copernican Revolution† in Philosophy. N. p. , n. d. Web. 02 Nov. 2012. Fehir, Aaron. â€Å"Hume’s Fork and the Problem of Causality. † Lecture.

Empowerment of Women through the Film Cleopatra Essay

One main message Cleopatra is presenting to society in the 1960s is the empowerment of women. Although Cleopatra is depicted in many different ways in other films and plays, the 1963 film portrays her as a ruler who tried to bridge gaps between men and women. She overthrew her brother’s power and exiled him and Cleopatra wanted to be seen as equal by both Caesar and Antony. This reflects the women’s movement of the 1960s when women mainly stayed at home and took care of children. On December 14, 1961, John F. Kennedy established the President’s Commission on the Status of Women. Led by Eleanor Roosevelt til her death on 1962, this board had twenty members that examined equality of women in school, at work, and by the law.†¦show more content†¦Although melodramatic at times, Cleopatra is in fact historically accurate. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the screen playwright and director, wanted to be as precise as possible in his four hour long epic. However, t he most accurate depiction comes from Plutarch, a Greek philosopher, writer, and historian who eventually took Roman citizenship. He lived 45 to 120 C.E. and is well known for his work entitled Parallel Lives which was a series of biographies on Greek and Roman statesmen and military leaders. These biographies were set up as pairs in which a Greek and Roman were paired together. Twenty-three pairs as well as four unpaired leaders were all written about in which Plutarch described their triumphs and downfalls. Plutarch wrote about Cleopatra’s relationship with Caesar and also with Antony in the two Roman leader’s biographies. Nearly all scenes in the film are depicted in these biographies. He even received writing credit in the film due to the vast amount of information used from his accounts. Plutarch describes both Caesar and Antony as great military leaders, but Antony was the one who got carried away with Cleopatra. Caesar had a reasonable relationship with Cleopatra and they were equals whereas Antony was not rational and was too overcome by his love for her to think properly. Scenes from Cleopatra that were accurately depicted by Plutarch include Pompey’s head given to Caesar by Ptolemy XIII as a gift, the queen delivered to Caesar in a rug,