Unit 2 Reflection

An individual has a duty to his government and a government has a duty to its people. These duties must be met for the society to succeed. This subject was addressed by many famous ideologists. For example, Machiavelli talks about the qualities of a good leader in his book, “The Qualities of the Prince”, Giordano references the duties of an individual to be righteous in his painting, “Justice”, and Socrates mentions the duties of individual compared to the government, and vice versa, in his social contract theory. With a community of people who fulfill they’re duties to their government and a government that fulfills its duties to the people, a society can thrive.

In “The Qualities of the Prince”, by Machiavelli, it is stated that a leader needs to have certain characteristics to be an effective leader. He states, “…the prince must read histories and in them study the deeds of great men…. He must examine the reasons for their victories and for their defeats…” Machiavelli is trying to say that one of the duties of a government is to be well-read and informed of what happened in the past. This will help protect the people. This, according to Machiavelli, is a very important quality, and duty, of a leader or government.

Giordano references the duties of an individual in his painting, “Justice”. The painting shows what a person must overcome to be just. It also shows that everyone should strive to be just. The picture depicts lady justice above 3 other figures that are supposed to be Punishment, Recompense, and Deceit. This is supposed to tell the viewer that one must overcome all 3 of these aspects to truly be just. It also shows that you will be rewarded if you do. This tells us that Giordano’s views on an individual’s duties to their government are that everyone must be just or the society will fall apart.

Socrates has a social contract theory that coincides with an individual’s and a government’s duties to one another. The social contract theory states that if the people give a government power, they expect the government to take that power and benefit the society. It also works the other way around, if a government allows a person to be in a society, they expect the individual to be beneficial to the community. This is another duty that the government and the individual have for one another. They are expected to be beneficial with the freedoms they are given. If one does not hold up their end of the social contract then the society will not work. Each party must work to help the other for a society to be efficient.

An individual has duties for their government and a government for their people. The government must be knowledgeable to know how to protect its people in every situation possible, and an individual must strive to be just. Both must do whatever they can to benefit the other side. With all of these duties completed, a society can thrive and work efficiently.

State of Imitation AOW #12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Rv7czl9cU

This week I decided to analyze State Farm's new advertisement for their "discount double-check" with Aaron Rodgers.  It shows a couple who thank their agent for performing the "discount double-check" but when they say it they do Aaron Rodgers's touchdown dance.  Rodgers is confused as to why they stole his move and they make fun of him for thinking it's his.  State Farm is the creator of this advertisement and they made it for people who were looking for insurance.  They hope to bring in more customers with this commercial.  The context of this piece is a country where almost everyone has insurance and almost everyone else is looking for it.  Some of the rhetorical elements in this piece are pathos, mainly, with logos and ethos built in.  The pathos is built with the humor of the situation.  The fact that they are making fun of Aaron Rodgers over his own move makes a lot of people laugh.  Ethos is built when they show that Aaron Rodgers goes to State Farm.  By showing a well known quarterback, State Farm achieved in making some people believe they should go there too.  Logos was in the "discount double-check".  This action that State Farm does for you is making sure that you save as much money as you can, which appeals to many customers.  I believe this commercial was very effective in reaching its purpose through its humor and appeal to ethos.

Open Science Now! AOW #11

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_nielsen_open_science_now.html

This video on ted.com is of Michael Nielsen trying to persuade people to join in the Open Science Project.  This project is trying to make it so that the scientists who make discoveries do not hide them from the world until they can get credit for everything that they have researched, but post their findings on social networks made for scientific studies.  He talks about a similar project called the Polymath Project, which was a blog in which mathematicians posted on in hopes to find a solution to a very complicated problem they faced.  On the 37th day that this blog was online, the creator posted that they had found the solution and the polymath project had been a success.  Michael Nielsen, the speaker, is a Fulbright grad physicist who has published several books pertaining to quantum physics and, more recently, the Open Science Project.  The context of this speech is that many scientist are hiding their discoveries from the public because they do not want to risk losing credit for their work. Nielsen perfomed this speech in hopes that these scientists, his audience, will join together to change the culture of science and share their discoveries as they find them.  He uses all three appeals to help prove his point.  He uses logos through examples of what worked and what did not work.  Also, these examples along with diction and style were used to develop his persona, or ethos.  And his and our wish for science to move forward to appeal to pathos.  I do not think that he reached his purpose because this may sound like a great idea, but the scientists would put way too much at risk and would not want to lose credit for their discoveries.  We will just have to wait and see if the Open Science Project is a success or not.

Understanding Emotions Without Language AOW #10

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111102093045.htm

This week I read an article about a study conducted to find out if knowing different languages affects the way that a human perceives body language and facial expression.  They studied German speakers to speakers of Yucatec Maya, a Mayan language spoken in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico.  The findings were that while they used different word to describe the emotion, they were both able to name the same emotion.  The context of this piece was that people understand that we perceive body language, but we don't understand how we do it.  This study was conducted and released for those people.  The purpose of this piece was to inform the general public of this new information.  They reached this purpose through using logos and ethos.  The logos of this piece was in the study itself.  They brought in factual evidence to support their claim.  The ethos was then supported by this use of the study.

Freakonomics AOW #9

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner mainly dealt with the fact that all of our lives are dictated by economics.  Every structure in our lives is dictated by similar incentives that structure businesses and other corporations.  The book showed me the hidden side to some worldly puzzles.  For example, the book talked about how the true reason behind the drastic crime drop in 2000 was because of the legalization of abortion.  Dubner and Levitt explain that the mothers who got impregnated  by accident, on average, did not have the physical means or the will to take care of a child, so the child grew up into a life of crime because it was necessary to get by.  Also, they mentioned that sumo wrestlers and school teachers have the same incentive for cheating and are very similar in that they are rewarded in the long-run for it.  Levitt and Dubner effectively use ethos and logos in their book.  They bring logos by stating and examining statistics that they found.  For example, on pages 193 to 206 there were many lists of popular low-education and high-education boy and girl names in past years.  Also, following these lists there was a detailed analysis of the data.  These statistics combined with the sophisticated diction the authors use make up the ethos for these authors.  These analyses lack imagery in literal terms but do effectively paint the picture in one's mind of what the data means.  Overall, this book was effective in its purpose to explain the importance of economics to the common person through mainly their use of statistics and the analyses that went along with them.