Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution Essay Example for Free

Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution Essay In the 1850s, Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution. His theory proposed that species evolved gradually through subtle changes from one generation to the next by means of natural selection. By natural selection, the most desirable hereditary traits become more common from one generation to the next while the less desirable, weaker traits die out. This gives rise to an organism that is more capable—fitted to—of surviving in the surrounding environment. At the time Darwin formulated his idea beginning with his trip on the HMS Beagle in the 1830s, some scientists resorted to the idea that God had preordained life by natural laws rather than by miraculous feats. While logical and correct, the idea still refers to a divine power, indicating a religious bent, so perhaps it was obvious that the ideas addressed could lead to religious controversy. As is common in science, Darwin’s concept arose from ideas garnered from a number of scientists of his time. Some researchers of the time believed that natural laws were responsible for life. While Darwin’s ideas did not account for the processes believed to account for life at the time, there was a theory at the time thought to account for life. Most thought that species were transmuted from one species into another. The problem with transmutation, an idea that is similar to evolution in some respects, is that a species may change through transmutation, but it will still be the same species. A dog may change into a different type of dog, but it will still be a dog; likewise, for a cat or any other species. Evolution dictates that the entire animal kingdom can grow through stages from one species into another over time. Birds came from reptiles, mammals came from birds and humans came from non-humans. (Lewontin, 1981) The data is unequivocal. During his voyage on HMS Beagle, Darwin found fossil remains of gigantic mammals that were recently extinct with no indication that their extinction had been caused by climate changes or catastrophic events. Although he believed that the remains he found were related to species in Africa or Europe, examination of the remains Darwin found showed that they were only related to other species found only in the Americas. Creationists insist that life came about from God in six days. While most evolutionists attack creationism on the grounds of scientific facts, there is another line of evidence virtually unnoticed by those who support evolution theory. Historians and archeologists have learned that the biblical story of creation came from the myths of another culture. Stories presented in the Bible evolved slowly over time, long before religions existed, and incorporated tales from many cultures. The story of the Garden of Eden, the serpent and the Tree of Life, for example, are said to have been depicted on an Akkadian Cylinder Seal nearly 2500 years before Christ. The serpent itself was viewed as a deity. Notice: No one familiar with the mythologies of the primitive, ancient, and Oriental worlds can turn to the Bible without recognizing counterparts on every page, transformed, however, to render an argument contrary to the older faiths. In Eves scene at the tree, for example, nothing is said to indicate that the serpent who appeared and spoke to her was a deity in his own right, who had been revered in the Levant for at least seven thousand years before the composition of the Book of Genesis. There is in the Louvre a carved green steatite vase, inscribed c. 025 BC by King Gudaea of Lagash, dedicated to a late Sumerian manifestation of this consort of the goddess, under his title Ningizzida, Lord of the Tree of Truth. p. 9. The Serpents Bride. Joseph Campbell. Occidental Mythology, The Masks of God. Arkana. New York. Viking Penguin Books. 1964, 1991 reprint The information in the Old Testament dates from about 1450 BC until 200 BC. This means that, contrary to the strongly held beliefs of most Christians, the creation story of Genesis is actually derived from the myths of ancient Sumerians. Therefore, the story is a myth. This means that those who against Darwin’s ideas on religious grounds based on their beliefs in the accuracy of the story in Genesis have unknowingly chosen to accept myth over facts. While they believe the myth to be factual, archeological evidence demonstrates otherwise. The scientific evidence leans heavily in support of Darwin’s ideas. While we may not fully understand some aspects behind the mechanism of evolution, we are continuously learning more about those mechanisms. (Dobzhansky, 1973) Dobzhansky states: Let me try to make crystal clear what is established beyond reasonable doubt, and what needs further study, about evolution. Evolution as a process that has always gone on in the history of the earth can be doubted only by those who are ignorant of the evidence or are resistant to evidence, owing to emotional blocks or to plain bigotry. By contrast, the mechanisms that bring evolution about certainly need study and clarification. There are no alternatives to evolution as history that can withstand critical examination. Yet we are constantly learning new and important facts about evolutionary mechanisms. Theodosius Dobzhansky, â€Å"Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in Light of Evolution†, American Biology Teacher vol. 35 (March 1973) reprinted in Evolution versus Creationism, J. Peter Zetterberg ed. , ORYX Press, Phoenix AZ 1983. Darwin (1859) believed that whales evolved from bears based on a scenario where selective pressures might cause this evolution, but he was criticized for this idea and removed the suggestion. Gould, 1995) Today, there is much more fossil evidence for the evolution of many species thus supporting the idea of evolution as a general biological principle, including the evolution of whales from lower animals. Evidence in support of evolution exists at many levels. There is paleontological evidence based on fossils, morphological evidence that relate the body morphology of higher animals to lower animals, evidence from molecular biology and from embryology. Added to this, the chronological picture that results is consistent with other lines of evidence. For example, the evidence for the evolution of whales from lower animals is convincing. Whales have been closely studied with respect to evolution. If evolution is valid, transitional stages from one level of evolution to another should exist. Although the fossil remains of whales spotty for a long time, recent fossil discoveries have more than adequately lent support to the concept of evolution for whales. Researchers state that independent lines of evidence from different disciplines confirm the pattern of evolution in whales. John Ray recognized that whales were mammals rather than fish in 1693 based on their similarity to terrestrial mammals. (Barnes, 1984) In 1883, Flower (see Barnes, 1984) found that whales had vestigial characteristics in common with terrestrial mammals just as humans have vestigial tails, the coccyx. Findings similar to these led to the concept of ‘ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. ’ This concept is briefly explained in further detail below. Flower (1883) recognized that the whales have persistent rudimentary and vestigial features characteristic of terrestrial mammals, thus confirming that the direction of descent was from terrestrial to marine species. On the basis of morphology, Flower also linked whales with the ungulates; he seems to have been the first person to do so. Today, we know that whales have vestigial features in common with lower animals. For example, they have vestigial olfactory nerve, protruding hind limbs, pelvic fins and diaphragms. Like humans, during embryological development, whales develop features similar to lower animals and abandon them as development progresses. During their development, there is also evidence that whales have terrestrial ancestors. Some whales even develop hair while in the womb although they do not retain it. In 1985, Goodman et al. demonstrated that whales are more closely related to ungulates than to other animals. (Goodman, 1985; Miyamoto and Goodman, 1986) Some studies have identified genes, enzymes and other proteins that connect whales to extinct animals. (Irwin et al. 991; Irwin and Arnason, 1994; Milinkovitch, 1992; Graur and Higgins, 1994; Gatesy et al, 1996; Shimamura et al. , 1997) We have already noted above that the creation story in the Bible was taken from the text of an ancient culture that predates the Hebrew account. Rather than to openly acknowledge that the Bible’s story of creation is a mythical legend that explains evolution and the appearance of life on ea rth, some religious groups resort to far-fetched, fictitious, generally ridiculous concepts such as ‘creationism’, ‘creation science’ and ‘intelligent design’ to dismiss or explain away the science and replace it with fantasy. Embryology and developmental biology have a concept, ‘ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny’, that simplifies and briefly but succinctly expresses the concepts presented in the first chapter of Genesis. This is like explaining a complicated scientific concept, take conception and birth for example, to a little child by using a fairy tale rather than detailed research information. The fairy tale is not accurate, but the general information it communicates is true. With this single phrase, the first chapter of Genesis is summarized and explained. The phrase means that the embryological processes of development, ontogeny, depict and encapsulate the evolutionary history of the species, phylogeny. For example, during development of the human embryo, the fetus briefly has gills and a tail like its phylogenetic ancestors. In other words, during development, the developing embryo goes through some of the same stages that humans went through as the species developed from lower animals to humans. The concept makes perfect sense and explains many aspects of human development. Obviously, we cannot provide a comprehensive review of the evidence support evolution in a few pages, and we certainly cannot provide realistic evidence against it in light of all that exists to support it. While the evidence in support of the evolution of whales is plentiful, much evidence exists for evolution in general, including in humans. As has been reported here, the evidence is not just from scientific research, but also from archeology and history. That evidence shows, among other things, that the biblical story of creation in Genesis predates the Bible by hundreds of years. Despite all the evidence in support of evolution and against the idea of the biblical creation as being anything more than a myth, we can be certain that the argument in support of the biblical creation as being the real story and representing the real facts will not go away. Humans being what we are, we will always be faced with living with the Genesis myth as if it were fact, and coping with those who insist that the earth all the universe was created in six literal days. That concept certainly will never go away no matter what facts exist to disprove it.

Effects of Social and Environmental Reporting on Stakeholder

Effects of Social and Environmental Reporting on Stakeholder Social and environmental reporting would benefit from greater stakeholder inclusivity. REFLECTIVE THINKING The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is very modern and now applies to more and more businesses. This topic piqued my interest because a lot of companies in my country have begun to adopt CSR and adopt social and environmental reporting. I am aware of the concept of corporate social responsibility, but I did not know its social and environmental dimensions. I mostly believed that corporate social responsibility is restricted mainly to charity. The more I read about it and discuss about it with other students, the more I realized its wider usefulness. Corporate Social Responsibility concerns actions that businesses do in order to solve problems involving the environment and society. In particular, companies in their business activities as well as in their contacts with other interested parties, bring together social and environmental concerns in a voluntary framework. A company to be qualified as socially responsible must take into account the problems related to the protection of the environment as well as to the development, rights and quality of life of its employees and the society within which it develops. With Corporate Social Responsibility, the business environment is voluntarily regulated, to ensure respect for the problems with the help of management systems regarding the impact on the environment, the support communities in the local context and the creation of a working environment which will ensure justice and security. Over the last five years, Corporate Social Responsibility plays an important role in both large enterprises and the European Commission, as well as in political and non-profit organizations. Several multinational or large companies try to prove that they have managed to integrate CSR in their strategy with great success. Two levels of implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility concern the companies. The first level, known as the initial stage of maturity concerns the big enterprises in Cyprus, where Corporate Social Responsibility is part of the activities of the department of public relations and particularly the field of charity and sponsorship. The second level, known as the maturity of the business, declares that Corporate Social Responsibility is an integral part of corporate policy and strategy. At this stage, there is a department or committee which is responsible for specific activities whose purpose is the achievement of strategic objectives as well as the annual Record of Social Report exclusively for Corporate Social Responsibility. In Cyprus, Corporate Social Responsibility is not at an advanced stage. This is because it may well be that Cyprus is a member of European Union, but the developments in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility do not show any significant progress. F or Cyprus, the environmental dimension of CSR is very important because it is very relevant to tourism, which is the heavy industry of Cyprus. For example, companies from Eastern European countries are more sensitized to Corporate Social Responsibility issues and there is indeed the desire to learn what Corporate Social Responsibility is, to see how they can adapt it to their philosophy, because they know that the global markets are asking for it. Nowadays, experts acknowledge that the Cypriot companies focus mainly on charity activities. The downside, however, is the fact that in Cyprus, there is no plan, no growth prospects and long term commitment for actions made. In addition, social responsibility is not limited to charitable giving, but it also covers the overall compliance with the international federal state and the local laws and legislative acts as well as with the ethical standards and procedures under which the company will operate. Great importance should be given to our awareness in order to function socially responsible, i.e. to approach the issue individually rather than corporately. Economic growth is directly related to the development of society and the environment. For example, if the sustainability of the environment is at risk, which is considered a business function, then this will directly affect the company and its financial results. The fact that CSR is an investment rather than a cost may be shown in the following way: Its a business practice that affects consumer attitudes, depending on their shopping choices. I believe that my involvement with this project helped me understand the importance of corporate social responsibility and how it can be applied to enterprises of my country. In particular, today the countries affected by the economic crisis and the developments that occur daily in the social and economic level, has created an environment of increased corporate responsibility. In this environment, companies seek to operate based on the developments occurring every day, while trying every way to reduce social risks. Based on the information available for liquidity in the economic and social level, firms must be able to understand, when they are able to avert a crisis (what happens when pop) and when to manage it successfully (this happens when the crisis is unpredictable). Corporate Social Responsibility is a strategic tool for managing the crisis. Today, most companies have social responsibilities. The directors think that a business to respond effectively and efficiently in social issues, corporate social policy must be integrated into corporate strategy. To assess how well the business operates in the fields of social responsibility, social auditing has been developed as a preliminary guide. The social audit consists of a series of systematic studies and the evaluation of social performance. It is interested in social influences on quality of life rather than in the economic quality of life. The social audit/reporting, leads to social performance. The benefits derived from a social audit are: It gives the information to assess the effectiveness of the programs on ecology and community development. The managers try to focus their attention on those activities where reports and evaluations are necessary. The existence of social audit seeks to promote concern for the achievement of social performance targets. It provides information that allows management to compare the effectiveness of different social programs. It gives the right to manage, provide information to external groups that rely on the company requirements for social performance (Cowton and Crisp 1998:120). Based on the results of this evaluation, the company can see where improvements are needed and what methods can be applied. I hope that this may be the issue of a future work. INTRODUCTION The field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has expanded significantly over the last decade both at the international and European level. More and more companies engage in serious efforts to define and integrate CSR into all aspects of their business. These efforts are supported by a growing number of evidence that proves that CSR has a positive impact on business economic performance. New voluntary standards and measurement tools of service are multiplied in number in parallel with the ongoing controversy about whether and how to standardize legal requirements for CSR from the business side. The interested parties now require from the company to apologize for its performance throughout the supply chain and for a set of issues of social responsibility. All the above take place in view of a complex global economy, where there are many social, economic and environmental injustices. In the past, the value of a company was only based on its financial performance. The interested pa rties now begin to understand better how the way the operational behavior affects the social, political and natural environment. The consequence of this is a growing pressure from investors, consumers and employees to the businesses, to include social and ecological criteria when taking decisions. CSR involves two basic ideas, the responsibility for reporting (accountability and transparency). Conversely, different groups of stakeholders require from businesses to operate successfully in non-financial sectors, which include human rights, business ethics, environmental practices, corporate contributions, contribution to local community development, corporate governance and labor and discrimination issues (Edgley et al.2009) The social and environmental performance is considered now as most consistent with economic efficiency. rights at the international level, companies need to apologize for their actions and their impact. In addition, companies are expected to disclose and communicate their policies and practices, which affect employees, communities and the environment. In the global economy, the companies that meet the requirements of the participants, namely the stakeholders are more likely to achieve long-term financial performance. CSR may be involved in every aspect of business activity. A company is considered a good corporate citizen when it demonstrates a sense of commitment to various stakeholders through socially responsible practices and transparent operations. DEFINITIONS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY At the international level, many practitioners in CSR seek to define the CSR concept. One of the most important of them is the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a coalition of 175 businesses, which share a common commitment to sustainable development through three pillars: economic growth, ecological balance and social progress. CSR is defined as the continued commitment by the company to behave ethically and contribute to economic development, whilst improving the quality of life of employees and their families, local community and society at a general level (United Nations 2002). In addition, global non-profit organizations have been developed to promote the concept of corporate social responsibility by offering to their members (companies) information, tools, training, consulting services for the integration of CSR in their business operations and strategy. A significant institution is the Business for Social Responsibility, according to which CSR seems to be the realization of commercial success in ways that honor ethical values and respect people, communities and the natural environment. Through CSR, society address the legal, ethical, commercial and other expectations of the business and take decisions that fairly balance the interests of the interested parties. CSR answers why, when and how the company manages the social, environmental and economic objectives, performance and results, and the relationship among them. In addition, CSR Wire reports that CSR aligns social values with business activities (Kuratko and Morris 2002). It focuses on social, environmental and financial performance, the so-called triple basic principle. The aim is to make business success while having a positive impact on society. Likewise, CSR Europe in an effort to strengthen CSR in companies to achieve profitability, sustainability and human development, points out that CSR concerns the way in which the firm improves its social and environmental impact, so it adds value both for shareholders and for the interested parties. The European Commission in its Green Paper in July 2001 (European Commission 2003) in an attempt to open a public debate and promote a European framework for CSR, describes it as  «a concept whereby companies integrate, on a voluntary basis, in their activities and contacts with interested parties, social values and environmental worries ». The Commission links CSR with the new strategic goal that was set in Lisbon for the current decade: â€Å"to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion†. (European Commission 2003). From its part, the Economic and Social Committee (EESC), supports the European Commission. According to EESC, corporate social responsibility is a complex group of issues that must be addressed in different ways and at depth. The cultural specificities and the legal systems have a direct impact on its implementation. There are differ ences between geographic levels of action (local, national, European, global), among developing and industrialized countries, including large multinational companies, SMEs and small firms as well as among sectors. In addition, apart from the classic hierarchical structure within the company, there are new forms of structure and organization of work such as Listen Read phonetically Dictionary View detailed dictionary Listen Read phonetically Dictionary View detailed dictionary part-time, telecommuting or online businesses. According to EESC, socially responsible action means that companies implement conscientiously the social rules and make efforts to build a spirit of cooperation. The voluntary decision by a company for taking action on CSR (whether this has to do with the adoption of a code of conduct or map or trademark) includes preparedness and commitment (European Commission 2004).   In conclusion, it is noticed that the concept of corporate social responsibility is associated with other considerations and concepts, a fact that facilitates its clarification. Such concepts are the approach of participants stakeholders, business ethics, company culture, corporate governance and the status of corporate citizenship. As a new concept in the business reality, it has not yet acquired a specific, well-established definition. In this paper, corporate social responsibility is defined as the permanent, ethical obligation of companies to combine their contribution to economic growth with the responsible use of environmental and social resources (quality of employees life, respect for human rights, participation in the development of the local community where they operate, protection of the natural environment, structure of consistent and responsible relationships with suppliers and the wider social contribution). Generally, CSR is the voluntary integration of social and environmental values in business activities within the framework of transparency and reporting required by society for companies in the modern world. DIMENSIONS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Initially, the concept of corporate social responsibility has its internal and external dimensions. The first relates to intra business environment and includes socially and environmentally responsible practices, the combination of which aims at improved competitiveness. Socially responsible practices include: investment in human capital following policies of responsible recruitment,   equal pay and stock options to employees, as well as a more diverse workforce to combat discrimination. Their goal is to ensure employability and work, reduce unemployment and combat social exclusion. The health and safety of workers with voluntary control systems and certification schemes of management systems. Having as criteria   health and safety, general procurement systems were created, based on uniform requirements regarding training and management systems, implemented by the contractors in the health and safety issues at work. For example, the procurement system of the Danish Social Security provides guidelines that determine the prerequisites for bidding tenders for cleaning companies. In addition, these criteria are included in the existing certification and labelling for products and equipment such as the Swedish system TCO Labeling Scheme, which is a voluntary label for the security of office equipment. †¢ The management of change in the operational environment, which now encourages the involvement of all stakeholders by providing information and consultation. The restructuring in a socially responsible manner means that the interests and concerns of all those affected by the changes and decisions are taken into consideration. At European level, this phenomenon that usually appears as a reduction in personnel or closure of a factory, is evident in many industries, including the industries of steel, coal and shipbuilding. Through CSR companies are responsible for ensuring the employability of their staff (Crane and Matten 2005:167). The environmentally responsible practices are included in practices and policies that seek to reduce resource consumption or pollutant emissions and waste aiming at reducing the environmental impact. In this area, the environmental investments are recognized as double profit opportunities for both the company and the environment. Examples include the Integrated Product Policy, an approach that allows the government to work with companies and take into account the impact of products at all stages of their life cycle (introduction, growth, maturity, decline) and urges business and other stakeholders to discuss in order to find an approach with the best cost benefit analysis, having the effect of creating a strong framework for corporate social responsibility. In addition, EMAS ISO19000, a community management and control plan of the environment, which encourages companies to voluntarily set up management and control systems that promote continuous improvements in environmental perfor mance. The environmental statement is made public, and it is validated by accredited environmental organizations that verify it. Regarding the second dimension (external), the corporate social responsibility of a business extends beyond the company to the local community. A wide range of stakeholders is involved i.e. shareholders, business partners (suppliers, customers, consumers, contractors), public authorities and NGOs, representing local communities or dealing with the environment (European Multistakeholder Forum 2004). CSR is the integration of businesses in their local environment. The way they contribute to it is through job offers, salaries and social benefits. They are involved in community problems, support charity events, sponsor cultural and sporting events. In addition, the existence of interaction with the local environment leads them to a greater awareness of the environmental protection, since a cleaner environment can facilitate the process, or attract more labour force. Through close collaboration with business partners, enterprises can reduce perplexity and costs while increasing quality. The creation of such relationships leads in the long term to a fair price, conditions and expectations, as well as to quality, reliable delivery or execution. CSR appears in business activities at the area where the business is located. It focuses on the CSR of its suppliers or the dissemination of CSR in small or new innovative companies locally (through venture capital). Finally, as part of CSR, the companies must offer products and services that consumers need in an efficient, ethical and environmentally friendly way. The lasting relationships with customers lead to more profitable enterprises. An important example of CSR is the concept of planning for all, even for consumers with disabilities. The external dimension of CSR is shown in the co-operation of the business with non-governmental organizations, trade unions and public authorities on matters of vital i mportance, such as respect for human and labor rights in international and global supply chains (Holme and Watts 2000). On the one hand, there are national, community, international laws and binding rules, which provide minimum standards for all. On the other hand, there are voluntary codes of conduct, which are voluntary initiatives to complement and promote international labor standards for those who adopt them, as it happens in the various productive sectors (textile, apparel trade). The effectiveness of the latter depends on the proper implementation and verification, and it should be based on ILO conventions (Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work) and OECD (Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises) (European Commission 2004). The verification should be carried out based on defined standards that apply to organizations and individuals that carry the social control. TOOLS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY The growing interest of governments, society and the business world in the concept of CSR has led to a significant increase in the number of management tools, measurement, communication and rewards regarding the performance of corporate social responsibility. These institutions of CSR range from general guidelines and codes of conduct that set ambitious CSR principles, to complex   management systems, control and communication tools or examination methodologies (filtration screening) of investments. All these play a key role in providing guidance for sustainable operation, for proper quality management of the processes, systems and practices aiming at sustainable development. SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT It includes codes of conduct, management standards and reporting, which help the companies to integrate CSR principles in their strategy and business operations by offering principles, sets of procedures, implementation steps, indicators and methods of measurement, evaluation and reporting. The codes of conduct are innovative and important tools for the promotion of fundamental human, labor and environmental rights, as well as for practices against corruption, particularly in countries where governments fail to reinforce such standards (Holme and Watts 2000). They are an official statement of the principles and business practices of a company. They express statements of minimum standards and a promise of the company to maintain them and demand from contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and recipients to apply them as well. Some examples are (Crane and Matten 2005:166): Intergovernmental Authorities ILO Tripartite declaration of principles concerning multinational enterprises and social policy. ILO Declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work. OECD Guidelines for multinational enterprises (MNEs). United Nations Draft guidelines for companies. Multilateral Codes of Conduct Ethical Trading Initiative. Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights for the extractive sector. Model Codes of Conduct designed by NGOs, trade unions and other organizations Amnesty International Amnesty International human rights principles for companies. United Nations UN global compact. The management standards are a set of frameworks, processes and practices for quality, environment, health and safety as well as the workplace itself (Denison 1990). They are internal tools for businesses and organizations to facilitate the integration of CSR into their activities on a daily basis. There are standards that focus on procedures and standards relating to performance measurement and reporting. Especially the management systems provide models and standards for the way of managing a process or an activity. Typically, large companies adopt them. The above tools improve the strategic management and reliability of the company. Examples of management models (Crane and Matten 2005:170): Standards for the workplace Social Accountability (SA 8000) (on working conditions) ILO-OSH 2001-IOC ILO Guidelines on occupational safety and health management OHSAS 18001 (health in the workplace and safety) Quality Management Standards ISO 9000 (International Organization of Standardization) EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) a model for achieving operational excellence. AA (AccountAbility) 1000. ISO CR MSS (management systems standards for corporate responsibility ISO). Environmental Management Standards EMAS (Eco-management and audit scheme) a voluntary program initiated by the European Commission. ISO 14000. The reports are documents, which announce the results of assessing the social impact of a CSR policy. The demand for greater transparency and social reporting from the business side has led to a recent increase of the interest in sustainability reporting, covering   economic, social and ecological aspects. These reports exist since 1970s as a supplement of the annual report (Callaghan and Elkins 1981). Nowadays, with the recognition of the importance of the triple bottom line for sustainable development, social, ethical and environmental issues were added to the reports. Unlike financial reports, sustainability reports include a set of qualitative information, which is difficult to measure, especially in social indicators, which are still at an experimental stage. Regarding the concept of triple bottom line†, it should be emphasized that it is the idea according to which â€Å"the overall performance of a company is measured based on its combined contribution to economic pro sperity, environmental quality and social capital† (Crane and Matten 2005:169). The European Commission (2004) itself has given special attention in this matter. In its notification on Communication on the EU strategy for Sustainable Development - COM (2001) 264† it called publicly traded companies with at least 500 employees to introduce the triple bottom line in their annual statements so that shareholders can measure and evaluate its performance against economic, and social and ecological criteria. Some characteristic examples of initiatives in this area are: Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) with the Guidelines for Reporting (2002), which included reference files, content of reports and indicators for performance. AA1000s AccountAbility Model of results validation (assurance) by the Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability (European Commission 2004). SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION In the context of socially responsible consumption social and environmental signals are used. These terms describe tools based on the market, aimed primarily at consumers and showing that the production of specific product and commercial transactions and procedures that are followed, have respected a given set of criteria and standards. However, consumers today are interested in issues of ensuring the environment, health and safety at work and respect for human rights, particularly on child and forced labor. Overall, these signs are a way to convert concern into positive action and direction of consumer behavior to social and environmental domains. In the modern, globalized economy, the terms fair trade and ethical trade are dominant. The first concept refers to fair procedures, aim at supporting marginalized producers in rural industries and handicrafts, in developing countries (Phatak 1997). These objectives, which are developmental, are achieved through better access to the market , ensuring fair prices in the negotiations and stability in the revenue, by providing direct payments or prepayment. The second concept refers to activities by companies aiming at highlighting their moral, social and environmental responsibilities and promoting human rights and decent working conditions in global supply chains and production of products. Some examples are the following (Crane and Matten 2005:170): Organizations FLO International (Fair-Trade Labeling Organizations) world-class organization that sets standards and certification of fair trade. IFAT (International Federation for Alternative Trade) a network of institutions, which aims to provide opportunities, information and technical support and better access to markets. EFTA (European Fair Trade Association) an association of importers aiming at achieving the most fair trade effective imports, promote cooperation and information, awakening of public opinion and decision-makers. Social Signals Belgium Social Label Legal Framework of the Belgian government in 2001 that gave the right to companies to acquire a sign which is used in products produced in a production chain that is compatible with the rules of conduct of the International Labour Organisation. Rugmark Label it concerns the production of carpets in India and aims to eliminate child labor. The participants agree to ban child labor and to allow non-communicated controls at their factories. Flower Label Program aims at ensuring fair labor and environmental conditions in the industry of flower trade, such as respect for the principles of the ILO and the non-use of toxic pesticides and chemicals. Environmental Signals EU ECO LABEL a voluntary programme that started in 1992 to encourage the production and consumption of green products in Europe. It is used in products with reduced environmental impact, in compliance with established standards. These ecological standards are determined by a committee (EU ECO-LABELING BOARD) and take into account all phases of the life of a product from the production up to its use and its dismissal. FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL the international non-profit organization has launched a global program, which covers forest products and provides a credible guarantee that the product comes from a forest, whose management is assessed and certified in accordance with the agreed social, economic and environmental standards. PAN EUROPEAN FORESTRY CERTIFICATION a voluntary private sector initiative which aims to promote sustainable forest management at the local and national level. SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTING Through socially responsible investment (socially responsible investment SRI) a variety of approaches, products and tools offered to the social responsibility investors is shown. The socially responsible investment has become very popular in ordinary investors, because it combines   financial objectives with their concerns regarding moral, social and environmental issues. This way, it represents a powerful means to change business behaviour, by translating values into positive action and promotion of social and environmental procedures and practices (Holme and Watts 2000). The investment for social purposes supports a specific purpose or activity and their funding through investments. Unlike donations, investors for social purposes are interested in the return of the initial investment, either through reward (for loans) or through shares. In this kind of investment individual investors can be involved. These investors can be either individual investors who are interested in private capital investments or institutional investors for investments within a context which is shaped by institutions and organizations such as pension funds, banks, insurance and asset management companies. There are the following ways for institutional investors to follow their social and ecological values: Through filtering (screening) which concerns the inclusion or exclusion of shares in investment portfolios based on ethical, social or ecological criteria. This can be achieved either by excluding companies involved, for example, in the production of nuclear weapons, or by selecting companies based on the evaluation of their social and environmental performance. Through activism or the involvement of shareholders, where in this case, the investors by using their shareholder identity support their social and environmental concerns and seek ways to influence the behavior of the enterprise through consultation with the management of the compan

The Morality Of Mercy Killing

The Morality Of Mercy Killing Why is there such a thing in our world that is called mercy killing?, why? In this report I will discuss about euthanasia or mercy killing. Euthanasia is the deliberate killing of a person for the benefit of that person. In most cases euthanasia is carried out because the person asks to die, but there are cases where a person cant make such a request. A person who undergoes euthanasia is usually terminally ill. Euthanasia can be carried out either by doing something, such as administering a lethal injection, or by not kill a person even if they are terminally ill because this person needs a chance to live along and see his life, but there are people that disagree. Introduction Mercy killing, also known as mercy killing or assisted suicide is an act of murder which are usually to end the life of a person suffering from severe pain or terminal illness. An individual who is tormented by a disease you want to plant at the end of his life, but do not have the ability to do so. In such a case, and may request assistance from another person. This is illegal in most, but not all, areas of the world. Allow certain languages, provided that they are to follow strict guidelines and the procedure is by a doctor, the patients request. In the United States, assisted suicide is legal in only two states Oregon and Washington. And others have created, such as the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg are also rules for legal mercy killing. Rules of practice in areas where the law allows assisted suicide voluntary. That regulations governing the work of doctors allowed to put an end to the suffering of patients who choose voluntarily to physician assisted suicide. The case of terminally ill, which creates severe physical pain may require assistance. In areas where it is permitted by the physician assisted suicide is generally not legal for any person other than a doctor to help in the death of the last, however. Mercy killing and assisted suicide is a controversial issue in the community and among medical professionals in general. Some doctors believe that the practice of assisted suicide is incompatible with the teaching profession does not hurt. On the other hand, others argue that extending the life of a person who wishes to die is a violation of human rights harsh. One of the most popular activities assisted suicide is an American pathologist Dr. Jack Kevorkian. She helped illegally in the death of more than 100 patients in the United States, was convicted of second-degree murder in late 1990. In 2007, he was released from prison. Since then, Dr. Kevorkian appeared in several universities in the talk shows to promote his beliefs and theories about the patients right to die. While it is more common, and not all of mercy killing with the help of a doctor. Although it is a criminal act, there are many reported cases in one family member or other non-medical staff until the life of another, usually at the request of the patient. In some cases this is done by removing or cutting the life-saving device. At other times, the act was committed by administering a lethal overdose of drugs. If convicted, the person who can send mercy killing is illegal to prison Classification of mercy killing And mercy killing can be classified according to whether the person giving informed consent in three types: voluntary and non-voluntary and involuntary. There is controversy in the medical literature and bioethics about what if it can be considered as non-voluntary (and by extension, it was accidental) killing patients, mercy killing, regardless of the intentions or the circumstances of the patient. In the definitions offered by Beauchamp and Davidson, and then by the Wreen, and consent by the patient which are not considered to be one of the criteria, although it was asked to justify mercy killing. However, others see the agreement as necessary. Voluntary mercy killing Mercy killing was carried out with the consent of the patients so-called voluntary mercy killing. And active voluntary mercy killing is legal in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Voluntary passive mercy killing is legal in the United States Cruzan V. Director of the Department of Health and the state of Missouri. Is often used when the patient brings about his death for the assistance of physician-assisted suicide instead. Suicide is legal in Switzerland and the United States from Oregon, Washington and Montana. Non-voluntary mercy killing The implementation of mercy killing if the patients consent is not available so-called non-voluntary mercy killing. For example, mercy killing, which is illegal in all parts of the world, but in the criminalization of certain specific circumstances in the Netherlands with the Groningen Protocol. Involuntary mercy killing Performed mercy killing against the wishes of the patients so-called non-voluntary mercy killing. Procedural decision Can be divided into voluntary and non-voluntary mercy killing and involuntary to more variables, passive or active. A number of authors to consider these conditions to be misleading and unhelpful. Passive mercy killing Passive mercy killing involves the rejection of common treatments such as antibiotics, which are necessary to sustain life. Last mercy killing Last mercy killing involves the use of lethal substances or forces to kill the most controversial. Sense of medical The poll comes in the United States more than 10000 doctors to the conclusion that it was thought about 16% of the doctors to stop life-sustaining treatment because the familys request, even if he believed it was too premature. About 55% do not, and the rest 29% depends on the circumstances. This study also noted that California. 46% of doctors agree that he should be allowed to physician-assisted suicide in some cases 41%, no, and the remaining 14% think it depends Discussion Even some who accept and we can say the above principles, there is no real difference between allowing someone to die and the status of the person suffering in a coma until his death, in order to alleviate the suffering. Then you have to choose not to remove life-support systems. After all, as they say, and the result is the same in both cases. Also, if you remove your old age or treatment of a patient dying, the patient dies because of this procedure. Thus, they contend, by removing life-prolonging treatment is. A case of murder in the mercy killing as the cause of death is the direct intervention by the person injecting the performance or act of violence after death. Although the two procedures, euthanasia, and allowing to die, is similar in the result, are not the same in process or in the grounds next. In the case of allowing to die, it is true that the patient usually dies on the removal mechanisms of aging or treatment, but the cause of death is a condition that there is now allowed to have a natural effect. For example, the device is removed the ventilator and the patient died because of disease, cardiovascular system and lungs. Mechanism or treatment that prevent the removal of this life-threatening disease because it is more useful cognitive function and emotional, are not allowed to be a disease that affects the natural. Allows nature to take its course. In euthanasia, and the cause of death is a disease caused by a mercy killer. Can cause disease by direct interference with the normal activity of the physiological system of the patient or to withhold specific treatment for the system that should be provided. Can therefore be achieved by withholding the necessary euthanasia drug, as well as a pistol. In one way or another, therefore, euthanasia is an act of violence committed in the physiology of the person concerned and which caused the disease. In addition, at least an implicit justification of euthanasia is to exercise total domination over the human life. Some argue that the ultimate justification for euthanasia, and to liberate the suffering, is enough to justify this action. In this way, as they say, Roswell Gilbert, and others who wish to put an end to the suffering should not lead to the imposition of moral or legal. Unfortunately, there are many ethicists today to justify any action until the last reason is good. But such thinking ignores the reality. Actions that lead to achievement motivation and one that will eventually be a reason to be morally justified. For example, if the final was my motivation may be to collect money to send my children to university, and I do not have the right to steal the money of widows and orphans. Conclusion Mercy killing can and do not go hand in hand. According to Buddhism, can not justify mercy killing. Mercy killing can and do not go hand in hand. Some people kill pets because they do not like seeing animals suffer. Some try to justify mercy killing with the misconception that if the motive or reason for this is good, then the act itself is a good thing. Then that the claim to kill pets, they have the intention to alleviate the suffering of the unfortunate animal, and so a good job. There is no doubt that the original intent or motive is good. But the act of killing the evil that is done during the second idea would certainly help in achieving health outcomes. final thought: To determine the value or not intended in any business and we realize that may be the person who conducted the work of a self-satisfied with any sense of moral guilt. In the case of Roswell Gilbert and all the others in this same position, and we will be more interested in the discussion of the support system that would allow him to achieve his pain more humane way to discuss what could be a just punishment.

The Problems With Standardized Testing Essay -- Standardized Testing Es

The educational system in the United States has gone through many changes over the last century. These changes are a part of a constant movement toward educational excellence for every child in this nation. One of the most recent acts placed on public school systems by the government is to create more accountability for schools in order to ensure that all children are receiving the proper education. Part of this mandate is that public schools will require students to take tests in order to gather information about their academic achievement. Although educators and administrators claim that the mandatory ability testing programs being initiated in America’s public schools will hold students and teachers accountable for academic achievement, these programs are really causing more problems than they are solving. Mandated standardized testing is also known as â€Å"high-stakes testing†. When the tests are used to evaluate students and to hold educators accountable these tests are deemed to be â€Å"high stakes tests† because the consequences can be serious. An example of a serious outcome of these tests would be whether or not a child moves to the next grade or graduates high school. High stakes test were put into action by our nations policymakers in an attempt to improve education. Shortly after taking office in 2001 President George W. Bush announced his No Child Left Behind, which he called â€Å"the cornerstone of my administration.† (The No Child, 2002) This law has been implemented to ensure that all students reach proficiency within 12 years. No Child Left Behind is increasing accountability for our public school systems. Students in grades 3-8 must take annual test in reading and mathematics. The results of the tests are bro... ...w.ed.gov/offices/OESE/esea/exec-summ.html This article gave the text book definition of The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the governments position on the law. President Gorge Bush’s comments were also posted on this site. Each section on the law was reviewed in this article. Weathers, D. (2001, May). The Evils of Mandatory Testing. Retrieved April 12, 2003, from http://www.lessontutor.com/dw1.html This article was much more of a personal opinion of a concerned parent. Even so I found the information useful in order to compare the pro’s and con’s of this issue. Wright, W. E. (2002, June 5). The Effects of High-Stakes Testing in an Inner-City Elementary School: The curriculum, the teachers, and the English language learners. Current Issues in Education [On-line], 5(5). Retrieved on April 15, 2003. from http://cie.ed.asu.edu/volume5/number5/

Robert Browning Poems: My Last Duchess and Porphyrias Lover Essay

Robert Browning is one of the most celebrated poets of the Victorian age. His two poems I am working from, "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover", are just samples of his eminent work. Browning wrote a range of monologues when living in Italy with his wife, Elizabeth Barret. Dramatic monologues are the basis of the essay. I will discuss whether (or not) each poem "creates a character who reveals himself in what he has to say". My Last Duchess is a monologue spoken by the Duke. He talks about his relationship with his recently deceased wife. Through the words of the poem, he reveals the true demise of the Duchess and the reader is shown the Duke's feelings and opinions of this woman. Porphyria's Lover is also about the death of a woman. It involves a possessive lover who wishes to enshrine a moment of love. Though his method is everything but normal. Both poems are filled with rhyming couplets, however with the technique of enjambment, they are almost undetectable. This is a clever and subtle insinuation to the murderous deed in hand. I would first like to comment on the titles of both poems. My Last Duchess can give many hints to what the poem regards. The word 'My' can symbolise the Duke's wish to own the Duchess and using "My" creates this image. "Last" may make the reader think that she is the latest in a long line of wives, or that she is the last wife once and for all. Porphyria's Lover is left unnamed. Using 'Duchess' the reader can imagine that the male character is a Duke and therefore he has a title and a label. The 'Lover' is anonymous; he has no name, but uses 'Porphyria' to describe himself. This makes him very... ...anonymous Lover is possessively insane. He is driven only by his love for Porphyria. He feels restrained by society and feels that the moment she declares she is his; he cannot let it slip away. Time is against him and he had to find some way of keeping her perfectly preserved and unchanged. The Lover also reveals his rebellion against religion and God, thinking that God will not condemn him, as his deed was not wrong. I prefer Porphyria's Lover to My Last Duchess, as the Duke is terribly arrogant and pedantic. The Lover, I believe, truly loved Porphyria with all his heart, though it is baffling why he felt death was the only option. Whereas the Duke, did not love his wife but saw her as a possession to show off in front of people. The painting must surely work the way he wants it, as it is another thing to show off.

Feudalism in Today’s Society Essay

When searching for information on feudalism it is difficult to find modern sources speaking of it in a positive connotation. Most seem to regard it as merely a necessary step to capitalism. However, there are many aspects of feudalism still present in our society. Our society’s modes of defense and organization, as well as the devices used to make our standard of living possible, can be traced back to the age of feudalism. The feudal system stemmed from the people’s need to defend themselves from their many enemies. The main reason that people were willing to become vassals and work for their lord was so that they could be protected by him (Tierney 162). In the same sense, people in modern society expect their government to provide protection from any enemies that arise. In the feudal system, this protection was in the form of armies provided by the vassals to the lord. These armies where made up of knights who where expected to fight when called upon by their lords to do so (Tierney 162 ). In modern society the armies are also made up of people in the community who are called upon during times of war through, a system of drafts. In the Middle Ages, when a neighboring fief controlled by the same lord was attacked, the neighbor was expected to help defend it (Feudal Life). If one of the United States is attacked by a hostel force, soldiers are drafted from all of the adjoining states, not just th e one under attack. The organization of the country into different states that are in turn divided into counties and cities is also reminiscent of the feudal system. Each successively smaller division is run by it’s own elected official and each official answers to the one higher up the ladder. This is very similar to the feudal system where the lord had vassals who in turn had vassals of his own and serfs. All of the vassals where involved in decision making of the land. Counsels had to be consulted before any major decisions were made (Tierney 162-163). Another thing that emerged in the Middle Ages that we still see today is the middle-class society. During the feudal era there were plenty of people who could farm so some of them started to do other things such as carpentry and blacksmithing. There were enough specialists  around that the farmers didn’t have to do everything themselves anymore. For example, many manors in the Middle Ages had mills on the property. These Mills provided everyone with the flour needed to make bread (History). Today, few people in the general population would be able to do everything required for their survival. Everyone has one or two things that they are good at and that they make their living from and everyone buys what they need from other such people. In order to make all of the food and other goods required to keep modern society functioning normally, many devices are used that originate from the time of the feudal system. Around this time, slaves were replaced by serfs and free workers so ways of making the work easier surfaced. One of these was the practice of using work animals to help with farm labor (History). Granted this is not practiced as much now as it was then because we now have things like tractors and cars to make labor easier, but there are still some animals used for labor. Another device developed during this time that made work easier for the workers was the wheelbarrow. This is still widely used today for all sorts of things, along with the gear or toothed wheel which is the basis for most machinery and clock mechanisms. Another practice started in the middle ages that is extremely useful to us is the use of wind and water for energy (History). We generally use the power of these elements to provide us with electricity where they used them for mills and similar applications, but the basic idea is still the same. So it is apparent that our society is indebted to the age of feudalism for many things that we take for granted. We still use aspects of feudalism for producing food, defense, and structuring our government. Perhaps those socialists that can only speak of feudalism as a necessary step to capitalism with an arrogant detachment to its true importance should be reminded of what it was like trying to survive during one of the most dangerous periods of civilization. Works Cited History of Feudalism in Europe; History Interactive. National Heritage Academies. http://michiganepic.org/NHA/Feudalism/feudalism.html. Feudal Life in the Middle Ages. Learner.org. http://www.learner.org/exhibits/middleages/feudal.html Tierney, Brian. Western Europe in the Middle Ages: 300-1475. Sixth Edition. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1999

Eugene O’Neill Essay

INTRODUCTION 1. 1. Origin and Development of American Literature A fundamental difference subsists between American literature and proximately all the other major literary traditions of the world: it is essentially a modern, recent and international literature. The American continent possessed major pre-Columbian civilizations, with a deep heritage of culture, mythology, ritual, chant and poetry. Many recent American writers, especially recently, have looked to these sources as something essential to American culture, and the extraordinary variety and vision to be found there contribute much to the complexity  and increasing multiethnicity of Contemporary American experience. But this is not the originating tradition of what we now call American literature. That originated from the meeting between the land and usually despised Red Indians and the discoverers and settlers who left the developed, literatre cultures of Renaissance Europe, first to explore and conquer, then to populate, what they generally considered a virgin continent – a â€Å"New World† already promised them in their own mythology, now discovered by their own talent and curiosity. Owing to the sizably voluminous immigration to Boston in the 1630s, they brought their conceptions of history and the world’s purport; they brought their languages and above all , the book. The book was both a sacred text, the Bible (to be reinvigorated in the King James Authorized Version of 1611), and a general instrument of expression, record, argument, and cultural dissemination. In time, the book became American literature, and other things they shipped with it — from European values and prospects to post-Gutenberg printing technology– shaped the lineage of American writing. So did the early records kept of the encounter and what they composed of it. Of course a past was being ravaged as well as an incipient present gained when these travelers/ settlers imposed on the North American continent and its cultures their forms of interpretation and narrative, their Christian history and iconography. This American when first came into existence out of writing – European writing – and then went on to demand a new writing which fitted the harshness and grandeur of its landscape, the mysterious potential of its seemingly boundless open space. But â€Å"America† existed in  Europe long before it was discovered, in the speculative writings of the classical, the medieval and the then the Renaissance mind. â€Å"He invented America; a very great man †. Mademoiselle Nioche says about Columbus in Henry James’ The American (1877). 1. 1. 1. Periods of American Literature The division of American literature into convenient historical segments, or â€Å"periods,† lacks the consensus among literary scholars. The many syllabi of college surveys reprinted in Reconstructing American Literature, ed. Paul Lauter (1983), and the essays in Redefining American Literary History, ed. A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff and Jerry W. Ward (1990), demonstrate how variable are the temporal divisions and their names, especially since the beginning of efforts to do justice to literature written by women and by ethnic minorities. 1607-1775 : This era, from the founding of the first settlement at Jamestown to the outbreak of the American Revolution, is often called the Colonial Period, in which writings were for the most part-religious, practical, or historical. William Bradford, John Winthrop, and Cotton Mather are the notable writers. The period between 1765 and 1790 is sometimes distinguished as the Revolutionary Age. It was the time of Thomas Paine’s influential revolutionary tracts; of Thomas Jefferson’s â€Å"Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom,† â€Å"Declaration of Independence,† and many other writings. The years 1775-1828, the Early National Period, ending with the triumph of Jacksonian democracy in 1828, signalized the emergence of a national imaginative literature, including the first American stage comedy (Royall Tyler’s The Contrast, 1787), the earliest American novel (William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy, 1789), and the establishment in 1815 of the first enduring American magazine, The North American Review. Washington Irving achieved international fame with his essays and stories; Charles Brockden Brown wrote distinctively American versions of the Gothic novel of mystery and terror; the career of James Fenimore Cooper, the first major American novelist, was well launched. The span 1828-1865 from the Jacksonian era to the Civil War, often identified as the Romantic Period in America, marks the full coming of age of a distinctively American literature. This period is sometimes known as the American Renaissance, the title of F. O. Matthiessen’s influential book (1941) about its outstanding writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson,  Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne; it is also sometimes called the Age of Transcendentalism, after the philosophical and literary movement, entered on Emerson, that was dominant in New England. In all the major genres except drama, writers produced works of an originality and excellence not exceeded in later American literature. Emerson, Thoreau, and the early feminist Margaret Fuller shaped the ideas, ideals, and literary aims of many contemporary and later American writers. It was the age not only of continuing writings by William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving, and James Fennimore Cooper,  but also of the novels and short stories of Pow, Hawthorne, Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the southern novelist William Gilmore Simms; of the poetry of Poe, John Greenleaf Whittier, Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and the most innovative and influential of all American poets, Walt Whitman; And of the beginning of distinguished American criticism of Poe, Simms, and James Russell Lowell. 1865-(1914) The cataclysm of the Civil War and Reconstruction, followed by a burgeoning industrialism and urbanization in the North, profoundly altered American self-awareness, and also American literary modes. The years 1865-1900 are often known as the Realistic Period, by reference to the novels by Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, and Henry James, as well as by John W. DeForest, Harold Frederic. These works, though diverse, are often labeled â€Å"realistic† in contrast to the â€Å"romances† of their predecessors in prose fiction: Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville. Some realistic authors grounded their fiction in a regional milieu; these include (in addition to Mark Twain’s novels on the Mississippi River region) Bret Harte in California, Sarah Orne Jewett in Maine, Mary Wilkins Freeman in Massachusetts, and George W. Cable and Kate Chopin in Louisiana. Chopin has become prominent as an early and major feminist novelist. Whitman continued writing poetry up to the last decade of the century, and was joined by Emily Dickinson; although only seven of Dickinson’s more than a thousand short poems were published in her lifetime, she is now recognized as one of the most distinctive and eminent of American pets. Sidney Lanier published his experiments in versification based on the meters of music; the African-American author Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote both poems and novels between 1893 and 1905; and in the 1890s Stephen Crane, although he was only  twenty-nine when he died, published short poems in free verse that anticipate the experiments of Ezra Pound and the Imagists, and wrote also the brilliantly innovative short stories and short novels hat look forward to two later narrative modes: naturalism and impressions. The years 1900-(1914) although James, Howells, and Mark Twain were still writing, and Edith Wharton was publishing her earlier novels—are sometimes discriminated as the Naturalistic Period, in recognition of the powerful although sometimes crudely wrought novels by Frank Norris, Jack  London, and Theodore Dreiser, which typically represent characters who are joint victims of their instinctual drives and of external sociological forces. (1914)- 1939. The era between the two world wars, marked by the trauma of the great economic depression beginning in 1929, was that of the emergence of what is still known as â€Å"Modern literature†, which in America reached an eminence rivaling that of the American Renaissance of the mid-nineteenth century; unlike most of the authors of that earlier period, however, the American modernists also achieved widespread international recognition and influence. Poetry magazine, founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, published many innovative authors. Among the notable poets were Edgar Lee Masters, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, Robinson Jeffers, Marianne Moore, T. S. Eliot, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and E. E. Cummings— authors who wrote in an unexampled variety of poetic modes. The literary productions of this era are often subclassified in a variety of ways. The flamboyant and pleasure-seeking 1920s are sometimes referred to as â€Å"the Jazz Age†, a title popularized by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age (1922). The same decade was also the period of the Harlem Renaissance, which produced major writings in all the literary forms. Many prominent American writers of the decade following the end of World War I, disillusioned by their war experiences and alienated by what they perceived as the crassness of American culture and its â€Å"puritanical† repressions, are often tagged ( in a term first applied by Gertrude Stein to young Frenchmen of the time) as the Lost Generation, a number of these writers became expatriates, moving either to London or to  Paris in their quest for a richer literary and artistic milieu and a freer way of life. 1939 to the Present, the Contemporary period. World War II, and especially the disillusionment with Soviet Communism consequent upon the Moscow trails for alleged treason and Stalin’s signing of the Russo-German pact with Hitler in 1939, largely ended the literary radicalism of the 1930s. A final blow to the very few writers who had maintained intellectual allegiance to Soviet Russia came in 1991 with the collapse of Russian Communism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. For several decades the New Criticism—dominated by conservative southern writers. The Agrarians, who in the 1930s had championed a return from an industrial to an agricultural economy—typified the prevailing critical tendency to isolate literature from the life of the author and from society and to conceive a work of literature, in formal terms, as an organic and autonomous entity. The eminent and influential critics Edmund Wilson and Lionel Trilling, however—as well as other critics grouped with them as the New York Intellectuals, including Philip Rahv, Alfred Kazin, Dwight McDonald, and Irving Howe—continued through the 1960s to deal with a work of literature humanistically and historically, in the context of its author’s life, temperament and social milieu and in terms of the work’s moral and imaginative qualities and its consequences for society. The 1950s, while often regarded in retrospect as a period of cultural conformity and complacency, was marked by the emergence of vigorous anti-establishment and anti-traditional literary movements: the Beat writers such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac; the American exemplars of the literature of the absurd; the Black Mountain Poets? Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, and Robert Duncan; and the New York Poets, Frank O’Hara, Kenneth Koch, and John Ashbery. It was also a time of confessional poetry and the literature of extreme sexual candor, marked by the emergence of Henry Miller as a notable author. The counterculture of the 1960s and early 1970s continued some of these modes, but in a fashion made extreme and fevered by the rebellious youth movement and the vehement and sometimes violent opposition to the war in Vietnam. Important American writers after World War II is Eudora Welty, Robert Penn Warren, Saul Bellow, R P. Warren, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee and many others. 1. 2 RISE OF AMERICAN DRAMA â€Å"In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? Or goes to an American play? † -Sydney Smith, The Edinburgh Review (1820). This was the most profoundly preconceived thought around the world before the epoch of American Drama among many literary critics as well as the literate people, half of those harsh comments were due to impediment and the remaining were sort of ill-treatment. â€Å"There is not, and there never has been, a literary institution,  which could be called the American Drama† †¢ Dion Boucicault This statement provoke very little argument from most American critics more than a hundred years later. In fact, the neglect of American drama is so pervasive that Ruby Cohn, in her history of twentieth-century drama for the Columbia Literary History of the United States (1988), begins with the observation: â€Å"Given the chokehold on drama of a misnamed Broadway, given the lure of Hollywood, and given the power of some small-minded reviewers in the daily press, it is a virtual miracle that American drama merits admission to a history of American literature†. Despite its segregation from the main corpus of American literature, American drama has never been written in a vaccum. It has mirrored peculiarly American social, political, and historical issues in traditional as well as challenging forms and experimental styles. It has been the forum for a plurality of American voices. American drama has always responded to national and regional problems, either in reifying prevailing sentiments or by challenging dominant ideologies. Like other forms of American literature, drama embodies the American struggle. For decades scholars and critics of American literature, engaged in establishing discipline with  canonical hierarchies and feeling embattled in the face of longer-lived English literary studies, have practiced generic hegemony; as a consequence, American drama historically has been the most devalued and overlooked area in American literary studies. Besides all these, there was great theatrical activity during the 19th century a time when there were no movies, TV, or Radio. Every town of any size had its theater or â€Å"opera house† in which touring companies of actors performed. However, no significant drama was performed in this century, with audiences preferring farce, melodrama, and vaudeville to serious efforts. European drama, which was to influence modern American drama profoundly, matured in the last third of 19th century with the achievements of three playwrights: Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, and Anton Chekhov. Ibsen who was profoundly influenced by psychologists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, tackled subjects such as guilt, sexuality, and mental illness. Strindberg brought to his characterizations a unprecedented level of psychological complexity. And Chekhov shifted the subject matter of drama from wildly theatrical displays of external action and emotions to the concerns of everyday life. These trio presented characters and situations more or less realistically chiefly known as â€Å"slice-of-life† dramatic technique. Soon after the beginning of the 20th century, realism became the dominant mode of American drama. Very soon after the little theaters off Broadway succeeded with realistic plays. In 1916 and 1917, two small theater groups in New York (the Provincetown Players and the Washington Square Players) began to produce new American plays. They provided a congenial home for new American playwrights like Eugene O’Neill, whose first plays were produced by the Provincetown Players in MA. These small play groups would produce any play, in any style, that commercial theater would not touch. These groups were the beginning of modern American dramatic theater. The post- World War II years brought two important figures to prominence in American drama : Arthur Miller (((1916))-2005) and Tennessee Williams (1911-1983). They remain the dominant figures of the second half of the 20th century. Miller and Williams represent the two principal movement in modern American drama: realism, and realism combined with an attempt at something more imaginative. From the beginning, American playwrights have tried to break  away from the strict realism of Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov and to blend it with a more poetic form of expression. Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949),Williams’ The Glass Menagerie (1944) and Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (1938) are some of the best examples of this style of writing. Contemporary American Theater In the mid 19th century, realism in drama was conceived as a revolt against crude theatricalism. Currently there is a revolt against realism itself and a move toward more theatricalism, with its emphasis on stage effects and imaginative settings. Once again, American  drama is changing to reflect the changing attitudes of American theater-going audiences. Dramatists today have the freedom to express their deepest feelings, whatever they may be, in any form they choose- provided that their approach can be made comprehensible to an audience and touch their emotions. 1. 3 LIFE AND CAREER OF EUGENE O’NEILL â€Å"I was born in a hotel and, damn it, I’ll die in a hotel†- Eugene O’Neill Eugene Gladstone O’Neill (16- October- 1888 to 27- November-1953), the son of James O’Neill and Ella Quinlan was born in an up-town family hotel, named Barret House on broadway at 43, Street, New York. James O’Neill, was a successful touring actor in the last quarter of the 19th century whose most famous role was that of the Count of Monte Cristo in a stage adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel. Ella accompanied her husband all the times except for the birth of her first son, James Jr,. and for Eugene. His parents were ardent follower of Catholicism. Ella was exceptionally beautiful woman. She loved music and practiced a curled hand-writing. As he was born in a hotel, he spent his childhood in hotel rooms, on trains and backstage. This filled him with a sense of instability and insecurity. O’Neill later deplored the nightmare insecurity of these early years experience and blamed his father for the tragedies that happened in the life of O’Neill. â€Å"Wherever he (O’Neill) lived, the houses he bought were always big, as if their very size would ensure stability: the other side of the picture is, of course, to be seen in his restless experimentation, which ever allowed him exactly to repeat a way of writing he had once essayed. † O’Neill was educated at boarding schools such as Mt. St. Vincent in the Bronx and Betts Academy in Stamford, Conn. His summers were spent at the family’s only permanent home, a  modest house overlooking the Thames River in New London. He attended Princeton University for one year (1906-07), after which he left school to begin what he later regarded as his real education in â€Å"life experience. † The next six years very nearly ended his life. He shipped to sea, lived a derelict’s existence on the waterfronts of Buenos Aires, Liverpool, and New York City, submerged himself in alcohol, and attempted suicide. Recovering briefly at the age of 24, he held a job for a few months as a reporter and contributor to the poetry column of the New London Telegraph but soon came with tuberculosis. Confined to the Gaylord Farm Sanitarium in Wallingford for six months then he confronted himself soberly and seized the chance for what he later called his â€Å"rebirth†. O’Neill’s first efforts were awkward melodramas, but they were about people and subjects—prostitutes, derelicts, lonely sailors, God’s injustice to man—that had, up to that time, been in the province of serious novels and were not considered an apt subjects for presenting on the American Stage. In the autumn of (1914), O’Neill entered G. P. Baker’s Academy at Harvard to take lessons in playwriting, because of a theatre critic suggestion to his father. O’Neill’s first appearance as a playwright came in the summer of 1916, in the quiet fishing village of Provincetown, where a group of young writers and painters had launced an experimental theater. In their tiny, ramshackle playhouse on a wharf, they produced his one-act sea play Bound East for Cardiff. The talent inherent in the play was immediately evident to the group, which that fall formed the Playwright’s Theater in Greenwich village. Their first bill, on 03-November-1916, included Bound East for Cardiff—O’Neill’s one-act sea plays, along with a number of his lesser efforts. By the time his first full length play, Beyond the Horizon? was produced on Broadway, staged in Morosco Theater, when the young playwright already had a small reputation. In 1918 he married Agnes Boulton, and they lived for several summers at Peaked Hill, a reconditioned life-saving station near Provincetown. During the rest of the year, they lived in other places. They had two children before separating in 1827. His third wife, Carlotta Montercy, accompanied him on many long journeys, to Europe, to Asia, to the American West. They were to be frequently on the move during the rest of O’Neill’s life, and they were to experience many  painful things including the suicide of Eugene O’ Neill Jr. O’Neill’s last years were marked by physical suffering ( his hands paralysed so that he could no longer write), by increasing isolation, by family trouble and dissension. He died on 27 November, 1953. 1. 4 O’Neill’s contribution to American Drama In his own life-time, O’Neill was established as the leading American dramatist. He was awarded Pulitzer Prizes for Beyond the Horizon, Anna Christie, Strange Interlude, and Long Days Journey into Night ( he received the highest international recognition in the award of the  Nobel Prize in Literature; a considerable number of books and articles have been devoted to his work since the nineteen-twenties, and in recent years the sign of interest has grown markedly pronounced. His plays are quite popular in the English-speaking world. Despite some critical effort to depreciate O’Neill, he remains America’s outstanding playwright, the only one to win international fame and recognition, and the Novel Prize. He not only built up the American theatre, but also put it on the world map, where now it has a dynamic and distinguished place beside the European and continental theatre—Arthur Miller and  Tennessee Williams helping to sustain that edifice. Unlike Shakespeare, whom popular fancy depicts as a wild bird who sat on the bough and warbled his wood-notes wild, O’Neill had the theatre in his blood and made a lifelong strenuous conscious effort to achieve glory in this field and leave foot-prints on the sands of time. Also, unlike Shakespeare, O’Neill was a highly personal writer, in whose case the partions that divide autobiography and objective reality are very thin paper thin so that his dramatic works constitute a series of personal obsessions, ending up with the most personal of them all- Long Day’s Journey into Night. Full-length plays †¢BREAD AND BUTTER, (1914) †¢SERVITUDE, (1914) †¢THE PERSONAL EQUATION, (1916) †¢NOW I ASK YOU, 1916 †¢BEYOND THE HORIZON, 1918 – PULITZER PRIZE, (1920) †¢THE STRAW, (1919) †¢CHRIS CHRISTOPHERSEN, (1919) †¢GOLD, (1920) †¢ANNA CHRISTIE, (1920) – PULITZER PRIZE, (1922) †¢THE EMPEROR JONES, (1920) †¢DIFF’RENT, (1921) †¢THE FIRST MAN, (1922) †¢THE HAIRY APE, (1922) †¢THE FOUNTAIN, (1923) †¢MARCO MILLIONS, (1923–25) †¢ALL GOD’S CHILLUN GOT WINGS, (1924) †¢WELDED, (1924) †¢DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS, (1925) †¢LAZARUS LAUGHED, (1925–26) †¢THE GREAT GOD BROWN, (1926) †¢STRANGE INTERLUDE, (1928 – PULITZER PRIZE) †¢DYNAMO, (1929) †¢MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA, (1931) †¢AH, WILDERNESS! , (1933) †¢DAYS WITHOUT END, (1933) †¢THE ICEMAN COMETH, (WRITTEN 1939, PUBLISHED 1940, FIRST PERFORMED 1946) †¢HUGHIE, WRITTEN (1941, FIRST PERFORMED 1959) †¢LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, (WRITTEN 1941, FIRST PERFORMED 1956 – PULITZER PRIZE 1957) †¢A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN, (WRITTEN 1941–1943, FIRST PERFORMED 1947) †¢A TOUCH OF THE POET, (COMPLETED IN 1942, FIRST PERFORMED 1958) †¢MORE STATELY MANSIONS, (SECOND DRAFT FOUND IN O’NEILL’S PAPERS, FIRST PERFORMED 1967) †¢THE CALMS OF CAPRICORN, (PUBLISHED IN 1983) One-act plays The Glencairn Plays, all of which feature characters on the fictional ship Glencairn—filmed together as The Long Voyage Home: †¢BOUND EAST FOR CARDIFF, ((1914)) †¢IN THE ZONE, (1917) †¢THE LONG VOYAGE HOME, (1917) †¢MOON OF THE CARIBBEES, (1918) Other one-act plays include: †¢A WIFE FOR A LIFE, (1913) †¢THE WEB, (1913) †¢THIRST, (1913) †¢RECKLESSNESS, (1913) †¢WARNINGS, (1913) †¢FOG, (1914) †¢ABORTION, (1914) †¢THE MOVIE MAN: A COMEDY, (1914) †¢THE SNIPER, (1916) †¢BEFORE BREAKFAST, (1916) †¢ILE, (1917) †¢THE ROPE, (1918) †¢SHELL SHOCK, (1918) †¢THE DREAMY KID, (1918) †¢WHERE THE CROSS IS MADE, (1918) †¢EXORCISM (1919) 1. 5 His Themes.