Sample critical essays

sample compare contrast essay

Not every aspect of individual life is equally important, of course, and the importance of particular dimensions of life may vary over time. But some variables are so critical for the quality of life that others can be ignored. If the central nervous system ceases to function properly, for example, most other dimensions of life lose much of their importance. The life that serves as a reference point must be three-dimensional, including extension in time as well as breadth and intensity. And when choices are being made, the whole life is taken into account, for the meaning of particulars is indeterminate if the whole remains unknown. Which aspects will be included in any given choice depends on the situation, the actual effects of action, and the content of the ethic applied to the situation.

sample compare/contrast essay

The effect of one person's actions on another person, or on the self, will occur in one of two ways: (1) the action may produce a change in the value of one of the variables used to describe the person; or (2) the action may prevent a change in the value of one of those variables that would otherwise have occurred. That is, Jones's action may change the value of Smith's "pain felt" variable from neutral to positive, or it may prevent such a change from occurring--say by interfering with the actions of another person seeking to inflict pain on Smith.

sample comparison and contrast essay

Change is the basic indicator of action; unless some change occurs in the value of one or more of the variables that describe the person, or fails to take place when it is otherwise expected, there is no effect or impact. The first-order consequences of action can always be stated as a specific change in the descriptive account of the individual affected, and that is the first step in the development of normative variables able to measure the effects of action on the quality of life. The immediate impact of action, the change introduced into a descriptive account of a person by another person's actions, is not in itself an adequate basis for choice.

sample coursework

The initial change produced by action is not always a good or adequate input of the impact of that change on the individual's life. A hypodermic needle may produce only a tiny hole in the human skin and yet cause near-instant death; in other cases, the body may be so badly mauled that survival seems unlikely and yet the long-run effect on the life may be trivial. Further, some of the variables used to describe an individual have no normative significance; they function as connecting links between external actions and the individual life.

 sample critical essays

The immediate or direct effect of action is the change in the value of some input variable that appears in the description of a person or the inhibition of such a change. How much impact that initial change will have on the life of the person depends on the kind of change that occurs and the mitigating effect of other characteristics or attributes of the individual. In some cases, the effect of the initial change is the same for virtually all persons, regardless of their other attributes. Thus, a bullet directed through the brain tends to produce the same impact for everyone.

sample critique essays

Whatever specific normative variables may be employed, the value taken by those variables will be a complex function of the amount of change induced into the inputs by action and the values taken by the relevant buffer variables. To complete the apparatus, a set of rules must be created linking those two values to the value of the normative variable. In the case of a monetary fine, rules are needed that will combine the amount of the fine with, say, the level or income or of wealth, to produce a measure of the impact of that change on the total life, stated in terms of some normative variable(s), such as access to recreation or freedom from physical restraints on action.

sample dissertation

The structure has now developed a very useful additional characteristic: The set of buffer variables, taken collectively, can identify a class of persons who will be affected normatively in precisely the same way by a common change in the value of an input variable. A social policy intended to produce a particular impact or outcome will succeed only if it is applied to people who share a common set of buffer variables, each taking roughly the same values. Otherwise, the effects of action, normatively speaking, will differ from person to person. Thus the impact of a fixed payment each month or week, such as unemployment compensation, will be the same for all persons sharing the same set of buffer variables and values, and different for those who do not

sample english essay

The rules need only be rough and loose, indicating cutoff points and other limits that mark desirable and unacceptable levels for the values of those variables. The variables themselves, as noted in the previous unit, must take into account both the amount of change and the duration of change, hence will refer to such things as "permanent physical restriction" or "temporary sensations of acute pain." As long as calculation will generate a preference for one set of values for the normative variables rather than another, the requirements for directing actions are fulfilled.

sample essay

The structure needed to state the effects of action in normative terms can now be completed. It will include input variables, buffer variables, various descriptive variables that play no part in judgment and can be dropped, a set of one or more normative variables, and a set of rules for determining the values of those variables from the values taken by specific inputs and buffers. While it may seem large and forbiddingly complex, the fact is that the structure is a commonplace in everyday affairs, although use is not generally self-conscious and deliberate, and therefore not always very accurate.

sample of a descriptive essay

The substance of the normative variables, the dimensions of life as a whole that should be used to measure and compare the effects of action, cannot be identified in general terms, although it is usually possible to deal quite effectively with particular cases. Most of them will be derived from current ethical systems, perhaps revised to meet the special requirements added when they are intended for use in reasoned choice or action. As in empirical theory, it is more important to develop the capacity to correct and improve over time than to attain reasonable certainty before application.