Presupposition in Semantics Essay

IntroductionPresupposition is originated in the field of philosophy and it was proposed by German philosopher Ferge in 1892. In the 1960s, presupposition entered the area of linguistics and became a significant concept in semantics. Later in the 1970s, Keenan introduced presupposition to the pragmatics to describe a relation between a speaker and the appropriateness of a sentence in a context (Levinson: 177). Hence, presupposition can be distinguished into two categories: semantic presupposition and pragmatic presupposition. This thesis is mainly centered on the exploration of presupposition in semantics from the perspectives of features and problems of presupposition. For the sake of searching for the solutions to the problems, the writer also brings two pragmatic theories of presupposition into discussion. Part I. Two Approaches to PresuppositionIn the linguistics, two approaches to presupposition are semantic and pragmatic. Semantic presupposition views the sentence relations in terms of truth relations while pragmatic presupposition describes sentences as an interaction between individuals. A.Semantic PresuppositionIn ordinary language, of course, to presuppose something means to assume it, and the narrower technical use in semantics is related to this (Saeed: 93). In semantics, the meaning of a sentence is based on the sentence itself instead of something constructed by the participants. The semantic presupposition is only concerned about the truth value of the statements. For instance,a)John managed to stop in time. b)John tried to stop in time. (Suo: 130)In the example, sentence a) presupposes sentence b), that is to say, if it is true that John managed to stop in time, it must be true that John tried to stop in time. Meanwhile, if this proposition is false, the presupposition that John tried to stop in time still exists. However, only the truth of sentence b) doesn’t tell anything concerning the result whether he stopped in time or not. Based on the analysis, we can draw a truth table for this presupposition:a bT → TF → TT or F ↠ TThis table is an overt description of the truth relations between sentence a) and b). If sentence a) is true, then its presupposition b) is also true. If sentence a) is false, then the truth of b) still survives.  While if sentence b) is true, sentence a) can be either true or false. The interpretation of presupposition in semantics is on the basis of truth relations. B.Pragmatic PresuppositionCompared with semantic presupposition- a truth-relation approach, pragmatic presupposition is an interactional approach in interpreting the sentence relations. Stalnaker argues that presupposition is essentially a pragmatic phenomenon: part of the set of assumptions is made by participants in a conversation, which he terms the common ground (Saeed: 101). This common ground is the mutual knowledge shared by both speaker and hearer. For example, â€Å"I am afraid my car broke down.† The presupposition of this utterance is that the speaker has a car, which is known to the hearer. However, if the hearer originally doesn’t know the fact, on hearing the utterance, s/he can take it as a common ground for a further conversation. By virtue of context, appropriate presupposition will help the hearer understand the utterance of the speaker. During the conversation, both speaker and hearer are doing the turn-taking and they can depend on the former utterances to conduct a smooth communication. By comparison of semantic presupposition and pragmatic presupposition, we can gain a better understanding of this notion applied in the linguistics. However, the focus of this thesis is on the presupposition in the semantics. Thus, the following parts will be concentrated on the semantic presupposition. Part II. Features of Semantic PresuppositionIn semantics, presupposition possesses unique features: being different from entailment, presupposition is stable under negation. It is produced not only by the definite description, but also by presupposition triggers. A.StabilitySemantic presupposition relies on the meaning of words and grammatical structures to describe the truth relations between sentences and these aspects don’t vary too much from context to context. Hence,  presupposition is relatively stable and it remains constant under negation of the main sentence. This feature of semantic presupposition makes a distinction between entailment and presupposition. For example,a)I borrowed my friend’s bike today. b)I borrowed something today. If sentence a) is true, it guarantees the truth of sentence b), to be more specific, a) entails b). However, if we negate a) to form a’) then it no longer entails b), repeated as follows:a’) I didn’t borrow my friend’s bike today. b’) I borrowed something today. If it is false that I borrowed my friend’s bike today, it can not tell whether I borrowed something today or not. It might be true that I borrowed something instead of my friend’s bike, but we just don’t know. In contrast, the presupposing sentence is constant even under negation, for instance, c)My sister got married last year. d)I have a sister. The pre-condition of sentence c) is d), if c) is true then d) must be taken as a fact. In other words, sentence c) has the presupposition in d) and the truth of c) makes sure the truth of d) as well. If negating c) as â€Å"My sister didn’t get married last year.† The presupposition that â€Å"I have a sister† also survives. This is the difference between entailment and presupposition, namely, the negation of an entailing sentence leads to the failure of the entailment while negating a presupposing sentence allows the presupposition to survive. B.Presupposition TriggersOn the one hand, the existence of presupposition can derive from the use of a name or definite description. On the other hand, it  can be produced by particular words or sentence constructions, which are called presupposition triggers. Karttunen has collected thirty-one kinds of triggers but in the following section the writer will mainly focus on four types of these triggers: factive verbs, change of state verbs, temporal clauses and cleft sentences. To begin with, verbs like â€Å"regret,† â€Å"deplore,† â€Å"know† and â€Å"agree† are under the category of factive verbs, for they presuppose the truth of the complement clause. For instance,a)Martha regrets/ doesn’t regret drinking John’s home brew. b)Martha drank John’s home brew. (Suo: 131)Whether Martha regrets drinking John’s home brew or not, it is a known fact that Martha drank John’s home brew. The sentence a) has the presupposition in b). By contrast, no such presupposition exists with the non-factive verb like â€Å"think.† For example,c)Tom thought that John was late. d)John was late. Sentence c) indicates that it is only Tom’ personal opinion of John’s being late. Actually, John might not be late and the truth doesn’t reveal from the sentence itself. Therefore, sentence c) doesn’t have the presupposition in d) due to the non-factive verb â€Å"think.†Secondly, the employments of verbs like â€Å"stop,† â€Å"start,† â€Å"begin† and â€Å"finish† imply the change of state. Hence, these lexical triggers are regarded as change of state verbs, which describe the new state and presuppose the former state as well. For instance,a)John stopped/ didn’t stop beating his wife. b)John had been beating his wife. (Suo: 131)The verb â€Å"stop† means making something end and here if John stopped beating his wife, which means that he makes the action of beating his wife end. But if he didn’t stop, the occasion of beating will continue to happen in the future. No matter what the situation is, sentence a) presupposes the fact b) that John had been beating his wife as the former state. What’s more, not only the lexical words trigger the presupposition, but also clauses like temporal clauses may produce presupposition. For example,a)Linda went to the supermarket before she met her friends. b)Linda met her friends. The temporal clause marked by the conjunction â€Å"before† shows that Linda went to the supermarket first and then went to meet her friends. In effect, sentence a) states the fact that Linda really met her friends. It is this temporal clause that ensures the truth of sentence b) and also triggers the presupposition in b). Last but not least, syntactic structure such as cleft sentence can also act as a trigger for the production of certain types of presupposition. For example,a)It was the noise that annoyed me. b)What annoyed me was the noise. c)Something annoyed me. In the example, the cleft construction in a) and the pseudo-cleft in b) share the presupposition in c). No matter how the sentence structure changes, the essence of the sentence remains unchanged. What sentence a) and b) intend to stress is that there is something annoyed me. By means of the features like stability and presupposition triggers, the real intention of the utterances can be investigated. If the speaker changes the predicate â€Å"has† to â€Å"hasn’t,† or â€Å"does† to â€Å"doesn’t,† the presupposition for the utterance is the same, for presupposition is of stability. Presupposition triggers can be used as a tool to present the essence of the sentence, no matter what lexical words and constructions are applied. Part III. Problems of Semantic PresuppositionIn semantics, this truth-based approach gives rise to problems for the presupposition, such as, presupposition failure, the defeasibility of presupposition and the  projection problem. A.Presupposition FailureOn the basis of truth condition, it has been taken for granted that a name or definite description being used refers to the existent entity in the field of semantics. However, if the named or described entity doesn’t exist, it causes problem for this truth-relation approach, which is known as presupposition failure. The following example is by now the most discussed one in this literature:a)The King of France is bald. b)There is a King of France. (Saeed: 96)According to the criterion of truth relation, no doubt sentence a) presupposes sentence b), if it is true that there is a King of France. But if there is no King of France, that is to say, the sentence b) is false, the problem is aroused, for it is uncertain whether this presupposition survives or not. Are the sentences like a) true or false, or just in a gray area, neither true nor false? This dubious situation for truth-based approach results in the truth value gap. For such a problem, Russell offers a famous solution to make an analysis of this definite description as three expressions as follows:The King of France is bald is true if and only if:a)at least one thing is the kingb)at most one thing is the kingc)whatever is the king is bald. (Saeed: 97)From the Russell’s analysis, we know that if there is no King of France, it leads to the falsity of this proposition that the King of France is bald. Thus, there is no gray area between true or false, no truth value gap. However, it seems to be too complex to employ these preconditions for the explanation of one name and it may cost great efforts to analyze the preconditions whenever meet with such kind of statements. In comparison with truth relation approach, it may be less problematic for an interactional approach. During the communication between the individuals, whenever an unfamiliar name or definite description occurs, the hearer can interrupt the speaker so as to signal the failure of the conversation. For instance, the speaker says to someone, â€Å"Mr. Hong will invite us to dinner next Friday.† If the hearer doesn’t know Mr. Hong, it may cause confusion. As the conversation continues, the hearer can ask the speaker who Mr. Hong  is. As for the speaker, s/he can take an immediate response to clear up the misunderstanding. The presupposition failure in semantics results from the narrow question of the truth value of statements about non-existent entities, while in pragmatics, the attention is paid to the more general question of what conventions license a speaker’s referring use of name or definite description. B.DefeasibilityOne of the peculiar things about presupposition is that it is sensitive to context, either immediate linguistic context or the less immediate discourse context, or in circumstances where contrary assumptions are made. In particular context, the presupposition is cancelled and this phenomenon is known as defeasibility. Two factors result in presupposition cancellation: one is the linguistic context and the other one is background assumption about the world. One kind of presupposition defeasibility arises in certain types of linguistic context. For example,You say that someone in this room loves Mary. Well maybe so. But it certainly isn’t Fred who loves Mary. And it certainly isn’t John . . . (We continue in this way until we have enumerated all the people in the room). Therefore no one in this room loves Mary. (Suo: 135)In the example, each of the cleft sentences (it certainly isn’t Fred, etc.) are supposed to presuppose that there is someone in this room who loves Mary, for presupposition is constant under negation. However, the speaker intends to persuade the hearer that there is no one in this room who loves Mary by ruling out the possibilities. Therefore, the presupposition that someone in this room loves Mary is defeated in this counterfactual assumption. Here is another example of the same kind:a)John didn’t manage to pass his exams. b)John tried to pass his exams. c)John didn’t manage to pass his exams. In fact he didn’t even try. Sentence a) has the presupposition in b), but if put a) into such a statement as c), the prior presupposition is abandoned. Without knowing the real fact, if someone makes the utterance that John didn’t manage to pass his exams, it may leave the hearer an impression that at least once he tried to pass his exams. On hearing the fact the hearer will know John’s failure for the exams is due to his lack of efforts in his study. Thus, the presupposition can be cancelled within certain contexts. The other kind of presupposition defeasibility is caused by our general knowledge of the world. For instance,a)She cried before she finished her thesis. b)She finished her thesis. (Saeed: 187)As mentioned above, the temporal clause functions as a trigger for the presupposition. Sentence a) with before-clause presupposes that indeed she finished her thesis. However, if the verb in the main clause is changed to â€Å"die,† the situation will be totally different. For instance,c)She died before she finished her thesis. d)She finished her thesis. (Saeed: 187)Since her death preceded the event of finishing her thesis, it is certain that she never finished the thesis. It is common sense that people do not conduct things after they die. Even if sentence c) is expressed with before-clause, it doesn’t have the presupposition in d). As a result of background belief in the real world, the previous presupposition that she finished her thesis is blocked in this context. C.Projection ProblemLangendoen and Savin suggest that the set of presuppositions of the complex whole is the simple sum of the presuppositions of the parts, i.e. if S0 is a complex sentence containing sentences S1, S2, . . . Sn as constituents, then the presuppositions of S0 = the presuppositions of S1 + the presuppositions of S2 . . . + the presuppositions of Sn (Levinson: 191). For example,S0: John stopped accusing Mary of beating her husband. S1: John accused Mary of beating her husband. S1†²: John judged that it was bad for Mary to beat her husband. S2: John stopped doing it. S2†²: Before time T, John did it. (Suo: 136)In the example, sentence S0 is the complex sentence including two parts S1 and S2, to be more specific, from the statement that John stopped accusing Mary of beating her husband, two meanings can be interpreted: one is that John accused Mary of beating her husband and the other one is that John stopped doing it. The presupposition of S1 is S1†², namely, S1 presupposes that John judged that it was bad for Mary to beat her husband. While S2 has the presupposition in S2†², that is to say, S2 presupposes that before time T, John did it. Thus, the presuppositions of S0 are the presupposition of S1 plus the presupposition of S2. As a matter of fact, this simple solution to the presuppositions of complex sentences is far from correct and it turns out to be impossible to take it as a formula. By using this solution, it is difficult to predict exactly which presuppositions of the parts survive in the whole presupposition of the complex sentences. This compositional problem is called the projection problem for the presuppositions. The projection problem in the presuppositions has two aspects: on the one hand, presuppositions remain in the linguistic context while entailments disappear. On the other hand, presuppositions are cancelled in certain contexts where entailments survive. The first aspect of the projection problem is the survival of presuppositions and cancellation of entailments in the same context. As mentioned above, negation is a typical example for the distinction between presupposition and entailment, for presupposition is stable under negation while entailment isn’t. However, there are other situations in which presupposition remains  and entailment disappears. For instance,a)Mr. Brown bought four books. b)There is a Mr. Brown. c)Mr. Brown bought three books. d)It is possible that Mr. Brown bought four books. e)Mr. Brown could have bought four books. In this example, sentence a) presupposes sentence b) and entails sentence c). If it is true that Mr. Brown bought four books, the precondition for this proposition that there is a Mr. Brown must also be true. And if he already bought four books, he is supposed to have bought three books. However, when the modal operators or modal verbs are embedded in the original statement, the entailment of a) disappears while the presupposition b) still exists. Because modal operators like â€Å"possible,† â€Å"probable† and modal verbs like â€Å"could,† â€Å"should† are considered to be a kind of conjecture. The employments of them reveal speaker’s uncertainty about his utterances. Another situation of the same kind is the compound sentences formed by the connectives â€Å"and,† â€Å"or,† â€Å"if . . . then† and what not. For instance,a)The two students handed in the homework late again this Monday. b)A student handed in the homework late this Monday. c)The two students handed in the homework late before. d)If the two students handed in the homework late again this Monday, their teacher will get angry. The adverb â€Å"again† applied in the sentence a) presupposes that the two students handed in the homework late before. If two students handed in the homework late, it must entail that one of them handed in the homework late. Thus, sentence a) presupposes c) and also entails b). However, if sentence  a) is embedded in a complex sentence like d), the utterance a) can only be regarded as an assumption in the complex whole. Hence, the former entailment is abandoned in the new compound sentence but the presupposition that they did before still survives. The other aspect of the projection problem is that presupposition is blocked while entailment still exists in certain contexts. If the predicates of the utterances are the verbs of propositional attitude such as â€Å"want,† â€Å"believe,† â€Å"imagine,† â€Å"dream† and the like, the blocking of presupposition appears to take place. For instance,a)Tom believes he’s the president of America. b)There is a present president of America. In this example, sentence a) entails that Tom believes something, but it doesn’t have the presupposition that there is a present president of America. The verb like â€Å"believe† is only a non-factive verb, which doesn’t ensure the truth of its complement. Moreover, the employment of it will leave the hearer an impression that what the speaker says is just a personal opinion. Thus, the presupposition is blocked because of the verb â€Å"believe.†Another example is given as follows:a)I dreamed that I was a German and that I regretted being a German. b)I was a German. In the sentence a), the speaker doesn’t shoulder the responsibility of uttering it by employing the verb â€Å"dream.† The application of â€Å"dream† indicates that this utterance can not be taken seriously as a fact. However, sentence a) still entails that â€Å"I dreamed something,† but doesn’t presuppose that â€Å"I was a German.† In such a situation, the complex sentences with certain verbs of propositional attitude block their presuppositions but maintain the entailments. By means of analyzing the problems of presupposition in the field of semantics, we can draw a conclusion that this truth relation approach is far  from adequate to describe the relationships between presupposing and presupposed sentences. Admittedly, the issue of presupposition is not only being discussed in semantics but also in the pragmatics. Part IV. Pragmatic Theories of PresuppositionAs for pragmatic presupposition, various theories have been put forward by linguists such as Stalnaker, Gazdar and what not. Among these theories, two of them are the most developed theories that deal with the defeasibility and the projection problems. Both theories assume that presuppositions are part of the conventional meaning of expressions, instead of semantic inference. The first theory has been developed by Karttunen and Peters, which is expressed in the framework of Montague grammar. In the Montague grammar, clauses are built up from their constituents from the bottom up rather than from the top down as in transformational generative grammar (Levinson: 207). The basic idea in this theory is that sentences are built up from their components and the meanings conveyed in these sentences are subject to the words, clauses and so on, but in the presuppositions, meanings are associated with these triggers. According to Karttunen and Peters’ theory, presuppositions are actually non-cancellable. The meaning expressions that capture the presuppositional content of each presupposition-triggering item will be related with each constituent a heritage expression. If there is a predicate like propositional attitude verb, it will have a heritage expression that blocks the presuppositions ascending to be presupposition of the whole sentence. In such circumstances, presupposition isn’t in fact cancelled, but it is blocked during the process of derivation by the heritage expression. For example,a)Bush thinks that Kerry’s attitude about terrorism is dangerous. b)Kerry has an attitude about terrorism. The subordinate clause of sentence a) presupposes that Kerry has an attitude about terrorism. However, the verb â€Å"think† has the heritage expression which prevents this presupposition from being the presupposition of the whole. The other theory is proposed by Gazdar, in which presuppositions are actually cancelled. At the early stage of derivation, the presuppositions of any complex sentence will consist of all the potential presuppositions of the parts. Then a canceling mechanism will begin to work and it only selects these presuppositions which are consistent with all the propositions already in the context. In this theory, the generations of presuppositions adhere to a special order: first the entailments of what are said are added to the context, then the conversational implicatures, and only finally the presupposition (Levinson: 213). In each step, these presuppositions that contradict the former propositions will be eliminated through selection and only the ones being consistent with them will survive. For example,a)If there is a King of France, the King of France doesn’t any longer live in Versaills. b)The speaker knows that there exists a King of France. c)It is consistent with all the speaker knows that there is not a King of France. (Suo: 143)In the sentence a), the clause that â€Å"the King of France doesn’t any longer live in Versaills† has the potential presupposition in b). However, the conditional sentence a) entails that there is not a King of France. Based on the special order in Gazdar’s theory, this entailment enters into the context before the potential presupposition. Hence, this potential presupposition is cancelled without entering into the context. Although the two theories are opposing to each other, both of them offer an explanation for the defeasibility of presupposition and projection problem. However, even in the field of pragmatics, adequate solution to the presupposition is not obtained, which needs further developments. ConclusionIn the field of linguistics, we can probe into the presupposition from two perspectives, namely, semantic presupposition and pragmatic presupposition. This thesis mainly focuses on the interpretation of presupposition in semantics. The writer introduces the features of semantic presupposition like stability under negation and presupposition triggers and then makes an analysis of the problems aroused by this truth-based theory  such as presupposition failure, defeasibility and projection problem. To solve these problems, two theories concerning the pragmatic presupposition are discussed. Although both of them offer the explanations for the problems of presupposition, they are not considered to be adequate solutions. The further developments of presupposition rely on the complex interactions between semantics and pragmatics. References Levinson, Stephen C. Pragmtics. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press, 2005. Saeed, John I. Semantics. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press, 2005.

Spanish Possessive Pronouns

Spanish Possessive Pronouns If youve learned the long form of the possessive adjectives, you already know the possessive pronouns of Spanish. In fact, some grammarians classify the long-form possessive adjectives as pronouns, even though they are used to describe nouns. What Are Possessive Pronouns? Possessive pronouns are the equivalent of the English pronouns mine, yours, his, hers, theirs and its, but they arent used in exactly the same way in Spanish as they are in English. As the name suggests, possessive pronouns are used in the place of nouns rather than to describe nouns as adjectives do. Here are the possessive pronouns of Spanish with simple examples of their use: mà ­o, mà ­a, mà ­os, mà ­as - mine Tu madre y la mà ­a no pueden cantar. (Your mother and mine cant sing.)No me gustan los coches rojos. El mà ­o es verde. (I dont like red cars. Mine is green.)Cuido de tus mascotas como si fueran las mà ­as. (I take care of your pets as if there were mine.) tuyo, tuya, tuyos, tuyas - yours (singular informal) Este libro no es mà ­o. Es tuyo. (This book isnt mine. Its yours.) ¿Dà ³nde est mi mochila? La tuya est aquà ­. (Where is my backpack? Yours is here.) suyo, suya, suyos, suyas - his, hers, yours (singular formal or plural formal), its, theirs Mis calcetines son rojos. Los suyos son negros. (My socks are red. His/hers/yours/theirs are black.)Amo a mi esposa. Él no ama a la suya. (I love my wife. He doesnt love his.) nuestro, nuestra, nuestros, nuestras - ours Este coche es nuestro. (This car is ours.) ¿Te gusta tu casa? No me gusta la nuestra. (Do you like your house? I dont like ours.) vuestro, vuestra, vuestros, vuestras - yours (plural informal; infrequently used in  Latin America) Nuestra casa es muy vieja.  ¿Y la vuestra? (Our house is very old. And yours?)No me gustan los coches de vuestros competidores. Prefiero los vuestros. (I dont like your competitors cars. I prefer yours.) As you can see from the examples, possessive pronouns must match the noun they represent in both number and gender, just as do the long-form possessive adjectives. They do not necessarily match the number or gender of the person or thing that has possession. Spanish Possessive Pronouns The possessive pronouns of Spanish take the same form as the long form of the possessive adjectives, namely mà ­o, tuyo, suyo, nuestro, and vuestro along with their plural and feminine counterparts.Except when followed by forms of ser, a verb meaning to be, the possessive pronouns are preceded by el, la, lo, los, or las.  Because  suyo is ambiguous, it is sometimes replaced by phrases such as de à ©l or de ellas. Definite Articles With Possessive Pronouns Note that unlike the equivalent pronouns in English, the Spanish possessive pronouns are usually preceded by a definite article (el, la, los or las), the equivalent of the. The article is usually dispensed with when the possessive pronoun follows a form of the verb ser, such as son or es, as in the examples, although it is sometimes retained for emphasis. Ambiguous Suyo Suyo and the related forms can be ambiguous since they can mean his, hers, yours, theirs, or its. When context doesnt make its meaning clear, the possessive pronoun can be omitted and replaced by a prepositional phrase such as de à ©l (instead of his) or de ellos (instead of theirs). Examples: No es mi coche. Es de ella. (Its not my car. Its hers.) ¿Dà ³nde estn mis zapatos? Los de à ©l estn aquà ­. (Where are my shoes? His are here.)En nuestras listas hay luchadores; en las de ellos, cobardes. (On our lists there are fighters; on theirs, cowards.) Note that you wouldnt normally use the de object pronoun to refer to those that arent included in the meaning of su. So, for example, you wouldnt normally substitute de mà ­ for mà ­o. Using the Possessive Neuter Form The single, masculine form of the pronouns can also be treated as neuter and thus be preceded by the definite article lo. Even though singular, the pronoun can stand for more than one object. The neuter form is used when no specific object is being referred to. Examples: No toques lo mà ­o. (Dont touch what is mine. Dont touch my things.)Lo mà ­o es importante. (What is mine is important. My things are important.)Es intolerable que nuestro là ­deres no defiendan lo nuestro. (It is intolerable that our leaders dont defend what is ours. It is intolerable that our leaders dont defend our traditions.)

The Individual Its Struggle and Purpose Essay

The Individual Its Struggle and Purpose Essay The Individual Its Struggle and Purpose Essay From the dawn of our culture we have valued individuality, independence and freedom over almost any other values. After all of the revolutions and wars fought in the name of independence, in the freedom to be an individual, it is shocking to think of how often we forget its meaning and importance. It is much easier to affiliate with a group rather than risk rejection and act on your accord. The film Equilibrium, written and directed by Kurt Wimmer, and several articles from the PACS book highlight the issues concerning this struggle of the self. In order to fully understand the issue one must define individuality, recognize the trials of developing and maintaining individuality, and understand why it is important be an individual. Individuality can be defined as the characteristic of being free from the burdens of others opinions. Unfortunately in such a socially dependent society as our own it is nearly impossible to be completely free of others opinions. We were neglected the lux ury of discovering everything for ourselves. Instead we are taught. Our sovereign autonomy is tainted the first time parents say something is wrong and something else is right. The same contamination occurs upon the first days of school as we begin to learn not only what the majority believes is correct, but how to suppress the self in order to advance peacefully in society. We learn established rules and regulations. We learn that someone else has already found out what is right and we learn to accept without questioning. John Stuart Mill comments on the development of such universally accepted dogma in Of Thoughts and Discussion: It is illustrated in the experience of almost all ethical doctrines and religious creeds. They are all full of meaning and vitality to those who originate them and to the direct disciples of the originators. Their meaning continues to be felt in undiminished strength , and is perhaps brought out into even fuller consciousness, so long as the struggle lasts to give the doctrine or creed an ascendancy over other creeds. At last it either prevails, and becomes the general opinion, or its progress stop... (44) In this passage Mill explains that if a society can claim something is fact eventually the population learns to accept without questioning. Although it may be impossible to be completely free of the burdens of others opinions, it is possible to at least question those opinions we hear. Individuality is not accepting blindly and having a critical mind that checks others opinions with their own logic. This may seem simple enough but there is another complication when aspiring to achieve true individuality. It is equally important to act on your own beliefs as well as have them. An autonomous being is useless as an observer, but powerful when active. If a revolutionary idea is never shared and given the opportunity to change this world, it may as well have never existed. A true follower of autonomy must share their thoughts and work on making them reality. However this is often very difficult since identity is constantly under assault by societal and social pressures. Even after one ac hieves a state of intellectual sovereignty the views of others continue to pressure and challenge that autonomy. Humans are social creatures by nature and are often concerned with what others think of them. The desire to be well liked and the fear of being rejected are two forces working against the sense of self. In more extreme societies the fear of rejection can be replaced with the reality of political persecution. Equilibrium’s city of Libria is a perfect example of such a society. In the city state of Libria there is no individuality. The social opinions are all dictated by Father, the epitome of oppression. Those that counter Father’s opinion are hunted and executed. For this reason any â€Å"sense offenders† in the city must hide any original or creative thoughts. However one individual decides to act out against the tyranny of

Aspects of Internet Censorship by the Government

Aspects of Internet Censorship by the Government Introduction Internet can be defined as computer networks interconnection using a standard protocol to provide information to the entire world irrespective of where one is at any time (Garcia 32). The networks compose of public computers, learning institutions computers, business enterprises computers and private organization computers for local and global scope.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Aspects of Internet Censorship by the Government specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Earlier the internet was being referred to as the information super highway, its’ main aim of was to avail limitless information to everyone who needs it as fast as possible. Internet censorship refers to the act of controlling information access through the internet. Main motives of internet censorship vary from one website to another (â€Å"Research profiles.† 1). Main reasons are children protection from harmful and expl icit material, enabling grown up avoid contents that may compromise their community and personal standards, imposition of a moral framework in adult communication through the internet, and blocking of information material that is illegal to possess according to the government of a particular country under consideration. The government uses various techniques to censor internet depending on the content they want to restrict. It does so through the use of program software called web filters or censor ware. Internet censorship Main techniques for internet censorship include, IP blocking technique, this target website hosted by a common server. The entire websites hosted by that particular IP address are blocked (â€Å"Research profiles† 1).Whenever one tries to access them he/she is denied the access rights. Filtering domain name server (DNS) method, in this method the domain name is not resolved hence one is unable to access the site. This method uses software that restrict res olving of the domain name, as a result the target website is unavailable. Packet filtering method, this technique uses keywords in filtering the content to be accessed, if the keyword is detected the site content is blocked. Another method is through the use of the uniform resource locator (URL), it uses keywords to block censored site from access. When one try to access a website the uniform resource locator is checked if it consists of the restricting keyword, if the keyword is found in the URL the site become unavailable. Reasons for censorship Different government censors the internet due to different reasons, some may be reasonable and varied, while others are misuse of the power by the government. This has created a controversial situation of whether the government should carry out internet censorship or not (Kenny 1).Advertising Looking for research paper on ethics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Different pe ople have different views depending on the perspective one look the situation from, each any everyone has reason and evidence to support his/her theory. The positive aspects of internet censorship by the government around the world are immense. World internet censorship ratings Blue No censorship Yellow Some censorship Red Country under surveillance from Reporters without Borders Grey Internet black holes (most heavily censored nations) The rule makers and enforcers should work hand in hand. Their Failure to cooperate leads the rule amounting to nothing. The social contract theory was developed by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes; it argues that without rules and a systematic way of enforcing them the efforts amount to nothing. It uses the concept of cooperation between involved parties, they mutually resolve to follow laid down guidelines.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Aspects of Internet Censorship by the Government specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The guidelines are the rules set to benefit the people socially. All agree there should be rules laid down and the government should ensure they are enforced to all irrespective of one position. This theory was develop due to no man has authority over others naturally, hence there was need to establish contracts based on covenants. For censorship to be effective the law enforces and the designers should be one body (Eid 1). Currently there are many unethical action been carried out, since the enforcers have absconded their duties. Regulations that govern the internet ethic are no longer being observed while the law enforces are enforcing new rules at will without consulting. Recently the government of Afghanistan censored interactive sites without even consulting. This shows there is a link between the enforcers and the law makers. The rules are desirable if the effect s of their consequences is positive. If the consequences are negat ive then the rule is undesirable. The theory of rule utilitarianism was developed as a result of weaknesses in the act utilitarianism theory. The morals theory argues that an action is morally right, if the consequences of an action results to an increase in the level of happiness. The theory uses the rules when explaining the moral values of an individual contrary to the act utilitarianism which uses the principle of utility (â€Å"Introduction to Content Filtering† 7). It tries to exploit the fact that the rules are universally adoptable, hence result to immense happiness. Rule utilitarianism and Kantianism are similar in that they use the rule to base their argument. The difference between the two is that rule utilitarian emphasis on the action consequences while the Kantianism emphasizes on the action motive. It encourages universal adoption of an action that will increase the pleasure of the affected subjects. In the year 2003 August, a worm by the name of blaster infect ed computer system using windows operating system .The worm exploited a security loophole in the windows operating system. It resulted to excess network traffic and also disabled some of the networks. The infection resulted to computer rebooting itself continually. Another worm named Nachi was developed to exploit the same loophole, but did not infect those immune to the blaster worm. On contrary Nachi worm accessed the computer in the network to destroy blaster worm copies and also to download patches of windows to fix the loophole problem. According to the computer ethics introduction of harmful malware in a network is unethical and prohibited. According to the rule utilitarian it was morally correct since the consequences of the action increased pleasure to the affected subject.Advertising Looking for research paper on ethics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Impact on the society The consequences of an action do not matter. What matters are the actions themselves. The act utilitarianism theory was developed by philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. This contradicted the earlier theory of Kantianism. It based its’ argument on the fact that an action is termed to be good if the result benefit a person and undesirable if the action harm someone. The theory was founded on the principle of utility, where the action is gauged to be right or wrong depending on the effect on the level of happiness on the concerned party. This theory measures the morality by determining the rise or fall of happiness on the concerned party. Attitude behind an action is not relevant in this argument, what is of more concern is the consequences of the actions. Being in this context is used to refer to anything that may experiences happiness and sadness. From the definition the being not only refers to the humans but also other mammals. It is hard to measure utility thus several attribute have been selected to weigh the effect of an action on the pain and pleasure (Carter 1). Intensity measures the experience extent, certainty measures the likelihood, and duration measures the experience length, extent measures the number of being affected, purity measures the concentration of pain or pleasure, and fecundity measures the ability replicate the experience. Freedom without limit is always abused; most internet users do not observe the internet rules set aside to govern access of information. Almost all government censors sensitive government information or the information is not availed to the internet users. The explicit material in the internet should be restricted to avoid underage from accessing them. Most of the Muslim dominant countries pornographic materials have been completely censored. This ensures the young ones are protected from obscene materials. The action of the government is essential to maintain a morally uprig ht generation in censoring some materials. Due to the complex internet network the government cannot leave the censoring action to parents or private companies, it has to undertake the action itself. The will motivating an action should be the basis of judging an action whether morally right or wrong. An action may not be moral but the motive was moral. The Kantianism` theory was developed by a philosopher named Immanuel Kant. His argument was, people action and deeds should be based on moral laws which are universally acceptable. Citing the bible examples to support his theory, he believed for any supreme moral law to hold it must be based upon some reasoning. Someone who is a Kantian should be able to state something whether it is good or bad and qualify it using specific and varied reasoning. It entails more than arguing whether something is morally right or wrong. The main reasoning was something may be morally right, yet it can be used wrongly to harm others or cause conflict. In this world there are barely good things without need to qualify them to be good. Only good will can be termed to be good, since there is no need to qualify it to be good. An action cannot be termed to be good simply due to the beneficial results; something good is good irrespective of the outcome from the action. What we are meant to do is more important than what we do. We should act out of morals instilled in use rather than what we feel we should do, our moral should be the driving force upon our actions. The oppressive regime use this theory to suppress it citizen and deprive them information access. They censor interactive sites to intimidate those opposing their agenda. Late 2009 China censored interactive site especially in Tibet area. This was meant to curb growing defiance against the government It is hard to say that the consequences of an action do not matter; what’s matter is the action itself. People are more concerned in the results not the way the results ha ve been achieved. Kantianism theory advocate that the motive is what’s matters not he actual result of the actions. If you have a granary infested with rats, there are different ways to remedy the situation. If you burn down the whole granary it is an option but at what cost. As much as the motive of an action is good the consequence are dire. As much as the government may have good motives and intention in censoring the internet, caution should be taken to ensure the consequences do not outweigh the gains. The Kantianism theory should not be employed much in censoring as it may result to undesirable dire consequences. January this year the Iran government censored all interactive site, in a mission to curb government critics who were using them to sell their ideas. In addition they also banned women right websites; this caused more harm than good. It also denied the woman their rights to voice out their view; such school of thought belongs to the Stone Age where women were c onsidered inferior. Error analyses of filters Filtering Product Misdetection False Alarm Error Rate Smart Filter 15% 7% 11% Surf Watch 12% 7% 10% Web Sense 17% 9% 13% I-Gear 36% 10% 23% Cyber Patrol 16% 7% 11% N2H2 14% 7% 11% Conclusion Government Internet censorship is not meant to suppress the society of information access, although it may result not unanticipated negative result. Every government actions to censor internet access are meant for the better of its citizen. But there are isolated cases, where the government censors internet access using unvaried bases. This may result the country citizen being left behind in the fast growing global village. The reason for censoring internet should be clearly defined and measures put in place to protect the law from being abused. The law should also clearly define the method and modes to be used in censoring to avoid safe site from being blocked due to criterion used to block. From the theories discussed above, it i s clear from the different approaches the main objective of all is the effect of censoring to the people. They all agree if censoring result to positive effect then it is worthy but if it is harmful then it is harmful to the same people it ought to be protecting. Irrespective of the reasons behind the censoring of the internet the result should be positive, it should not affect the people’s majority negatively. Whether it uses the rules, consequences of the action or the will motivating the action, the moral effect should be upheld at all times. Internet should be used for moral upright or justifiable action at all time. The internet ethos should be upheld and observed by all internet users indiscriminately of their position. Error analysis of filters for the distinct data set Filtering Product Misdetection False Alarm Error Rate Smart Filter 13% 4% 8% Surf Watch 12% 11% 11% Web Sense 12% 7% 10% I-Gear 36% 7% 21% Cyber Patrol 15% 9% 12% N2H2 11% 1% 6% Compl ete censoring of the internet is contrary to the objective of having it and unhealthy to the people. The main aim of the internet is information sharing among the users and all information about any subject across the world should be accessible from anywhere in the world (Edelman 2). Censoring result to discriminated information sharing and result to the internet falling short of its main objective. This hurt many sector in the world from business to entertainment. Although internet censoring is essential, it should be done up to a certain level where it cause more good than harm to the people. Carter, Wendy. â€Å"How to write a thesis statement.† 2003- July 27, 2010. tadafinallyfinished.com/how-to-write-a-thesis-statement.html Edelman, Benjamin. â€Å"Documentation of Internet Filtering in Saudi Arabia.† July 27, 2010, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/saudiarabia/ Eid, Gamal. â€Å"The Internet in the Arab World A Space for Repression?† Reports and Pres s Releases. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. 2004- July 27, 2010 anhri.net/en/reports/net2004 Garcia_Murillo, M. â€Å"Assessing the impact of Internet Telephony on the deployment of telecommunications infrastructure.† July 27, 2010. http://faculty.ischool.syr.edu/mgarciam/Research/ppr%20IP%20telephonyIEP05.pdf Introduction to Content Filtering. â€Å"What is this service?† July 27, 2010. isu.net.sa/saudi-internet/contenet-filtring/filtring.htm Kenny, Aaron. â€Å"Inside Internet Filtering.† 2009- July 27, 2010, insideinternetfiltering.com/category/government/ Kuwait. â€Å"Research profiles.† July 27, 2010, http://opennet.net/research/profiles/kuwait Saudi Arabia. â€Å"Research Profiles.† July 27, 2010, http://opennet.net/research/profiles/saudi-arabia

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