Actual Issues Of Philosophy For

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General Issues Of
Philosophy
For Medical Students
 Contents

Being ..........................................................................................4
Nature .......................................................................................11
Human ......................................................................................37
Person .......................................................................................59
Meaning of life .........................................................................62
Morality ....................................................................................89
Religion ....................................................................................95
Value (personal and cultural)..................................................108
Ideology..................................................................................111
Aesthetics ...............................................................................117
Civilization .............................................................................131
Society....................................................................................147
Civil society............................................................................156
Law.........................................................................................161
Freedom..................................................................................190
Freedom of religion ................................................................190
Freedom of speech..................................................................196
Freedom of thought ................................................................205
Violence..................................................................................209
United Nations........................................................................225
Globalization ..........................................................................241
Political correctness................................................................264
Future......................................................................................269
Knowledge..............................................................................277
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions..................................282
Technology .............................................................................291

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Being
In philosophy, being is the object of study of metaphysics, and more specifically ontology. In its
most indeterminate sense, being could be understood as anything that can be said to be, which is
opposed to nonexistence. For example one could ask: why is there something instead of
nothing? Where something implies being. For a metaphysician the main problem is not the
scientific question of how the universe works, but why the universe (or anything such as a rock)
is.

As speech utterances in the English language, questions such as the above only have meaning if
the utterer and the hearer both can code and decode its words into concepts understood by both
of them, raising questions of how they acquired such understandings. One is the concept of
nothing. As nothing cannot be known by any means or method it must mean, in the context of
the question, that a specific named object is present or not present in the observer's experience of
a set of objects, conditions for which English uses "is" or "is not." The object therefore cannot be
the same, at least in language, as its being present, as it may or may not be present. French
Academy member tienne Gilson summarized this long-known characteristic of the experienced
world as follows:

"...the word being is a noun ... it signifies either a being (that is, the substance, nature, and essence of
anything existent), or being itself, a property common to all that which can rightly be said to be. ... the
same word is the present participle of the verb 'to be.' As a verb, it no longer signifies something that is,
nor even existence in general, but rather the very act whereby any given reality actually is, or exists. Let
us call this act a 'to be,' in contradistinction to what is commonly called 'a being.' It appears at once that,
at least to the mind, the relation of 'to be' to 'being' is not a reciprocal one. 'Being' is conceivable, 'to be' is
not. We cannot possibly conceive an 'is' except as belonging to some thing that is, or exists. But the
reverse is not true. Being is quite conceivable apart from actual existence; so much so that the very first
and the most universal of all the distinctions in the realm of being is that which divides it into two classes,
that of the real and that of the possible."

Whether or not an object is present in a set; that is, exists there as a being, is based on universal
experience or evidence of it. Existing objects are present to the experience of anyone. It is a
legitimate goal therefore for philosophers of being to try to find a principle or element a
"something" accounting for the presence of the object over the other possibility, its non-
presence. Instead, the philosopher encounters a problem:

"Now, if the 'to be' of a thing could be conceived apart from that which exists, it should be represented in
our mind by some note distinct from the concept of the thing itself .... In point of fact, it is not so. There is
nothing we can add to a concept in order to make it represent the object as existing; what happens if we
add anything to it is that it represents something else."

Where being, the noun, is readily accessible to experience and classifiable, being, the participle,
is not:

"In short ... philosophy may perhaps be able to tell us everything about that which reality is, but nothing
at all concerning this not unimportant detail: the actual existence, or non-existence, of what we call reality
.... If he himself [the philosopher] did not exist, he would not be there to ask questions about the nature of
reality ... on the other hand, this fundamental fact, which we call existence, soon proves a rather barren
topic for philosophic speculation ... It certainly looks like a waste of time to speculate about an object
which is clearly recognized as inconceivable"

This is not a rejection of existence by Gilson, a leading modern metaphysician in the classical
tradition: "philosophers are wholly justified in taking existence for granted ... and in never

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mentioning it again ...." In Gilson's view, the participial being is a given, a primitive of
experience, not subject to proof or investigation, as it is the grounds of proof. A thing must be
real, or exist, before anything true or proved can be said about it.

However, Gilson concedes some doubt on the possibility of being wrong: "yet, this is taking a
chance, for, after all, being itself might happen not to be existentially neutral. In other words, it is
quite possible that actual existence may be ... an efficient cause of observable effects ...." He then
launches into a history of attempts to conceptualize the inconceivable from the ancient Greeks to
the present. Some philosophers who have had more noteworthy theories are Parmenides,
Leucippus, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Plotinus, Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hegel,
Heidegger, and Sartre.

Etymology

Given the origins of the term in Western philosophy, the term has deep historical roots in other
languages: Greek to einai, Latin esse, Spanish ser, Fr. tre, Ger. sein.

In the English language being (i.e. be+-ing) by synecdoche, the use of the whole to mean the
part, being is also the word used for conceptualizing subjective aspects fundamental to the self
related to and somewhat interchangeable with ideas about human "existence" and "living"
in which "being" or "[one's/a] state of being" is rooted in personal experience, and reflected in
aspects of innate personal character. In its objective usage as in "a being," or " human being"
it refers to a discrete life form that has properties of mind (i.e. experience and character) such
that transcend that of mere organisms (that have only "life functions").

The substantial being

The term "problem of being" references many different problems, or many different expressions
of a general problem, in the history of philosophy. The most general view of it, mentioned in the
initial paragraph above, was stated succinctly also by the physician turned philosopher-
psychologist, William James: "How comes the world to be here at all instead of the nonentity
which might be imagined in its place? ... from nothing to being there is no logical bridge."

Being and the substance theorists

The deficit of such a bridge was first encountered in history by the Pre-Socratic philosophers
during the process of evolving a classification of all beings (noun). Aristotle applies the term
category (perhaps not originally) to ten highest-level classes. They comprise one category of
substance (ousiae) existing independently (man, tree) and nine categories of accidents, which can
only exist in something else (time, place). In Aristotle, substances are to be clarified by stating
their definition: a note expressing a larger class (the genus) followed by further notes expressing
specific differences (differentiae) within the class. The substance so defined was a species. For
example, the species, man, may be defined as an animal (genus) that is rational (difference). As
the difference is potential within the genus; that is, an animal may or may not be rational, the
difference is not identical to, and may be distinct from, the genus.

Applied to being the system fails to arrive at a definition for the simple reason that no difference
can be found. The species, the genus and the difference are all equally being: a being is a being
that is being. The genus cannot be nothing because nothing is not a class of everything. The
trivial solution that being is being added to nothing is only a tautology: being is being. There is
no simpler intermediary between being and non-being that explains and classifies being.

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The being of Parmenides

Pre-Socratic reaction to this deficit was varied. As substance theorists they accepted priori the
hypothesis that appearances are deceiving, that reality is to be reached through reasoning.
Parmenides reasoned that if everything is identical to being and being is a category of the same
thing then there can be neither differences between things nor any change. To be different, or to
change, would amount to becoming or being non-being; that is, not existing. Therefore being is a
homogeneous and non-differentiated sphere and the appearance of beings is illusory. Heraclitus,
on the other hand, foreshadowed modern thought by denying existence. Reality does not exist, it
flows, and beings are an illusion upon the flow.

Aristotle knew of this tradition when he began his Metaphysics, and had already drawn his own
conclusion, which he presented under the guise of asking what being is:

"And indeed the question which was raised of old is raised now and always, and is always the subject of
doubt, viz., what being is, is just the question, what is substance? For it is this that some assert to be one,
others more than one, and that some assert to be limited in number, others unlimited. And so we also must
consider chiefly and primarily and almost exclusively what that is which is in this sense."

and reiterates in no uncertain terms: "Nothing, then, which is not a species of a genus will have
an essence only species will have it ...."

Aristotle's theory of act and potency

One might expect a solution to follow from such certain language but none does. Instead
Aristotle launches into a rephrasing of the problem, the Theory of Act and Potency. In the
definition of man as a two-legged animal Aristotle presumes that "two-legged" and "animal" are
parts of other beings, but as far as man is concerned, are only potentially man. At the point where
they are united into a single being, man, the being, becomes actual, or real. Unity is the basis of

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actuality: "... 'being' is being combined and one, and 'not being' is being not combined but more
than one." Actuality has taken the place of existence, but Aristotle is no longer seeking to know
what the actual is; he accepts it without question as something generated from the potential. He
has found a "half-being" or a "pre-being", the potency, which is fully being as part of some other
substance. Substances, in Aristotle, unite what they actually are now with everything they might
become.

The transcendental being

Many of Thomas' writings were condemned as heretical in 1270 and 1277, but his dedication to
the use of philosophy to elucidate theology was so thorough that in 1567 he was proclaimed a
saint and most of his philosophy became Catholic dogma. Those who adopt it are called
Thomists.

St. Thomas' analogy of being

In a single sentence, parallel to Aristotle's statement asserting that being is substance, St. Thomas
pushes away from the Aristotelian doctrine: "Being is not a genus, since it is not predicated
univocally but only analogically." His term for analogy is Latin analogia. In the categorical
classification of all beings, all substances are partly the same: man and chimpanzee are both
animals and the animal part in man is "the same" as the animal part in chimpanzee. Most
fundamentally all substances are matter, a theme taken up by science, which postulated one or
more matters, such as earth, air, fire or water (Empedocles). In today's chemistry the carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen in a chimpanzee are identical to the same elements in a man.

If substance is the highest category and there is no substance, being, then the unity perceived in
all beings by virtue of their existing must be viewed in another way. St. Thomas chose the
analogy: all beings are like, or analogous to, each other in existing. This comparison is the basis
of his Analogy of Being. The analogy is said of being in many different ways, but the key to it is
the real distinction between existence and essence. Existence is the principle that gives reality to
an essence not the same in any way as the existence: "If things having essences are real, and it is
not of their essence to be, then the reality of these things must be found in some principle other
than (really distinct from) their essence." Substance can be real or not. What makes an individual
substance a man, a tree, a planet real is a distinct act, a "to be", which actuates its unity. An
analogy of proportion is therefore possible: "essence is related to existence as potency is related
to act."

Existences are not things; they do not themselves exist, they lend themselves to essences, which
do not intrinsically have them. They have no nature; an existence receives its nature from the
essence it actuates. Existence is not being; it gives being here a customary phrase is used,
existence is a principle (a source) of being, not a previous source, but one which is continually in
effect. The stage is set for the concept of God as the cause of all existence, who, as the Almighty,
holds everything actual without reason or explanation as an act purely of will.

The transcendentals

Aristotle's classificatory scheme had included the five predicables, or characteristics that might
be predicated of a substance. One of these was the property, an essential universal true of the
species, but not in the definition (in modern terms, some examples would be grammatical
language, a property of man, or a spectral pattern characteristic of an element, both of which are
defined in other ways). Pointing out that predicables are predicated univocally of substances; that
is, they refer to "the same thing" found in each instance, St. Thomas argued that whatever can be

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said about being is not univocal, because all beings are unique, each actuated by a unique
existence. It is the analogous possession of an existence that allows them to be identified as
being; therefore, being is an analogous predication.

Whatever can be predicated of all things is universal-like but not universal, category-like but not
a category. St, Thomas called them (perhaps not originally) the transcendentia,
"transcendentals", because they "climb above" the categories, just as being climbs above
substance. Later academics also referred to them as "the properties of being." The number is
generally three or four.

Being in the age of reason

Although innovated in the late medieval period, Thomism was dogmatized in the Renaissance.
From roughly 1277 to 1567, about 300 years, it dominated the philosophic landscape. The
rationalist philosophers, however, with a new emphasis on Reason as a tool of the intellect,
brought the classical and medieval traditions under new scrutiny, exercising a new concept of
doubt, with varying outcomes. Foremost among the new doubters were the empiricists, the
advocates of scientific method, with its emphasis on experimentation and reliance on evidence
gathered from sensory experience. In parallel with the revolutions against rising political
absolutism based on established religion and the replacememt of faith by reasonable faith, new
systems of metaphysics were promulgated in the lecture halls by charismatic professors, such as
Kant, Nietzsche and Hegel. Although influential for a time their popularity did not generally
survive the horrors of ideological warfare, as the competing ideologies utilized their systems in
their platforms. The late 19th and 20th centuries featured an emotional return to the concept of
existence under the name of existentialism. These philosophers were concerned mainly with
ethics and religion. The metaphysical side became the domain of the phenomenalists. In parallel
with these philosophies Thomism continued under the protection of the Catholic Church; in
particular, the Jesuit order.

Empiricist doubts

Rationalism and empiricism have had many definitions, most concerned with specific schools of
philosophy or groups of philosophers in partucular countries, such as Germany. In general
rationalism is the predominant school of thought in the multi-national, cross-cultural Age of
reason, which began in the century straddling 1600 as a conventional date, empiricism is the
reliance on sensory data gathered in experimentation by scientists of any country, who, in the
Age of Reason were rationalists. An early professed empiricist, Thomas Hobbes, known as an
eccentric denizen of the court of Charles II of England (an "old bear"), published in 1651
Leviathan, a political treatise written during the English civil war, containing an early manifesto
in English of rationalism.

Hobbes said:

"The Latines called Accounts of mony Rationes ... and thence it seems to proceed that they extended the
word Ratio, to the faculty of Reckoning in all other things....When a man reasoneth hee does nothing else
but conceive a summe totall ... For Reason ... is nothing but Reckoning ... of the consequences of generall
names agreed upon, for the marking and signifying of our thoughts ...."

In Hobbes reasoning is the right process of drawing conclusions from definitions (the "names
agreed upon"). He goes on to define error as self-contradiction of definition ("an absurdity, or
senselesse Speech") or conclusions that do not follow the definitions on which they are supposed

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to be based. Science, on the other hand, is the outcome of "right reasoning," which is based on
"natural sense and imagination", a kind of sensitivity to nature, as "nature it selfe cannot erre."

Having chosen his ground carefully Hobbes launches an epistemological attack on metaphysics.
The academic philosophers had arrived at the Theory of Matter and Form from consideration of
certain natural paradoxes subsumed under the general heading of the Unity Problem. For
example, a body appears to be one thing and yet it is distributed into many parts. Which is it, one
or many? Aristotle had arrived at the real distinction between matter and form, metaphysical
components whose interpenetration produces the paradox. The whole unity comes from the
substantial form and the distribution into parts from the matter. Inhering in the parts giving them
really distinct unities are the accidental forms. The unity of the whole being is actuated by
another really distinct principle, the existence.

If nature cannot err, then there are no paradoxes in it; to Hobbes, the paradox is a form of the
absurd, which is inconsistency: "Natural sense and imagination, are not subject to absurdity" and
"For error is but a deception ... But when we make a generall assertion, unlesse it be a true one,
the possibility of it is inconceivable. And words whereby we conceive nothing but the sound, are
those we call Absurd ...." Among Hobbes examples are "round quadrangle", "immaterial
substance", "free subject." Of the scholastics he says:

"Yet they will have us beleeve, that by the Almighty power of God, one body may be at one and the same
time in many places [the problem of the universals]; and many bodies at one and the same time in one
place [the whole and the parts]; ... And these are but a small part of the Incongruencies they are forced to,
from their disputing philosophically, in stead of admiring, and adoring of the Divine and
Incomprehensible Nature ...."

The real distinction between essence and existence, and that between form and matter, which
served for so long as the basis of metaphysics, Hobbes identifies as "the Error of Separated
Essences." The words "Is, or Bee, or Are, and the like" add no meaning to an argument nor do
derived words such as "Entity, Essence, Essentially, Essentiality", which "are the names of
nothing" but are mere "Signes" connecting "one name or attribute to another: as when we say, A
man, is, a living body, wee mean not that the Man is one thing, the Living Body another, and the
Is, or Being another: but that the Man, and the Living Body, is the same thing;...."
"Metaphysiques," Hobbes says, is "far from the possibility of being understood" and is
"repugnant to naturall Reason."

Being to Hobbes (and the other empiricists) is the physical universe:

The world, (I mean ... the Universe, that is, the whole masse of all things that are) is corporeall, that is to
say, Body; and hath the dimension of magnitude, namely, Length, Bredth and Depth: also every part of
Body, is likewise Body ... and consequently every part of the Universe is Body, and that which is not
Body, is no part of the Universe: and because the Universe is all, that which is no part of it is nothing; and
consequently no where."

Hobbes' view is representative of his tradition. As Aristotle offered the categories and the act of
existence, and Aquinas the analogy of being, the rationalists also had their own system, the great
chain of being, an interlocking hierarchy of beings from God to dust.

Idealist systems

In addition to the materialism of the empiricists, under the same aegis of Reason, rationalism
produced systems that were diametrically opposed now called idealism, which denied the reality
of matter in favor of the reality of mind. By a 20th-century classification, the idealists (Kant,

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Hegel and others), are considered the beginning of continental philosophy, while the empiricists
are the beginning, or the immediate predecessaors, of analytical philosophy.

Being in continental philosophy and existentialism

Some philosophers deny that the concept of "being" has any meaning at all, since we only define
an object's existence by its relation to other objects, and actions it undertakes. The term "I am"
has no meaning by itself; it must have an action or relation appended to it. This in turn has led to
the thought that "being" and nothingness are closely related, developed in existential philosophy.

Existentialist philosophers such as Sartre, as well as continental philosophers such as Hegel and
Heidegger have also written extensively on the concept of being. Hegel distinguishes between
the being of objects (being in itself) and the being of people (Geist). Hegel, however, did not
think there was much hope for delineating a "meaning" of being, because being stripped of all
predicates is simply nothing.

Heidegger, in his quest to re-pose the original pre-Socratic questions of Being (of why is there
something rather than nothing), wondered at how to meaningfully ask the question of the
meaning of being, since it is both the greatest, as it includes everything that is, and the least,
since no particular thing can be said of it. He distinguishes between different modes of beings: a
privative mode is present-at-hand, whereas beings in a fuller sense are described as ready-to-
hand. The one who asks the question of Being is described as Da-sein ("there/here-being") or
being-in-the-world. Sartre, popularly understood as misreading Heidegger (an understanding
supported by Heidegger's essay "Letter on Humanism" which responds to Sartre's famous
address, "Existentialism is a Humanism"), employs modes of being in an attempt to ground his
concept of freedom ontologically by distinguishing between being-in-itself and being-for-itself.

Being in Islamic philosophy

The nature of "being" has also been debated and explored in Islamic philosophy, notably by Ibn
Sina, Suhrawardi, and Mulla Sadra.

Quotations
As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the
darkness of mere being. - Carl Jung

Under the heading Individuality in Thought and Desire, Karl Marx, (German Ideology 1845),
says:

"It depends not on consciousness, but on being; not on thought, but on life; it depends on the individual's
empirical development and manifestation of life, which in turn depends on the conditions existing in the
world."

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Nature

Bachalpsee in the Swiss Alps; generally mountainous areas are less affected by human activity

Much attention has been given to preserving the natural characteristics of Hopetoun Falls,
Australia, while maintaining visitor access.

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Lightning strikes during the eruption of the huge Galunggung volcano in 1982

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material
world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. It
ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic.

The term "nature" may refer to living plants and animals, geological processes, weather, and
physics, such as matter and energy. The term is often refers to the "natural environment" or
wildernesswild animals, rocks, forest, beaches, and in general areas that have not been
substantially altered by humans, or which persist despite human intervention. For, example,
manufactured objects and human interaction are generally not considered part of nature, unless
qualified as, for example, "human nature" or "the whole of nature". This more traditional concept
of "nature" implies a distinction between natural and artificial elements of the Earth, with the
artificial as that which has been brought into being by a human consciousness or a human mind.

Etymology

The word nature is derived from the Latin word natura, or "essential qualities, innate
disposition", and literally means "birth". Natura was a Latin translation of the Greek word physis
(), which correlated plants, animals, and other features of the world as developing of their
own accord. The concept of nature as a whole, the physical universe, is one of several
expansions of the original notion; it began with certain core applications of the word by
pre-Socratic philosophers, and has steadily gained currency ever since.

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Earth

View of Earth, taken in 1972 by the Apollo 17 crew. This image is the only photograph of its
kind to date, showing a fully sunlit hemisphere of the Earth.

Earth (or, "the earth") is the only planet presently known to support life, and its natural features
are the subject of many fields of scientific research. Within the solar system, it is third nearest to
the sun; it is the largest terrestrial planet and the fifth largest overall. Its most prominent climatic
features are its two large polar regions, two relatively narrow temperate zones, and a wide
equatorial tropical to subtropical region. Precipitation varies widely with location, from several
metres of water per year to less than a millimetre. 71 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by
salt-water oceans. The remainder consists of continents and islands, with most of the inhabited
land in the Northern Hemisphere.

Earth has evolved through geological and biological processes that have left traces of the original
conditions. The outer surface is divided into several gradually migrating tectonic plates, which
have changed relatively quickly several times. The interior remains active, with a thick layer of
molten mantle and an iron-filled core that generates a magnetic field.

The atmospheric conditions have been significantly altered from the original conditions by the
presence of life-forms, which create an ecological balance that stabilizes the surface conditions.
Despite the wide regional variations in climate by latitude and other geographic factors, the long-
term average global climate is quite stable during interglacial periods, and variations of a degree
or two of average global temperature have historically had major effects on the ecological
balance, and on the actual geography of the Earth.

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Historical perspective

Plankton (Phylum Pediastrumboryanum) have existed on Earth for at least 2 billion years.

Earth is estimated to have formed 4.54 billion years ago from the solar nebula, along with the
Sun and other planets. The moon formed roughly 20 million years later. Initially molten, the
outer layer of the planet cooled, resulting in the solid crust. Outgassing and volcanic activity
produced the primordial atmosphere. Condensing water vapor, most or all of which came from
ice delivered by comets, produced the oceans and other water sources. The highly energetic
chemistry is believed to have produced a self-replicating molecule around 4 billion years ago.

Continents formed, then broke up and reformed as the surface of Earth reshaped over hundreds
of millions of years, occasionally combining to make a supercontinent. Roughly 750 million
years ago, the earliest known supercontinent Rodinia, began to break apart. The continents later
recombined to form Pannotia which broke apart about 540 million years ago, then finally
Pangaea, which broke apart about 180 million years ago.

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Land-based plants and fungi have been part of nature on Earth for about the past 400 million
years. These have needed to adapt and move many times as the continents and climates changed.

There is significant evidence, still being discussed among scientists, that a severe glacial action
during the Neoproterozoic era covered much of the planet in a sheet of ice. This hypothesis has
been termed the "Snowball Earth", and it is of particular interest as it precedes the Cambrian
explosion in which multicellular life forms began to proliferate about 530540 million years ago.

Since the Cambrian explosion there have been five distinctly identifiable mass extinctions. The
last mass extinction occurred some 65 million years ago, when a meteorite collision probably
triggered the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs and other large reptiles, but spared small
animals such as mammals, which then resembled shrews. Over the past 65 million years,
mammalian life diversified.

Several million years ago, a species of small African ape gained the ability to stand upright. The
subsequent advent of human life, and the development of agriculture and further civilization
allowed humans to affect the Earth more rapidly than any previous life form, affecting both the
nature and quantity of other organisms as well as global climate. By comparison, the oxygen
catastrophe, produced by the proliferation of algae during the Siderian period, required about
300 million years to culminate.)

The present era is classified as part of a mass extinction event, the Holocene extinction event, the
fastest ever to have occurred. Some, such as E. O. Wilson of Harvard University, predict that
human destruction of the biosphere could cause the extinction of one-half of all species in the
next 100 years. The extent of the current extinction event is still being researched, debated and
calculated by biologists.

Geology

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Three types of geological plate tectonic boundaries.

Geology (from Greek: , g, "earth"; and , logos, "speech" lit. to talk about the earth) is
the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. The field of
geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, physical properties, dynamics, and
history of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed.
The field is a major academic discipline, and is also important for mineral and hydrocarbon
extraction, knowledge about and mitigation of natural hazards, some engineering fields, and
understanding past climates and environments.

Geological evolution

The geology of an area evolves through time as rock units are deposited and inserted and
deformational processes change their shapes and locations.

Rock units are first emplaced either by deposition onto the surface or intrude into the overlying
rock. Deposition can occur when sediments settle onto the surface of the Earth and later lithify
into sedimentary rock, or when as volcanic material such as volcanic ash or lava flows, blanket
the surface. Igneous intrusions such as batholiths, laccoliths, dikes, and sills, push upwards into
the overlying rock, and crystallize as they intrude.

After the initial sequence of rocks has been deposited, the rock units can be deformed and/or
metamorphosed. Deformation typically occurs as a result of horizontal shortening, horizontal
extension, or side-to-side (strike-slip) motion. These structural regimes broadly relate to
convergent boundaries, divergent boundaries, and transform boundaries, respectively, between
tectonic plates.

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Atmosphere, climate, and weather

Blue light is scattered more than other wavelengths by the gases in the atmosphere, giving the
Earth a blue halo when seen from space

The atmosphere of the Earth serves as a key factor in sustaining the planetary ecosystem. The
thin layer of gases that envelops the Earth is held in place by the planet's gravity. Dry air consists
of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon and other inert gases, carbon dioxide, etc.; but air also
contains a variable amount of water vapor. The atmospheric pressure declines steadily with
altitude, and has a scale height of about 8 kilometres at the Earth's surface: the height at which
the atmospheric pressure has declined by a factor of e (a mathematical constant equal to 2.71...).
The ozone layer of the Earth's atmosphere plays an important role in depleting the amount of
ultraviolet (UV) radiation that reaches the surface. As DNA is readily damaged by UV light, this
serves to protect life at the surface. The atmosphere also retains heat during the night, thereby
reducing the daily temperature extremes.

Terrestrial weather occurs almost exclusively in the lower part of the atmosphere, and serves as a
convective system for redistributing heat. Ocean currents are another important factor in
determining climate, particularly the major underwater thermohaline circulation which
distributes heat energy from the equatorial oceans to the polar regions. These currents help to
moderate the differences in temperature between winter and summer in the temperate zones.
Also, without the redistributions of heat energy by the ocean currents and atmosphere, the tropics
would be much hotter, and the polar regions much colder.

Weather can have both beneficial and harmful effects. Extremes in weather, such as tornadoes or
hurricanes and cyclones, can expend large amounts of energy along their paths, and produce
devastation. Surface vegetation has evolved a dependence on the seasonal variation of the
weather, and sudden changes lasting only a few years can have a dramatic effect, both on the
vegetation and on the animals dependent on its growth for their food.

17
A tornado in central Oklahoma.

A supercell thunderstorm.

The planetary climate is a measure of the long-term trends in the weather. Various factors are
known to influence the climate, including ocean currents, surface albedo, greenhouse gases,
variations in the solar luminosity, and changes to the planet's orbit. Based on historical records,
the Earth is known to have undergone drastic climate changes in the past, including ice ages.

18
The climate of a region depends on a number of factors, especially latitude. A latitudinal band of
the surface with similar climatic attributes forms a climate region. There are a number of such
regions, ranging from the tropical climate at the equator to the polar climate in the northern and
southern extremes. Weather is also influenced by the seasons, which result from the Earth's axis
being tilted relative to its orbital plane. Thus, at any given time during the summer or winter, one
part of the planet is more directly exposed to the rays of the sun. This exposure alternates as the
Earth revolves in its orbit. At any given time, regardless of season, the northern and southern
hemispheres experience opposite seasons.

Weather is a chaotic system that is readily modified by small changes to the environment, so
accurate weather forecasting is currently limited to only a few days. Overall, two things are
currently happening worldwide: (1) temperature is increasing on the average; and (2) regional
climates have been undergoing noticeable changes.

Water on Earth

Panorama of the Iguazu waterfalls in Brazil.

Water is a chemical substance that is composed of hydrogen and oxygen and is vital for all
known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or state, but the
substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam. Water covers 71%
of the Earth's surface. On Earth, it is found mostly in oceans and other large water bodies, with
1.6% of water below ground in aquifers and 0.001% in the air as vapor, clouds (formed of solid
and liquid water particles suspended in air), and precipitation. Oceans hold 97% of surface water,
glaciers and polar ice caps 2.4%, and other land surface water such as rivers, lakes and ponds
0.6%. Additionally, a minute amount of the Earth's water is contained within biological bodies
and manufactured products.

19
Oceans

A view of the Atlantic ocean from Leblon, Rio de Janeiro.

An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere.
Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) is
covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal
oceans and smaller seas. More than half of this area is over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep.
Average oceanic salinity is around 35 parts per thousand (ppt) (3.5%), and nearly all seawater
has a salinity in the range of 30 to 38 ppt. Though generally recognized as several 'separate'
oceans, these waters comprise one global, interconnected body of salt water often referred to as
the World Ocean or global ocean. This concept of a global ocean as a continuous body of water
with relatively free interchange among its parts is of fundamental importance to oceanography.

The major oceanic divisions are defined in part by the continents, various archipelagos, and other
criteria: these divisions are (in descending order of size) the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean,
the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. The Pacific and Atlantic may be
further subdivided by the equator into northerly and southerly portions. Smaller regions of the
oceans are called seas, gulfs, bays and other names. There are also salt lakes, which are smaller
bodies of landlocked saltwater that are not interconnected with the World Ocean. Two notable
examples of salt lakes are the Aral Sea and the Great Salt Lake.

20
Lakes

The Lcar Lake is a lake of glacial origin in the province of Neuqun, Argentina.

A lake (from Latin lacus) is a terrain feature (or physical feature), a body of liquid on the surface
of a world that is localized to the bottom of basin (another type of landform or terrain feature;
that is, it is not global) and moves slowly if it moves at all. On Earth, a body of water is
considered a lake when it is inland, not part of the ocean, is larger and deeper than a pond, and is
fed by a river. The only world other than Earth known to harbor lakes is Titan, Saturn's largest
moon, which has lakes of ethane, most likely mixed with methane. It is not known if Titan's
lakes are fed by rivers, though Titan's surface is carved by numerous river beds. Natural lakes on
Earth are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing or recent
glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers. In
some parts of the world, there are many lakes because of chaotic drainage patterns left over from
the last Ice Age. All lakes are temporary over geologic time scales, as they will slowly fill in
with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them.

21
Rivers

Macal River in Belize at San Ignacio, in November, 2001.

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or
another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before
reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names,
including stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill; there is no general rule that defines what can be
called a river. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; one example is
Burn in Scotland and North-east England. Sometimes a river is said to be larger than a creek, but
this is not always the case, due to vagueness in the language. A river is part of the hydrological
cycle. Water within a river is generally collected from precipitation through surface runoff,
groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snowpacks (i.e.,
from glaciers).

22
A rocky stream in Hawaii.

Streams

A stream is a flowing body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. In
the United States a stream is classified as a watercourse less than 60 feet (18 metres) wide.
Streams are important as conduits in the water cycle, instruments in groundwater recharge, and
they serve as corridors for fish and wildlife migration. The biological habitat in the immediate
vicinity of a stream is called a riparian zone. Given the status of the ongoing Holocene
extinction, streams play an important corridor role in connecting fragmented habitats and thus in
conserving biodiversity. The study of streams and waterways in general is known as surface
hydrology and is a core element of environmental geography.hi.

23
Ecosystems

Loch Lomond in Scotland forms a relatively isolated ecosystem. The fish community of this lake
has remained unchanged over a very long period of time.

Ecosystems are composed of a variety of abiotic and biotic components that function in an
interrelated way. The structure and composition is determined by various environmental factors
that are interrelated. Variations of these factors will initiate dynamic modifications to the
ecosystem. Some of the more important components are: soil, atmosphere, radiation from the
sun, water, and living organisms.

24
An aerial view of a human ecosystem. Pictured is the city of Chicago

Central to the ecosystem concept is the idea that living organisms interact with every other
element in their local environment. Eugene Odum, a founder of ecology, stated: "Any unit that
includes all of the organisms (ie: the "community") in a given area interacting with the physical
environment so that a flow of energy leads to clearly defined trophic structure, biotic diversity,
and material cycles (ie: exchange of materials between living and nonliving parts) within the
system is an ecosystem." Within the ecosystem, species are connected and dependent upon one
another in the food chain, and exchange energy and matter between themselves as well as with
their environment. The human ecosystem concept is grounded in the deconstruction of the
human/nature dichotomy and the premise that all species are ecologically integrated with each
other, as well as with the abiotic constituents of their biotope.

A smaller unit of size is called a microecosystem. For example, a microsystem can be a stone
and all the life under it. A macroecosystem might involve a whole ecoregion, with its drainage
basin.

Examples of ecosystems

agro-ecosystems
Agroecosystem
Aquatic ecosystem
Chaparral
Coral reef
Desert
Forest
Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Human ecosystem
Large marine ecosystem
lentic ecosystems
Littoral zone
25
 lotic ecosystems
Marine ecosystem
Prairie
Rainforest
Savanna
Steppe
Subsurface Lithoautotrophic Microbial Ecosystem
Taiga
Tundra
Urban ecosystem

Wilderness

Old growth European Beech forest in Biogradska Gora National Park, Montenegro.

Wilderness is generally defined as areas that have not been significantly modified by human
activity. The WILD Foundation goes into more detail, defining wilderness as: "The most intact,
undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet - those last truly wild places that humans do not
control and have not developed with roads, pipelines or other industrial infrastructure."
Wilderness areas can be found in preserves, estates, farms, conservation preserves, ranches,
National Forests, National Parks and even in urban areas along rivers, gulches or otherwise
undeveloped areas. Wilderness areas and protected parks are considered important for the
survival of certain species, ecological studies, conservation, solitude, and recreation. Some
nature writers believe wilderness areas are vital for the human spirit and creativity, and some
Ecologists consider wilderness areas to be an integral part of the planet's self-sustaining natural
ecosystem (the biosphere). They may also preserve historic genetic traits and that they provide
habitat for wild flora and fauna that may be difficult to recreate in zoos, arboretums or
laboratories.

26
Life

Female mallard and ducklings - reproduction is essential for continuing life

Although there is no universal agreement on the definition of life, scientists generally accept that
the biological manifestation of life is characterized by organization, metabolism, growth,
adaptation, response to stimuli and reproduction. Life may also be said to be simply the
characteristic state of organisms.

Properties common to terrestrial organisms (plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea and bacteria)
are that they are cellular, carbon-and-water-based with complex organization, having a
metabolism, a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, and reproduce. An entity with these
properties is generally considered life. However, not every definition of life considers all of these
properties to be essential. Human-made analogs of life may also be considered to be life.

The biosphere is the part of Earth's outer shell including air, land, surface rocks and water
within which life occurs, and which biotic processes in turn alter or transform. From the broadest
geophysiological point of view, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all
living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the
lithosphere (rocks), hydrosphere (water), and atmosphere (air). Currently the entire Earth
contains over 75 billion tons (150 trillion pounds or about 6.8 x 1013 kilograms) of biomass
(life), which lives within various environments within the biosphere.

Over nine-tenths of the total biomass on Earth is plant life, on which animal life depends very
heavily for its existence. More than 2 million species of plant and animal life have been
identified to date, and estimates of the actual number of existing species range from several
million to well over 50 million. The number of individual species of life is constantly in some
degree of flux, with new species appearing and others ceasing to exist on a continual basis. The
total number of species is presently in rapid decline.

27
Evolution

An area of the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. The tropical rainforests of South America contain
the largest diversity of species on Earth.

Life, as it is currently understood, is only known to exist on the planet Earth. The origin of life is
still a poorly understood process, but it is thought to have occurred about 3.9 to 3.5 billion years
ago during the hadean or archean eons on a primordial earth that had a substantially different
environment than is found at present. These life forms possessed the basic traits of self-
replication and inheritable traits. Once life had appeared, the process of evolution by natural
selection resulted in the formation of ever-more diverse life forms.

Species that were unable to adapt to the changing environment and competition from other life
forms became extinct. However, the fossil record retains evidence of many of these older
species. Current fossil and DNA evidence shows that all existing species can trace a continual
ancestry back to the first primitive life forms.

The advent of photosynthesis in very basic forms of plant life worldwide allowed the sun's
energy to be harvested to create conditions allowing for more complex life. The resultant oxygen
accumulated in the atmosphere and gave rise to the ozone layer. The incorporation of smaller
cells within larger ones resulted in the development of yet more complex cells called eukaryotes.
Cells within colonies became increasingly specialized, resulting in true multicellular organisms.
With the ozone layer absorbing harmful ultraviolet radiation, life colonized the surface of Earth.

28
Microbes

A microscopic mite Lorryia formosa.

The first form of life to develop on the Earth were microbes, and they remained the only form of
life on the planet until about a billion years ago when multi-cellular organisms began to appear.
Microorganisms are single-celled organisms that are generally microscopic, and smaller than the
human eye can see. They include Bacteria, Fungi, Archaea and Protista.

These life forms are found in almost every location on the Earth where there is liquid water,
including the interior of rocks within the planet. Their reproduction is both rapid and profuse.
The combination of a high mutation rate and a horizontal gene transfer ability makes them highly
adaptable, and able to survive in new environments, including outer space. They form an
essential part of the planetary ecosystem. However some microorganisms are pathogenic and can
post health risk to other organisms.

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Plants and animals

There are many animal species on the planet.

The distinction between plant and animal life is not sharply drawn, with some categories of life
that stand between or across the two. Originally Aristotle divided all living things between
plants, which generally do not move, and animals. In Linnaeus' system, these became the
kingdoms Vegetabilia (later Plantae) and Animalia. Since then, it has become clear that the
Plantae as originally defined included several unrelated groups, and the fungi and several groups
of algae were removed to new kingdoms. However, these are still often considered plants in
many contexts. Bacterial life is sometimes included in flora, and some classifications use the
term bacterial flora separately from plant flora.

Among the many ways of classifying plants are by regional floras, which, depending on the
purpose of study, can also include fossil flora, remnants of plant life from a previous era. People
in many regions and countries take great pride in their individual arrays of characteristic flora,
which can vary widely across the globe due to differences in climate and terrain.

Regional floras commonly are divided into categories such as native flora and agricultural and
garden flora, the lastly mentioned of which are intentionally grown and cultivated. Some types
of "native flora" actually have been introduced centuries ago by people migrating from one
region or continent to another, and become an integral part of the native, or natural flora of the
place to which they were introduced. This is an example of how human interaction with nature
can blur the boundary of what is considered nature.

30
Wildebeest in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Note the tendency to congregate, one
of nature's displays of what is sometimes called the herding instinct or herd behavior.

Another category of plant has historically been carved out for weeds. Though the term has fallen
into disfavor among botanists as a formal way to categorize "useless" plants, the informal use of
the word "weeds" to describe those plants that are deemed worthy of elimination is illustrative of
the general tendency of people and societies to seek to alter or shape the course of nature.
Similarly, animals are often categorized in ways such as domestic, farm animals, wild animals,
pests, etc. according to their relationship to human life.

Animals as a category have several characteristics that generally set them apart from other living
things, though not traced by scientists to having legs or wings instead of roots and leaves.
Animals are eukaryotic and usually multicellular (although see Myxozoa), which separates them
from bacteria, archaea and most protists. They are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an
internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from
plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls.

With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges (Phylum Porifera), animals have bodies
differentiated into separate tissues. These include muscles, which are able to contract and control
locomotion, and a nervous system, which sends and processes signals. There is also typically an
internal digestive chamber. The eukaryotic cells possessed by all animals are surrounded by a
characteristic extracellular matrix composed of collagen and elastic glycoproteins. This may be
calcified to form structures like shells, bones, and spicules, a framework upon which cells can
move about and be reorganized during development and maturation, and which supports the
complex anatomy required for mobility.

31
Human interrelationship

Despite their natural beauty, the secluded valleys along the Na Pali Coast in Hawaii are heavily
modified by introduced invasive species such as She-oak.

A confluence of "natural" and a "made" environment

Although humans currently comprise only a minuscule proportion of the total living biomass on
Earth, the human effect on nature is disproportionately large. Because of the extent of human
influence, the boundaries between what humans regard as nature and "made environments" is not

32
clear cut except at the extremes. Even at the extremes, the amount of natural environment that is
free of discernible human influence is presently diminishing at an increasingly rapid pace.

The development of technology by the human race has allowed the greater exploitation of
natural resources and has helped to alleviate some of the risk from natural hazards. In spite of
this progress, however, the fate of human civilization remains closely linked to changes in the
environment. There exists a highly complex feedback loop between the use of advanced
technology and changes to the environment that are only slowly becoming understood. Man-
made threats to the Earth's natural environment include pollution, deforestation, and disasters
such as oil spills. Humans have contributed to the extinction of many plants and animals.

Humans employ nature for both leisure and economic activities. The acquisition of natural
resources for industrial use remains the primary component of the world's economic system.
Some activities, such as hunting and fishing, are used for both sustenance and leisure, often by
different people. Agriculture was first adopted around the 9th millennium BCE. Ranging from
food production to energy, nature influences economic wealth.

Although early humans gathered uncultivated plant materials for food and employed the
medicinal properties of vegetation for healing, most modern human use of plants is through
agriculture. The clearance of large tracts of land for crop growth has led to a significant
reduction in the amount available of forestation and wetlands, resulting in the loss of habitat for
many plant and animal species as well as increased erosion.

Aesthetics and beauty

Salmon fry hatching. The root of the Latin "natura" ("nature") is "natus," from "nasci" ("to be
born").

33
Summer field in Belgium (Hamois). The blue flower is Centaurea cyanus and the red one a
Papaver rhoeas.

Beauty in nature has historically been a prevalent theme in art and books, filling large sections of
libraries and bookstores. That nature has been depicted and celebrated by so much art,
photography, poetry and other literature shows the strength with which many people associate
nature and beauty. Why this association exists, and what the association consists of, is studied by
the branch of philosophy called aesthetics. Beyond certain basic characteristics that many
philosophers agree about to explain what is seen as beautiful, the opinions are virtually endless.

Looked at through the lens of the visual arts, nature and wildness have been important subjects in
various epochs of world history. An early tradition of landscape art began in China during the
Tang Dynasty (618-907). The tradition of representing nature as it is became one of the aims of
Chinese painting and was a significant influence in Asian art. Artists learned to depict mountains
and rivers "from the perspective of nature as a whole and on the basis of their understanding of
the laws of nature ... as if seen through the eyes of a bird." In the 13th century, the Song Dynasty
artist Shi Erji listed "scenes lacking any places made inaccessible by nature," as one of the 12
things to avoid in painting.

In the Western world the idea of wilderness having intrinsic value emerged in the 1800s,
especially in the works of the Romantic movement. British artists John Constable and JMW
Turner turned their attention to capturing the beauty of the natural world in their paintings.
Before that, paintings had been primarily of religious scenes or of human beings. William
Wordsworth's poetry described the wonder of the natural world, which had formerly been
viewed as a threatening place. Increasingly the valuing of nature became an aspect of Western
culture. This artistic movement also coincided with the Transcendentalist movement in the
Western world.

Many scientists, who study nature in more specific and organized ways, also share the conviction
that nature is beautiful; the French mathematician, Jules Henri Poincar (18541912) said:

34
The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he
delights in it because it is beautiful.
If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life
would not be worth living. Of course I do not here speak of that beauty which strikes the senses, the
beauty of qualities and of appearance; not that I undervalue such beauty, far from it, but it has nothing to
do with science; I mean that profounder beauty which comes from the harmonious order of the parts and
which a pure intelligence can grasp.

A common classical idea of beautiful art involves the word mimesis, the imitation of nature.
Also in the realm of ideas about beauty in nature is that the perfect is implied through symmetry,
equal division, and other perfect mathematical forms and notions.

Matter and energy

The first few hydrogen atom electron orbitals shown as cross-sections with color-coded
probability density

Some fields of science see nature as matter in motion, obeying certain laws of nature which
science seeks to understand. For this reason the most fundamental science is generally
understood to be "physics" the name for which is still recognizable as meaning that it is the
study of nature.

Matter is commonly defined as the substance of which physical objects are composed. It
constitutes the observable universe. The visible components of the universe are now believed to
compose only 4 percent of the total mass. The remainder is believed to consist of 23 percent cold
dark matter and 73 percent dark energy. The exact nature of these components is still unknown
and is currently under intensive investigation by physicists.

The behavior of matter and energy throughout the observable universe appears to follow well-
defined physical laws. These laws have been employed to produce cosmological models that
successfully explain the structure and the evolution of the universe we can observe. The
mathematical expressions of the laws of physics employ a set of twenty physical constants that

35
appear to be static across the observable universe. The values of these constants have been
carefully measured, but the reason for their specific values remains a mystery.

Beyond Earth

NGC 4414, a typical spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, is about 56,000 light
years in diameter and approximately 60 million light years distant.

36
The deepest visible-light image of the universe, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, contains an
estimated 10,000 galaxies in a patch of sky just one-tenth the diameter of the full moon. Image
Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF team.

Outer space, also simply called space, refers to the relatively empty regions of the universe
outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace
(and terrestrial locations). There is no discrete boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and
space, as the atmosphere gradually attenuates with increasing altitude. Outer space within the
solar system is called interplanetary space, which passes over into interstellar space at what is
known as the heliopause.

Outer space is certainly spacious, but it is far from empty. Outer space is sparsely filled with
several dozen types of organic molecules discovered to date by microwave spectroscopy,
blackbody radiation left over from the big bang and the origin of the universe, and cosmic rays,
which include ionized atomic nuclei and various subatomic particles. There is also some gas,
plasma and dust, and small meteors. Additionally, there are signs of human life in outer space
today, such as material left over from previous manned and unmanned launches which are a
potential hazard to spacecraft. Some of this debris re-enters the atmosphere periodically.

Although the planet Earth is currently the only known body within the solar system to support
life, current evidence suggests that in the distant past the planet Mars possessed bodies of liquid
water on the surface. For a brief period in Mars' history, it may have also been capable of
forming life. At present though, most of the water remaining on Mars is frozen. If life exists at
all on Mars, it is most likely to be located underground where liquid water can still exist.

Conditions on the other terrestrial planets, Mercury and Venus, appear to be too harsh to support
life as we know it. But it has been conjectured that Europa, the fourth-largest moon of Jupiter,
may possess a sub-surface ocean of liquid water and could potentially host life.

Recently, the team of Stphane Udry have discovered a new planet named Gliese 581 d, which is
an extrasolar planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581. Gliese 581 d appears to lie in the
habitable zone of space surrounding the star, and therefore could possibly host life as we know
it.

Human

37
Humans commonly refers to the species Homo sapiens (Latin: "wise man" or "knowing man"),
the only extant member of the Homo genus of bipedal primates in Hominidae, the great ape
family. However, in some cases the term is used to refer to any member of the genus Homo.

Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection,
and problem solving. This mental capability, combined with an erect body carriage that frees the
hands for manipulating objects, has allowed humans to make far greater use of tools than any
other species. Mitochondrial DNA and fossil evidence indicates that modern humans originated
in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Humans are a cosmopolitan species; widespread in every
continent except Antarctica, with a total population of 6.8 billion as of November 2009.

Like most higher primates, humans are social by nature. However, humans are uniquely adept at
utilizing systems of communication for self-expression, the exchange of ideas, and organization.
Humans create complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups,
from families to nations. Social interactions between humans have established an extremely wide
variety of values, social norms, and rituals, which together form the basis of human society.

Humans are noted for their desire to understand and influence their environment, seeking to
explain and manipulate natural phenomena through science, philosophy, mythology and religion.
This natural curiosity has led to the development of advanced tools and skills, which are passed
down culturally; humans are the only species known to build fires, cook their food, clothe
themselves, and use numerous other technologies.

Name

The English adjective human is a Middle English loan from Old French humain, ultimately from
Latin hmnus, the adjective of hom "man". Use as a noun (with a plural humans) dates to the
16th century. The native English term man is now often reserved for male adults, but can still be
used for "mankind" in general in Modern English. The word is from Proto-Germanic *mannaz,
from a Proto-Indo-European(PIE) root *man-, cognate to Sanskrit manu-.

38
The generic name Homo is a learned 18th century derivation from Latin hom "man", ultimately
"earthly being" (Old Latin hem, cognate to Old English guma "man", from PIE *demon-,
meaning 'earth' or 'ground').

History

A reconstruction of Australopithecus afarensis, a human ancestor that had developed bipedalism,

but which lacked the large brain of modern humans

The scientific study of human evolution encompasses the development of the genus Homo, but
usually involves studying other hominids and hominines as well, such as Australopithecus.
"Modern humans" are defined as the Homo sapiens species, of which the only extant subspecies
is known as Homo sapiens sapiens. Homo sapiens idaltu (roughly translated as "elder wise
human"), the other known subspecies, is now extinct. Homo neanderthalensis, which became
extinct 30,000 years ago, has sometimes been classified as a subspecies, "Homo sapiens
neanderthalensis", but genetic studies now suggest a divergence of the Neanderthal species from
Homo sapiens about 500,000 years ago. Similarly, the few specimens of Homo rhodesiensis
have also occasionally been classified as a subspecies, but this is not widely accepted.
Anatomically modern humans first appear in the fossil record in Africa about 195,000 years ago,
and studies of molecular biology give evidence that the approximate time of divergence from the
common ancestor of all modern human populations was 200,000 years ago. The broad study of
African genetic diversity headed by Dr. Sarah Tishkoff found the San people to express the
greatest genetic diversity among the 113 distinct populations sampled, making them one of 14
"ancestral population clusters". The research also located the origin of modern human migration
in south-western Africa, near the coastal border of Namibia and Angola.

The closest living relatives of humans are gorillas and chimpanzees, but humans did not evolve
from these apes: instead these apes share a common ancestor with modern humans. Humans are
probably most closely related to two chimpanzee species: Common Chimpanzee and Bonobo.
Full genome sequencing has resulted in the conclusion that "after 6.5 [million] years of separate
evolution, the differences between chimpanzee and human are ten times greater than those

39
between two unrelated people and ten times less than those between rats and mice". Suggested
concurrence between human and chimpanzee DNA sequences range between 95% and 99%. It
has been estimated that the human lineage diverged from that of chimpanzees about five million
years ago, and from that of gorillas about eight million years ago. However, a hominid skull
discovered in Chad in 2001, classified as Sahelanthropus tchadensis, is approximately seven
million years old, which may indicate an earlier divergence.

Human evolution is characterized by a number of important morphological, developmental,

physiological and behavioural changes, which have taken place since the split between the last
common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. The first major morphological change was the
evolution of a bipedal locomotor adaptation from an arboreal or semi-arboreal one, with all its
attendant adaptations, such as a valgus knee, low intermembral index (long legs relative to the
arms), and reduced upper-body strength.

Later, ancestral humans developed a much larger brain typically 1,400 cm in modern humans,
over twice the size of that of a chimpanzee or gorilla. The pattern of human postnatal brain
growth differs from that of other apes (heterochrony), and allows for extended periods of social
learning and language acquisition in juvenile humans. Physical anthropologists argue that the
differences between the structure of human brains and those of other apes are even more
significant than their differences in size.

Other significant morphological changes included: the evolution of a power and precision grip; a
reduced masticatory system; a reduction of the canine tooth; and the descent of the larynx and
hyoid bone, making speech possible. An important physiological change in humans was the
evolution of hidden oestrus, or concealed ovulation, which may have coincided with the
evolution of important behavioural changes, such as pair bonding. Another significant
behavioural change was the development of material culture, with human-made objects
becoming increasingly common and diversified over time. The relationship between all these
changes is the subject of ongoing debate.

The forces of natural selection have continued to operate on human populations, with evidence
that certain regions of the genome display directional selection in the past 15,000 years.

40
Paleolithic

Artistic expression appeared in the Upper Paleolithic: The Venus of Doln Vstonice figurine,
one of the earliest known depictions of the human body, dates to approximately 29,00025,000
BP (Gravettian).

Anatomically modern humans evolved from archaic Homo sapiens in Africa in the Middle
Paleolithic, about 200,000 years ago. By the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic 50,000 BP
(Before Present), full behavioral modernity, including language, music and other cultural
universals had developed.

The broad study of African genetic diversity headed by Dr. Sarah Tishkoff found the San people
to express the greatest genetic diversity among the 113 distinct populations sampled, making
them one of 14 "ancestral population clusters". The research also located the origin of modern
human migration in south-western Africa, near the coastal border of Namibia and Angola.

The out of Africa migration is estimated to have occurred about 70,000 years BP. Modern
humans subsequently spread to all continents, replacing earlier hominids: they inhabited Eurasia
and Oceania by 40,000 BP, and the Americas at least 14,500 years BP. They displaced Homo
neanderthalensis and other species descended from Homo erectus (which had inhabited Eurasia
as early as 2 million years ago) through more successful reproduction and competition for
resources.

Evidence from archaeogenetics accumulating since the 1990s has lent strong support to the "out-
of-Africa" scenario, and has marginalized the competing multiregional hypothesis, which
proposed that modern humans evolved, at least in part, from independent hominid populations.

Geneticists Lynn Jorde and Henry Harpending of the University of Utah propose that the
variation in human DNA is minute compared to that of other species. They also propose that
during the Late Pleistocene, the human population was reduced to a small number of breeding
pairs no more than 10,000, and possibly as few as 1,000 resulting in a very small residual

41
gene pool. Various reasons for this hypothetical bottleneck have been postulated, one being the
Toba catastrophe theory.

Transition to civilization

The rise of agriculture, and domestication of animals, led to stable human settlements.

The path followed by humans in the course of history

Until c. 10,000 years ago, most humans lived as hunter-gatherers. They generally lived in small
nomadic groups known as band societies. The advent of agriculture prompted the Neolithic

42
Revolution, when access to food surplus led to the formation of permanent human settlements,
the domestication of animals and the use of metal tools. Agriculture encouraged trade and
cooperation, and led to complex society. Because of the significance of this date for human
society, it is the epoch of the Holocene calendar or Human Era.

About 6,000 years ago, the first proto-states developed in Mesopotamia, Egypt's Nile Valley and
the Indus Valleys. Military forces were formed for protection, and government bureaucracies for
administration. States cooperated and competed for resources, in some cases waging wars.
Around 2,0003,000 years ago, some states, such as Persia, India, China, Rome, and Greece,
developed through conquest into the first expansive empires. Influential religions, such as
Judaism, originating in the Middle East, and Hinduism, a religious tradition that originated in
South Asia, also rose to prominence at this time.

The late Middle Ages saw the rise of revolutionary ideas and technologies. In China, an
advanced and urbanized society promoted innovations and sciences, such as printing and seed
drilling. In India, major advancements were made in mathematics, philosophy, religion and
metallurgy. The Islamic Golden Age saw major scientific advancements in Muslim empires. In
Europe, the rediscovery of classical learning and inventions such as the printing press led to the
Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries. Over the next 500 years, exploration and colonialism
brought much of the Americas, Asia, and Africa under European control, leading to later
struggles for independence. The Scientific Revolution in the 17th century and the Industrial
Revolution in the 18th19th centuries promoted major innovations in transport, such as the
railway and automobile; energy development, such as coal and electricity; and government, such
as representative democracy and Communism.

With the advent of the Information Age at the end of the 20th century, modern humans live in a
world that has become increasingly globalized and interconnected. As of 2008, over 1.4 billion
humans are connected to each other via the Internet, and 3.3 billion by mobile phone
subscriptions.

Although interconnection between humans has encouraged the growth of science, art, discussion,
and technology, it has also led to culture clashes and the development and use of weapons of
mass destruction. Human civilization has led to environmental destruction and pollution,
producing an ongoing mass extinction of other forms of life called the holocene extinction event,
that may be further accelerated by global warming in the future.

Habitat and population

43
Humans often live in family-based social structures and create artificial shelter.

Early human settlements, were dependent on proximity to water and, depending on the lifestyle,
other natural resources, such as arable land for growing crops and grazing livestock, or
seasonally by hunting populations of prey. However, humans have a great capacity for altering
their habitats by various methods, such as through irrigation, urban planning, construction,
transport, manufacturing goods, deforestation and desertification. Deliberate habitat alteration is
often done with the goals of increasing material wealth, increasing thermal comfort, improving
the amount of food available, improving aesthetics, or improving ease of access to resources or
other human settlements. With the advent of large-scale trade and transport infrastructure,
proximity to these resources has become unnecessary, and in many places, these factors are no
longer a driving force behind the growth and decline of a population. Nonetheless, the manner in
which a habitat is altered is often a major determinant in population change.

Technology has allowed humans to colonize all of the continents and adapt to virtually all
climates. Within the last century, humans have explored Antarctica, the ocean depths, and outer
space, although large-scale colonization of these environments is not yet feasible. With a
population of over six billion, humans are among the most numerous of the large mammals.
Most humans (61%) live in Asia. The remainder live in the Americas (14%), Africa (14%),
Europe (11%), and Oceania (0.5%).

Human habitation within closed ecological systems in hostile environments, such as Antarctica
and outer space, is expensive, typically limited in duration, and restricted to scientific, military,
or industrial expeditions. Life in space has been very sporadic, with no more than thirteen
humans in space at any given time. Between 1969 and 1972, two humans at a time spent brief
intervals on the Moon. As of March 2010, no other celestial body has been visited by humans,
although there has been a continuous human presence in space since the launch of the initial
crew to inhabit the International Space Station on October 31, 2000. However, other celestial
bodies have been visited by human-made objects.

44
Since 1800, the human population has increased from one billion to over six billion. In 2004,
some 2.5 billion out of 6.3 billion people (39.7%) lived in urban areas, and this percentage is
expected to continue to rise throughout the 21st century. In February 2008, the U.N. estimated
that half the world's population will live in urban areas by the end of the year. Problems for
humans living in cities include various forms of pollution and crime, especially in inner city and
suburban slums.

Humans have had a dramatic effect on the environment. As humans are rarely preyed upon, they
have been described as superpredators. Currently, through land development, combustion of
fossil fuels and pollution, humans are thought to be the main contributor to global climate
change. Human activity is believed to be a major contributor to the ongoing Holocene extinction
event, which is a form of mass extinction. If this continues at its current rate it is predicted that it
will wipe out half of all species over the next century.

Biology
Anatomy

Human body types vary substantially. Although body size is largely determined by genes, it is
also significantly influenced by environmental factors such as diet and exercise. The average
height of an adult human is about 1.5 to 1.8 m (5 to 6 feet) tall, although this varies significantly
from place to place. The average mass of an adult human is 5464 kg (120140 lbs) for females
and 7683 kg (168183 lbs) for males. Weight can also vary greatly (e.g. obesity). Unlike most
other primates, humans are capable of fully bipedal locomotion, thus leaving their arms available
for manipulating objects using their hands, aided especially by opposable thumbs.

Although humans appear hairless compared to other primates, with notable hair growth
occurring chiefly on the top of the head, underarms and pubic area, the average human has more
hair follicles on his or her body than the average chimpanzee. The main distinction is that human
hairs are shorter, finer, and less heavily pigmented than the average chimpanzee's, thus making
them harder to see.

The hue of human skin and hair is determined by the presence of pigments called melanins.
Human skin hues can range from very dark brown to very pale pink. Human hair ranges from
white to brown to red to most commonly black. This depends on the amount of melanin (an
effective sun blocking pigment) in the skin and hair, with hair melanin concentrations in hair
fading with increased age, leading to grey or even white hair. Most researchers believe that skin
darkening was an adaptation that evolved as a protection against ultraviolet solar radiation.
However, more recently it has been argued that particular skin colors are an adaptation to
balance folate, which is destroyed by ultraviolet radiation, and vitamin D, which requires
sunlight to form. The skin pigmentation of contemporary humans is geographically stratified,
and in general correlates with the level of ultraviolet radiation. Human skin also has a capacity to
darken (sun tanning) in response to exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Humans tend to be
physically weaker than other similarly sized primates, with young, conditioned male humans
having been shown to be unable to match the strength of female orangutans which are at least
three times stronger.

Humans have proportionately shorter palates and Oxygen

Nitrogen
Constituents
38.8kg
1.9 kg
of the
25.5%
1.4%
human body
much smaller teeth than other primates. They are In a person weighing 60 kg

the only primates to have short, relatively flush Other

Carbon 2.4 kg
10.9 kg 0.6%
9.5%
Constituent Weight Percentage of atoms
canine teeth. Humans have characteristically Hydrogen 6.0 kg 63.0%

45
crowded teeth, with gaps from lost teeth usually closing up quickly in young specimens. Humans
are gradually losing their wisdom teeth, with some individuals having them congenitally absent.

Physiology

Human physiology is the science of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of
humans in good health, their organs, and the cells of which they are composed. The principal
level of focus of physiology is at the level of organs and systems. Most aspects of human
physiology are closely homologous to corresponding aspects of animal physiology, and animal
experimentation has provided much of the foundation of physiological knowledge. Anatomy and
physiology are closely related fields of study: anatomy, the study of form, and physiology, the
study of function, are intrinsically tied and are studied in tandem as part of a medical curriculum.

Genetics

Humans are a eukaryotic species. Each diploid cell has two sets of 23 chromosomes, each set
received from one parent. There are 22 pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes. By
present estimates, humans have approximately 20,00025,000 genes. Like other mammals,
humans have an XY sex-determination system, so that females have the sex chromosomes XX
and males have XY. The X chromosome carries many genes not on the Y chromosome, which
means that recessive diseases associated with X-linked genes, such as haemophilia, affect men
more often than women.

Life cycle

A 10mm human embryo at 5 weeks

The human life cycle is similar to that of other placental mammals. The zygote divides inside the
female's uterus to become an embryo, which over a period of thirty-eight weeks (9 months) of
gestation becomes a human fetus. After this span of time, the fully grown fetus is birthed from
the woman's body and breathes independently as an infant for the first time. At this point, most

46
modern cultures recognize the baby as a person entitled to the full protection of the law, though
some jurisdictions extend various levels of personhood earlier to human fetuses while they
remain in the uterus.

Compared with other species, human childbirth is dangerous. Painful labors lasting twenty-four
hours or more are not uncommon and sometimes leads to the death of the mother, or the child.
This is because of both the relatively large fetal head circumference (for housing the brain) and
the mother's relatively narrow pelvis (a trait required for successful bipedalism, by way of
natural selection). The chances of a successful labor increased significantly during the 20th
century in wealthier countries with the advent of new medical technologies. In contrast,
pregnancy and natural childbirth remain hazardous ordeals in developing regions of the world,
with maternal death rates approximately 100 times more common than in developed countries.

In developed countries, infants are typically 34 kg (69 pounds) in weight and 5060 cm (20
24 inches) in height at birth. However, low birth weight is common in developing countries, and
contributes to the high levels of infant mortality in these regions. Helpless at birth, humans
continue to grow for some years, typically reaching sexual maturity at 12 to 15 years of age.
Females continue to develop physically until around the age of 18, whereas male development
continues until around age 21. The human life span can be split into a number of stages: infancy,
childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood and old age. The lengths of these stages,
however, have varied across cultures and time periods. Compared to other primates, humans
experience an unusually rapid growth spurt during adolescence, where the body grows 25% in
size. Chimpanzees, for example, grow only 14%, with no pronounced spurt. The presence of the
growth spurt is probably necessary to keep children physically small until they are
psychologically mature. Humans are one of the few species in which females undergo
menopause. It has been proposed that menopause increases a woman's overall reproductive
success by allowing her to invest more time and resources in her existing offspring and/or their
children (the grandmother hypothesis), rather than by continuing to bear children into old age.

There are significant differences in life expectancy around the world. The developed world is
generally aging, with the median age around 40 years (highest in Monaco at 45.1 years). In the
developing world the median age is between 15 and 20 years. Life expectancy at birth in Hong
Kong is 84.8 years for a female and 78.9 for a male, while in Swaziland, primarily because of
AIDS, it is 31.3 years for both sexes. While one in five Europeans is 60 years of age or older,
only one in twenty Africans is 60 years of age or older. The number of centenarians (humans of
age 100 years or older) in the world was estimated by the United Nations at 210,000 in 2002. At
least one person, Jeanne Calment, is known to have reached the age of 122 years; higher ages
have been claimed but they are not well substantiated. Worldwide, there are 81 men aged 60 or
older for every 100 women of that age group, and among the oldest, there are 53 men for every
100 women.

Diet

Humans are omnivorous, capable of consuming both plant and animal products. Varying with
available food sources in regions of habitation, and also varying with cultural and religious
norms, human groups have adopted a range of diets, from purely vegetarian to primarily
carnivorous. In some cases, dietary restrictions in humans can lead to deficiency diseases;
however, stable human groups have adapted to many dietary patterns through both genetic
specialization and cultural conventions to utilize nutritionally balanced food sources. The human
diet is prominently reflected in human culture, and has led to the development of food science.

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Until the development of agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago, Homo sapiens employed a
hunter-gatherer method as their sole means of food collection. This involved combining
stationary food sources (such as fruits, grains, tubers, and mushrooms, insect larvae and aquatic
molluscs) with wild game, which must be hunted and killed in order to be consumed. It has been
proposed that humans have used fire to prepare and cook food since the time of their divergence
from Homo erectus. Around ten thousand years ago, humans developed agriculture, which
substantially altered their diet. This change in diet may also have altered human biology; with
the spread of dairy farming providing a new and rich source of food, leading to the evolution of
the ability to digest lactose in some adults. Agriculture led to increased populations, the
development of cities, and because of increased population density, the wider spread of
infectious diseases. The types of food consumed, and the way in which they are prepared, has
varied widely by time, location, and culture.

In general, humans can survive for two to eight weeks without food, depending on stored body
fat. Survival without water is usually limited to three or four days. Lack of food remains a
serious problem, with about 36 million humans starving to death every year. Childhood
malnutrition is also common and contributes to the global burden of disease. However global
food distribution is not even, and obesity among some human populations has increased rapidly,
leading to health complications and increased mortality in some developed, and a few
developing countries. Worldwide over one billion people are obese, while in the United States
35% of people are obese, leading to this being described as an "obesity epidemic". Obesity is
caused by consuming more calories than are expended, so excessive weight gain is usually
caused by a combination of an energy-dense high fat diet and insufficient exercise.

Sleep

Humans are generally diurnal. The average sleep requirement is between seven and nine
continuous hours a day for an adult and nine to ten hours for a child; elderly people usually sleep
for six to seven hours. Experiencing less sleep than this is common in modern societies; this
sleep deprivation can have negative effects. A sustained restriction of adult sleep to four hours
per day has been shown to correlate with changes in physiology and mental state, including
fatigue, aggression, and bodily discomfort.

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Psychology

A sketch of the human brain imposed upon the profile of Michelangelo's David. Sketch by
Priyan Weerappuli

The human brain, the focal point of the central nervous system in humans, controls the peripheral
nervous system. In addition to controlling "lower", involuntary, or primarily autonomic activities
such as respiration and digestion, it is also the locus of "higher" order functioning such as
thought, reasoning, and abstraction. These cognitive processes constitute the mind, and, along
with their behavioral consequences, are studied in the field of psychology.

Generally regarded as more capable of these higher order activities, the human brain is believed
to be more "intelligent" in general than that of any other known species. Some are capable of
creating structures and using simple toolsmostly through instinct and mimicryhuman
technology is vastly more complex, and is constantly evolving and improving through time.

Although being vastly more advanced than many species in cognitive abilities, most of these
abilities are known in primitive form among other species. Modern anthropology has tended to
bear out Darwin's proposition that "the difference in mind between man and the higher animals,
great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind".

Consciousness and thought

Humans are one of only nine species to pass the mirror testwhich tests whether an animal
recognizes its reflection as an image of itselfalong with all the great apes (gorillas,
chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos), Bottlenose dolphins, Asian elephants, European Magpies
and Orcas. Most human children will pass the mirror test at 18 months old. However, the
usefulness of this test as a true test of consciousness has been disputed, and this may be a matter
of degree rather than a sharp divide. Monkeys have been trained to apply abstract rules in tasks.

49
The human brain perceives the external world through the senses, and each individual human is
influenced greatly by his or her experiences, leading to subjective views of existence and the
passage of time. Humans are variously said to possess consciousness, self-awareness, and a
mind, which correspond roughly to the mental processes of thought. These are said to possess
qualities such as self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship
between oneself and one's environment. The extent to which the mind constructs or experiences
the outer world is a matter of debate, as are the definitions and validity of many of the terms used
above. The philosopher of cognitive science Daniel Dennett, for example, argues that there is no
such thing as a narrative centre called the "mind", but that instead there is simply a collection of
sensory inputs and outputs: different kinds of "software" running in parallel. Psychologist B.F.
Skinner argued that the mind is an explanatory fiction that diverts attention from environmental
causes of behavior, and that what are commonly seen as mental processes may be better
conceived of as forms of covert verbal behavior.

Humans study the more physical aspects of the mind and brain, and by extension of the nervous
system, in the field of neurology, the more behavioral in the field of psychology, and a
sometimes loosely defined area between in the field of psychiatry, which treats mental illness
and behavioral disorders. Psychology does not necessarily refer to the brain or nervous system,
and can be framed purely in terms of phenomenological or information processing theories of the
mind. Increasingly, however, an understanding of brain functions is being included in
psychological theory and practice, particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence,
neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience.

The nature of thought is central to psychology and related fields. Cognitive psychology studies
cognition, the mental processes' underlying behavior. It uses information processing as a
framework for understanding the mind. Perception, learning, problem solving, memory,
attention, language and emotion are all well researched areas as well. Cognitive psychology is
associated with a school of thought known as cognitivism, whose adherents argue for an
information processing model of mental function, informed by positivism and experimental
psychology. Techniques and models from cognitive psychology are widely applied and form the
mainstay of psychological theories in many areas of both research and applied psychology.
Largely focusing on the development of the human mind through the life span, developmental
psychology seeks to understand how people come to perceive, understand, and act within the
world and how these processes change as they age. This may focus on intellectual, cognitive,
neural, social, or moral development.

Some philosophers divide consciousness into phenomenal consciousness, which is experience

itself, and access consciousness, which is the processing of the things in experience. Phenomenal
consciousness is the state of being conscious, such as when they say "I am conscious." Access
consciousness is being conscious of something in relation to abstract concepts, such as when one
says "I am conscious of these words." Various forms of access consciousness include awareness,
self-awareness, conscience, stream of consciousness, Husserl's phenomenology, and
intentionality. The concept of phenomenal consciousness, in modern history, according to some,
is closely related to the concept of qualia. Social psychology links sociology with psychology in
their shared study of the nature and causes of human social interaction, with an emphasis on how
people think towards each other and how they relate to each other. The behavior and mental
processes, both human and non-human, can be described through animal cognition, ethology,
evolutionary psychology, and comparative psychology as well. Human ecology is an academic
discipline that investigates how humans and human societies interact with both their natural
environment and the human social environment.

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Motivation and emotion

Motivation is the driving force of desire behind all deliberate actions of humans. Motivation is
based on emotionspecifically, on the search for satisfaction (positive emotional experiences),
and the avoidance of conflict. Positive and negative is defined by the individual brain state,
which may be influenced by social norms: a person may be driven to self-injury or violence
because their brain is conditioned to create a positive response to these actions. Motivation is
important because it is involved in the performance of all learned responses. Within psychology,
conflict avoidance and the libido are seen to be primary motivators. Within economics,
motivation is often seen to be based on incentives; these may be financial, moral, or coercive.
Religions generally posit divine or demonic influences.

Happiness, or the state of being happy, is a human emotional condition. The definition of
happiness is a common philosophical topic. Some people might define it as the best condition
that a human can havea condition of mental and physical health. Others define it as freedom
from want and distress; consciousness of the good order of things; assurance of one's place in the
universe or society.

Emotion has a significant influence on, or can even be said to control, human behavior, though
historically many cultures and philosophers have for various reasons discouraged allowing this
influence to go unchecked. Emotional experiences perceived as pleasant, such as love,
admiration, or joy, contrast with those perceived as unpleasant, like hate, envy, or sorrow. There
is often a distinction made between refined emotions that are socially learned and survival
oriented emotions, which are thought to be innate. Human exploration of emotions as separate
from other neurological phenomena is worthy of note, particularly in cultures where emotion is
considered separate from physiological state. In some cultural medical theories emotion is
considered so synonymous with certain forms of physical health that no difference is thought to
exist. The Stoics believed excessive emotion was harmful, while some Sufi teachers felt certain
extreme emotions could yield a conceptual perfection, what is often translated as ecstasy.

In modern scientific thought, certain refined emotions are considered a complex neural trait
innate in a variety of domesticated and non-domesticated mammals. These were commonly
developed in reaction to superior survival mechanisms and intelligent interaction with each other
and the environment; as such, refined emotion is not in all cases as discrete and separate from
natural neural function as was once assumed. However, when humans function in civilized
tandem, it has been noted that uninhibited acting on extreme emotion can lead to social disorder
and crime.

Sexuality and love

Human sexuality, besides ensuring biological reproduction, has important social functions: it
creates physical intimacy, bonds, and hierarchies among individuals; may be directed to spiritual
transcendence (according to some traditions); and in a hedonistic sense to the enjoyment of
activity involving sexual gratification. Sexual desire, or libido, is experienced as a bodily urge,
often accompanied by strong emotions such as love, ecstasy and jealousy. The extreme
importance of sexuality in the human species can be seen in a number of physical features,
among them hidden ovulation, the evolution of external scrotum and penis suggesting sperm
competition, the absence of an os penis, permanent secondary sexual characteristics, the forming
of pair bonds based on sexual attraction as a common social structure and sexual ability in
females outside of ovulation. These adaptations indicate that the importance of sexuality in
humans is on a par with that found in the Bonobo, and that the complex human sexual behaviour
has a long evolutionary history.

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Human choices in acting on sexuality are commonly influenced by cultural norms, which vary
widely. Restrictions are often determined by religious beliefs or social customs. The pioneering
researcher Sigmund Freud believed that humans are born polymorphously perverse, which
means that any number of objects could be a source of pleasure. According to Freud, humans
then pass through five stages of psychosexual development (and can fixate on any stage because
of various traumas during the process). For Alfred Kinsey, another influential sex researcher,
people can fall anywhere along a continuous scale of sexual orientation (with only small
minorities fully heterosexual or homosexual). Recent studies of neurology and genetics suggest
people may be born with a predisposition to one sexual orientation or another.

Culture

Culture is defined here as a set of distinctive material, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual
features of a social group, including art, literature, sport, lifestyles, value systems, traditions,
rituals, and beliefs. The link between human biology and human behavior and culture is often
very close, making it difficult to clearly divide topics into one area or the other; as such, the
placement of some subjects may be based primarily on convention. Culture consists of values,
social norms, and artifacts. A culture's values define what it holds to be important or ethical.
Closely linked are norms, expectations of how people ought to behave, bound by tradition.
Artifacts, or material culture, are objects derived from the culture's values, norms, and
understanding of the world.

Language

The capacity humans have to transfer concepts, ideas and notions through speech and writing is
unrivaled in known species. Unlike the call systems of other primates that are closed, human
language is far more open, and gains variety in different situations. The human language has the
quality of displacement, using words to represent things and happenings that are not presently or
locally occurring, but elsewhere or at a different time. In this way data networks are important to
the continuing development of language. The faculty of speech is a defining feature of humanity,
possibly predating phylogenetic separation of the modern population. Language is central to the
communication between humans, as well as being central to the sense of identity that unites
nations, cultures and ethnic groups. The invention of writing systems at least 5,000 years ago
allowed the preservation of language on material objects, and was a major step in cultural
evolution. The science of linguistics describes the structure of language and the relationship
between languages. There are approximately 6,000 different languages currently in use,
including sign languages, and many thousands more that are considered extinct.

Spirituality and religion

Religion is generally defined as a belief system concerning the supernatural, sacred or divine,
and moral codes, practices, values, institutions and rituals associated with such belief. The
evolution and the history of the first religions have recently become areas of active scientific
investigation. However, in the course of its development, religion has taken on many forms that
vary by culture and individual perspective. Some of the chief questions and issues religions are
concerned with include life after death (commonly involving belief in an afterlife), the origin of
life, the nature of the universe (religious cosmology) and its ultimate fate (eschatology), and
what is moral or immoral. A common source in religions for answers to these questions are
beliefs in transcendent divine beings such as deities or a singular God, although not all religions
are theisticmany are nontheistic or ambiguous on the topic, particularly among the Eastern
religions. Spirituality, belief or involvement in matters of the soul or spirit, is one of the many
different approaches humans take in trying to answer fundamental questions about humankind's

52
place in the universe, the meaning of life, and the ideal way to live one's life. Though these
topics have also been addressed by philosophy, and to some extent by science, spirituality is
unique in that it focuses on mystical or supernatural concepts such as karma and God.

Although the exact level of religiosity can be hard to measure, a majority of humans professes
some variety of religious or spiritual belief, although some are irreligious: that is lacking or
rejecting belief in the supernatural or spiritual. Other humans have no religious beliefs and are
atheists, scientific skeptics, agnostics or simply non-religious. Humanism is a philosophy which
seeks to include all of humanity and all issues common to humans; it is usually non-religious.
Additionally, although most religions and spiritual beliefs are clearly distinct from science on
both a philosophical and methodological level, the two are not generally considered mutually
exclusive; a majority of humans holds a mix of both scientific and religious views. The
distinction between philosophy and religion, on the other hand, is at times less clear, and the two
are linked in such fields as the philosophy of religion and theology.

Statue of Confucius on Chongming Island in Shanghai

Philosophy and self-reflection

Philosophy is a discipline or field of study involving the investigation, analysis, and development
of ideas at a general, abstract, or fundamental level. It is the discipline searching for a general
understanding of reality, reasoning and values. Major fields of philosophy include logic,
metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and axiology (which includes ethics and
aesthetics). Philosophy covers a very wide range of approaches, and is used to refer to a
worldview, to a perspective on an issue, or to the positions argued for by a particular philosopher
or school of philosophy.

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Art, music, and literature

Allegory of Music (ca. 1594), a painting of a woman writing sheet music by Lorenzo Lippi.

Artistic works have existed for almost as long as humankind, from early pre-historic art to
contemporary art. Art is one of the most unusual aspects of human behaviour and a key
distinguishing feature of humans from other species.

As a form of cultural expression by humans, art may be defined by the pursuit of diversity and
the usage of narratives of liberation and exploration (i.e. art history, art criticism, and art theory)
to mediate its boundaries. This distinction may be applied to objects or performances, current or
historical, and its prestige extends to those who made, found, exhibit, or own them. In the
modern use of the word, art is commonly understood to be the process or result of making
material works that, from concept to creation, adhere to the "creative impulse" of human beings.
Art is distinguished from other works by being in large part unprompted by necessity, by
biological drive, or by any undisciplined pursuit of recreation.

Music is a natural intuitive phenomenon based on the three distinct and interrelated organization
structures of rhythm, harmony, and melody. Listening to music is perhaps the most common and
universal form of entertainment for humans, while learning and understanding it are popular
disciplines. There are a wide variety of music genres and ethnic musics. Literature, the body of
writtenand possibly oralworks, especially creative ones, includes prose, poetry and drama,
both fiction and non-fiction. Literature includes such genres as epic, legend, myth, ballad, and
folklore.

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Tool use and technology

An archaic Acheulean stone tool

Stone tools were used by proto-humans at least 2.5 million years ago. The controlled use of fire
began around 1.5 million years ago. Since then, humans have made major advances, developing
complex technology to create tools to aid their lives and allowing for other advancements in
culture. Major leaps in technology include the discovery of agriculture - what is known as the
Neolithic Revolution; and the invention of automated machines in the Industrial Revolution. In
modern times, the invention of the Internet has allowed humans to share information faster than
ever before. The use of electricity as power is vital in the modern human world.

Archaeology attempts to tell the story of past or lost cultures in part by close examination of the
artifacts they produced. Early humans left stone tools, pottery and jewelry that are particular to
various regions and times.

Gender roles

The sexual division of humans into male and female has been marked culturally by a
corresponding division of roles, norms, practices, dress, behavior, rights, duties, privileges,
status, and power. Cultural differences by gender have often been believed to have arisen
naturally out of a division of reproductive labor; the biological fact that women give birth led to
their further cultural responsibility for nurturing and caring for children and households. Gender
roles have varied historically, and challenges to predominant gender norms have recurred in
many societies. As a whole, partriarchal societies (i.e., in which men hold the greater degree of
economic and political power) have been predominant, and matriarchal or egalitarian societies
less common.

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Race and ethnicity

Humans often categorize themselves in terms of race or ethnicity, sometimes on the basis of
differences in appearance. Human racial categories have been based on both ancestry and visible
traits, especially facial features, skin color and hair texture. Most current genetic and
archaeological evidence supports a recent single origin of modern humans in East Africa.
Current genetic studies have demonstrated that humans on the African continent are most
genetically diverse. However, compared to the other great apes, human gene sequences are
remarkably homogeneous. The predominance of genetic variation occurs within racial groups,
with only 5 to 15% of total variation occurring between groups. Thus the scientific concept of
variation in the human genome is largely incongruent with the cultural concept of ethnicity or
race. Ethnic groups are defined by linguistic, cultural, ancestral, national or regional ties. Self-
identification with an ethnic group is usually based on kinship and descent. Race and ethnicity
are among major factors in social identity giving rise to various forms of identity politics, e.g.:
racism.

There is no scientific consensus of a list of the human races, and few anthropologists endorse the
notion of human "race". For example, a color terminology for race includes the following in a
classification of human races: Black (e.g. Sub-Saharan Africa), Red (e.g. Native Americans),
Yellow (e.g. East Asians) and White (e.g. Europeans).

Referring to natural species, in general, the term "race" is obsolete, particularly if a species is
uniformly distributed on a territory. In its modern scientific connotation, the term is not
applicable to a species as genetically homogeneous as the human one, as stated in the declaration
on race (UNESCO 1950).

Genetic studies have substantiated the absence of biological borders, thus the term "race" has de
facto disappeared from the scientific terminology, both in biological anthropology and in human
genetics.

What in the past had been defined as "races"e.g., whites, blacks, or Asiansare now defined
as "ethnic groups" or "populations", in correlation with the field (sociology, anthropology,
genetics) in which they are considered.

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Society, government, and politics

The United Nations complex in New York City, which houses one of the largest political
organizations in the world.

Society is the system of organizations and institutions arising from interaction between humans.
A state is an organized political community occupying a definite territory, having an organized
government, and possessing internal and external sovereignty. Recognition of the state's claim to
independence by other states, enabling it to enter into international agreements, is often
important to the establishment of its statehood. The "state" can also be defined in terms of
domestic conditions, specifically, as conceptualized by Max Weber, "a state is a human
community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the 'legitimate' use of physical force
within a given territory."

Government can be defined as the political means of creating and enforcing laws; typically via a
bureaucratic hierarchy. Politics is the process by which decisions are made within groups.
Although the term is generally applied to behavior within governments, politics is also observed
in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. Many
different political systems exist, as do many different ways of understanding them, and many
definitions overlap. Examples of governments include monarchy, Communist state, military
dictatorship, and theocracy. All of these issues have a direct relationship with economics.

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War

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki immediately killed over 120,000 humans.

War is a state of widespread conflict between states or other large groups of humans, which is
characterized by the use of lethal violence between combatants and/or upon civilians. It is
estimated that during the 20th century between 167 and 188 million humans died as a result of
war. A common perception of war is a series of military campaigns between at least two
opposing sides involving a dispute over sovereignty, territory, resources, religion, or other issues.
A war between internal elements of a state is a civil war.

There have been a wide variety of rapidly advancing tactics throughout the history of war,
ranging from conventional war to asymmetric warfare to total war and unconventional warfare.
Techniques include hand to hand combat, the use of ranged weapons, and, more recently, air
support. Military intelligence has often played a key role in determining victory and defeat.
Propaganda, which often includes information, slanted opinion and disinformation, plays a key
role in maintaining unity within a warring group, and/or sowing discord among opponents. In
modern warfare, soldiers and armoured fighting vehicles are used to control the land, warships
the sea, and aircraft the sky. These fields have also overlapped in the forms of marines,
paratroopers, naval aircraft carriers, and surface-to-air missiles, among others. Satellites in low
Earth orbit have made outer space a factor in warfare as well, although no actual warfare is
currently known to be carried out in space.

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Trade and economics

Buyers and sellers bargain in a market

Trade is the voluntary exchange of goods and services, and is a form of economics. A
mechanism that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct
exchange of goods and services. Modern traders instead generally negotiate through a medium of
exchange, such as money. As a result, buying can be separated from selling, or earning. The
invention of money (and later credit, paper money and non-physical money) greatly simplified
and promoted trade. Because of specialization and division of labor, most people concentrate on
a small aspect of manufacturing or service, trading their labour for products. Trade exists
between regions because different regions have an absolute or comparative advantage in the
production of some tradable commodity, or because different regions' size allows for the benefits
of mass production.

Economics is a social science which studies the production, distribution, trade, and consumption
of goods and services. Economics focuses on measurable variables, and is broadly divided into
two main branches: microeconomics, which deals with individual agents, such as households and
businesses, and macroeconomics, which considers the economy as a whole, in which case it
considers aggregate supply and demand for money, capital and commodities. Aspects receiving
particular attention in economics are resource allocation, production, distribution, trade, and
competition. Economic logic is increasingly applied to any problem that involves choice under
scarcity or determining economic value. Mainstream economics focuses on how prices reflect
supply and demand, and uses equations to predict consequences of decisions.

Person
A person is a legal concept both permitting rights to and imposing duties on one by law. In the
fields of law, philosophy, medicine, and others, the term has specialised context-specific
meanings. In many jurisdictions, for example, a corporation is considered a legal person with

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standing to sue or be sued in court. In philosophy, "person" may apply to any human or non-
human actor who is regarded as self-conscious and capable of certain kinds of thought; for
example, individuals who have the power to reflect upon and choose their actions. This could
also extend to late fetuses and neonates, dependent on what level of thought is required.

Scientific approach

As an application of Social psychology and other disciplines, phenomena such as the perception
and attribution of personhood have been scientifically studied. Typical questions addressed in
social psychology are the accuracy of attribution, processes of perception and the formation of
bias. Various other scientific/medical disciplines address the myriad of issues in the development
of personality.

Who is a person?

Persons - In contemporary global thought, once humans are born, personhood is

considered automatic via Legal fiction created by a Birth certificate.
Animals - Some philosophers and those involved in animal welfare, ethology, animal
rights and related subjects, consider that certain animals should also be granted
personhood. Commonly named species in this context include the Great Apes, cetaceans,
and elephants, because of their apparent intelligence and intricate social rules.
In animistic religion, animals, plants, and other entities may be persons or deities.
Certain societal constructs - certain social entities, are considered legally as persons, for
example some corporations and other legal entities. This is known as legal, or corporate,
personhood.

In addition speculatively, there are several other likely categories of beings where personhood
might be at issue:

Unknown intelligent life-forms - for example, should alien life be found to exist, under
what circumstances would they be counted as 'persons'?
Artificially created life - at what point might human-created biological life be considered
to have achieved personhood?
Artificial intelligence - assuming the eventual creation of an intelligent and self-aware
system of hardware and software, what criteria would be used to confer or withhold the
status of person?
Modified living humans, cyborgs - for example, how much of a human can be replaced
by artificial parts before personhood is lost, if ever?
o Further, if the brain is the reason people are considered persons, then if the human
brain and all its thought patterns, memories and other attributes could also in
future be transposed faithfully into some form of artificial device (for example to
avoid illness such as brain cancer) would the patient still be considered a 'person'
after the operation?
o If the person (or "individual") could go back in time and relate to his/her earlier
self. Would it then be two persons yet the same being. Or one person in two
bodies?
o Are the surgical separations of conjoined twins cases more complicated,
challenging and controversial than abortion?
Do we have to consider any "willing and communicative (capable to register its own will)
autonomous body" in the universe, no matter the species, an individual (a person)? Do
they deserve equal rights with the human race?

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Such questions are used by philosophers to clarify thinking concerning what it means to be
human, or living, or a person, or an individual.

Implications of the person/non-person debate

The personhood theory has become a pivotal issue in the interdisciplinary field of bioethics.
While historically most humans did not enjoy full legal protection as persons (women, children,
non-landowners, minorities, slaves, etc.), from the late 18th through the late 20th century, being
born as a member of the human species gradually became secular grounds for the basic rights of
liberty, freedom from persecution, and humanitarian care.

Since modern movements emerged to oppose animal cruelty (and advocate vegan philosophy)
and theorists like Turing have recognized the possibility of artificial minds with human-level
competence, the identification of personhood protections exclusively with human species
membership has been challenged. On the other hand, some proponents of human exceptionalism
(also referred to by its critics as speciesism) have countered that we must institute a strict
demarcation of personhood based on species membership in order to avoid the horrors of
genocide (based on propaganda dehumanizing one or more ethnicities) or the injustices of forced
sterilization (as occurred in many countries to people with low I.Q. scores and prisoners).

While the former advocates tend to be comfortable constraining personhood status within the
human species based on basic capacities (e.g. excluding human stem cells, fetuses, and bodies
that cannot recover awareness), the latter often wish to include all these forms of human bodies
even if they have never had awareness (which some would call pre-people) or had awareness,
but could never have awareness again due to massive and irrecoverable brain damage (some
would call these post-people). The Vatican has recently been advancing a human exceptionalist
understanding of personhood theory, while other communities, such as Christian Evangelicals in
the U.S. have sometimes rejected the personhood theory as biased against human
exceptionalism. Of course, many religious communities (of many traditions) view the other
versions of the personhood theory perfectly compatible with their faith, as do the majority of
modern Humanists.

The theoretical landscape of the personhood theory has been altered recently by controversy in
the bioethics community concerning an emerging community of scholars, researchers, and
activists identifying with an explicitly Transhumanist position, which supports morphological
freedom, even if a person changed so much as to no longer be considered a member of the
human species (by whatever standard is used to determine that).

Nonhuman sentient beings as persons

The idea of extending personhood to all animals has the support of legal scholars such as Alan
Dershowitz and Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School, and animal law courses are now taught
in 92 out of 180 law schools in the United States. On May 9, 2008, Columbia University Press
published Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation by Professor
Gary L. Francione of Rutgers University School of Law, a collection of writings that summarizes
his work to date and makes the case for non-human animals as persons.

There are also hypothetical persons, sentient non-human persons such as sentient extraterrestrial
life and self-aware machines. The novel and animated series Ghost in the Shell touch on the
potential of inorganic sentience, while classical works of fiction and fantasy regarding
extraterrestrials have challenged people to reconsider long held traditional definitions.

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Meaning of life

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

One of Post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin's most famous paintings.

The meaning of life constitutes a philosophical question concerning the purpose and
significance of life or existence in general. This concept can be expressed through a variety of
related questions, such as Why are we here?, What is life all about?, and What is the meaning of
it all? It has been the subject of much philosophical, scientific, and theological speculation
throughout history. There have been a large number of answers to these questions from many
different cultural and ideological backgrounds.

The meaning of life is deeply mixed with the philosophical and religious conceptions of
existence, consciousness, and happiness, and touches on many other issues, such as symbolic
meaning, ontology, value, purpose, ethics, good and evil, free will, conceptions of God, the
existence of God, the soul, and the afterlife. Scientific contributions are more indirect; by
describing the empirical facts about the universe, science provides some context and sets
parameters for conversations on related topics. An alternative, human-centric, and not a
cosmic/religious approach is the question "What is the meaning of my life?" The value of the
question pertaining to the purpose of life may coincide with the achievement of ultimate reality,
or a feeling of oneness, or a feeling of sacredness.

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 Questions

Philosopher in Meditation (detail) by Rembrandt

Questions about the meaning of life have been expressed in a broad variety of ways, including
the following:

What is the meaning of life? What's it all about? Who are we?

Why are we here? What are we here for?

What is the origin of life?

What is the nature of life? What is the nature of reality?

What is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of one's life?

What is the significance of life?

What is meaningful and valuable in life?

What is the value of life?

What is the reason to live? What are we living for?

These questions have resulted in a wide range of competing answers and arguments, from
scientific theories, to philosophical, theological, and spiritual explanations.

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Scientific inquiry and perspectives

DNA, the substance containing the genetic instructions for the development and functioning of
all known living organisms.

Claims that descriptive science can shed light on normative issues such as the meaning of life are
highly disputed within the scientific and philosophy-of-science communities. Nevertheless,
science may be able to provide some context and sets some parameters for conversations on
related topics.

Psychological significance and value in life

Science may not be able to tell us what is of essential value in life, but some studies bear on
related questions: researchers in positive psychology (and, earlier and less rigorously, in
humanistic psychology) study factors that lead to life satisfaction, full engagement in activities,
making a fuller contribution by utilizing one's personal strengths, and meaning based on
investing in something larger than the self.

One value system suggested by social psychologists, broadly called Terror Management Theory,
states that all human meaning is derived out of a fundamental fear of death, whereby values are
selected when they allow us to escape the mental reminder of death.

Neuroscience has produced theories of reward, pleasure and motivation in terms of physical
entities such as neurotransmitter activity, especially in the limbic system and the ventral
tegmental area in particular. If one believes that the meaning of life is to maximize pleasure, then
these theories give normative predictions about how to act to achieve this.

Sociology examines value at a social level using theoretical constructs such as value theory,
norms, anomie, etc.

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Origin and nature of biological life

The exact mechanisms of abiogenesis are unknown: notable theories include the RNA world
hypothesis (RNA-based replicators) and the iron-sulfur world theory (metabolism without
genetics). The theory of evolution does not attempt to explain the origin of life but the process by
which different lifeforms have developed throughout history via genetic mutation and natural
selection. At the end of the 20th century, based upon insight gleaned from the gene-centered
view of evolution, biologists George C. Williams, Richard Dawkins, David Haig, among others,
conclude that if there is a primary function to life, it is the replication of DNA and the survival of
one's genes.

However, though scientists have intensively studied life on Earth, defining life in unequivocal
terms is still a challenge. Physically, one may say that life "feeds on negative entropy" which
refers to the process by which living entities decrease their internal entropy at the expense of
some form of energy taken in from the environment. Biologists generally agree that lifeforms are
self-organizing systems regulating the internal environment as to maintain this organized state,
metabolism serves to provide energy, and reproduction allows life to continue over a span of
multiple generations. Typically, organisms are responsive to stimuli and genetic information
tends to change from generation to generation as to allow adaptation through evolution, these
characteristics optimalizing the chances of survival for the individual organism and its
descendants respectively. Non-cellular replicating agents, notably viruses, are generally not
considered to be organisms because they are incapable of "independent" reproduction or
metabolism. This controversy is problematic, though, since some parasites and endosymbionts
are also incapable of independent life. Astrobiology studies the possibility of different forms of
life on other worlds, such as replicating structures made from materials other than DNA.

Origins and ultimate fate of the universe

The metric expansion of space. The inflationary epoch is the expansion of the metric tensor at
left. (WMAP image, 2006)

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Though the Big Bang model was met with much skepticism when first introduced, partially
because of a connection to the religious concept of creation, it has become well supported by
several independent observations. However, current physics can only describe the early universe
from 1043 seconds after the Big Bang (where zero time corresponds to infinite temperature), a
theory of quantum gravity would be required to go further back in time. Nevertheless, many
physicists have speculated about what would have preceded this limit, and how the universe
came into being. Some physicists think that the Big Bang occurred coincidentally, and when
considering the anthropic principle, it is most often interpreted as implying the existence of a
multiverse.

However, no matter how the universe came into existence, humanity's fate in this universe
appears to be doomed as even if humanity would survive that long biological life will
eventually become unsustainable, be it through a Big Freeze, Big Rip or Big Crunch. It would
seem that the only way to survive indefinitely would be by directing the flow of energy on a
cosmic scale and altering the fate of the universe.

Scientific questions about the mind

The true nature and origin of consciousness and the mind itself are also widely debated in
science. The explanatory gap is generally equated with the hard problem of consciousness, and
the question of free will is also considered to be of fundamental importance. These subjects are
mostly addressed in the fields of cognitive science, neuroscience and philosophy of mind, though
some evolutionary biologists and theoretical physicists have also made several allusions to the
subject.

Hieronymus Bosch's Ascent of the Blessed depicts a tunnel of light and spiritual figures, often
described in reports of near-death experiences.

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Reductionistic and eliminative materialistic approaches, for example the Multiple Drafts Model,
hold that consciousness can be wholly explained by neuroscience through the workings of the
brain and its neurons, thus adhering to biological naturalism.

On the other hand, some scientists, like Andrei Linde, have considered that consciousness, like
spacetime, might have its own intrinsic degrees of freedom, and that one's perceptions may be as
real as (or even more real than) material objects. Hypotheses of consciousness and spacetime
explain consciousness in describing a "space of conscious elements", often encompassing a
number of extra dimensions. Electromagnetic theories of consciousness solve the binding
problem of consciousness in saying that the electromagnetic field generated by the brain is the
actual carrier of conscious experience, there is however disagreement about the implementations
of such a theory relating to other workings of the mind. Quantum mind theories use quantum
theory in explaining certain properties of the mind. Explaining the process of free will through
quantum phenomena is a popular alternative to determinism, such postulations may variously
relate free will to quantum fluctuations, quantum amplification, quantum potential and quantum
probability.

Based on the premises of non-materialistic explanations of the mind, some have suggested the
existence of a cosmic consciousness, asserting that consciousness is actually the "ground of all
being". Proponents of this view cite accounts of paranormal phenomena, primarily extrasensory
perceptions and psychic powers, as evidence for an incorporeal higher consciousness. In hopes
of proving the existence of these phenomena, parapsychologists have orchestrated various
experiments. Meta-analyses of these experiments indicate that the effect size (though very small)
has been relatively consistent, resulting in an overall statistical significance. Although some
critical analysts feel that parapsychological study is scientific, they are not satisfied with its
experimental results. Skeptical reviewers contend that apparently successful results are more
likely due to sloppy procedures, poorly trained researchers, or methodological flaws than to
actual effects.

Western Philosophical perspectives

The philosophical perspectives on the meaning of life are those ideologies which explain life in
terms of ideals or abstractions defined by humans.

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Ancient Greek philosophy

Plato and Aristotle in The School of Athens fresco, by Raphael.

Platonism

Plato was one of the earliest, most influential philosophers to date mostly for realism about
the existence of universals. In the Theory of Forms, universals do not physically exist, like
objects, but exist as ghostly, heavenly forms. In The Republic, the Socrates character's dialogue
describes the Form of the Good. The Idea of the Good is ekgonos (offspring) of the Good, the
ideal, perfect nature of goodness, hence an absolute measure of justice.

In Platonism, the meaning of life is in attaining the highest form of knowledge, which is the Idea
(Form) of the Good, from which all good and just things derive utility and value. Human beings
are duty-bound to pursue the good, but no one can succeed in that pursuit without philosophical
reasoning, which allows for true knowledge.

Aristotelianism

Aristotle, an apprentice of Plato, was another, early, most influential philosopher, who argued
that ethical knowledge is not certain knowledge (like metaphysics and epistemology), but is
general knowledge. Because it is not a theoretical discipline, a person had to study and practice
in order to become 'good', thus if the person were to become virtuous, he could not simply study
what virtue is, he had to be virtuous, via virtuous activities. To do this, Aristotle established what
is virtuous:

Every skill and every inquiry, and similarly, every action and choice of action, is thought to have some
good as its object. This is why the good has rightly been defined as the object of all endeavor [...]
Everything is done with a goal, and that goal is "good".
Nicomachean Ethics 1.1

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Yet, if action A is done towards achieving goal B, then goal B also would have a goal, goal C,
and goal C also would have a goal, and so would continue this pattern, until something stopped
its infinite regression. Aristotle's solution is the Highest Good, which is desirable for its own
sake, it is its own goal. The Highest Good is not desirable for the sake of achieving some other
good, and all other goods desirable for its sake. This involves achieving eudaemonia, usually
translated as "happiness", "well-being", "flourishing", and "excellence".

What is the highest good in all matters of action? To the name, there is almost complete agreement; for
uneducated and educated alike call it happiness, and make happiness identical with the good life and
successful living. They disagree, however, about the meaning of happiness.
Nicomachean Ethics 1.4

Cynicism

In the Hellenistic period, the Cynic philosophers said that the purpose of life is living a life of
Virtue that agrees with Nature. Happiness depends upon being self-sufficient and master of one's
mental attitude; suffering is consequence of false judgments of value, which cause negative
emotions and a concomitant vicious character.

The Cynical life rejects conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and fame, by being free
of the possessions acquired in pursuing the conventional. As reasoning creatures, people could
achieve happiness via rigorous training, by living in a way natural to human beings. The world
equally belongs to everyone, so suffering is caused by false judgments of what is valuable and
what is worthless per the customs and conventions of society.

Cyrenaicism

Cyrenaicism, founded by Aristippus of Cyrene, was an early Socratic school that emphasised
only one side of Socrates's teachings that happiness is one of the ends of moral action and that
pleasure is the supreme good; thus a hedonistic world view, wherein bodily gratification is more
intense than mental pleasure. Cyrenaics prefer immediate gratification to the long-term gain of
delayed gratification; denial is unpleasant unhappiness.

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Epicureanism

Bust of Epicurus leaning against his disciple Metrodorus in the Louvre Museum.

To Epicurus, the greatest good is in seeking modest pleasures, to attain tranquility and freedom
from fear (ataraxia) via knowledge, friendship, and virtuous, temperate living; bodily pain
(aponia) is absent through one's knowledge of the workings of the world and of the limits of
one's desires. Combined, freedom from pain and freedom from fear are happiness in its highest
form. Epicurus' lauded enjoyment of simple pleasures is quasi-ascetic abstention from sex and
the appetites:

When we say . . . that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the
pleasures of sensuality, as we are understood to do, by some, through ignorance, prejudice or wilful
misrepresentation. By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. It is
not by an unbroken succession of drinking bouts and of revelry, not by sexual lust, nor the enjoyment of
fish, and other delicacies of a luxurious table, which produce a pleasant life; it is sober reasoning,
searching out the grounds of every choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which the
greatest tumults take possession of the soul.

The Epicurean meaning of life rejects immortality and mysticism; there is a soul, but it is as
mortal as the body. There is no afterlife, yet, one need not fear death, because "Death is nothing
to us; for that which is dissolved, is without sensation, and that which lacks sensation is nothing
to us."

Stoicism

Stoicism teaches that living according to reason and virtue is to be in harmony with the
universe's divine order, entailed by one's recognition of the universal logos (reason), an essential
value of all people. The meaning of life is freedom from suffering through apatheia (Gr:
), that is, being objective, having "clear judgement", not indifference.

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Stoicism's prime directives are virtue, reason, and natural law, abided to develop personal self-
control and mental fortitude as means of overcoming destructive emotions. The Stoic does not
seek to extinguish emotions, only to avoid emotional troubles, by developing clear judgement
and inner calm through diligently practiced logic, reflection, and concentration.

The Stoic ethical foundation is that good lies in the state of the soul, itself, exemplified in
wisdom and self-control, thus improving one's spiritual well-being: "Virtue consists in a will
which is in agreement with Nature." The principle applies to one's personal relations thus: "to be
free from anger, envy, and jealousy".

Enlightenment philosophy

The Enlightenment and the colonial era both changed the nature of European philosophy and
exported it worldwide. Devotion and subservience to God were largely replaced by notions of
inalienable natural rights and the potentialities of reason, and universal ideals of love and
compassion gave way to civic notions of freedom, equality, and citizenship. The meaning of life
changed as well, focussing less on humankind's relationship to God and more on the relationship
between individuals and their society. This era is filled with theories that equate meaningful
existence with the social order.

Classical liberalism

Classical liberalism is a set of ideas that arose in the 17th and 18th centuries, out of conflicts
between a growing, wealthy, propertied class and the established aristocratic and religious orders
that dominated Europe. Liberalism cast humans as beings with inalienable natural rights
(including the right to retain the wealth generated by one's own work), and sought out means to
balance rights across society. Broadly speaking, it considers individual liberty to be the most
important goal, because only through ensured liberty are the other inherent rights protected.

There are many forms and derivations of liberalism, but their central conceptions of the meaning
of life trace back to three main ideas. Early thinkers such as John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
and Adam Smith saw humankind beginning in the state of nature, then finding meaning for
existence through labour and property, and using social contracts to create an environment that
supports those efforts.

Kantianism

Immanuel Kant is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the late Enlightenment.

Kantianism is a philosophy based on the ethical, epistemological, and metaphysical works of

Immanuel Kant. Kant is known for his deontological theory where there is a single moral
obligation, the "Categorical Imperative", derived from the concept of duty. Kantians believe all

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actions are performed in accordance with some underlying maxim or principle, and for actions to
be ethical, they must adhere to the categorical imperative.

Simply put, the test is that one must universalize the maxim (imagine that all people acted in this
way) and then see if it would still be possible to perform the maxim in the world. In
Groundwork, Kant gives the example of a person who seeks to borrow money without intending
to pay it back. This is a contradiction because if it were a universal action, no person would lend
money anymore as he knows that he will never be paid back. The maxim of this action, says
Kant, results in a contradiction in conceivability (and thus contradicts perfect duty).

Kant also denied that the consequences of an act in any way contribute to the moral worth of that
act, his reasoning being that the physical world is outside one's full control and thus one cannot
be held accountable for the events that occur in it.

19th century philosophy

Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham

The origins of utilitarianism can be traced back as far as Epicurus, but, as a school of thought, it
is credited to Jeremy Bentham, who found that nature has placed mankind under the governance
of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure, then, from that moral insight, deriving the Rule of
Utility: that the good is whatever brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people.
He defined the meaning of life as the "greatest happiness principle".

Jeremy Bentham's foremost proponent was James Mill, a significant philosopher in his day, and
father of John Stuart Mill. The younger Mill was educated per Bentham's principles, including
transcribing and summarising much of his father's work.

Nihilism

Nihilism rejects any authority's claims to knowledge and truth, and so explores the significance
of existence without knowable truth. Rather than insisting that values are subjective, and might
be warrantless, the nihilist says: "Nothing is of value", morals are valueless, they only serve as
society's false ideals.

Friedrich Nietzsche characterized nihilism as emptying the world, and especially human
existence, of meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, and essential value; succinctly, nihilism is
the process of "the devaluing of the highest values". Seeing the nihilist as a natural result of the
idea that God is dead, and insisting it was something to overcome, his questioning of the
nihilist's life-negating values, returned meaning to the Earth.

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The End of the World, by John Martin.

To Martin Heidegger, nihilism is the movement whereby "being" is forgotten, and is transformed
into value, in other words, the reduction of being to exchange value. Heidegger, in accordance
with Nietzsche, saw in the so-called "death of God" a potential source for nihilism:

If God, as the supra-sensory ground and goal, of all reality, is dead; if the supra-sensory world of the
Ideas has suffered the loss of its obligatory, and above it, its vitalizing and up-building power, then
nothing more remains to which Man can cling, and by which he can orient himself.

The French philosopher Albert Camus asserts that the absurdity of the human condition is that
people search for external values and meaning in a world which has none, and is indifferent to
them. Camus writes of value-nihilists such as Meursault, but also of values in a nihilistic world,
that people can instead strive to be "heroic nihilists", living with dignity in the face of absurdity,
living with "secular saintliness", fraternal solidarity, and rebelling against and transcending the
world's indifference.

20th century philosophy

The current era has seen radical changes in conceptions of human nature. Modern science has
effectively rewritten the relationship of humankind to the natural world, advances in medicine
and technology have freed us from the limitations and ailments of previous eras, and philosophy
particularly following the linguistic turn altered how the relationships people have with
themselves and each other is conceived. Questions about the meaning of life have seen equally
radical changes, from attempts to reevaluate human existence in biological and scientific terms
(as in pragmatism and logical positivism), to efforts to meta-theorize about meaning-making as
an activity (existentialism, secular humanism).

Pragmatism

Pragmatism, originated in the late-nineteenth-century U.S., to concern itself (mostly) with truth,
positing that only in struggling with the environment do data, and derived theories, have
meaning, and that consequences, like utility and practicality, also are components of truth.
Moreover, pragmatism posits that anything useful and practical is not always true, arguing that
what most contributes to the most human good in the long course is true. In practice, theoretical
claims must be practically verifiable, i.e. one should be able to predict and test claims, and, that,
ultimately, the needs of mankind should guide human intellectual inquiry.

Pragmatic philosophers suggest that the practical, useful understanding of life is more important
than searching for an impractical abstract truth about life. William James argued that truth could
be made, but not sought. To a pragmatist, the meaning of life is discoverable only via
experience.

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Existentialism

Edvard Munch's The Scream, a representation of existential angst.

Each man and each woman creates the essence (meaning) of his and her life; life is not
determined by a supernatural god or an earthly authority, one is free. As such, one's ethical prime
directives are action, freedom, and decision, thus, existentialism opposes rationalism and
positivism. In seeking meaning to life, the existentialist looks to where people find meaning in
life, in course of which using only reason as a source of meaning is insufficient; the insufficiency
gives rise to the emotions of anxiety and dread, felt in facing one's radical freedom, and the
concomitant awareness of death. To the existentialist, existence precedes essence; the (essence)
of one's life arises only after one comes to existence.

Sren Kierkegaard coined the term "leap of faith", arguing that life is full of absurdity, and one
must make his and her own values in an indifferent world. One can live meaningfully (free of
despair and anxiety) in an unconditional commitment to something finite, and devotes that
meaningful life to the commitment, despite the vulnerability inherent to doing so.

Arthur Schopenhauer answered: "What is the meaning of life?" by determining that one's life
reflects one's will, and that the will (life) is an aimless, irrational, and painful drive. Salvation,
deliverance, and escape from suffering are in aesthetic contemplation, sympathy for others, and
asceticism.

For Friedrich Nietzsche, life is worth living only if there are goals inspiring one to live.
Accordingly, he saw nihilism ("all that happens is meaningless") as without goals. He discredited
asceticism, because it denies one's living in the world; denied that values are objective facts, that
are rationally necessary, universally-binding commitments: Our evaluations are interpretations,
and not reflections of the world, as it is, in itself, and, therefore, all ideations take place from a
particular perspective.

Absurdism

Albert Camus, the French Algerian philosopher who is often associated with existentialism but
enthusiastically refused the term, is famous for propounding his theory of the Absurd. According
to absurdism, there is a fundamental disharmony that arises out of the co-presence of man and
the universe. Man has a desire for order, meaning, and purpose in life, but the universe is
indifferent and meaningless; the Absurd arises out of this conflict.

As beings looking for hope in a meaningless world, Camus says that humans have three ways of
resolving the dilemma.

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 Suicide: The first solution to the dilemma is simply to end one's life. Camus rejects this
choice as cowardly.

Religious belief in a transcendent world: Such a belief would posit the existence of a
realm that is beyond the Absurd, and, as such, has meaning. Camus calls this solution
philosophical suicide and rejects it because it amounts to the destruction of reason,
which in his view is as fatal as suicide of the body.

Accept the Absurd: According to Camus, this is the only real solution. It is to accept and
even embrace the absurdity of life and to continue living. The Absurd is a crucial
characteristic of the human condition, and the only true way to deal with this is bold
acceptance of it. Life, according to Camus, can be lived all the better if it has no
meaning.

Secular humanism

The "Happy Human" symbol representing Secular Humanism.

Per secular humanism, the human race came to be by reproducing in a progression of unguided
evolution as an integral part of nature, which is self-existing. Knowledge does not come from
supernatural sources, but from human observation, experimentation, and rational analysis (the
scientific method): the nature of the universe is what people discern it to be. Like-wise, "values
and realities" are determined "by means of intelligent inquiry" and "are derived from human
need and interest as tested by experience", that is, by critical intelligence. "As far as we know,
the total personality is [a function] of the biological organism transacting in a social and cultural
context."

People determine human purpose, without supernatural influence; it is the human personality
(general sense) that is the purpose of a human being's life; humanism seeks to develop and
fulfill: "Humanism affirms our ability, and responsibility, to lead ethical lives of personal
fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity". Humanists promote enlightened self-

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interest and the common good for all people. The happiness of the individual person is
inextricably linked to the well-being of humanity, as a whole, in part, because we are social
animals, who find meaning in personal relations, and because cultural progress benefits
everybody living in the culture.

The philosophical sub-genres posthumanism and transhumanism (sometimes used

synonymously) are extensions of humanistic values. One should seek the advancement of
humanity and of all life to the greatest degree feasible, to reconcile Renaissance humanism with
the twenty-first century's technoscientific culture, thus, every living creature has the right to
determine its personal and social "meaning of life".

From a humanistic-psychotherapeutic point of view, the question of the meaning of life could
also be reinterpreted as "What is the meaning of my life?" Instead of becoming bogged down in
cosmic or religious question about overarching purpose, this approach suggests that the question
is intensely personal. There are many therapeutic responses to this question, for example Viktor
Frankl argues for "Dereflection", which largely translates as ceasing to endlessly reflect on the
self, instead of engaging in life. On the whole, the therapeutic response is that the question of
meaning of life evaporates if one is fully engaged in life. The question then morphs into more
specific worries such as "What delusions am I under?", "What is blocking my ability to enjoy
things?", "Why do I neglect loved-ones?".

Logical positivism

Logical positivists ask: What is the meaning of life? and What is the meaning in asking? If there
are no objective values, then, is life meaningless? Ludwig Wittgenstein and the logical
positivists said: "Expressed in language, the question is meaningless"; because, in life the
statement the "meaning of x", usually denotes the consequences of x, or the significance of x, or
what is notable about x, et cetera, thus, when the meaning of life concept equals "x", in the
statement the "meaning of x", the statement becomes recursive, and, therefore, nonsensical, or it
might refer to the fact that biological life is essential to having a meaning in life.

The things (people, events) in the life of a person can have meaning (importance) as parts of a
whole, but a discrete meaning of (the) life, itself, aside from those things, cannot be discerned. A
person's life has meaning (for himself, others) as the life events resulting from his achievements,
legacy, family, et cetera, but, to say that life, itself, has meaning, is a misuse of language, since
any note of significance, or of consequence, is relevant only in life (to the living), so rendering
the statement erroneous. Bertrand Russell wrote that although he found that his distaste for
torture was not like his distaste for broccoli, he found no satisfactory, empirical method of
proving this:

When we try to be definite, as to what we mean when we say that this or that is "the Good," we find
ourselves involved in very great difficulties. Bentham's creed, that pleasure is the Good, roused furious
opposition, and was said to be a pig's philosophy. Neither he nor his opponents could advance any
argument. In a scientific question, evidence can be adduced on both sides, and, in the end, one side is seen
to have the better case or, if this does not happen, the question is left undecided. But in a question, as
to whether this, or that, is the ultimate Good, there is no evidence, either way; each disputant can only
appeal to his own emotions, and employ such rhetorical devices as shall rouse similar emotions in others .
. . Questions as to "values" that is to say, as to what is good or bad on its own account, independently
of its effects lie outside the domain of science, as the defenders of religion emphatically assert. I think
that, in this, they are right, but, I draw the further conclusion, which they do not draw, that questions as to
"values" lie wholly outside the domain of knowledge. That is to say, when we assert that this, or that, has
"value", we are giving expression to our own emotions, not to a fact, which would still be true if our
personal feelings were different.

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Postmodernism

Postmodernist thought - broadly speaking - sees human nature as constructed by language, or by

structures and institutions of human society. Unlike other forms of philosophy, postmodernism
rarely seeks out a priori or innate meanings in human existence, but instead focuses on analyzing
or critiquing given meanings in order to rationalize or reconstruct them. Anything resembling a
'meaning of life', in postmodernist terms, can only be understood within a social and linguistic
framework, and must be pursued as an escape from the power structures that are already
embedded in all forms of speech and interaction. As a rule, postmodernists see awareness of the
constraints of language as necessary to escaping those constraints, but different theorists take
different views on the nature of this process: from radical reconstruction of meaning by
individuals (as in deconstructionism) to theories in which individuals are primarily extensions of
language and society, without real autonomy (as in poststructuralism). In general,
postmodernism seeks meaning by looking at the underlying structures that create or impose
meaning, rather than the epiphenomenal appearances of the world.

Instinctivism, Social Darwinism and Evolutionary Psychology

According to Instinctivism, the ultimate meaning of life is to seek the fulfillment of the human
instincts. Instinctists believes that all actions in life are results of instincts and in particular
reproductive needs. Instinctivism demonstrates how the existence of human individual being the
result of reproduction instinctly lead human to achieve the reproduction goal in a cycle.
Instantism emphasizes that when people think critically, they shall realize the ultimate goal for
every actions they do is to attract the opposite sex. Instinctivism's central idea can be followed in
this way:

As it is accepted that people are taught to learn in school. Why study hard? To receive good grades. Why
receive good grades? To be able to go to college. Why go to college? To have a good occupation. Why a
good occupation? To have wealth. Why wealth? To buy nice cars; To buy nice house; To buy nice
products. Why all the nice things to make one look good? Ultimately to attract the opposite sex, to fufill
the basic need of reproduction and the continuence of the human race.

Common arguments used by instictivismists that all of humanities action can be explained by our
goal of procreation are the following: Why are people so opposed to homosexual marriage?
Because homosexual couples can not reproduce. Why do people love each other? Because love
leads to sexual intercourse, which contributes to the population of the human species. Why do
mothers love babies before they are even born? Because it contributes to the maintenance and
increase of the population of the human species. Why are so many people against abortion?
Because it is a deterrent to procreation. Why are there so many doctors and so much medicine?
To maintain the population of the human species. Why is murder such a big crime? Because it
decreases the population of the human species.

Many of these approaches often consider the goal of life to be "maximizing reproductive
fitness", arguing that adherents of approaches which do not do so are doomed to die out. The
view becomes somewhat less reductionist - albeit at the expense of increased ambiguity -with the
introduction of the concept of a meme. (cf. Dawkins Selfish Gene)

Naturalistic pantheism

According to naturalistic pantheism, the meaning of life is to care for and look after nature and
the environment.

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Religious perspectives

The religious perspectives on the meaning of life are those ideologies which explain life in terms
of an implicit purpose not defined by humans.

Western and Middle Eastern religions

Symbols of the three main Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy named after its prophet Zoroaster, which
influenced the beliefs of Judaism and its descendant religions. Zoroastrians believe in a universe
created by a transcendental God, Ahura Mazda, to whom all worship is ultimately directed.
Azhura Mazda's creation is asha, truth and order, and it is in conflict with its antithesis, druj,
falsehood and disorder.

Since humanity possesses free will, people must be responsible for their moral choices. By using
free will, people must take active role to play in the universal conflict, with good thoughts, good
words and good deeds to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

Judaism

Judaism's most important feature is the worshiping of a single, omniscient, omnipotent,

omnibenevolent, transcendent God, who created the universe and governs it. Per traditional
Judaism, God established a covenant with the Jewish people, at Mount Sinai, revealing his laws
and commandments in the Torah. In Rabbinic Judaism, the Torah comprises the written
Pentateuch (Torah) and the oral law tradition (later transcribed as sacred writing).

In the Judaic world view, the meaning of life is to serve the one true God and to prepare for the
world to come. The "Olam Haba" thought is about elevating oneself spiritually, connecting to

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God in preparing for "Olam Haba"; Jewish thought is to use "Olam Hazeh" (this world) to
elevate oneself. "Al shlosha devarim," a well-known song which is often chanted at the point of
a shabbat service when the torah is marched around the sanctuary, describes that "the world
stands on three things: on torah, on worship, and on acts of lovingkindness." This concept further
explains the Jewish mentality towards the meaning of it all.

Christianity

Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado mountain in Rio de Janeiro is symbolic of Christianity,
illustrating the concept of seeking redemption through Jesus Christ.

Though Christianity has its roots in Judaism, and shares much of the latter faith's ontology, its
central beliefs derive from the teachings of Jesus Christ, as presented in the New Testament.
Life's purpose in Christianity is to seek divine salvation through the grace of God and
intercession of Christ. (cf. Gospel of John 11:26) The New Testament speaks of God wanting to
have a relationship with humans both in this life and the life to come, which can happen only if
one's sins are forgiven (John 3:16-21), (2 Peter 3:9).

In the Christian view, humankind was made in the image of God and perfect, but the Fall of Man
caused the progeny of the first Parents to inherit Original Sin. The sacrifice of Christ's passion,
death and resurrection provide the means for transcending that impure state (Romans 6:23). The
means for doing so varies between different groups of Christians, but all rely on belief in Jesus,
his work on the cross and his resurrection as the fundamental starting point for a relationship
with God. Under the Christian view, people are justified by belief in the propitiatory sacrifice of
Jesus' death on the cross. The Gospel maintains that through this belief, the barrier that sin has
created between man and God is destroyed, and allows God to change people and instill in them
a new heart after His own will, and the ability to do it. This is what the term 'reborn' or 'saved'
almost always refers to. This places Christianity in stark contrast to other religions which claim
that believers are justified with God through adherence to guidelines or law given to us by God.

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In the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the first question is: What is the chief end of Man?, that
is, What is Man's main purpose?. The answer is: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy
him forever. God requires one to obey the revealed moral law saying: love the Lord our God with
all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbour
as ourselves. The Baltimore Catechism answers the question "Why did God make you?" by
saying "God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be
happy with Him forever in heaven."

The Apostle Paul also answers this question in his speech on the Areopagus in Athens: "From
one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he
determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so
that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from
each one of us."

In Mormon theology (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) the purpose of life is to
become more like God.

Islam

In Islam, Man's ultimate life objective is to serve Allah (the Arabic equivalent for "God") by
abiding by the Divine guidelines revealed in the Qur'an and the Tradition of the Prophet. Earthly
life is merely a test, determining one's afterlife, either in Jannat (paradise) or in Jahannum
(Hell).

For the pleasure of Allah, via the Qur'an, all Muslims must believe in God, his revelations, his
angels, his messengers, and in the "Day of Judgment". Qur'an describes the purpose of creation
as follows: "Blessed be he in whose hand is the kingdom, he is powerful over all things,who
created death and life that he might examine which of you is best in deeds, and he is the
almighty, the forgiving" (Qur'an67:1-2)and "'And I (Allh) created not the jinn and mankind
except that they should worship Me (Alone). " (Qur'an 51:56). Worship testifies to the oneness
of God in his lordship, his names, and his attributes. Terrenal life is a test; how one acts
(behaves) determines whether one's soul goes to Jannat (Heaven) or to Jahannam (Hell).

The Five Pillars of Islam are duties incumbent to every Muslim; they are: Shahadah (profession
of faith); Salah (ritual prayer); Zakah (charity); Sawm (fasting during Ramadan), and Hajj
(pilgrimage to Mecca). They derive from the Hadith works, notably of Sahih Al-Bukhari and
Sahih Muslim.

Beliefs differ among the Kalam. The Sunni concept of pre-destination is divine decree; like-wise,
the Shi'a concept of pre-destination is divine justice; in the esoteric view of the Sufis, the
universe exists only for God's pleasure; Creation is a grand game, wherein Allah is the greatest
prize.

Bah' Faith

The Bah' Faith emphasizes the unity of humanity. To Bah's, the purpose of life is focused on
spiritual growth and service to humanity. Human beings are viewed as intrinsically spiritual
beings. People's lives in this material world provide extended opportunities to grow, to develop
divine qualities and virtues, and the prophets were sent by God to facilitate this.

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South Asian religions

Hindu philosophies

A golden Aum written in Devanagari. The Aum is sacred in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religions.

Hinduism is a religious category including many beliefs and traditions. Since Hinduism was the
way of expressed meaningful living for quite a long time immemorial, when there was no need
for naming this as a separate religion, Hindu doctrines are supplementary and complementary in
nature, generally non-exclusive, suggestive and tolerant in content. Most believe that the tman
(spirit, soul) the person's true self is eternal. In part, this stems from Hindu beliefs that
spiritual development occurs across many lifetimes, and goals should match the state of
development of the individual. There are four possible aims to human life, known as the
purusharthas (ordered from least to greatest): Kma (wish, desire, love and sensual pleasure),
Artha (wealth, prosperity, glory), Dharma (righteousness, duty, morality, virtue, ethics,
encompassing notions such as ahimsa (non-violence) and satya (truth)) and Moksha (liberation,
i.e. liberation from Sasra, the cycle of reincarnation).

In all schools of Hinduism, the meaning of life is tied up in the concepts of karma (causal
action), samsara (the cycle of birth and rebirth), and moksha (liberation). Existence is conceived
as the progression of the tman (similar to the western concept of a soul) across numerous
lifetimes, and its ultimate progression towards liberation from karma. Particular goals for life are
generally subsumed under broader yogas (practices) or dharma (correct living) which are
intended to create more favorable reincarnations, though they are generally positive acts in this
life as well. Traditional schools of Hinduism often worship Devas which are manifestations of
Ishvara (a personal or chosen God); these Devas are taken as ideal forms to be identified with, as
a form of spiritual improvement.

Advaita and Dvaita Hinduism

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Later schools reinterpreted the vedas to focus on Brahman, "The One Without a Second", as a
central God-like figure.

In monist Advaita Vedanta, atman is ultimately indistinguishable from brahman, and the goal of
life is to know or realize that one's atman (soul) is identical to Brahman. To the Upanishads,
whoever becomes fully aware of the tman, as one's core of self, realises identity with Brahman,
and, thereby, achieves Moksha (liberation, freedom).

Dualist Dvaita Vedanta and other bhakti schools have a dualist interpretation. Brahman is seen as
a supreme being with a personality and manifest qualities. The tman depends upon brahman for
its existence; the meaning of life is achieving Moksha through love of God and upon his grace.

Vaishnavism

Another branch of Hinduism is Vaishnavism, where Vishnu is the principal deity. Not all schools
of Vaishnavism teach a meaning to life, but Gaudiya Vaishnavism, for example, teaches
Achintya Bheda Abheda meaning worship of a separate and single true God KRISHNA while all
the living entities are eternal parts and parcels of Supreme Personality of God Head KRISHNA.
The constitutional position of a living entity is to serve the Lord with love and devotion.
Uninterrupted, unmotivated voluntary service to KRISHNA and His devotees is the purpose of
life in liberated as well as conditioned state of life. We were in spiritual world serving
KRISHNA blissfully in full knowledge as we are the eternal spirit souls. Because of our aversion
to KRISHNA and due ot the desire to enjoy separate from KRISHNA we are in this material
world undergoing the repeated cyle of birth, disease, old age and death in the acquired bodies of
8.4 million species of life, transmigrating from one body ot another according to our karma and
desire. The purpose of human life especially is to think beyond the animalistic way of eating,
sleeping, mating and defending and engage the higher intellingence to revive the lost relationship
with KRISHNA, our eternal Father, from whom everything came, who is the sustainer and
annihilator. The revealed scriptures like Bhagavad-Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam teach the
Sambandha (Who am I? Who is God? What is my relationship with God) and Abhideya (the
process of re-establishing that lost connection with the Lord through the 9 processes of Bhakti -
Devotional Service) and Prayojana - the result - attaining the love of Godhead. The simplest
process is to chant the maha mantra - "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare -
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare" in the association of Lord's devotees. While the
purpose of life is to revive the lost relationship with the all loving Lord, the purpose of material
creation is to utilize the resources to go back home back to Godhead, the eternal spiritual world
Goloka Vrindavana - the kingdom of Godhead.

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Jainism

The Jainist Vow of Ahimsa. The dharmacakra (wheel) is the resolve to halt the cycle of
reincarnation via truth and non-violence.

Jainism is a religion originating in ancient India, its ethical system promotes self-discipline
above all else. Through following the ascetic teachings of Jina, a human achieves enlightenment
(perfect knowledge). Jainism divides the universe into living and non-living beings. Only when
the non-living become attached to the living does suffering result. Therefore, happiness is the
result of self-conquest and freedom from external objects. The meaning of life may then be said
to be to use the physical body to achieve self-realization and bliss.

Jains believe that every human is responsible for his or her actions and all living beings have an
eternal soul, jiva. Jains believe all souls are equal because they all possess the potential of being
liberated and attaining Moksha. The Jain view of karma is that every action, every word, every
thought produces, besides its visible, an invisible, transcendental effect on the soul.

Jainism includes strict adherence to ahimsa (or ahins), a form of nonviolence that goes far
beyond vegetarianism. Jains refuse food obtained with unnecessary cruelty. Many practice a
lifestyle similar to veganism due to the violence of modern dairy farms, and others exclude root
vegetables from their diets in order to preserve the lives of the plants from which they eat.

Buddhism
Early Buddhism

Buddhism is a nondual doctrine, in which subject, object, and action are all seen as illusory.
Buddhists believe that life is inherent with suffering or frustration. Which does not mean that
there is no pleasure in life, but this pleasure does not cause everlasting happiness. The suffering
is caused by attachment to objects material or non-material which in turn causes one to be born
again and again in the cycle of existence. The Buddhist stras and tantras do not speak about "the

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meaning of life" or "the purpose of life", but about the potential of human life to end suffering
through detaching oneself from cravings and conceptual attachments. Suffering can be overcome
through human activity, simply by removing the cause of suffering. Attaining and perfecting
dispassion is a process of many levels that ultimately results in the state of Nirvana. Nirvana
means freedom from both suffering and rebirth.

The eight-spoked Dharmacakra

Theravada Buddhism is generally considered to be close to the early Buddhist practice. It

promotes the concept of Vibhajjavada (Pali), literally "Teaching of Analysis", which says that
insight must come from the aspirant's experience, critical investigation, and reasoning instead of
by blind faith. However, the Theravadin tradition also emphasizes heeding the advice of the
wise, considering such advice and evaluation of one's own experiences to be the two tests by
which practices should be judged. The Theravadin goal is liberation (or freedom) from suffering,
according to the Four Noble Truths. This is attained in the achievement of Nirvana, or Unbinding
which also ends the repeated cycle of birth, old age, sickness and death.

Mahayana Buddhism

Mahayana Buddhist schools de-emphasize the traditional view (still practiced in Theravada) of
the release from individual Suffering (Dukkha) and attainment of Awakening (Nirvana). In
Mahayana, the Buddha is seen as an eternal, immutable, inconceivable, omnipresent being. The
fundamental principles of Mahayana doctrine are based around the possibility of universal
liberation from suffering for all beings, and the existence of the transcendent Buddha-nature,
which is the eternal Buddha essence present, but hidden and unrecognised, in all living beings.

Philosophical schools of Mahayana Buddhism, such as Chan/Zen and the vajrayana Tibetan and
Shingon schools, explicitly teach that boddhisattvas should refrain from full liberation, allowing
themselves to be reincarnated into the world until all beings achieve enlightenment. Devotional
schools such as Pure Land buddhism seek the aid of celestial buddhas - individuals who have
spent lifetimes accumulating positive karma, and use that accumulation to aid all.

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Sikhism

The Khanda, an important symbol of Sikhism.

The monotheistic Sikh religion was founded by Guru Nanak Dev, the term "sikh" means student,
which denotes that followers will lead their lives forever learning. This system of religious
philosophy and expression has been traditionally known as the Gurmat (literally the counsel of
the gurus) or the Sikh Dharma. The followers of Sikhism are ordained to follow the teachings of
the ten Sikh gurus, or enlightened leaders, as well as the holy scripture entitled the Gur Granth
Shib, which includes selected works of many philosophers from diverse socio-economic and
religious backgrounds.

The Sikh Gurus tell us that salvation can be obtained by following various spiritual paths, so
Sikhs do not have a monopoly on salvation: "The Lord dwells in every heart, and every heart has
its own way to reach Him." Sikhs believe that all people are equally important before God. Sikhs
balance their moral and spiritual values with the quest for knowledge, and they aim to promote a
life of peace and equality but also of positive action.

A key distinctive feature of Sikhism is a non-anthropomorphic concept of God, to the extent that
one can interpret God as the Universe itself (pantheism). Sikhism thus sees life as an opportunity
to understand this God as well as to discover the divinity which lies in each individual. While a
full understanding of God is beyond human beings, Nanak described God as not wholly
unknowable, and stressed that God must be seen from "the inward eye", or the "heart", of a
human being: devotees must meditate to progress towards enlightenment. Nanak emphasized the
revelation through meditation, as its rigorous application permits the existence of communication
between God and human beings.

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Far Eastern religions

Shinto

Shinto torii, a traditional Japanese gate

Shinto is the native religion of Japan. Shinto means "the path of the kami", but more specifically,
it can be taken to mean "the divine crossroad where the kami chooses his way". The 'divine'
crossroad signifies that all the universe is divine spirit. This foundation of free will, choosing
one's way, means that life is a creative process.

Shinto wants life to live, not to die. Shinto sees death as pollution and regards life as the realm
where the divine spirit seeks to purify itself by rightful self-development. Shinto wants
individual human life to be prolonged forever on earth as a victory of the divine spirit in
preserving its objective personality in its highest forms. The presence of evil in the world, as
conceived by Shinto, does not stultify the divine nature by imposing on divinity responsibility
for being able to relieve human suffering while refusing to do so. The sufferings of life are the
sufferings of the divine spirit in search of progress in the objective world.

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Taoism

Taijitu symbolizes the unity of opposites between yin and yang.

The Taoists' cosmogony emphasizes the need for all sentient beings and all man to return to the
primordial or to rejoin with the Oneness of the Universe by way of self cultivation and self
realization. All adherents should understand and be in tune with the ultimate truth.

They believe all things were originally from Taiji and Tao, and the meaning in life for the
adherents is to realise the temporal nature of the existence. "Only introspection can then help us
to find our innermost reasons for living...the simple answer is here within ourselves."

Confucianism

Confucianism recognizes human nature in accordance with the need for discipline and education.
Because mankind is driven by both positive and negative influences, Confucianists see a goal in
achieving the good nature through strong relationships and reasoning as well as minimizing the
negative energy. This emphasis on normal living is seen in the Confucianist scholar Tu Wei-
Ming's quote, "we can realize the ultimate meaning of life in ordinary human existence."

New religions

There are many new religious movements in East Asia, and some with millions of followers:
Chondogyo, Tenrikyo, Cao i, and Seicho-No-Ie. New religions typically have unique
explanations for the meaning of life. For example, in Tenrikyo, one is expected to live a Joyous
Life by participating in practices that create happiness for oneself and others.

In popular culture

The mystery of life and its meaning is an often recurring subject in popular culture, featured in
entertainment media and various forms of art.

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Charles Allan Gilbert's All is Vanity, an example of vanitas, depicts a young woman gazing at
her reflection in a mirror, but all is positioned in such a way as to make the image of a skull
appear.

In Douglas Adams' popular comedy book series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the
Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything has the numeric solution
of 42, which was derived over seven and a half million years by a giant supercomputer called
Deep Thought. After much confusion from the descendants of his creators, Deep Thought
explains that the problem is that they do not know the Ultimate Question, and they would have to
build an even more powerful computer to determine what that is. This computer is revealed to be
Earth, which, after 10 million years of calculating, is destroyed to make way for a galactic
bypass five minutes before it finishes calculations. In Life, the Universe and Everything, it is
confirmed that 42 is indeed the Ultimate Answer, and that it is impossible for both the Ultimate
Answer and the Ultimate Question to be known about in the same universe, as they will cancel
each other out and take the universe with them, to be replaced by something even more bizarre,
(one character, Prak, suggests that this may have already happened). Subsequently, in the hopes
that his subconscious holds the question, Arthur Dent guesses at a question, coming up with
"What do you get when you multiply six by nine?", probably an incorrect guess, as the arrival of
the Golgafrinchans on prehistoric Earth would have disrupted the computation process.
However, Dent, Fenchurch, and a dying Marvin did see God's final message to his creation: "We
apologise for the inconvenience".

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Hamlet with Yorick's skull

In Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, there are several allusions to the meaning of life. In
"Part VI B: The Meaning of Life" a cleaning lady explains "Life's a game, you sometimes win or
lose" and later a waiter describes his personal philosophy "The world is a beautiful place. You
must go into it, and love everyone, not hate people. You must try and make everyone happy, and
bring peace and contentment everywhere you go." At the end of the film, we can see Michael
Palin being handed an envelope, he opens it, and provides the viewers with 'the meaning of life':
"Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book
every now and then, get some walking in, and try to live together in peace and harmony with
people of all creeds and nations."

In The Simpsons episode "Homer the Heretic", a representation of God agrees to tell Homer what
the meaning of life is, but the show's credits begin to roll just as he starts to say what it is. Earlier
in the episode, Homer founds his own religion, in which he tries to worship God in his own way,
later pointing out to Moe that it has no hell and no kneeling. However, Homer quickly abandons
his self-indulgent personal religion after his house almost burns down, taking the fire as a sign of
divine retribution, and exclaiming "O Spiteful One, show me who to smite, and he shall be
smoten." Ned assures Homer that the fire was not God's vengeance and Lovejoy explains that
God was "working in the hearts of your friends and neighbors when they came to your aid."

At the end of The Matrix Revolutions, Smith concludes that "the purpose of life is to end" and is
determined to move that purpose along. The Matrix series also presents the idea of "living in a
simulated reality" and the associated question whether such an existence should be considered
meaningless, in a way that may be compared to Plato's allegory of the cave and how certain
belief systems view reality, like Buddhism or Gnosticism.

Morality

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Morality (from the Latin moralitas "manner, character, proper behavior") is a system of conduct
and ethics that is virtuous. It can also be used in regard to sexual matters and chastity. Morality
has three principal meanings:

In its "descriptive" sense, morality refers to personal or cultural values, codes of conduct or
social mores that distinguish between right and wrong in the human society. Describing morality
in this way is not making a claim about what is objectively right or wrong, but only referring to
what is considered right or wrong by people. For the most part right and wrong acts are classified
as such because they are thought to cause benefit or harm, but it is possible that many moral
beliefs are based on prejudice, ignorance or even hatred. This sense of term is also addressed by
descriptive ethics.

In its "normative" sense, morality refers directly to what is right and wrong, regardless of what
people think. It could be defined as the conduct of the ideal "moral" person in a certain situation.
This usage of the term is characterized by "definitive" statements such as "That act is immoral"
rather than descriptive ones such as "Many believe that act is immoral." It is often challenged by
a moral skepticism, in which the unchanging existence of a rigid, universal, objective moral
"truth" is rejected. The normative usage of the term "morality" is also addressed by normative
ethics.

Morality may also be defined as synonymous with ethics, the field that encompasses the above
two meanings and others within a systematic philosophical study of the moral domain. Ethics
seeks to address questions such as how a moral outcome can be achieved in a specific situation
(applied ethics), how moral values should be determined (normative ethics), what morals people
actually abide by (descriptive ethics), what the fundamental nature of ethics or morality is,
including whether it has any objective justification (meta-ethics), and how moral capacity or
moral agency develops and what its nature is (moral psychology).

A key issue is the meaning of the terms "moral" or "immoral". Moral realism would hold that
there are true moral statements which report objective moral facts, whereas moral anti-realism
would hold that morality is derived from any one of the norms prevalent in society (cultural
relativism); the edicts of a god (divine command theory); is merely an expression of the speakers'
sentiments (emotivism); an implied imperative (universal prescriptivism); or falsely presupposes
that there are objective moral facts (error theory). Some thinkers hold that there is no correct
definition of right behavior, that morality can only be judged with respect to particular situations,
within the standards of particular belief systems and socio-historical contexts. This position,
known as moral relativism, often cites empirical evidence from anthropology as evidence to
support its claims. The opposite view, that there are universal, eternal moral truths are known as
moral absolutism. Moral absolutists might concede that forces of social conformity significantly
shape moral decisions, but deny that cultural norms and customs define morally right behavior.

Anthropological perspectives
Tribal and territorial moralities

Celia Green has made a distinction between tribal and territorial morality. She characterizes the
latter as predominantly negative and proscriptive: it defines a persons territory, including his or
her property and dependents, which is not to be damaged or interfered with. Apart from these
proscriptions, territorial morality is permissive, allowing the individual whatever behaviour does
not interfere with the territory of another. By contrast, tribal morality is prescriptive, imposing
the norms of the collective on the individual. These norms will be arbitrary, culturally dependent
and flexible, whereas territorial morality aims at rules which are universal and absolute, such as

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Kants categorical imperative. Green relates the development of territorial morality to the rise
of the concept of private property, and the ascendancy of contract over status.

In-group and out-group

some observers hold that individuals apply distinct sets of moral rules to people depending on
their membership of an "ingroup" (the individual and those they believe to be of the same culture
or race) or an "outgroup" (people not entitled to be treated according to the same rules). Some
biologists, anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists believe this ingroup-outgroup
discrimination has evolved because it enhances group survival. Gary R. Johnson and V.S. Falger
have argued that nationalism and patriotism are forms of this ingroup/outgroup boundary.
Jonathan Haidt has noted that experimental observation indicates an ingroup criterion provides
one moral foundation substantially used by conservatives, but far less so by liberals.

Comparing cultures

Peterson and Seligman approach the anthropological view looking across cultures and across
millennia. They conclude that certain virtues have prevailed in all cultures they examined. The
major virtues they identified include wisdom / knowledge; courage; humanity; justice;
temperance; and transcendence. Each of these includes several divisions. For instance humanity
includes love, kindness, and social intelligence.

Fons Trompenaars, author of Did the Pedestrian Die?, tested members of different cultures with
various moral dilemmas. One of these was whether the driver of a car would have his friend, a
passenger riding in the car, lie in order to protect the driver from the consequences of driving too
fast and hitting a pedestrian. Trompenaars found that different cultures had quite different
expectations (from none to almost certain).

Evolutionary perspectives

The development of modern morality is a process closely tied to the Sociocultural evolution of
humanity, however its roots are probably to be found in our very nature. Some evolutionary
biologists, particularly sociobiologists, believe that morality is a product of evolutionary forces
acting at an individual level and also at the group level through group selection (though to what
degree this actually occurs is a controversial topic in evolutionary theory). Some sociobiologists
contend that the set of behaviors that constitute morality evolved largely because they provided
possible survival and/or reproductive benefits (i.e. increased evolutionary success). Humans
consequently evolved "pro-social" emotions, such as feelings of empathy or guilt, in response to
these moral behaviors.

In this respect, morality is not absolute, but relative and constitutes any set of behaviors that
encourage human cooperation based on their ideology. Biologists contend that all social animals,
from ants to elephants, have modified their behaviors, by restraining selfishness in order to make
group living worthwhile. Human morality, though sophisticated and complex relative to other
animals, is essentially a natural phenomenon that evolved to restrict excessive individualism and
foster human cooperation.

On this view, moral codes are ultimately founded on emotional instincts and intuitions that were
selected for in the past because they aided survival and reproduction (inclusive fitness).
Examples: the maternal bond is selected for because it improves the survival of offspring; the
Westermarck effect, where close proximity during early years reduces mutual sexual attraction,

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underpins taboos against incest because it decreases the likelihood of genetically risky behaviour
such as inbreeding.

The phenomenon of 'reciprocity' in nature is seen by evolutionary biologists as one way to begin
to understand human morality. Its function is typically to ensure a reliable supply of essential
resources, especially for animals living in a habitat where food quantity or quality fluctuates
unpredictably. For example, some vampire bats fail to feed on prey on any given night while
others consume a surplus. Bats that have successfully fed then regurgitate part of their blood
meal to save a conspecific from starvation. Since these animals live in close-knit groups over
many years, an individual can count on other group members to return the favor on nights when
it goes hungry (Wilkinson, 1984)

Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce (2009) have argued that morality is a suite of behavioral
capacities likely shared by all mammals living in complex social groups (e.g., wolves, coyotes,
elephants, dolphins, rats, chimpanzees). They define morality as "a suite of interrelated other-
regarding behaviors that cultivate and regulate complex interactions within social groups." This
suite of behaviors includes empathy, reciprocity, altruism, cooperation, and a sense of fairness.
In related work, it has been convincingly demonstrated that chimpanzees show empathy for each
other in a wide variety of contexts. They also possess the ability to engage in deception, and a
level of social 'politics' prototypical of our own tendencies for gossip and reputation
management.

Christopher Boehm (1982) has hypothesized that the incremental development of moral
complexity throughout hominid evolution was due to the increasing need to avoid disputes and
injuries in moving to open savanna and developing stone weapons. Other theories are that
increasing complexity was simply a correlate of increasing group size and brain size, and in
particular the development of theory of mind abilities. Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion
suggested that our morality is a result of our biological evolutionary history and that the Moral
Zeitgeist helps describe how morality evolves from biological and cultural origins and evolves
with time within a culture.

Neuroscientific and psychiatric perspectives

Mirror-neurons

Research on mirror neurons, since their discovery in 1996, suggests that they may have a role to
play not only in action understanding, but also in emotion sharing empathy. Cognitive neuro-
scientist Jean Decety thinks that the ability to recognize and vicariously experience what another
individual is undergoing was a key step forward in the evolution of social behavior, and
ultimately, morality. The inability to feel empathy is one of the defining characteristics of
psychopathy, and this would appear to lend support to Decety's view.

Neuroimaging

The explicit making of moral right and wrong judgments benchood links to activation in the
ventromedial prefrontal cortex while as the intuitive reactions to situations containing implicit
moral issues activates the temporoparietal junction area.

Psychological perspectives

In modern moral psychology, morality is considered to change through personal development. A

number of psychologists have produced theories on the development of morals, usually going

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through stages of different morals. Lawrence Kohlberg, Jean Piaget, and Elliot Turiel have
cognitive-developmental approaches to moral development; to these theorists morality forms in a
series of constructive stages or domains. Social psychologists such as Martin Hoffman and
Jonathan Haidt emphasize social and emotional development based on biology, such as empathy.
Moral identity theorists, such as William Damon and Mordechai Nisan, see moral commitment
as arising from the development of a self-identity that is defined by moral purposes: this moral
self-identity leads to a sense of responsibility to pursue such purposes. Of historical interest in
psychology are the theories of psychoanalysts such as Sigmund Freud, who believe that moral
development is the product of aspects of the super-ego as guilt-shame avoidance.

Morality and politics

If morality is the answer to the question 'how ought we to live' at the individual level, politics
can be seen as addressing the same question at the social level. It is therefore unsurprising that
evidence has been found of a relationship between attitudes in morality and politics. Jonathan
Haidt and Jesse Graham have studied the differences between liberals and conservatives, in this
regard. Haidt found that Americans who identified as liberals tended to value care and fairness
higher than loyalty, respect and purity. Self-identified conservative Americans valued care and
fairness less and the remaining three values more. Both groups gave care the highest over-all
weighting, but conservatives valued fairness the lowest, whereas liberals valued purity the
lowest. Haidt also hypothesizes that the origin of this division in the United States can be traced
to geohistorical factors, with conservatism strongest in closely knit, ethnically homogenous
communities, in contrast to port-cities, where the cultural mix is greater, thus requiring more
liberalism.

Group morality develops from shared concepts and beliefs and is often codified to regulate
behavior within a culture or community. Various defined actions come to be called moral or
immoral. Individuals who choose moral action are popularly held to possess "moral fiber",
whereas those who indulge in immoral behavior may be labeled as socially degenerate. The
continued existence of a group may depend on widespread conformity to codes of morality; an
inability to adjust moral codes in response to new challenges is sometimes credited with the
demise of a community (a positive example would be the function of Cistercian reform in
reviving monasticism; a negative example would be the role of the Dowager Empress in the
subjugation of China to European interests). Within nationalist movements, there has been some
tendency to feel that a nation will not survive or prosper without acknowledging one common
morality, regardless of in what it consists. Political Morality is also relevant to the behaviour
internationally of national governments, and to the support they receive from their host
population. Noam Chomsky states that

... if we adopt the principle of universality : if an action is right (or wrong) for others,
it is right (or wrong) for us. Those who do not rise to the minimal moral level of
applying to themselves the standards they apply to others -- more stringent ones, in
fact -- plainly cannot be taken seriously when they speak of appropriateness of
response; or of right and wrong, good and evil.
In fact, one of the, maybe the most, elementary of moral principles is that of
universality, that is, If something's right for me, it's right for you; if it's wrong for
you, it's wrong for me. Any moral code that is even worth looking at has that at its
core somehow.

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Moral codes

Codified morality is generally distinguished from custom, another way for a community to
define appropriate activity, by the former's derivation from natural or universal principles. In
certain religious communities, the Divine is said to provide these principles through revelation,
sometimes in great detail. Such codes may be called laws, as in the Law of Moses, or community
morality may be defined through commentary on the texts of revelation, as in Islamic law. Such
codes are distinguished from legal or judicial right, including civil rights, which are based on the
accumulated traditions, decrees and legislation of a political authority, though these latter often
invoke the authority of the moral law.

Morality can also be seen as the collection of beliefs as to what constitutes a good life. Since
throughout most of human history, religions have provided both visions and regulations for an
ideal life, morality is often confused with religious precepts. In secular communities, lifestyle
choices, which represent an individual's conception of the good life, are often discussed in terms
of "morality." Individuals sometimes feel that making an appropriate lifestyle choice invokes a
true morality, and that accepted codes of conduct within their chosen community are
fundamentally moral, even when such codes deviate from more general social principles.

Moral codes are often complex definitions of moral and immoral that are based upon well-
defined value systems. Although some people might think that a moral code is simple, rarely is
there anything simple about one's values, ethics, etc. or, for that matter, the judgment of those of
others. The difficulty lies in the fact that morals are often part of a religion and more often than
not about culture codes. Sometimes, moral codes give way to legal codes, which couple penalties
or corrective actions with particular practices. Note that while many legal codes are merely built
on a foundation of religious and/or cultural moral codes, oftentimes they are one and the same.

Examples of moral codes include the Golden Rule; the Five Precepts and the Noble Eightfold
Path of Buddhism (see la); the ancient Egyptian code of Ma'at ;the ten commandments of
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; the yamas and niyama of the Hindu scriptures; the ten Indian
commandments; and the principle of the Dessek.

Another related concept is the moral core which is assumed to be innate in each individual, to
those who accept that differences between individuals are more important than posited Creators
or their rules. This, in some religious systems and beliefs (e.g. Taoism, Moralism and
Gnosticism), is assumed to be the basis of all aesthetics and thus moral choice. Moral codes as
such are therefore seen as coercivepart of human politics.

Moral psychology
Religiosity and morality

In the scientific literature, the degree of religiosity is generally found to be associated with
higher ethical attitudes. Although a recent study by Gregory S. Paul published in the Journal of
Religion and Society argues for a positive correlation between the degree of public religiosity in
a society and certain measures of dysfunction , an analysis published later in the same journal
contends that a number of methodological problems undermine any findings or conclusions to be
taken from the research. In another response, Gary Jensen builds on and refines Paul's study. His
conclusion, after carrying out elaborate multivariate statistical studies, is that a complex
relationship exists between religiosity and homicide with some dimensions of religiosity
encouraging homicide and other dimensions discouraging it." Meanwhile, other studies seem to
show positive links in the relationship between religiosity and moral behaviorfor example,

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surveys suggesting a positive connection between faith and altruism. Modern research in
criminology also acknowledges an inverse relationship between religion and crime, with many
studies establishing this beneficial connection (though some claim it is a modest one). Indeed, a
meta-analysis of 60 studies on religion and crime concluded, religious behaviors and beliefs
exert a moderate deterrent effect on individuals criminal behavior.

Religion as a source of moral authority

Many religions provide moral guidelines for their followers. They believe that the divine has
instructed them with a way to live, and that following these "rules" will lead to oneness with the
divine.

Religion
A religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially
when considered as the creation of a supernatural agency or agencies, usually involving
devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of
human affairs.

Aspects of religion include narrative, symbolism, beliefs, and practices that are supposed to give
meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life. Whether the meaning centers on a deity or
deities, or an ultimate truth, religion is commonly identified by the practitioner's prayer, ritual,
meditation, music and art, among other things, and is often interwoven with society and politics.
It may focus on specific supernatural, metaphysical, and moral claims about reality (the cosmos
and human nature) which may yield a set of religious laws and ethics and a particular lifestyle.
Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as
well as personal faith and religious experience.

The term "religion" refers both to the personal practices related to communal faith and to group
rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction. "Religion" is sometimes used
interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system," but it is more socially defined than personal
convictions, and it entails specific behaviors, respectively.

The development of religion has taken many forms in various cultures, with continental
differences.

Religion is often described as a communal system for the coherence of belief focusing on a
system of thought, unseen being, person, or object, that is considered to be supernatural, sacred,
divine, or of the highest truth. Moral codes, practices, values, institutions, tradition, rituals, and
scriptures are often traditionally associated with the core belief, and these may have some
overlap with concepts in secular philosophy. Religion is also often described as a "way of life" or
a life stance.

Etymology

Religion is derived from the Latin religi, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One
possibility is derivation from a reduplicated *le-ligare, an interpretation traced to Cicero
connecting lego "read", i.e. re (again) + lego in the sense of "choose", "go over again" or
"consider carefully". Modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell favor the

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derivation from ligare "bind, connect", probably from a prefixed re-ligare, i.e. re (again) +
ligare or "to reconnect," which was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the
interpretation of Lactantius. However, the French scholar Daniel Dubuisson notes that relying on
this etymology "tends to minimize or cancel out the role of history"; he notes that Augustine
gave a lengthy definition of religio that sets it quite apart from the modern word "religion".

History

The word "religion" as it is used today does not have an obvious pre-colonial translation into
non-European languages. Daniel Dubuisson writes that "what the West and the history of
religions in its wake have objectified under the name 'religion' is ... something quite unique,
which could be appropriate only to itself and its own history." The words used in other languages
for similar concepts, such as dharma, bhakti, Tao, or Islam, have vastly different histories. The
history of other cultures' interaction with the religious category is therefore their interaction with
an idea that first developed in Europe under the influence of Christianity.

Religion and the body politic

A good understanding of the meaning of Christianity before the word "religion" came into
common usage can be found in St. Augustine's writing. For Augustine, Christianity was a
disciplina, a "rule" just like that of the Roman Empire. Christianity was therefore a power
structure opposing and superseding human institutions, a literal Kingdom of Heaven. Rather than
calling one to self-discipline through symbols, it was itself the discipline taught by one's family,
school, church, and city authorities. At this point, too, the root of the English word "religion", the
Latin religio, was in use only to mean "reverence for God or the gods, careful pondering of
divine things, piety" (which Cicero further derived to mean "diligence"). Max Mller
characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, and India, as
having a similar power structure at this point in history. What is called ancient religion today,
they would have only called "law".

At this point, Western Europe and the rest of the world diverged. As Christianity became
commonplace, the charismatic authority identified by Augustine, a quality we might today call
"religiousness", had a commanding influence at the local level. This system persisted in the
Byzantine Empire following the East-West Schism, but Western Europe regulated unpredictable
expressions of charisma through the Roman Catholic Church. As the Church lost its dominance
during the Protestant Reformation and Christianity became closely tied to political structures,
religion was recast as the basis of national sovereignty, and religious identity gradually became a
less universal sense of spirituality and more divisive, locally defined, and tied to nationality. It
was at this point that "religion" was dissociated with universal beliefs and moved closer to
dogma in both meaning and practice. However there was not yet the idea of dogma as personal
choice, only of established churches.

Religious freedom

In the Age of Enlightenment, the idea of Christianity as the purest expression of spirituality was
supplanted by the concept of "religion" as a worldwide practice. This caused such ideas as
religious freedom, a reexamination of classical philosophy as an alternative to Christian thought,
and more radically Deism among intellectuals such as Voltaire. Much like Christianity, the idea
of "religious freedom" was exported around the world as a civilizing technique, even to regions
such as India that had never treated spirituality as a matter of political identity. In Japan, where
Buddhism was still seen as a philosophy of natural law, the concept of "religion" and "religious
freedom" as separate from other power structures was unnecessary until Christian missionaries

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demanded free access to conversion, and when Japanese Christians refused to engage in patriotic
events.

With the Enlightenment, religion lost its attachment to nationality, but rather than being a
universal social attitude, it was now a personal feeling or emotion. Friedrich Schleiermacher in
the late 18th century defined religion as das schlechthinnige Abhngigkeitsgefhl, commonly
translated as "a feeling of absolute dependence". His contemporary Hegel disagreed thoroughly,
defining religion as "the Divine Spirit becoming conscious of Himself through the finite spirit."
William James is an especially notable 19th century subscriber to the theory of religion as
feeling.

Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism are one, a painting in the litang style portraying three men
laughing by a river stream, 12th century, Song Dynasty

Modern currents in religion

Religious studies

With the recognition of religion as a category separate from culture and society came the rise of
religious studies. The initial purpose of religious studies was to demonstrate the superiority of
the "living" or "universal" European world view to the "dead" or "ethnic" religions scattered
throughout the rest of the world, but this was eventually supplanted by a liberal-ecumenical
interest in searching for Western-style universal truths in every cultural tradition. Clifford
Geertz's definition of religion as a "cultural system" was dominant for most of the 20th century
and continues to be widely accepted today.

Sociologists and anthropologists tend to see religion as an abstract set of ideas, values, or
experiences developed as part of a cultural matrix. For example, in Lindbeck's Nature of
Doctrine, religion does not refer to belief in "God" or a transcendent Absolute. Instead, Lindbeck
defines religion as, "a kind of cultural and/or linguistic framework or medium that shapes the
entirety of life and thought it is similar to an idiom that makes possible the description of

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realities, the formulation of beliefs, and the experiencing of inner attitudes, feelings, and
sentiments. According to this definition, religion refers to one's primary worldview and how
this dictates one's thoughts and actions. Thus religion is considered by some sources to extend to
causes, principles, or activities believed in with zeal or conscientious devotion concerning points
or matters of ethics or conscience, and not necessarily including belief in the supernatural.

Although evolutionists had previously sought to understand and explain religion in terms of a
cultural attribute which might conceivably confer biological advantages to its adherents, Richard
Dawkins called for a re-analysis of religion in terms of the evolution of self-replicating ideas
apart from any resulting biological advantages they might bestow. He argued that the role of key
replicator in cultural evolution belongs not to genes, but to memes replicating thought from
person to person by means of imitation. These replicators respond to selective pressures that may
or may not affect biological reproduction or survival. Susan Blackmore regards religions as
particularly tenacious memes. Chris Hedges, however, regards meme theory as a misleading
imposition of genetics onto psychology.

Interfaith cooperation

Because religion continues to be recognized in Western thought as a universal impulse, many

religious practitioners have aimed to band together in interfaith dialogue and cooperation. The
first major dialogue was the Parliament of the World's Religions at the 1893 Chicago World's
Fair, which remains notable even today both in affirming "universal values" and recognition of
the diversity of practices among different cultures. The 20th century has been especially fruitful
in use of interfaith dialogue as a means of solving ethnic, political, or even religious conflict,
with Christian-Jewish reconciliation representing a complete reverse in the attitudes of many
Christian communities towards Jews.

Secularism and criticism of religion

As religion became a more personal matter, discussions of society found a new focus on political
and scientific meaning, and religious attitudes were increasingly seen as irrelevant for the needs
of the European world. On the political side, Ludwig Feuerbach recast Christian beliefs in light
of humanism, paving the way for Karl Marx's famous characterization of religion as "the opiate
of the masses". Meanwhile, in the scientific community, T.H. Huxley in 1869 coined the term
"agnostic," a term subsequently adopted by such figures as Robert Ingersoll. Later, Bertrand
Russell told the world Why I Am Not a Christian.

Atheists have developed a critique of religious systems as well as personal faith. Modern-day
critics focus on religion's lack of utility in human society, faulting religion as being irrational.
Some assert that dogmatic religions are in effect morally deficient, elevating to moral status
ancient, arbitrary, and ill-informed rulestaboos on eating pork, for example, as well as dress
codes and sexual practicespossibly designed for reasons of hygiene or even mere politics in a
bygone era.

Religious belief

Religious belief usually relates to the existence, nature and worship of a deity or deities and
divine involvement in the universe and human life. Alternately, it may also relate to values and
practices transmitted by a spiritual leader. Unlike other belief systems, which may be passed on
orally, religious belief tends to be codified in literate societies (religion in non-literate societies is
still largely passed on orally). In some religions, like the Abrahamic religions, it is held that most
of the core beliefs have been divinely revealed.

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Religious belief can also involve causes, principles or activities believed in with zeal or
conscientious devotion concerning points or matters of ethics or conscience, not necessarily
limited to organized religions.

Specific religious movements

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the academic practice of comparative religion divided religious
belief into philosophically-defined categories called "world religions." However, some recent
scholarship has argued that not all types of religion are necessarily separated by mutually
exclusive philosophies, and furthermore that the utility of ascribing a practice to a certain
philosophy, or even calling a given practice religious, rather than cultural, political, or social in
nature, is limited. The list of religious movements given here is an attempt to summarize the
most important regional and philosophical influences, but it is by no means a complete
description of every religious community.

Abrahamic religions are practiced throughout the world. They share in common the
Jewish patriarch Abraham and the Torah as an initial sacred text, although the degree to
which the Torah is incorporated into religious beliefs varies between traditions.
o Judaism accepts only the prophets of the Torah, but also relies on the authority of
rabbis. It is practiced by the Jewish people, an ethnic group currently centered in
Israel but also scattered throughout the Jewish diaspora. Today, Jews are
outnumbered by Christians and Muslims.
o Christianity is centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as
presented in the Gospels and the writings of the apostle Paul (1st century CE).
The Christian faith is essentially faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and
as Savior and Lord. As the religion of Western Europe during the time of
colonization, Christianity has been propagated throughout the world. Christianity
is practiced not as a single orthodoxy but as a mixture of Catholicism, Eastern
Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and many forms of Protestantism. In the United
States, for example, African-Americans and Korean-Americans usually attend
separate churches from Americans of European descent. Many European
countries as well as Argentina have established a specific church as the state
religion, but this is not the case in the United States nor in many other majority
Christian areas.
o Islam refers to the religion taught by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a major
political and religious figure of the 7th century CE. Islam is the dominant religion
of northern Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. As with Christianity, there is
no single orthodoxy in Islam but a multitude of traditions which are generally
categorized as Sunni and Shia, although there are other minor groups as well.
Wahhabi Islam is the established religion of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. There
are also several Islamic republics, including Iran, which is run by a Shia Supreme
Leader.
o The Bah' Faith was founded in the 19th century in Iran and since then has
spread worldwide. It teaches unity of all religious philosophies and accepts all of
the prophets of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as additional prophets
including its founder Bah'u'llh.
o Smaller Abrahamic groups that are not heterodox versions of the four major
groupings include Mandaeism, Samaritanism, the Druze, and the Rastafari
movement.
Indian religions are practiced or were founded in the Indian subcontinent. Concepts
most of them share in common include karma, caste, reincarnation, mantras, yantras, and
darana. Islam in India has also been influenced by Indian religious practices.

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 o Hinduism is a synechdoche describing the similar Indian religious philosophies
of Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and related groups, and is the predominant religion of
the Indian subcontinent Hinduism is not a monolithic religion in the Romannic
sense but a religious category containing dozens of separate philosophies
amalgamated as Santana Dharma.
o Buddhism was founded by Siddhattha Gotama in the 6th century BCE. Buddhists
generally agree that Gotama aimed to help sentient beings end their suffering by
understanding the true nature of phenomena, thereby escaping the cycle of
suffering and rebirth (sasra), that is, achieving Nirvana. The main schools of
Buddhism are Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana.
o Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded on the teachings of Guru Nanak and
ten successive Sikh Gurus in 15th century Punjab. Sikhs are found mostly in
India.
o Jainism, taught primarily by Parsva (9th century BCE) and Mahavira (6th
century BCE), is an ancient Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence
for all forms of living beings in this world. Jains are found mostly in India.
o There are dozens of new Indian religions and Hindu reform movements, such as
Ayyavazhi and Swaminarayan Faith.
Yazdnism is a non-Abrahamic monotheistic category including the traditional beliefs of
the Yazidi, Alevi, and Ahl-e Haqq.
Religious movements centered in the United States are often derived from Christian
tradition. They include the Latter Day Saint movement, Christian evangelicalism, and
Unitarian Universalism among hundreds of smaller groups.
Folk religion is a term applied loosely and vaguely to disorganized local practices. It is
also called paganism, shamanism, animism, ancestor worship, and totemism, although
not all of these elements are necessarily present in local belief systems. The category of
"folk religion" can generally include anything that is not part of an organization. The
modern neopagan movement draws on folk religion for inspiration.
o African traditional religion is a category including any type of religion practiced
in Africa before the arrival of Islam and Christianity, such as Yoruba religion or
San religion. There are many varieties of religions developed by Africans in the
Americas derived from African beliefs, including Santera, Candombl,
Umbanda, Vodou, and Oyotunji.
o Folk religions of the Americas include Aztec religion, Inca religion, Maya
religion, and modern Catholic beliefs such as the Virgin of Guadalupe. Native
American religion is practiced across the continent of North America.
o Australian Aboriginal culture contains a mythology and sacred practices
characteristic of folk religion.
o Chinese folk religion, practiced by Chinese people around the world, is a
primarily social practice including popular elements of Confucianism and
Taoism, with some remnants of Mahayana Buddhism. Most Chinese do not
identify as religious due to the strong Maoist influence on the country in recent
history, but adherence to religious ceremonies remains common. New religious
movements include Falun Gong and I-Kuan Tao.
o Traditional Korean religion was a syncretic mixture of Mahayana Buddhism and
Korean shamanism. Unlike Japanese Shinto, Korean shamanism was never
codified and Buddhism was never made a social necessity. In some areas these
traditions remain prevalent, but Korean-influenced Christianity is far more
influential in society and politics.
o Traditional Japanese religion is a mixture of Mahayana Buddhism and ancient
indigenous practices which were codified as Shinto in the 19th century. Japanese

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 people retain nominal attachment to both Buddhism and Shinto through social
ceremonies, but irreligion is common.
A variety of new religious movements still practiced today have been founded in many
other countries besides the United States and Japan, including Cao i in Vietnam.
o Shinshky is a general category for a wide variety of religious movements
founded in Japan since the 19th century. These movements share almost nothing
in common except the place of their founding. The largest religious movements
centered in Japan include Soka Gakkai, Tenrikyo, and Seicho-No-Ie among
hundreds of smaller groups.

Sociological classifications of religious movements suggest that within any given religious
group, a community can resemble various types of structures, including "churches",
"denominations", "sects", "cults", and "institutions".

Religion and superstition

While superstitions and magical thinking refer to nonscientific causal reasoning, applied to
specific things or actions, a religion is a more complex system about general or ultimate things,
involving morality, history and community. Because religions may include and exploit certain
superstitions or make use of magical thinking, while mixing them with broader considerations,
the division between superstition and religious faith is subjective and hard to specify. Religious
believers have often seen other religions as superstition. Likewise, some atheists, agnostics,
deists, and skeptics regard religious belief as superstition. Religious practices are most likely to
be labeled "superstitious" by outsiders when they include belief in extraordinary events
(miracles), an afterlife, supernatural interventions, apparitions or the efficacy of prayer, charms,
incantations, the meaningfulness of omens, and prognostications.

Greek and Roman pagans, who modeled their relations with the gods on political and social
terms, scorned the man who constantly trembled with fear at the thought of the gods as a slave
feared a cruel and capricious master. Such fear of the gods (deisidaimonia) was what the
Romans meant by superstitio (Veyne 1987, p 211). Early Christianity was outlawed as a
superstitio Iudaica, a "Jewish superstition", by Domitian in the 80s AD, and by AD 425,
Theodosius II outlawed pagan traditions as superstitious.

The Roman Catholic Church considers superstition to be sinful in the sense that it denotes a lack
of trust in the divine providence of God and, as such, is a violation of the first of the Ten
Commandments. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that superstition "in some sense
represents a perverse excess of religion" (para. #2110).

Superstition is a deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect
the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain
practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to
their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand is to fall into
superstition. Cf. Matthew 23:16-22 (para. #2111)

Related forms of thought

Religion and philosophy

Being both forms of belief system, religion and philosophy meet in several areas - notably in the
study of metaphysics and cosmology. In particular, a distinct set of religious beliefs will often
entail a specific metaphysics and cosmology. That is, a religion will generally have answers to

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metaphysical and cosmological questions about the nature of being, of the universe, humanity,
and the divine.

Cosmology

Humans have many different methods which attempt to answer fundamental questions about the
nature of the universe and our place in it (cosmology). Religion is only one of the methods for
trying to answer one or more of these questions. Other methods include philosophy,
metaphysics, astrology, esotericism, mysticism, and forms of shamanism, such as the sacred
consumption of ayahuasca among Peruvian Amazonia's Urarina. The Urarina have an elaborate
animistic cosmological system, which informs their mythology, religious orientation and daily
existence. In many cases, the distinction between these means are not clear. For example,
Buddhism and Taoism have been regarded as schools of philosophies as well as religions.

Given the generalized discontents with modernity, consumerism, over-consumption, violence

and anomie, many people in the so-called industrial or post-industrial West rely on a number of
distinctive religious worldviews. This in turn has given rise to increased religious pluralism, as
well as to what are commonly known in the academic literature as new religious movements,
which are gaining ground across the globe.

Religion and science

Religious knowledge, according to religious practitioners, may be gained from religious leaders,
sacred texts (scriptures), and/or personal revelation. Some religions view such knowledge as
unlimited in scope and suitable to answer any question; others see religious knowledge as
playing a more restricted role, often as a complement to knowledge gained through physical
observation. Some religious people maintain that religious knowledge obtained in this way is
absolute and infallible (religious cosmology).

The scientific method gains knowledge by testing hypotheses to develop theories through
elucidation of facts or evaluation by experiments and thus only answers cosmological questions
about the physical universe. It develops theories of the world which best fit physically observed
evidence. All scientific knowledge is subject to later refinement in the face of additional
evidence. Scientific theories that have an overwhelming preponderance of favorable evidence are
often treated as facts (such as the theories of gravity or evolution).

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Early science such as geometry and astronomy was connected to the divine for most medieval
scholars. The compass in this 13th century manuscript is a symbol of God's act of creation.

Many scientists have held strong religious beliefs (see List of Christian thinkers in science) and
have worked to harmonize science and religion. Isaac Newton, for example, believed that gravity
caused the planets to revolve about the Sun, and credited God with the design. In the concluding
General Scholium to the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, he wrote: "This most
beautiful System of the Sun, Planets and Comets, could only proceed from the counsel and
dominion of an intelligent and powerful being." Nevertheless, conflict has repeatedly arisen
between religious organizations and individuals who propagated scientific theories that were
deemed unacceptable by the organizations. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, has in the
past reserved to itself the right to decide which scientific theories were acceptable and which
were unacceptable. In the 17th century, Galileo was tried and forced to recant the heliocentric
theory based on the church's stance that the Greek Hellenistic system of astronomy was the
correct one. Today, religious belief among scientists is less prevalent than in the general public,
with the Pew Research Center finding in 2009 that 33% of American scientists and 83% of the
general public believe in God, 18% of scientists and 12% of the public believe in a higher power,
and 41% of scientists and 4% of the public believe in neither. Only 7% of the members of the
National Academy of Sciences believe in a god.

Epistemology

Many theories exist as to why religions sometimes seem to conflict with scientific knowledge. In
the case of Christianity, a relevant factor may be that it was among Christians that science in the
modern sense was developed. Unlike other religious groups, as early as the 17th century the
Christian churches had to deal directly with this new way to investigate nature and seek truth.

The perceived conflict between science and Christianity may also be partially explained by a
literal interpretation of the Bible adhered to by many Christians, both currently and historically.
The Catholic Church has always held with Augustine of Hippo who explicitly opposed a literal
interpretation of the Bible whenever the Bible conflicted with Science. The literal way to read
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the sacred texts became especially prevalent after the rise of the Protestant reformation, with its
emphasis on the Bible as the only authoritative source concerning the ultimate reality. This view
is often shunned by both religious leaders (who regard literally believing it as petty and look for
greater meaning instead) and scientists who regard it as an impossibility.

Some Christians have disagreed or are still disagreeing with scientists in areas such as the
validity of Keplerian astronomy, the theory of evolution, the method of creation of the universe
and the Earth, and the origins of life. On the other hand, scholars such as Stanley Jaki have
suggested that Christianity and its particular worldview was a crucial factor for the emergence of
modern science. In fact, most of today's historians are moving away from the view of the
relationship between Christianity and science as one of "conflict" a perspective commonly
called the conflict thesis. Gary Ferngren in his historical volume about Science & Religion
states:

While some historians had always regarded the [conflict] thesis as oversimplifying and distorting a
complex relationship, in the late twentieth century it underwent a more systematic reevaluation. The
result is the growing recognition among historians of science that the relationship of religion and science
has been much more positive than is sometimes thought. Although popular images of controversy
continue to exemplify the supposed hostility of Christianity to new scientific theories, studies have shown
that Christianity has often nurtured and encouraged scientific endeavour, while at other times the two
have co-existed without either tension or attempts at harmonization. If Galileo and the Scopes trial come
to mind as examples of conflict, they were the exceptions rather than the rule.

Eastern religions

The Hindu population of South Asia comprises about 2,000 castes. According to some Hindu
literature, there are 330 million (including local and regional) Hindu deities.

In the Bah' Faith, the harmony of science and religion is a central tenet. The principle states
that that truth is one, and therefore true science and true religion must be in harmony, thus
rejecting the view that science and religion are in conflict. `Abdu'l-Bah, the son of the founder
of the religion, asserted that science and religion cannot be opposed because they are aspects of

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the same truth; he also affirmed that reasoning powers are required to understand the truths of
religion and that religious teachings which are at variance with science should not be accepted;
he explained that religion has to be reasonable since God endowed humankind with reason so
that they can discover truth. Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bah' Faith, described science
and religion as "the two most potent forces in human life."

Proponents of Hinduism claim that Hinduism is not afraid of scientific explorations, nor of the
technological progress of mankind. According to them, there is a comprehensive scope and
opportunity for Hinduism to mold itself according to the demands and aspirations of the modern
world; it has the ability to align itself with both science and spiritualism. This religion uses some
modern examples to explain its ancient theories and reinforce its own beliefs. For example, some
Hindu thinkers have used the terminology of quantum physics to explain some basic concepts of
Hinduism such as Maya or the illusory and impermanent nature of our existence.

St monk in Arashiyama, Kyoto

The philosophical approach known as pragmatism, as propounded by the American philosopher

and psychologist William James, has been used to reconcile scientific with religious knowledge.
Pragmatism, simplistically, holds that the truth of a set of beliefs can be indicated by its
usefulness in helping people cope with a particular context of life. Thus, the fact that scientific
beliefs are useful in predicting observations in the physical world can indicate a certain truth for
scientific theories; the fact that religious beliefs can be useful in helping people cope with
difficult emotions or moral decisions can indicate a certain truth for those beliefs. (For a similar
postmodern view, see grand narrative).

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Mysticism and esotericism

Man meditating

Mysticism focuses on methods other than logic, but (in the case of esoteric mysticism) not
necessarily excluding it, for gaining enlightenment. Rather, meditative and contemplative
practices such as Vipassan and yoga, physical disciplines such as stringent fasting and whirling
(in the case of the Sufi dervishes), or the use of psychoactive drugs such as LSD, lead to altered
states of consciousness that logic can never hope to grasp. However, regarding the latter topic,
mysticism prevalent in the 'great' religions (monotheisms, henotheisms, which are perhaps
relatively recent, and which the word 'mysticism' is more recent than,) includes systems of
discipline that forbid drugs that can damage the body, including the nervous system.

Mysticism (to initiate) is the pursuit of communion with, or conscious awareness of ultimate
reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or Deity through direct, personal experience (intuition or
insight) rather than rational thought. Mystics speak of the existence of realities behind external
perception or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible through
personal experience. They say that such experience is a genuine and important source of
knowledge.

Esotericism is often spiritual (thus religious) but can be non-religious/-spiritual, and it uses
intellectual understanding and reasoning, intuition and inspiration (higher noetic and spiritual
reasoning,) but not necessarily faith (except often as a virtue,) and it is philosophical in its
emphasis on techniques of psycho-spiritual transformation (esoteric cosmology). Esotericism
refers to "hidden" knowledge available only to the advanced, privileged, or initiated, as opposed
to exoteric knowledge, which is public. All religions are probably somewhat exoteric, but most
ones of ancient civilizations such as Yoga of India, and the mystery religions of ancient Egypt,
Israel (Kabbalah,) and Greece are examples of ones that are also esoteric.

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Spirituality

A sadhu performing namaste in Madurai, India

Members of an organized religion may not see any significant difference between religion and
spirituality. Or they may see a distinction between the mundane, earthly aspects of their religion
and its spiritual dimension.

Some individuals draw a strong distinction between religion and spirituality. They may see
spirituality as a belief in ideas of religious significance (such as God, the Soul, or Heaven), but
not feel bound to the bureaucratic structure and creeds of a particular organized religion. They
choose the term spirituality rather than religion to describe their form of belief, perhaps
reflecting a disillusionment with organized religion (see Major religious groups), and a
movement towards a more "modern" more tolerant, and more intuitive form of religion.
These individuals may reject organized religion because of historical acts by religious
organizations, such as Christian Crusades and Islamic Jihad, the marginalisation and persecution
of various minorities or the Spanish Inquisition. The basic precept of the ancient spiritual
tradition of India, the Vedas, is the inner reality of existence, which is essentially a spiritual
approach to being.

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Myth

Urarina shaman, 1988

The word myth has several meanings.

1. A traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world
view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon;
2. A person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence; or
3. A metaphor for the spiritual potentiality in the human being.

Ancient polytheistic religions, such as those of Greece, Rome, and Scandinavia, are usually
categorized under the heading of mythology. Religions of pre-industrial peoples, or cultures in
development, are similarly called "myths" in the anthropology of religion. The term "myth" can
be used pejoratively by both religious and non-religious people. By defining another person's
religious stories and beliefs as mythology, one implies that they are less real or true than one's
own religious stories and beliefs. Joseph Campbell remarked, "Mythology is often thought of as
other people's religions, and religion can be defined as mis-interpreted mythology."

In sociology, however, the term myth has a non-pejorative meaning. There, myth is defined as a
story that is important for the group whether or not it is objectively or provably true. Examples
include the death and resurrection of Jesus, which, to Christians, explains the means by which
they are freed from sin and is also ostensibly a historical event. But from a mythological outlook,
whether or not the event actually occurred is unimportant. Instead, the symbolism of the death of
an old "life" and the start of a new "life" is what is most significant. Religious believers may or
may not accept such symbolic interpretations.

Value (personal and cultural)

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A personal and/or cultural value is an absolute or relative ethical value, the assumption of
which can be the basis for ethical action. A value system is a set of consistent values and
measures. A principle value is a foundation upon which other values and measures of integrity
are based. Those values which are not physiologically determined and normally considered
objective, such as a desire to avoid physical pain, seek pleasure, etc., are considered subjective,
vary across individuals and cultures and are in many ways aligned with belief and belief systems.
Types of values include ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (religious, political) values,
social values, and aesthetic values. It is debated whether some values which aren't clearly
physiologically determined are intrinsic such as altruism and whether some such as
acquisitiveness should be valued as vices or virtues.

Human values

Human values are a set of emotional rules people follow to help make the right decisions in life.
When values are used in a professional setting, they are called ethics (Changing Minds, n.d.).
Values are used in every day decision making at work and at home. Good values instill a sense
of integrity, honesty, and diligence in people. Without good values, people would become
corrupt, dishonest, and undependable as people and employees. Companies want to hire
employees with a sense of moral value so that they can help improve the company as a whole.
Promoting values in every-day life and in the workplace can help promote career success
(Heathfield, Susan, n.d.).

Values are an integral part of every culture. Along with beliefs and worldview assumptions, they
generate behavior. Being part of a culture that shares a common core set of values creates
expectations and predictability without which a culture would disintegrate and its members
would lose their personal identity and sense of worth. Values tell people what is good, beneficial,
important, useful, beautiful, desirable, appropriate...etc. They answer the question of why people
do what they do. Values help people solve common human problems for survival. Over time,
they become the roots of traditions that groups of people find important in their day to day lives.
Values can be positive or negative; some are destructive. To understand people of other cultures,
we must come to understand the values, beliefs and assumptions that motivate their behavior of
there values over.

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Cultural values

The Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map of the World, created by sociopolitical scientists Ronald
Inglehart and Christian Welzel based on the World Values Survey.

Groups, societies, or cultures have values that are largely shared by their members. The values
identify those objects, conditions or characteristics that members of the society consider
important; that is, valuable. In the United States, for example, values might include material
comfort, wealth, competition, individualism or religiosity . The values of a society can often be
identified by noting which people receive honor or respect. In the US, for example, professional
athletes at the top levels in some sports are honored (in the form of monetary payment) more
than college professors. Surveys show that voters in the United States would be reluctant to elect
an atheist as a president, suggesting that belief in God is a value. There is a difference between
values clarification and cognitive moral education. Values clarification is, "helping people clarify
what their lives are for and what is worth working for. Students are encouraged to define their
own values and understand others' values." Cognitive moral education is based on the belief that
students should learn to value things like democracy and justice as their moral reasoning
develops."

Values are related to the norms of a culture, but they are more general and abstract than norms.
Norms are rules for behavior in specific situations, while values identify what should be judged
as good or evil. Flying the national flag on a holiday is a norm, but it reflects the value of
patriotism. Wearing dark clothing and appearing solemn are normative behaviors at a funeral.
They reflect the values of respect and support of friends and family. Different cultures reflect
different values. "Over the last three decades, traditional-age college students have shown an
increased interest in personal well-being and a decreased interest in the welfare of others."
Values seemed to have changed, affecting the beliefs, and attitudes of college students.

Members take part in a culture even if each member's personal values do not entirely agree with
some of the normative values sanctioned in the culture. This reflects an individual's ability to
synthesize and extract aspects valuable to them from the multiple subcultures they belong to.

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If a group member expresses a value that is in serious conflict with the group's norms, the
group's authority may carry out various ways of encouraging conformity or stigmatizing the non-
conforming behavior of its members. For example, imprisonment can result from conflict with
social norms that have been established as law of chicken.

Ideology
An ideology is a set of aims and ideas that directs one's goals, expectations, and actions. An
ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things (compare
worldview), as in common sense (see Ideology in everyday society below) and several
philosophical tendencies (see Political ideologies), or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant
class of a society to all members of this society (a 'received consciousness' or product of
socialization). The main purpose behind an ideology is to offer change in society, and adherence
to a set of ideals where conformity already exists, through a normative thought process.
Ideologies are systems of abstract thought (as opposed to mere ideation) applied to public
matters and thus make this concept central to politics. Implicitly every political tendency entails
an ideology whether or not it is propounded as an explicit system of thought.

(For the Marxist definition of ideology, see Ideology as an instrument of social reproduction
below.)

History

The term "ideology" was born in the highly controversial, philosophical and political debates and
fights of the French Revolution and acquired several other meanings from the early days of the
First French Empire to the present. The word ideology was coined by Destutt de Tracy in 1796
assembling the parts idea (near to the Lockean sense) and -logy. He used it to refer to one aspect
of his "science of ideas". (To the study itself, not the subject of the study.) He separated three
aspects, namely: ideology, general grammar and logic, considering respectively the subject, the
means and the reason of this science. He argues that among these aspects ideology is the most
generic term, because the science of ideas also contains the study of their expression and
deduction.

According to Karl Mannheim's historical reconstruction of the meaning-shifts of ideology, the

modern meaning of the word ideology was born when Napoleon Bonaparte (as a politician) used
it in an abusive way against "the ideologues" (a group which included Cabanis, Condorcet,
Constant, Daunou, Say, Madame De Stal and Tracy), to express the pettiness of his (liberal
republican) political opponents.

Perhaps the most accessible source for the near-original meaning of ideology is Hippolyte
Taine's work on the Ancien Regime (first volume of "Origins of Contemporary France"). He
describes ideology as rather like teaching philosophy by the Socratic method, but without
extending the vocabulary beyond what the general reader already possessed, and without the
examples from observation that practical science would require. Taine identifies it not just with
Destutt De Tracy, but also with his milieu, and includes Condillac as one of its precursors.
(Tracy read the works of Locke and Condillac while he was imprisoned during the Reign of
Terror.)

The word "ideology" was coined long before the Russians coined "intelligentsia", or before the
adjective "intellectual" referred to a sort of person (see substantive), i.e. an intellectual. Thus
these words were not around when the hard-headed, driven Napoleon Bonaparte took the word

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"ideologues" to ridicule his intellectual opponents. Gradually, however, the term "ideology" has
dropped some of its pejorative sting, and has become a neutral term in the analysis of differing
political opinions. Ideological references are important to many people throughout the world.
Karl Marx used the term in his own context often throughout his works.

Analysis

Meta-ideology is the study of the structure, form, and manifestation of ideologies. Meta-
ideology posits that ideology is a coherent system of ideas, relying upon a few basic assumptions
about reality that may or may not have any factual basis, but are subjective choices that serve as
the seed around which further thought grows. According to this perspective, ideologies are
neither right nor wrong, but only a relativistic intellectual strategy for categorizing the world.
The pluses and minuses of ideology range from the vigor and fervor of true believers to
ideological infallibility. Excessive need for certitude lurks at fundamentalist levels in politics and
religions.

The works of George Walford and Harold Walsby, done under the heading of systematic
ideology, are attempts to explore the relationships between ideology and social systems.

David W. Minar describes six different ways in which the word "ideology" has been used:

1. As a collection of certain ideas with certain kinds of content, usually normative;

2. As the form or internal logical structure that ideas have within a set;
3. By the role in which ideas play in human-social interaction;
4. By the role that ideas play in the structure of an organization;
5. As meaning, whose purpose is persuasion; and
6. As the locus of social interaction, possibly.

For Willard A. Mullins, an ideology is composed of four basic characteristics:

1. it must have power over cognition

2. it must be capable of guiding one's evaluations;
3. it must provide guidance towards action;
4. and, as stated above, must be logically coherent.

Mullins emphasizes that an ideology should be contrasted with the related (but different) issues
of utopia and historical myth.

The German philosopher Christian Duncker called for a "critical reflection of the ideology
concept" (2006). In his work, he strove to bring the concept of ideology into the foreground, as
well as the closely connected concerns of epistemology and history. In this work, the term
ideology is defined in terms of a system of presentations that explicitly or implicitly claim to
absolute truth.

Though the word "ideology" is most often found in political discourse, there are many different
kinds of ideology: political, social, epistemological, ethical, and so on.

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Ideology as an instrument of social reproduction

Karl Marx posits that a societys dominant ideology is integral to its superstructure.

In the Marxist economic base and superstructure model of society, base denotes the relations of
production, and superstructure denotes the dominant ideology (religious, legal, political
systems). The economic base of production determines the political superstructure of a society.
Ruling class-interests determine the superstructure and the nature of the justifying ideology
actions feasible because the ruling class control the means of production. Hence the great
importance of the ideology justifying a society; it politically confuses the alienated groups of
society via false consciousness, such as in the case of commodity fetishism the belief that
value is inherent to a commodity, rather than external, added to it via labor.

The ruling class affect their social reproduction by the dominant ideologys representing to
every social-economic class that the economic interests of the ruling class are the economic
interests of the entire society. Some explanations, Gyrgy Lukcs proposes ideology as a
projection of the class consciousness of the ruling class. Antonio Gramsci uses cultural
hegemony to explain why the working-class have a false ideological conception of what are their
best interests.

Chronologically, the dominant ideologies in Capitalism are:

1. classical liberalism
2. modern liberalism
3. social democracy
4. neo-liberalism

corresponding to these three capitalist stages of development:

1. extensive stage
2. intensive stage

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 3. contemporary capitalism (late capitalism)

The Marxist formulation of ideology as an instrument of social reproduction is conceptually

important to the sociology of knowledge, viz. Karl Mannheim, Daniel Bell, and Jrgen Habermas
et al.. Moreover, Mannheim has developed, and progressed, from the 'total' but 'special' Marxist
conception of ideology to a 'general' and 'total' ideological conception acknowledging that all
ideology (including Marxism) resulted from social life, an idea developed by the sociologist
Pierre Bourdieu.

Louis Althusser's Ideological State Apparatuses

Louis Althusser proposed a materialistic conception of ideology, which made use of a special
type of discourse: the lacunar discourse. A number of propositions, which are never untrue,
suggest a number of other propositions, which are, in this way, the essence of the lacunar
discourse is what is not told (but is suggested).

For example, the statement 'All are equal before the law', which is a theoretical groundwork of
current legal systems, suggests that all people may be of equal worth or have equal
'opportunities'. This is not true, for the concept of private property over the means of production
results in some people being able to own more (much more) than others, and their property
brings power and influence (the rich can afford better lawyers, among other things, and this puts
in question the principle of equality before the law).

Althusser also invented the concept of the Ideological State Apparatus to explain his theory of
ideology. His first thesis was "ideology has no history": while ideologyies have histories,
interleaved with the general class struggle of society, the general form of ideology is external to
history. His second thesis, "Ideas are material", explains his materialistic attitude, which he
illustrated with the "scandalous advice" of Pascal toward unbelievers: "kneel and pray, and then
you will believe", thus highlighting that beliefs and ideas are a product of social practices, and
not the reverse. However, this mustn't be misunderstood as simple behaviorism, as there may be,
as Pierre Macherey put it, a "subjectivity without subject"; in other words, a form of non-
personal liberty, as in Deleuze's conception of becoming-other

Feminism as critique of ideology

Naturalizing socially constructed patterns of behavior has always been an important mechanism
in the production and reproduction of ideologies. Feminist theorists have paid close attention to
these mechanisms. Adrienne Rich e.g. has shown how to understand motherhood as a social
institution. However, 'feminism' is not a homogeneous whole, and some corners of feminist
thought criticize the critique of social constructionism, by advocating that it disregards too much
of human nature and natural tendencies. The debate, they say, is about the normative/naturalistic
fallacythe idea that just something 'being' natural does not necessarily mean it 'ought' to be the
case.

Political ideologies

Many political parties base their political action and program on an ideology. In social studies, a
Political Ideology is a certain ethical set of ideals, principles, doctrines, myths or symbols of a
social movement, institution, class, or large group that explains how society should work, and
offers some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order. A political ideology largely
concerns itself with how to allocate power and to what ends it should be used. Some parties

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follow a certain ideology very closely, while others may take broad inspiration from a group of
related ideologies without specifically embracing any one of them.

Political ideologies have two dimensions:

1. Goals: How society should work (or be arranged).

2. Methods: The most appropriate ways to achieve the ideal arrangement.

An ideology is a collection of ideas. Typically, each ideology contains certain ideas on what it
considers to be the best form of government (e.g. democracy, theocracy, etc), and the best
economic system (e.g. capitalism, socialism, etc). Sometimes the same word is used to identify
both an ideology and one of its main ideas. For instance, "socialism" may refer to an economic
system, or it may refer to an ideology which supports that economic system.

Ideologies also identify themselves by their position on the political spectrum (such as the left,
the center or the right), though this is very often controversial. Finally, ideologies can be
distinguished from political strategies (e.g. populism) and from single issues that a party may be
built around (e.g. opposition to European integration or the legalization of marijuana).
Philosopher Michael Oakeshott provides a good definition of ideology as "the formalized
abridgment of the supposed sub-stratum of the rational truth contained in the tradition."

Studies of the concept of ideology itself (rather than specific ideologies) have been carried out
under the name of systematic ideology.

Political ideologies are concerned with many different aspects of a society, some of which are:
the economy, education, health care, labor law, criminal law, the justice system, the provision of
social security and social welfare, trade, the environment, minors, immigration, race, use of the
military, patriotism and established religion.

There are many proposed methods for the classification of political ideologies. See the political
spectrum article for a more in-depth discussion of these different methods (each of whom
generates a specific political spectrum).

Epistemological ideologies

Even when the challenging of existing beliefs is encouraged, as in science, the dominant
paradigm or mindset can prevent certain challenges, theories or experiments from being
advanced.

There are critics who view science as an ideology in itself, or being an effective ideology, called
scientism. Some scientists respond that, while the scientific method is itself an ideology, as it is a
collection of ideas, there is nothing particularly wrong or bad about it.

Other critics point out that while science itself is not a misleading ideology, there are some fields
of study within science that are misleading. Two examples discussed here are in the fields of
ecology and economics.

A special case of science adopted as ideology is that of ecology, which studies the relationships
among living things on Earth. Perceptual psychologist J. J. Gibson believed that human
perception of ecological relationships was the basis of self-awareness and cognition itself.
Linguist George Lakoff has proposed a cognitive science of mathematics wherein even the most

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fundamental ideas of arithmetic would be seen as consequences or products of human
perceptionwhich is itself necessarily evolved within an ecology.

Deep ecology and the modern ecology movement (and, to a lesser degree, Green parties) appear
to have adopted ecological sciences as a positive ideology.

Some accuse ecological economics of likewise turning scientific theory into political economy,
although theses in that science can often be tested. The modern practice of green economics
fuses both approaches and seems to be part science, part ideology.

This is far from the only theory of economics to be raised to ideology statussome notable
economically-based ideologies include mercantilism, mixed economy, social Darwinism,
communism, laissez-faire economics, and free trade. There are also current theories of safe trade
and fair trade which can be seen as ideologies.

Psychological research

Psychological research increasingly suggests that ideologies reflect motivational processes, as

opposed to the view that political convictions always reflect independent and unbiased thinking.
Research in 2008 proposed that ideologies may function as prepackaged units of interpretation
that spread because of basic human motives to understand the world, avoid existential threat, and
maintain valued interpersonal relationships. The authors conclude that such motives may lead
disproportionately to the adoption of system-justifying worldviews. Psychologists have generally
found that personality traits, individual difference variables, needs, and ideological beliefs seem
to have a common thread. For instance, a meta-analysis by Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, and
Sulloway in 2003 analyzed 88 studies from 12 countries, with over 22,000 subjects, and found
that death anxiety, intolerance of ambiguity, lack of openness to experience, uncertainty
avoidance, need for cognitive closure, need for personal structure, and threat of loss of position
or self-esteem all contribute to the degree of one's overall political conservatism. The researchers
suggest that these results show that political conservatives stress resistance to change and are
motivated by needs that are aimed at reducing threat and uncertainty. According to Robert
Altemeyer and other researchers, individuals that are politically conservative tend to rank high
on Right-Wing Authoritarianism, as measured by Altemeyer's RWA scale. Psychologist Felicia
Pratto and her colleagues have found evidence to support the idea that a high Social Dominance
Orientation (SDO) is strongly correlated with conservative political views.

Ideology and semiotic theory

According to the semiotician Bob Hodge, ideology "identifies a unitary object that incorporates
complex sets of meanings with the social agents and processes that produced them. No other
term captures this object as well as ideology. Foucaults episteme is too narrow and abstract,
not social enough. His discourse, popular because it covers some of ideologys terrain with
less baggage, is too confined to verbal systems. Worldview is too metaphysical, propaganda
too loaded. Despite or because of its contradictions, ideology still plays a key role in semiotics
oriented to social, political life". Authors such as Michael Freeden have also recently
incorporated a semantic analysis to the study of ideologies.

In everyday society

In public discussions, certain ideas arise more commonly than others. Often people with diverse
backgrounds and interests may find themselves thinking alike in ways startling to those from
other backgrounds. Social scientists might explain this phenomenon as evidence of ideologies.
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Dominant ideologies appear as "neutral", holding to assumptions that are largely unchallenged.
Meanwhile, all other ideologies that differ from the dominant ideology are seen as radical, no
matter what the content of their actual vision may be. The philosopher Michel Foucault wrote
about the concept of apparent ideological neutrality. Ideology is not the same thing as
philosophy. Philosophy is an analytic method for assessing ideologies and belief systems. Some
attribute to ideology positive characteristics like vigor and fervor, or negative features like
excessive certitude and fundamentalist rigor.

Organizations that strive for power will try to influence the ideology of a society to become
closer to what they want it to be. Political organizations (governments included) and other
groups (e.g. lobbyists) try to influence people by broadcasting their opinions.

When most people in a society think alike about certain matters, or even forget that there are
alternatives to the status quo, we arrive at the concept of hegemony, about which the philosopher
Antonio Gramsci wrote. Such a state of affairs has been dramatized many times in literature:
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; and A Wrinkle
in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman have argued that social
ideological homogeneity can be achieved by restricting the conceptual metaphors transmitted by
mass communication.

Aesthetics
Aesthetics (also spelled sthetics or esthetics) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature
of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically
defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of
sentiment and taste. More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on
art, culture and nature." Aesthetics is a subdiscipline of axiology, a branch of philosophy, and is
closely associated with the philosophy of art. Aesthetics studies new ways of seeing and of
perceiving the world.

Etymology

The term Aesthetics was coined by Alexander Baumgarten, in 1735, it derives from the German
sthetisch or the French esthtique, both derived from the Greek (aisthetikos)
"esthetic-sensitive-sentient", from - (aisthese-aisthanomai) "to perceive-feel-
sense"

Aesthetic judgment

Judgments of aesthetic value rely on our ability to discriminate at a sensory level. Aesthetics
examines our affective domain response to an object or phenomenon. Immanuel Kant, writing in
1790, observes of a man "If he says that canary wine is agreeable he is quite content if someone
else corrects his terms and reminds him to say instead: It is agreeable to me," because "Everyone
has his own (sense of) taste". The case of "beauty" is different from mere "agreeableness"
because, "If he proclaims something to be beautiful, then he requires the same liking from
others; he then judges not just for himself but for everyone, and speaks of beauty as if it were a
property of things."

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Aesthetic judgments usually go beyond sensory discrimination. For David Hume, delicacy of
taste is not merely "the ability to detect all the ingredients in a composition", but also our
sensitivity "to pains as well as pleasures, which escape the rest of mankind." (Essays Moral
Political and Literary. Indianapolis, Literary Classics 5, 1987.) Thus, the sensory discrimination
is linked to capacity for pleasure. For Kant "enjoyment" is the result when pleasure arises from
sensation, but judging something to be "beautiful" has a third requirement: sensation must give
rise to pleasure by engaging our capacities of reflective contemplation. Judgments of beauty are
sensory, emotional and intellectual all at once.

Viewer interpretations of beauty possess two concepts of value: aesthetics and taste. Aesthetics
is the philosophical notion of beauty. Taste is a result of education and awareness of elite cultural
values; therefore taste can be learned. Taste varies according to class, cultural background, and
education. According to Kant, beauty is objective and universal; thus certain things are beautiful
to everyone. The contemporary view of beauty is not based on innate qualities, but rather on
cultural specifics and individual interpretations.

Factors involved in aesthetic judgment

Judgments of aesthetic value seem often to involve many other kinds of issues as well.
Responses such as disgust show that sensory detection is linked in instinctual ways to facial
expressions, and even behaviors like the gag reflex. Yet disgust can often be a learned or cultural
issue too; as Darwin pointed out, seeing a stripe of soup in a man's beard is disgusting even
though neither soup nor beards are themselves disgusting. Aesthetic judgments may be linked to
emotions or, like emotions, partially embodied in our physical reactions. Seeing a sublime view
of a landscape may give us a reaction of awe, which might manifest physically as an increased
heart rate or widened eyes. These unconscious reactions may even be partly constitutive of what
makes our judgment a judgment that the landscape is sublime.

Likewise, aesthetic judgments may be culturally conditioned to some extent. Victorians in

Britain often saw African sculpture as ugly, but just a few decades later, Edwardian audiences
saw the same sculptures as being beautiful. The Abuse of Beauty, Evaluations of beauty may
well be linked to desirability, perhaps even to sexual desirability. Thus, judgments of aesthetic
value can become linked to judgments of economic, political, or moral value. We might judge a
Lamborghini to be beautiful partly because it is desirable as a status symbol, or we might judge it
to be repulsive partly because it signifies for us over-consumption and offends our political or
moral values.

"Part and Parcel in Animal and Human Societies". in Studies in animal and human behavior, vol.
2. pp. 115195. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1971 (originally pub. 1950.) Aesthetic
judgments can often be very fine-grained and internally contradictory. Likewise aesthetic
judgments seem often to be at least partly intellectual and interpretative. It is what a thing means
or symbolizes for us that is often what we are judging. Modern aestheticians have asserted that
will and desire were almost dormant in aesthetic experience, yet preference and choice have
seemed important aesthetics to some 20th century thinkers. The point is already made by Hume,
but see Mary Mothersill, "Beauty and the Critics Judgment", in The Blackwell Guide to
Aesthetics, 2004. Thus aesthetic judgments might be seen to be based on the senses, emotions,
intellectual opinions, will, desires, culture, preferences, values, subconscious behavior, conscious
decision, training, instinct, sociological institutions, or some complex combination of these,
depending on exactly which theory one employs.

Anthropology, especially the savanna hypothesis proposed by Gordon Orians and others,
predicts that some of the positive aesthetics that people have are based on innate knowledge of

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productive human habitats. It had been shown that people prefer and feel happier looking at trees
with spreading forms much more than looking at trees with other forms, or non-tree objects; also
Bright green colors, linked with healthy plants with good nutrient qualities, were more calming
than other tree colors, including less bright greens and oranges.

Are different art forms beautiful, disgusting, or boring in the same way?

The third major topic in the study of aesthetic judgments is how they are unified across art
forms. We can call a person, a house, a symphony, a fragrance, and a mathematical proof
beautiful. What characteristics do they share which give them that status? What possible feature
could a proof and a fragrance both share in virtue of which they both count as beautiful? What
makes a painting beautiful is quite different from what makes music beautiful, which suggests
that each art form has its own language for the judgement of aesthetics.

At the same time, there is seemingly quite a lack of words to express oneself accurately when
making an aesthetic judgement. An aesthetic judgement cannot be an empirical judgement.
Therefore, due to impossibility for precision, there is confusion about what interpretations can be
culturally negotiated. Due to imprecision in the standard English language, two completely
different feelings experienced by two different people can be represented by an identical verbal
expression. Wittgenstein stated this in his lectures on aesthetics and language games.

A collective identification of beauty, with willing participants in a given social spectrum, may be
a socially negotiated phenomenon, discussed in a culture or context. Is there some underlying
unity to aesthetic judgment and is there some way to articulate the similarities of a beautiful
house, beautiful proof, and beautiful sunset? Defining it requires a description of the entire
phenomenon, as Wittgenstein argued in his lectures on aesthetics. Likewise there has been long
debate on how perception of beauty in the natural world, especially perception of the human
form as beautiful, is supposed to relate to perceiving beauty in art or artefacts. This goes back at
least to Kant, with some echoes even in St. Bonaventure.

Aesthetics and the philosophy of art

Aesthetics is used by some as a synonym for the philosophy of art since Hegel, while others
insist on a distinction between these closely related fields. In practice aesthetic judgement refers
to the sensory contemplation or appreciation of an object (not necessarily an art object), while
artistic judgement refers to the recognition, appreciation or criticism of art or an art work.

The philosophical aesthetics has not only to speak about art and to produce judgments about the
art works, but has also to give a definition of what art is. Art is an autonomous entity for the
philosophy, because art deals with the senses (i. e. the etymology of aesthetics) and art is as such
free of any moral or political purpose. Hence, there are two different conceptions of art in the
aesthetics : art as knowledge or art as action, but aesthetics is neither epistemology nor ethics.

What is "art?"

How best to define the term art is a subject of constant contention; many books and journal
articles have been published arguing over even the basics of what we mean by the term art.
Theodor Adorno claimed in 1969 It is self-evident that nothing concerning art is self-evident.
Artists, philosophers, anthropologists, psychologists and programmers all use the notion of art in
their respective fields, and give it operational definitions that vary considerably. Furthermore, it
is clear that even the basic meaning of the term "art" has changed several times over the
centuries, and has continued to evolve during the 20th century as well.

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The main recent sense of the word art is roughly as an abbreviation for creative art or fine
art. Here we mean that skill is being used to express the artists creativity, or to engage the
audiences aesthetic sensibilities, or to draw the audience towards consideration of the finer
things. Often, if the skill is being used in a functional object, people will consider it a craft
instead of art, a suggestion which is highly disputed by many Contemporary Craft thinkers.
Likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way it may be considered design
instead of art, or contrariwise these may be defended as art forms, perhaps called applied art.
Some thinkers, for instance, have argued that the difference between fine art and applied art has
more to do with the actual function of the object than any clear definitional difference. Art
usually implies no function other than to convey or communicate an idea.

Even as late as 1912 it was normal in the West to assume that all art aims at beauty, and thus that
anything that wasn't trying to be beautiful couldn't count as art. The cubists, dadaists, Stravinsky,
and many later art movements struggled against this conception that beauty was central to the
definition of art, with such success that, according to Danto, "Beauty had disappeared not only
from the advanced art of the 1960s but from the advanced philosophy of art of that decade as
well." Perhaps some notion like "expression" (in Croces theories) or "counter-environment" (in
McLuhans theory) can replace the previous role of beauty. Brian Massumi brought back
"beauty" into consideration together with "expression". Another concept, as important to the
philosophy of art as "beauty," is that of the "sublime," elaborated upon in the twentieth century
by the postmodern philosopher Jean-Franois Lyotard.

Perhaps (as in Kennick's theory) no definition of art is possible anymore. Perhaps art should be
thought of as a cluster of related concepts in a Wittgensteinian fashion (as in Weitz or Beuys).
Another approach is to say that art is basically a sociological category, that whatever art
schools and museums and artists define as art is considered art regardless of formal definitions.
This "institutional definition of art" (see also Institutional Critique) has been championed by
George Dickie. Most people did not consider the depiction of a Brillo Box or a store-bought
urinal to be art until Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp (respectively) placed them in the
context of art (i.e., the art gallery), which then provided the association of these objects with the
associations that define art.

Proceduralists often suggest that it is the process by which a work of art is created or viewed that
makes it art, not any inherent feature of an object, or how well received it is by the institutions of
the art world after its introduction to society at large. Whereas if exactly the same set of words
was written by a journalist, intending them as shorthand notes to help him write a longer article
later, these would not be a poem. Leo Tolstoy, on the other hand, claims that what makes
something art or not is how it is experienced by its audience, not by the intention of its creator.
Functionalists like Monroe Beardsley argue that whether or not a piece counts as art depends on
what function it plays in a particular context; the same Greek vase may play a non-artistic
function in one context (carrying wine), and an artistic function in another context (helping us to
appreciate the beauty of the human figure). '

What should we judge when we judge art?

Art can be difficult at the metaphysical and ontological levels as well as at the value theory level.
When we see a performance of Hamlet, how many works of art are we experiencing, and which
should we judge? Perhaps there is only one relevant work of art, the whole performance, which
many different people have contributed to, and which will exist briefly and then disappear.
Perhaps the manuscript by Shakespeare is a distinct work of art from the play by the troupe,
which is also distinct from the performance of the play by this troupe on this night, and all three
can be judged, but are to be judged by different standards.

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Perhaps every person involved should be judged separately on his or her own merits, and each
costume or line is its own work of art (with perhaps the director having the job of unifying them
all). Similar problems arise for music, film and even painting. Is one to judge the painting itself,
the work of the painter, or perhaps the painting in its context of presentation by the museum
workers?

These problems have been made even more difficult by the rise of conceptual art since the
1960s. Warhols famous Brillo Boxes are nearly indistinguishable from actual Brillo boxes at the
time. It would be a mistake to praise Warhol for the design of his boxes (which were designed by
Steve Harvey), yet the conceptual move of exhibiting these boxes as art in a museum together
with other kinds of paintings is Warhol's. Are we judging Warhols concept? His execution of
the concept in the medium? The curators insight in letting Warhol display the boxes? The
overall result? Our experience or interpretation of the result? Ontologically, how are we to think
of the work of art? Is it a physical object? Several objects? A class of objects? A mental object?
A fictional object? An abstract object? An event? Or simply an Act?

What should art be like?

Many goals have been argued for art, and aestheticians often argue that some goal or another is
superior in some way. Clement Greenberg, for instance, argued in 1960 that each artistic medium
should seek that which makes it unique among the possible mediums and then purify itself of
anything other than expression of its own uniqueness as a form. The Dadaist Tristan Tzara on the
other hand saw the function of art in 1918 as the destruction of a mad social order. We must
sweep and clean. Affirm the cleanliness of the individual after the state of madness, aggressive
complete madness of a world abandoned to the hands of bandits. Formal goals, creative goals,
self-expression, political goals, spiritual goals, philosophical goals, and even more perceptual or
aesthetic goals have all been popular pictures of what art should be like.

The value of art

Tolstoy defined art, and not incidentally characterized its value, this way: "Art is a human
activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on
to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and
also experience them."

The value of art, then, is one with the value of empathy.

Other possible views are these: Art can act as a means to some special kind of knowledge. Art
may give insight into the human condition. Art relates to science and religion. Art serves as a
tool of education, or indoctrination, or enculturation. Art makes us more moral. It uplifts us
spiritually. Art is politics by other means. Art has the value of allowing catharsis. In any case, the
value of art may determine the suitability of an art form. Do they differ significantly in their
values, or (if not) in their ability to achieve the unitary value of art?

But to approach the question of the value of art systematically, one ought to ask: for whom? For
the artist? For the audience? For society at large, and/or for individuals beyond the audience? Is
the "value" of art different in each of these different contexts?

Working on the intended value of art tends to help define the relations between art and other
acts. Art clearly does have spiritual goals in many contexts, but what exactly is the difference
between religious art and religion per se? The truth is complex - Art is both useless in a
functional sense and the most important human activity.

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It has been said, that a Vogon Starship arriving at the earth and ordering its destruction would
ask what use is humanity? The only justification humanity could give would be a Shakespeare
play, a Rembrandt or a Bach concerto. These are the things of value which define humanity
itself.

Aesthetic universals

The philosopher Denis Dutton identified seven universal signatures in human aesthetics:

1. Expertise or virtuosity. Technical artistic skills are cultivated, recognized, and admired.
2. Nonutilitarian pleasure. People enjoy art for art's sake, and don't demand that it keep
them warm or put food on the table.
3. Style. Artistic objects and performances satisfy rules of composition that place them in a
recognizable style.
4. Criticism. People make a point of judging, appreciating, and interpreting works of art.
5. Imitation. With a few important exceptions like abstract painting, works of art simulate
experiences of the world.
6. Special focus. Art is set aside from ordinary life and made a dramatic focus of
experience.

It might be objected, however, that there are rather too many exceptions to Dutton's categories.
For example, the installations of the contemporary artist Thomas Hirschhorn deliberately eschew
technical virtuosity. People can appreciate a Renaissance Madonna for aesthetic reasons, but
such objects often had (and sometimes still have) specific devotional functions. 'Rules of
composition' that might be read into Duchamp's Fountain or John Cage's 4'33" do not locate the
works in a recognizable style (or certainly not a style recognizable at the time of the works'
realisation). Moreover, some of Dutton's categories seem too broad: a physicist might entertain
hypothetical worlds in his/her imagination in the course of formulating a theory.

Increasingly, academics in both the sciences and the humanities are looking to evolutionary
psychology and cognitive science in an effort to understand the connection between psychology
and aesthetics. Aside from Dutton, others exploring this realm include David Bordwell, Brian
Boyd, Christine Buci-Glucksmann, Noel Carroll, Ellen Dissanayake, Nancy Easterlin, Bracha
Ettinger, David Evans, Jonathan Gottschall, Torben Grodal, Paul Hernadi,, Patrick Hogan, Carl
Plantinga, Elaine Scarry, Murray Smith, Wendy Steiner, Robert Storey, Frederick Turner, and
Mark Turner.

Criticism

The philosophy of aesthetics has been criticized by some sociologists and writers about art and
society. Raymond Williams argues that there is no unique aesthetic object but a continuum of
cultural forms from ordinary speech to experiences that are signaled as art by a frame, institution
or special event. Pierre Bourdieu also takes issue with Kant's aesthetics and argues that it
represents an experience that is the product of an elevated class habitus and scholarly leisure.

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History of aesthetics

Bronze sculpture, thought to be either Poseidon or Zeus,

National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Ancient aesthetics

We have examples of pre-historic art, but they are rare, and the context of their production and
use is not very clear, so we can little more than guess at the aesthetic doctrines that guided their
production and interpretation.

Ancient art was largely, but not entirely, based on the seven great ancient civilizations: Egypt,
Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Persia, India and China. Each of these centers of early civilization
developed a unique and characteristic style in its art. Greece had the most influence on the
development of aesthetics in the West. This period of Greek art saw a veneration of the human
physical form and the development of corresponding skills to show musculature, poise, beauty
and anatomically correct proportions. Furthermore, in many Western and Eastern cultures alike,
traits such as body hair are rarely depicted in art that addresses physical beauty. More in contrast
with this Greek-Western aesthetic taste is the genre of grotesque.

Greek philosophers initially felt that aesthetically appealing objects were beautiful in and of
themselves. Plato felt that beautiful objects incorporated proportion, harmony, and unity among
their parts. Similarly, in the Metaphysics, Aristotle found that the universal elements of beauty
were order, symmetry, and definiteness.

Islamic aesthetics

Islamic art is not, properly speaking, an art pertaining to religion only. The term "Islamic" refers
not only to the religion, but to any form of art created in an Islamic culture or in an Islamic
context. It would also be a mistake to assume that all Muslims are in agreement on the use of art
in religious observance, the proper place of art in society, or the relation between secular art and

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the demands placed on the secular world to conform to religious precepts. Islamic art frequently
adopts secular elements and elements that are frowned upon, if not forbidden, by some Islamic
theologians.

According to Islam, human works of art are inherently flawed compared to the work of God;
thus, it is believed by many that to attempt to depict in a realistic form any animal or person is
insolence to God. This tendency has had the effect of narrowing the field of artistic possibility to
such forms of art as Arabesque, mosaic, Islamic calligraphy, and Islamic architecture, as well as
more generally any form of abstraction that can claim the status of non-representational art.

The limited possibilities have been explored by artists as an outlet to artistic expression, and has
been cultivated to become a positive style and tradition, emphasizing the decorative function of
art, or its religious functions via non-representational forms such as Geometric patterns, floral
patterns, and arabesques.

Human or animal depiction is generally forbidden altogether in Islamic cultures. Human

portrayals can be found in early Islamic cultures with varying degrees of acceptance by religious
authorities. Human representation for the purpose of worship that is uniformly considered
idolatry as forbidden in Sharia law. There are many depictions of Muhammad, Islam's chief
prophet, in historical Islamic art.

The calligraphic arts grew out an effort to devote oneself to the study of the Koran. By patiently
transcribing each word of the text, the writer was made to contemplate the meaning of it. As time
passed, these calligraphic works began to be prized as works of art, growing increasingly
elaborate in the illumination and stylizing of the text. These illuminations were applied to other
works besides the Koran, and it became a respected art form in and of itself.

Indian aesthetics

Indian art evolved with an emphasis on inducing special spiritual or philosophical states in the
audience, or with representing them symbolically. According to Kapila Vatsyayan, "Classical
Indian architecture, sculpture, painting, literature (kvya), music, and dancing evolved their own
rules conditioned by their respective media, but they shared with one another not only the
underlying spiritual beliefs of the Indian religio-philosophic mind, but also the procedures by
which the relationships of the symbol and the spiritual states were worked out in detail."

Of particular concern to Indian drama and literature is the term rasa referring generally to the
emotional flavors crafted into the work by the writer and relished by a 'sensitive spectator' or
sahdaya. Poets like Klidsa were attentive to rasa, which blossomed into a fully developed
aesthetic system. Even in contemporary India the term rasa denoting "flavor" is used
colloquially to describe the aesthetic experiences in films; "msala mix" describes popular Hindi
cinema films which serve a balanced emotional meal, savored as rasa by the spectator.

Rasa theory blossoms beginning with the Sanskrit text Ntyashstra (ntya meaning "drama" and
shstra meaning "science of"), a work attributed to Bharata Muni where the Gods declare that
drama is the 'Fifth Veda' because it is suitable for the degenerate age as the best form of religious
instruction. While the date of composition varies wildly among scholars, ranging from the era of
Plato and Aristotle to the seventh century CE. The Ntyashstra presents the aesthetic concepts
of rasas and their associated bhvas in Chapters Six and Seven respectively, which appear to be
independent of the work as a whole. Eight rasas and associated bhvas are named and their
enjoyment is likened to savoring a meal: rasa is the enjoyment of flavors that arise from the
proper preparation of ingredients and the quality of ingredients. What rasa actually is, in a

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theoretical sense, is not discussed and given the Ntyashstra's pithy wording it is unlikely the
exact understanding of the original author(s) will be known.

The theory of the rasas develops significantly with the Kashmiri aesthetician ndandavardhana's
classic on poetics, the Dhvanyloka which introduces the ninth rasa, shnta-rasa as a specifically
religious feeling of peace (nta) which arises from its bhva, weariness of the pleasures of the
world. The primary purpose of this text is to refine the literary concept dhvani or poetic
suggestion, by arguing for the existence of rasa-dhvani, primarily in forms of Sanskrit including
a word, sentence or whole work "suggests" a real-world emotional state or bhva, but thanks to
aesthetic distance, the sensitive spectator relishes the rasa, the aesthetic flavor of tragedy,
heroism or romance.

The 9th - 10th century master of the religious system known as "the nondual Shaivism of
Kashmir" (or "Kashmir Shaivism") and aesthetician, Abhinavagupta brought rasa theory to its
pinnacle in his separate commentaries on the Dhvanyloka, the Dhvanyloka-locana (translated
by Ingalls, Masson and Patwardhan, 1992) and the Abhinavabharati, his commentary on the
Ntyashstra, portions of which are translated by Gnoli and Masson and Patwardhan.
Abhinavagupta offers for the first time a technical definition of rasa which is the universal bliss
of the Self or Atman colored by the emotional tone of a drama. Shnta-rasa functions as an equal
member of the set of rasas but is simultaneously distinct being the most clear form of aesthetic
bliss. Abhinavagupta likens it to the string of a jeweled necklace; while it may not be the most
appealing for most people, it is the string that gives form to the necklace, allowing the jewels of
the other eight rasas to be relished. Relishing the rasas and particularly shnta-rasa is hinted as
being as-good-as but never-equal-to the bliss of Self-realization experienced by yogis.

Chinese aesthetics

Chinese art has a long history of varied styles and emphases. In ancient times philosophers were
already arguing about aesthetics. Confucius emphasized the role of the arts and humanities
(especially music and poetry) in broadening human nature and aiding li (etiquette, the rites) in
bringing us back to what is essential about humanity. His opponent Mozi, however, argued that
music and fine arts were classist and wasteful, benefiting the rich but not the common people.

By the 4th century A.D., artists were debating in writing over the proper goals of art as well. Gu
Kaizhi has 3 surviving books on this theory of painting, for example, and it's not uncommon to
find later artist/scholars who both create art and write about the creating of art. Religious and
philosophical influence on art was common (and diverse) but never universal; it is easy to find
art that largely ignores philosophy and religion in almost every Chinese time period.

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African aesthetics

The Great Mosque's signature trio of minarets overlooks the central market of Djenn. Unique
Malian aesthetic

African art existed in many forms and styles, and with fairly little influence from outside Africa.
Most of it followed traditional forms and the aesthetic norms were handed down orally as well as
written. Sculpture and performance art are prominent, and abstract and partially abstracted forms
are valued, and were valued long before influence from the Western tradition began in earnest.
The Nok culture is testimony to this. The mosque of Timbuktu shows that specific areas of
Africa developed unique aesthetics.

Western medieval aesthetics

Surviving medieval art is largely religious in focus, and typically was funded by the State,
Orthodox or Roman Catholic church, powerful ecclesiastical individuals, or wealthy secular
patrons. Often the pieces have an intended liturgical function, such as chalices or churches.

Medieval Art Objects were made from rare and valuable materials, such as Gold and Lapis, the
cost of which was often superior to the wages of the maker.

Art and aesthetic philosophy was a continuation of ancient lines of thought, with the additional
use of explicit theological categories. St. Bonaventures Retracing the Arts to Theology
discusses the skills of the artisan as gifts given by God for the purpose of disclosing God to
mankind via four lights: the light of skill in mechanical arts which discloses the world of
artifacts, as guided by the light of sense perception which discloses the world of natural forms, as
guided by the light of philosophy which discloses the world of intellectual truth, as guided by the
light of divine wisdom which discloses the world of saving truth.

Saint Thomas Aquinas' aesthetic theory is arguably more famous and influential among the
medieval aesthetic theories, having been explicitly used in the writing of the famous writer

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James Joyce as well as many other influential 20th century authors. Thomas, as with many of the
other medievals, never explicitly gives an account of "beauty" in itself, but the theory is
reconstructed on the basis of disparate comments in a wide array of works. His theory follows
the classical model of Aristotle, but with explicit formulation of beauty as "pulchrum
transcendentalis" or convertible with being among the other "transcendentals" such as "truth" and
"goodness." Umberto Eco's The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas identifies the three main
characteristics of beautiful things in Aquinas' philosophy as: integritas, consonantia, and claritas.
Aristotle identifies the first two characteristics, with the third being an "innovation" of Aquinas
in the light of Platonic/neo-Platonic and Augustinian thought. In sum, medieval aesthetic, while
not a unified system, presents a unique view of beauty that deserves an in-depth treatment in the
history of art.

Lorsch Gospels 778820. Charlemagne's Court School.

As the medieval world shifts into the Renaissance, art again returns to focus on this world and on
secular issues of human life. The philosophy of art of the ancient Greeks and Romans is re-
appropriated.

Modern aesthetics

From the late 17th to the early 20th century Western aesthetics underwent a slow revolution into
what is often called modernism. German and British thinkers emphasised beauty as the key
component of art and of the aesthetic experience, and saw art as necessarily aiming at beauty.

For Baumgarten aesthetics is the science of the sense experiences, a younger sister of logic, and
beauty is thus the most perfect kind of knowledge that sense experience can have. For Kant the
aesthetic experience of beauty is a judgment of a subjective but universal truth, since all people
should agree that this rose is beautiful if it in fact is. However, beauty cannot be reduced to
any more basic set of features. For Schiller aesthetic appreciation of beauty is the most perfect
reconciliation of the sensual and rational parts of human nature.

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For Schelling, the philosophy of art is the "organon" of philosophy. Aesthetics is now the name
for the philosophy of art. Friedrich von Schlegel, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Schleiermacher and
Hegel have also given lectures on aesthetics as "philosophy of art" after 1800. For Hegel all
culture is a matter of "absolute spirit" coming to be manifest to itself, stage by stage. Art is the
first stage in which the absolute spirit is manifest immediately to sense-perception, and is thus an
objective rather than subjective revelation of beauty.

For Schopenhauer aesthetic contemplation of beauty is the most free that the pure intellect can be
from the dictates of will; here we contemplate perfection of form without any kind of worldly
agenda, and thus any intrusion of utility or politics would ruin the point of the beauty.

The British were largely divided into intuitionist and analytic camps. The intuitionists believed
that aesthetic experience was disclosed by a single mental faculty of some kind. For the Earl of
Shaftesbury this was identical to the moral sense, beauty just is the sensory version of moral
goodness. For Wittgenstein aesthetics consisted in the description of a whole culture which is a
linguistic impossibility. That which constitutes aesthetics lies out side the realm of the language
game.

William Hogarth, self-portrait, 1745

For Hutcheson beauty is disclosed by an inner mental sense, but is a subjective fact rather than
an objective one. Analytic theorists like Lord Kames, William Hogarth, and Edmund Burke
hoped to reduce beauty to some list of attributes. Hogarth, for example, thinks that beauty
consists of (1) fitness of the parts to some design; (2) variety in as many ways as possible; (3)
uniformity, regularity or symmetry, which is only beautiful when it helps to preserve the
character of fitness; (4) simplicity or distinctness, which gives pleasure not in itself, but through
its enabling the eye to enjoy variety with ease; (5) intricacy, which provides employment for our
active energies, leading the eye on "a wanton kind of chase"; and (6) quantity or magnitude,
which draws our attention and produces admiration and awe. Later analytic aestheticians strove
to link beauty to some scientific theory of psychology (such as James Mill) or biology (such as
Herbert Spencer).

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Post-modern aesthetics and psychoanalysis

Early twentieth century artists, poets and composers challenged the assumption that beauty was
central to art and aesthetics. Various attempts have been made since then to define Post-modern
aesthetics.

This challenge, thought to be original, is actually continuous with older aesthetic theory;
Aristotle was the first in the Western tradition to classify "beauty" into types as in his theory of
drama, and Kant made a distinction between beauty and the sublime. What was new was a
refusal to credit the higher status of certain types, where the taxonomy implied a preference for
tragedy and the sublime to comedy and the Rococo.

Croce suggested that expression is central in the way that beauty was once thought to be
central. George Dickie suggested that the sociological institutions of the art world were the glue
binding art and sensibility into unities. Marshall McLuhan suggested that art always functions as
a "counter-environment" designed to make visible what is usually invisible about a society.
Theodor Adorno felt that aesthetics could not proceed without confronting the role of the culture
industry in the commodification of art and aesthetic experience. Hal Foster (art critic) attempted
to portray the reaction against beauty and Modernist art in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on
Postmodern Culture. Arthur Danto has described this reaction as "kalliphobia" (after the Greek
word for beauty - 'kalos'). Brian Massumi suggests to reconsider beauty following the aesthetical
thought in the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari.

Daniel Berlyne created the field of experimental aesthetics in the 1970s, for which he is still the
most cited individual decades after his death.

Jean-Franois Lyotard re-invokes the Kantian distinction between taste and the sublime. Sublime
painting, unlike kitsch realism, "...will enable us to see only by making it impossible to see; it
will please only by causing pain."

Sigmund Freud inaugurated aesthetical thinking in Psychoanalysis mainly via the "Uncanny" as
aesthetical affect. Following Freud and Merleau-Ponty, Jacques Lacan approached the
aesthetical object in the visual field by the notion of the gaze as lacking and as phallic "objet a"
that follows the psychic "masculine" principle of separation and castration.

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Aesthetics and information

Initial image of a Mandelbrot set zoom sequence with continuously coloured environment

In the 1970s, Abraham Moles and Frieder Nake were among the first to analyze links between
aesthetics, information processing, and information theory .

In the 1990s, Jrgen Schmidhuber described an algorithmic theory of beauty which takes the
subjectivity of the observer into account and postulates: among several observations classified as
comparable by a given subjective observer, the aesthetically most pleasing one is the one with
the shortest description, given the observers previous knowledge and his particular method for
encoding the data. This is closely related to the principles of algorithmic information theory and
minimum description length. One of his examples: mathematicians enjoy simple proofs with a
short description in their formal language. Another very concrete example describes an
aesthetically pleasing human face whose proportions can be described by very few bits of
information, drawing inspiration from less detailed 15th century proportion studies by Leonardo
da Vinci and Albrecht Drer. Schmidhuber's theory explicitly distinguishes between what's
beautiful and what's interesting, stating that interestingness corresponds to the first derivative of
subjectively perceived beauty. Here the premise is that any observer continually tries to improve
the predictability and compressibility of the observations by discovering regularities such as
repetitions and symmetries and fractal self-similarity. Whenever the observer's learning process
(which may be a predictive neural network) leads to improved data compression such that the
observation sequence can be described by fewer bits than before, the temporary interestingness
of the data corresponds to the number of saved bits. This compression progress is proportional to
the observer's internal reward, also called curiosity reward. A reinforcement learning algorithm
is used to maximize future expected reward by learning to execute action sequences that cause
additional interesting input data with yet unknown but learnable predictability or regularity. The
principles can be implemented on artificial agents which then exhibit a form of artificial
curiosity.

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Applied aesthetics

As well as being applied to art aesthetics can also be applied to cultural objects. Aesthetic
coupling between art-objects and medical topics was made by speakers working for the US
Information Agency This coupling was made to reinforce the learning paradigm when English-
language speakers used translators to address audiences in their own country. These audiences
were generally not fluent in the English language. It can also be used in topics as diverse as
mathematics, gastronomy and fashion design.

Aesthetic ethics

Aesthetic ethics refers to the idea that human conduct and behaviour ought to be governed by
that which is beautiful and attractive. John Dewey has pointed out that the unity of aesthetics
and ethics is in fact reflected in our understanding of behaviour being "fair" - the word having a
double meaning of attractive and morally acceptable. More recently, James Page has suggested
that aesthetic ethics might be taken to form a philosophical rationale for peace education.

Truth as beauty, mathematics, analytic philosophy, and physics

Mathematical considerations, such as symmetry and complexity, are used for analysis in
theoretical aesthetics. This is different from the aesthetic considerations of applied aesthetics
used in the study of mathematical beauty. Aesthetic considerations such as symmetry and
simplicity are used in areas of philosophy, such as ethics and theoretical physics and cosmology
to define truth, outside of empirical considerations. Beauty and Truth have been argued to be
nearly synonymous.

Computational inference of aesthetics

Since about 2005, computer scientists have attempted to develop automated methods to infer
aesthetic quality of images. Large number of manually-rated online photographs were used to
"teach" computers about what visual properties are of relevance to aesthetic quality. The
Acquine engine, developed at Penn State University, rates natural photographs uploaded by
users.

Notable in this area is Michael Leyton, professor of psychology at Rutgers University. Leyton is
the president of the International Society for Mathematical and Computational Aesthetics and the
International Society for Group Theory in Cognitive Science and has developed a generative
theory of shape.

Civilization

A civilization is a relatively high level of the development of a human society. A civilized society is often
characterized by advanced agriculture, long-distance trade, occupational specialization, and urbanism.
Aside from these core elements, civilization is often marked by any combination of a number of
secondary elements, including a developed transportation system, writing, standards of measurement

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(currency, etc.), contract and tort-based legal systems, great art style,
monumentalarchitecture, mathematics, sophisticated metallurgy, and astronomy.

Midtown New York City. Cities characterize human civilization.

Definition

"Civilization" is often used as a synonym for the broader term "culture" in both popular and academic
circles. Every human being participates in a culture, defined as "the arts, customs, habits... beliefs,
values, behaviour and material habits that constitute a people's way of life". However, in its most widely
used definition, civilization is a descriptive term for a relatively complex agricultural and urban culture.
Civilizations can be distinguished from other cultures by their high level of social complexity and
organization, and by their diverse economic and cultural activities.

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The Great Sphinx in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza at the Giza Necropolis, is the most recognizable symbol of

the Ancient Egyptian civilization.

In an older but still frequently used sense, the term "civilization" can be used in a normative manner as
well: in societal contexts where complex and urban cultures are assumed to be superior to other "savage"
or "barbarian" cultures, the concept of "civilization" is used as a synonym for "cultural (and often ethical)
superiority of certain groups." In a similar sense, civilization can mean "refinement of thought, manners,
or taste". This normative notion of civilization is heavily rooted in the thought that urbanized environments
provide a higher living standard, ecompassed by both nutritional benefits and mental potentialities.

In his book The Philosophy of Civilization, Albert Schweitzer, one of the main philosophers on the concept
of civilization, outlined the idea that there are dual opinions within society; one regarding civilization as
purely material and another regarding civilization as both ethical and material. He stated that the current
world crisis was, then in 1923, due to a humanity having lost the ethical conception of civilization. In this
same work, he defined civilization, saying:
It is the sum total of all progress made by man in every sphere of action and from every point of view in so far as the
progress helps towards the spiritual perfecting of individuals as the progress of all progress.

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The Great Wall of China, built from the 5th century BC, has become the symbol of theChinese civilization.

In the sixth century, the Roman Emperor Justinian oversaw the consolidation of Roman civil law. The
resulting collection is called the Corpus Juris Civilis. In the 11th century, professors at the University of
Bologna, Western Europe's first university, rediscovered Corpus Juris Civilis, and its influence began to
be felt across Western Europe. In 1388, the word civil appeared in English meaning "of or related to
citizens". In 1704,civilization began to mean "a law which makes a criminal process into a civil
case." Civilization was not used in its modern sense to mean "the opposite of barbarism" as contrasted
to civility, meaning politeness or civil virtue until the 18th century.

According to Emile Benveniste (1954), the earlist written occurrence in English of civilization in its modern
sense may be found in Adam Ferguson's An Essay on the History of Civil Society (Edinburgh, 1767 -
p. 2):
Not only the individual advances from infancy to manhood, but the species itself from rudeness to civilization.

It should be noted that this usage incorporates the concept of superiority and maturity of "civilized"
existence, as contrasted to "rudeness", which is used to denote coarseness, as in a lack of refinement or
"civility".

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Huntington's map of world civilizations(1996).

Before Benveniste's inquiries, the New English Dictionary quotedJames Boswell's conversation
with Samuel Johnson concerning the inclusion of Civilization in Johnson's dictionary:

On Monday, March 23 (1772), I found him busy, preparing a fourth edition of his folio Dictionary... He would not
admit civilization, but onlycivility. With great deference to him I thought civilization, from to civilize, better in the sense
opposed to barbarity than civility, as it is better to have a distinct word for each sense, than one word with two
senses, which civility is, in his way of using it.

Benveniste demonstrated that previous occurrences could be found, which explained the quick adoption
of Johnson's definition. In 1775 the dictionary of Ast defined civilization as "the state of being civilized; the
act of civilizing", and the term was frequently used by Adam Smith in An Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). Beside Smith and Ferguson, John Millar also used it in 1771 in
his Observations concerning the distinction of ranks in society.

As the first occurrence of civilization in French was found by Benveniste in the Marquis de
Mirabeau's L'Ami des hommes ou trait de la population (written in 1756 but published in 1757),
Benveniste's query was to know if the English word derived from the French, or if both evolved
independently a question which needed more research. According to him, the word civilization may in
fact have been used by Ferguson as soon as 1759.

Furthermore, Benveniste notes that, contrasted to civility, a static term, civilization conveys a sense of
dynamism. He thus writes that
t was not only a historical view of society; it was also an optimist and resolutely non theological interpretation of its
evolution which asserted itself, sometimes at the insu of those who proclaimed it, and even if some of them, and first
of all Mirabeau, still counted religion as the first factor of 'civilization.

Another source of the word may relate to chivalry: a set of rules of engagement, originally for knights in
warfare, but later expanded to cover conduct of knighthood or nobility. The English 'chivalry' comes from

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the French 'chevalier': a horseman. England and France would therefore have given rise to the terms at
similar times.

Characteristics

26th century BC Sumerian cuneiform script in Sumerian language, listing gifts to the high priestess of Adab on the occasion
of her election. One of the earliest examples of human writing.

Social scientists such as V. Gordon Childe have named a number of traits that distinguish a civilization
from other kinds of society. Civilizations have been distinguished by their means of subsistence, types of
livelihood, settlement patterns, forms of government, social stratification, economic systems, literacy, and
other cultural traits.

All human civilizations have depended on agriculture for subsistence. Growing food on farms results in a
surplus of food, particularly when people use intensive agricultural techniques such as irrigationand crop
rotation. Grain surpluses have been especially important because they can be stored for a long time. A
surplus of food permits some people to do things besides produce food for a living: early civilizations
included artisans, priests and priestesses, and other people with specialized careers. A surplus of food
results in a division of labour and a more diverse range of human activity, a defining trait of civilizations.

Civilizations have distinctly different settlement patterns from other societies. The word civilization is
sometimes defined as "a word that simply means 'living in cities'". Non-farmers gather in cities to work
and to trade.

Compared with other societies, civilizations have a more complex political structure, namely thestate.
State societies are more stratified than other societies; there is a greater difference among the social
classes. The ruling class, normally concentrated in the cities, has control over much of the surplus and

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exercises its will through the actions of a government or bureaucracy. Morton Fried, a conflict theorist,
and Elman Service, an integration theorist, have classified human cultures based on political systems
and social inequality. This system of classification contains four categories:

Hunter-gatherer bands, which are generally egalitarian.

Horticultural/pastoral societies in which there are generally two inherited social classes; chief and
commoner.
Highly stratified structures, or chiefdoms, with several inherited social classes: king, noble,
freemen, serf and slave.
Civilizations, with complex social hierarchies and organized, institutional governments.

Economically, civilizations display more complex patterns of ownership and exchange than less
organized societies. Living in one place allows people to accumulate more personal possessions than
nomadic people. Some people also acquire landed property, or private ownership of the land. Because a
percentage of people in civilizations do not grow their own food, they must trade their goods and services
for food in a marketsystem, or receive food through the levy of tribute,
redistributive taxation, tariffs or tithes from the food producing segment of the population. Early
civilizations developed money as a medium of exchange for these increasingly complex transactions. To
oversimplify, in a village the potter makes a pot for the brewer and the brewer compensates the potter by
giving him a certain amount of beer. In a city, the potter may need a new roof, the roofer may need new
shoes, the cobbler may need new horseshoes, the blacksmith may need a new coat, and the tanner may
need a new pot. These people may not be personally acquainted with one another and their needs may
not occur all at the same time. A monetary system is a way of organizing these obligations to ensure that
they are fulfilled fairly.

These ten Indus glyphs were discovered near the northern gate
of Dholavira, India.

Writing, developed first by people in Sumer, is considered a

hallmark of civilization and "appears to accompany the rise of
complex administrative bureaucracies or the conquest state." Traders and bureaucrats relied on writing to
keep accurate records. Like money, writing was necessitated by the size of the population of a city and
the complexity of its commerce among people who are not all personally acquainted with each other.

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Aided by their division of labor and central government planning, civilizations have developed many other
diverse cultural traits. These include organized religion, development in the arts, and countless new
advances in science and technology.

Cultural identity

"Civilization" can also describe the culture of a complex society, not just the society itself. Every society,
civilization or not, has a specific set of ideas and customs, and a certain set of items and arts, that make it
unique. Civilizations have even more intricate cultures, including literature, professional art, architecture,
organized religion, and complex customs associated with the elite. Civilization is such in nature that it
seeks to spread, to have more, to expand, and the means by which to do this.

Nevertheless, some tribes or people remained uncivilized even to this day (2009). These cultures are
called by some "primitive," a term that is regarded by others as pejorative. "Primitive" implies in some way
that a culture is "first" (Latin = primus), and as all cultures are contemporaries, today's so-called primitive
cultures are in no way antecedent to those we consider civilized. Many anthropologists use the term "non-
literate" to describe these peoples. In the USA and Canada, where people of such cultures were the
original inhabitants before being displaced by European settlers, they use the term "First Nations."
Generally, the First Nations of North America had hierarchical governments, religion, a barter system, and
oral transmission of their traditions, cultures, laws, etc. Respect for the wisdom of elders and for their
natural environment[citation needed] (7th Generation decision-making) sustained these cultures for over 10,000
years.

The civilized world has been spread by invasion, genocide, religious conversion the extension
of bureaucratic control and trade, and by introducing agriculture and writing to non-literate peoples. Some
non-civilized people may willingly adapt to civilized behaviour. But civilization is also spread by force: if a
non-literate group does not wish to use agriculture or accept a certain religion it is often forced to do so by
the civilized people, and they usually succeed due to their more advanced technology and higher
population densities. Civilizations often use religion to justify their actions, claiming for example that the
uncivilized are "primitive," savages, barbarians or the like, which should be subjugated by civilization.

The intricate culture associated with civilization has a tendency to spread to and influence other cultures,
sometimes assimilating them into the civilization (a classic example being Chinese civilization and its
influence on Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and other nearby countries. Many civilizations are actually large
cultural spheres containing many nations and regions. The civilization in which someone lives is that
person's broadest cultural identity.

Many historians have focused on these broad cultural spheres and have treated civilizations as single
units. One example is early twentieth-century philosopher Oswald Spengler, even though he uses the
German word "Kultur," "culture," for what we here call a "civilization." He said that a civilization's
coherence is based on a single primary cultural symbol. Civilizations experience cycles of birth, life,
decline and death, often supplanted by a new civilization with a potent new culture, formed around a
compelling new cultural symbol.

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This "unified culture" concept of civilization also influenced the theories of historian Arnold J. Toynbee in
the mid-twentieth century. Toynbee explored civilization processes in his multi-volume A Study of
History, which traced the rise and, in most cases, the decline of 21 civilizations and five "arrested
civilizations." Civilizations generally declined and fell, according to Toynbee, because of the failure of a
"creative minority", through moral or religious decline, to meet some important challenge, rather than
mere economic or environmental causes.

Samuel P. Huntington similarly defines a civilization as "the highest cultural grouping of people and the
broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other
species." Besides giving a definition of a civilization, Huntington has also proposed several theories about
civilizations, discussed below.

Complex systems

Another group of theorists, making use of systems theory, looks at a civilization as a complex system, i.e.,
a framework by which a group of objects can be analyzed that work in concert to produce some result.
Civilizations can be seen as networks of cities that emerge from pre-urban cultures, and are defined by
the economic, political, military, diplomatic, social, and cultural interactions among them. Any organization
is a complex social system, and a civilization is a large organization. Systems theory helps guard against
superficial but misleading analogies in the study and description of civilizations.

For example, urbanist Jane Jacobs defines cities as the economic engines that work to create large
networks of people. The main process that creates these city networks, she says, is "import
replacement". Import replacement is the process by which peripheral cities begin to replace goods and
services that were formerly imported from more advanced cities. Successful import replacement creates
economic growth in these peripheral cities, and allows these cities to then export their goods to less
developed cities in their own hinterlands, creating new economic networks. So Jacobs explores economic
development across wide networks instead of treating each society as an isolated cultural sphere.

Systems theorists look at many types of relations between cities, including economic relations, cultural
exchanges, and political/diplomatic/military relations. These spheres often occur on different scales. For
example, trade networks were, until the nineteenth century, much larger than either cultural spheres or
political spheres. Extensive trade routes, including the Silk Road through Central Asia andIndian
Ocean sea routes linking the Roman Empire, Persian Empire, India, and China, were well established
2000 years ago, when these civilizations scarcely shared any political, diplomatic, military, or cultural
relations. The first evidence of such long distance trade is in the ancient world. During the Uruk phase
Guillermo Algaze has argued that trade relations connected Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran and
Afghanistan. Resin found later in the Royal Tombs of Ur it is suggested was traded northwards from
Mozambique.

Many theorists argue that the entire world has already become integrated into a single "world system", a
process known as globalization. Different civilizations and societies all over the globe are economically,
politically, and even culturally interdependent in many ways. There is debate over when this integration
began, and what sort of integration cultural, technological, economic, political, or military-diplomatic is

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the key indicator in determining the extent of a civilization. David Wilkinson has proposed that economic
and military-diplomatic integration of theMesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations resulted in the creation
of what he calls the "Central Civilization" around 1500 BC. Central Civilization later expanded to include
the entire Middle East and Europe , and then expanded to a global scale with European colonization,
integrating the Americas, Australia, China and Japan by the nineteenth century. According to Wilkinson,
civilizations can be culturally heterogeneous, like the Central Civilization, or relatively homogeneous, like
the Japanese civilization. What Huntington calls the "clash of civilizations" might be characterized by
Wilkinson as a clash of cultural spheres within a single global civilization. Others point to the Crusadesas
the first step in globalization. The more conventional viewpoint is that networks of societies have
expanded and shrunk since ancient times, and that the current globalized economy and culture is a
product of recent European colonialism.

Future

Active regional blocs, which enhance nations' cooperation and form modern civilizations

Political scientist Samuel Huntington has argued that the defining characteristic of the 21st century will be
a clash of civilizations. According to Huntington, conflicts between civilizations will supplant the conflicts
between nation-states and ideologies that characterized the 19th and 20th centuries. These views have
been strongly challenged by others like Edward Said and Mohammed Asudi. Ronald Inglehart and Pippa
Norris have argued that the "true clash of civilizations" between the Muslim world and the West is caused
by the Muslim rejection of the West's more liberal sexual values, rather than a difference in political
ideology.

Currently, world civilization is in a stage that has created what may be characterized as anindustrial
society, superseding the agrarian society that preceded it. Some futurists believe that civilization is
undergoing another transformation, and that world society will become a so-called informational society.

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Some environmental scientists see the world entering a Planetary Phase of Civilization, characterized by
a shift away from independent, disconnected nation-states to a world of increased global connectivity with
worldwide institutions, environmental challenges, economic systems, and consciousness. In an attempt to
better understand what a Planetary Phase of Civilization might look like in the current context of declining
natural resources and increasing consumption, the Global scenario group used scenario analysis to arrive
at three archetypal futures: Barbarization, in which increasing conflicts result in either a fortress world or
complete societal breakdown; Conventional Worlds, in which market forces or Policy reform slowly
precipitate more sustainable practices; and a Great Transition, in which either the sum of
fragmented Eco-Communalism movements add up to a sustainable world or globally coordinated efforts
and initiatives result in a new sustainability paradigm.

The Kardashev scale classifies civilizations based on their level of technological advancement,
specifically measured by the amount of energy a civilization is able to harness. The Kardashev scale
makes provisions for civilizations far more technologically advanced than any currently known to exist

The fall of civilizations

There have been many explanations put forward for the collapse of civilization.

Edward Gibbon's work "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" began an interest in the Fall of
Civilizations, that had begun with thehistorical divisions of Petrarch between the Classical
period of Ancient Greece and Rome, the succeeding Medieval Ages, and theRenaissance. For Gibbon:-

"The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened
the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as
time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its
own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire
was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it has subsisted for so long."[Gibbon, Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire, 2nd ed., vol. 4, ed. by J. B. Bury (London, 1909), pp. 173174.-Chapter XXXVIII:
Reign Of Clovis.--Part VI. General Observations On The Fall Of The Roman Empire In The West.] Gibbon
suggested the final act of the collapse of Rome was the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in
1453 AD.

Theodor Mommsen in his "History of Rome (Mommsen)", suggested Rome collapsed with the
collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and he also tended towards a biological analogy of
"genesis," "growth," "senescence," "collapse" and "decay."
Oswald Spengler, in his "Decline of the West" rejected Petrarch's chronological division, and
suggested that there had been only eight "mature civilizations." Growing cultures, he argued, tend to
develop into imperialistic civilizations which expand and ultimately collapse, with democratic forms of
government ushering in plutocracy and ultimately imperialism.
Arnold J. Toynbee in his "A Study of History" suggested that there had been a much larger
number of civilizations, including a small number of arrested civilizations, and that all civilizations

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 tended to go through the cycle identified by Mommsen. The cause of the fall of a civilization occurred
when a cultural elite became a parasitic elite, leading to the rise of internal and external proletariats.
Joseph Tainter in "The Collapse of Complex Societies" suggested that there were diminishing
returns to complexity, due to which, as states achieved a maximum permissible complexity, they
would decline when further increases actually produced a negative return. Tainter suggested that
Rome achieved this figure in the 2nd Century AD.
Jared Diamond in his 2005 book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" suggests
five major reasons for the collapse of 41 studied cultures: environmental damage, such
as deforestation and soil erosion; climate change; dependence upon long-distance trade for needed
resources; increasing levels of internal and external violence, such as war or invasion; and societal
responses to internal and environmental problems.
Peter Turchin in his Historical Dynamics and Andrey Korotayev et al. in their Introduction to
Social Macrodynamics, Secular Cycles, and Millennial Trends suggest a number of mathematical
models describing collapse of agrarian civilizations. For example, the basic logic of Turchin's "fiscal-
demographic" model can be outlined as follows: during the initial phase of a
sociodemographic cycle we observe relatively high levels of per capita production and consumption,
which leads not only to relatively high population growth rates, but also to relatively high rates of
surplus production. As a result, during this phase the population can afford to pay taxes without great
problems, the taxes are quite easily collectible, and the population growth is accompanied by the
growth of state revenues. During the intermediate phase, the increasing overpopulation leads to the
decrease of per capita production and consumption levels, it becomes more and more difficult to
collect taxes, and state revenues stop growing, whereas the state expenditures grow due to the
growth of the population controlled by the state. As a result, during this phase the state starts
experiencing considerable fiscal problems. During the final pre-collapse phases the overpopulation
leads to further decrease of per capita production, the surplus production further decreases, state
revenues shrink, but the state needs more and more resources to control the growing (though with
lower and lower rates) population. Eventually this leads to famines, epidemics, state breakdown, and
demographic and civilization collapse (Peter Turchin. Historical Dynamics. Princeton University
Press, 2003:121127).
Peter Heather argues in his book The Fall of the Roman Empire: a New History of Rome and the
Barbarians that this civilization did not end for moral or economic reasons, but because centuries of
contact with barbarians across the frontier generated its own nemesis by making them a much more
sophisticated and dangerous adversary. The fact that Rome needed to generate ever greater
revenues to equip and re-equip armies that were for the first time repeatedly defeated in the field, led
to the dismemberment of the Empire. Although this argument is specific to Rome, it can also be
applied to the Asiatic Empire of the Egyptians, to the Han and Tang dynasties of China, to the
Muslim Abbasid Caliphate, and others.
Bryan Ward-Perkins, in his book The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, shows the real
horrors associated with the collapse of a civilization for the people who suffer its effects, unlike many
revisionist historians who downplay this. The collapse of complex society meant that even basic

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 plumbing disappeared from the continent for 1,000 years. Similar Dark Age collapses are seen with
the Late Bronze Age collapse in the Eastern Mediterranean, the collapse of the Maya, on Easter
Island and elsewhere.
Arthur Demarest argues in Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization, using a
holistic perspective to the most recent evidence from archaeology, paleoecology, and epigraphy, that
no one explanation is sufficient but that a series of erratic, complex events, including loss of soil
fertility, drought and rising levels of internal and external violence led to the disintegration of the
courts of Mayan kingdoms which began a spiral of decline and decay. He argues that the collapse of
the Maya has lessons for civilization today.
Jeffrey A. McNeely has recently suggested that "A review of historical evidence shows that past
civilizations have tended to over-exploittheir forests, and that such abuse of important resources has
been a significant factor in the decline of the over-exploiting society."
Thomas Homer-Dixon in "The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of
Civilization", considers that the fall in theenergy return on investments; the energy expended to
energy yield ratio, is central to limiting the survival of civilizations. The degree of social complexity is
associated strongly, he suggests, with the amount of disposable energy environmental, economic and
technological systems allow. When this amount decreases civilizations either have to access new
energy sources or they will collapse.
Criticism

Civilization has been criticized from a variety of viewpoints and for a variety of reasons. Some critics have
objected to all aspects of civilization; others have argued that civilization brings a mixture of good and bad
effects.

Some environmentalists like Derrick Jensen criticize civilizations for their exploitation of the environment.
Richard Hienberg argues that through intensive agriculture and urban growth, civilizations tend to destroy
natural settings and habitats, and deplete the resources on which they depend. This is sometimes
referred to as "dominator culture". Proponents of this view believe that traditional societies live in greater
harmony with nature than civilizations; people work with nature rather than try to subdue it.
The sustainable living movement is a push from some members of civilization to regain that harmony with
nature.

Primitivism is a modern philosophy totally opposed to civilization. Primitivists accuse civilizations of

restricting human potential, oppressing the weak, and damaging the environment. They wish to return to
a more primitive way of life which they consider to be in the best interests of both nature and human
beings. Leading proponents are John Zerzan and Derrick Jensen, whereas a critic is Roger Sandall.

However, not all critics of past and present civilization believe that a primitive way of life is better. Some
have argued that many negative aspects of current 'civilized' nations can be overcome. Karl Marx, for
instance, argued that the beginning of civilization was the beginning of oppressionand exploitation, but
also believed that these things would eventually be overcome and communism would be established
throughout the world. He envisioned communism not as a return to any sort of idyllic past, but as a new

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stage of civilization. Conflict theory in the social sciences also views the present form of civilization as
being based on the domination of some people by others, but does not judge the issue morally.

Given the current problems with the sustainability of industrial civilization, some, like Derrick Jensen, who
posits civilization to be inherently unsustainable, argue that we need to develop a social form of "post-
civilization" as different from civilization as the latter was from pre-civilized peoples.

History
Prehistory
Old World
Further information: Cradle of Civilization and Bronze Age

Map of the Fertile Crescent.

Prehistoric Armenia
Kemet/Ancient Egypt
Ancient Near East
Mesopotamia/Sumer
Anatolia/Hurrians
Levant/Canaan
Elam
Prehistoric Armenia
Minoan civilization
Indus Valley Civilization
Africa
Helladic Greece
Classical Greece
Ancient China

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New World

Caral of the Norte Chico, the oldest known civilization in the Western Hemisphere.

Norte Chico, Caral, or Caral-Supe Civilization

Olmec
Toltec
Kingdom of Cusco/Inca Empire
Zapotec civilization
Classical Antiquity
Karl Jaspers, the German historical philosopher, proposed that the ancient civilizations were affected
greatly by an Axial Age in the period between 600 BC-400 BC during which a series of male sages,
prophets, religious reformers and philosophers, from China, India, Iran, Israel and Greece, changed the
direction of civilizations forever. Julian Jaynes proposed that this was associated with the "collapse of
the bicameral mind", during which subconscious ideas were recognized as simply subjective, rather than
being voices of spirits. William H. McNeill proposed that this period of history was one in which culture
contact between previously separate civilizations saw the "closure of the oecumene", and led to
accelerated social change from China to the Mediterranean, associated with the spread of coinage, larger
empires and new religions. This view has recently been championed by Christopher Chase-Dunn and
other world systems theorists.

Civilizations affected by these developments include

African Civilizations

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 Axum
Ghana Empire
Mali Empire
Songhai Empire
Great Zimbabwe
Kanem Empire
Bornu Empire
Kingdom of Kongo

Mediterranean Civilizations of the Classical Period

Ancient Greece and Hellenistic civilization

Phoenicia
The Roman Empire
Illyria
La Tne Celts

Middle Eastern Civilizations

Persian Civilization since the Achaemenids

Georgian and Armenian Civilizations
Second Temple Judaism
Phoenician Civilization
Islamic Civilizations

Indian Hindu and Buddhist Civilizations

Mauryan and Post-Mauryan Indian Civilization

Gupta Empire in North India
Chola Empire in South India
Civilizations of ancient Ceylon

East Asian Civilizations

Chinese Civilization
Korean Civilization
Vietnamese Civilization
Japanese Civilization

The Civilizations of South East Asia

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 Funan and Chen-la
Angkor Cambodia
Srivijaya, Singhasari and Majapahit Civilizations
Burmese, Thai and Lao

Central Asian Civilization

Tibetan Civilization
Turkic and Mongol Civilizations

European Civilizations

Western Christendom
Byzantium and Eastern Orthodox Christendom
Russian Civilization

Meso-American Civilizations

Aztec civilization
Maya civilization

Since the voyages of discovery by European explorers

of the 15th and 16th century, another development has
occurred whereby which European forms of government,
industry, commerce and culture have spread from
Western Europe, to the Americas, South Africa,
Australia, and through colonial empires, to the rest of the
planet. Today it would appear that we are all parts of a
planetary industrializing world civilization, divided
between many nations and languages, save for a
few uncontacted people.

Society
Society or human society is the set of relations among people, including their social status and
roles. By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world,
taken as a whole. Used in the sense of an association, a society is a body of individuals outlined
by the bounds of functional interdependence, possibly comprising characteristics such as
national or cultural identity, social solidarity, language or hierarchical organization. Human
societies are characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals sharing a distinctive
culture and institutions. Like other communities or groups, a society allows its members to
achieve needs or wishes they could not fulfill alone.

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A society, however, may be ontologically independent of, and utterly irreducible to, the qualities
of constituent individuals; it may act to oppress. The urbanization and rationalization inherent in
some, particularly Western capitalist, societies, has been associated with feelings of isolation and
social "anomie".

More broadly, a society is an economic, social or industrial infrastructure, made up of a varied

collection of individuals. Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups. A society
may be a particular ethnic group, such as the Saxons; a nation state, such as Bhutan; a broader
cultural group, such as a Western society. The word society may also refer to an organized
voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic,
or other purposes. A "society" may even, though more by means of metaphor, refer to a social
organism such as an ant colony.

Evolution of societies

A half-section of the 12th century Song Dynasty version of Night Revels of Han Xizai, original
by Gu Hongzhong; the painting, which is a masterpiece of the era's artwork, portrays servants,
musicians, monks, children, guests, hosts all in a single social environment, serves as an in-depth
look into 10th-century Chinese social structure.

According to anthropologist Maurice Godelier, one critical novelty in human society, in contrast
to humanity's closest biological relatives (chimpanzees and bonobo), is the parental role assumed
by the males, which were unaware of their "father" connection.

Sociologist Gerhard Lenski differentiates societies based on their level of technology,

communication and economy: 1) hunters and gatherers, 2) simple agricultural, 3) advanced
agricultural, 4) industrial, and 5) special (e.g. fishing societies or maritime societies). This is
somewhat similar to the system earlier developed by anthropologists Morton H. Fried, a conflict
theorist, and Elman Service, an integration theorist, who have produced a system of
classification for societies in all human cultures based on the evolution of social inequality and
the role of the state. This system of classification contains four categories:

Hunter-gatherer bands (categorization on duties and responsibilities.)

Tribal societies in which there are some limited instances of social rank and prestige.
Stratified structures led by chieftains.
Civilizations, with complex social hierarchies and organized, institutional governments.

In addition to this there are:

Humanity, mankind, that upon which rest all the elements of society, including society's
beliefs.
Virtual society is a society based on online identity, which is evolving in the information
age.

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Over time, some cultures have progressed toward more-complex forms of organization and
control. This cultural evolution has a profound effect on patterns of community. Hunter-gatherer
tribes settled around seasonal food stocks to become agrarian villages. Villages grew to become
towns and cities. Cities turned into city-states and nation-states.

Today, anthropologists and many social scientists vigorously oppose the notion of cultural
evolution and rigid "stages" such as these. In fact, much anthropological data has suggested that
complexity (civilization, population growth and density, specialization, etc.) does not always
take the form of hierarchical social organization or stratification.

Also, cultural relativism as a widespread approach/ethic has largely replaced notions of

"primitive," better/worse, or "progress" in relation to cultures (including their material
culture/technology and social organization).

Organization of society

Human societies are often organized according to their primary means of subsistence. As noted
in the section on "Evolution of societies", above, social scientists identify hunter-gatherer
societies, nomadic pastoral societies, horticulturalist or simple farming societies, and intensive
agricultural societies, also called civilizations. Some consider industrial and post-industrial
societies to be qualitatively different from traditional agricultural societies.

One common theme for societies in general is that a lone person has rather limited means at their
disposal, and societies serve to aid individuals in times of crisis. Traditionally, when an
individual requires aid, for example at birth, death, sickness, or disaster, members of that society
will rally others to render aid, in some formsymbolic, linguistic, physical, mental, emotional,
financial, medical, or religious. Many societies will distribute largess, at the behest of some
individual or some larger group of people. This type of generosity can be seen in all known
cultures; typically, prestige accrues to the generous individual or group. Conversely, members of
a society may also shun or scapegoat members of the society who violate its norms. Mechanisms
such as gift-giving and scapegoating, which may be seen in various types of human groupings,
tend to be institutionalized within a society. Social evolution as a phenomenon carries with itself
certain elements that could be detrimental to the population it serves.

Some societies will bestow status on an individual or group of people, when that individual or
group performs an admired or desired action. This type of recognition is bestowed by members
of that society on the individual or group in the form of a name, title, manner of dress, or
monetary reward. Males, in many societies, are particularly susceptible to this type of action and
subsequent reward, even at the risk of their lives. Action by an individual or larger group in
behalf of some cultural ideal is seen in all societies. The phenomena of community action,
shunning, scapegoating, generosity, and shared risk and reward occur in subsistence-based
societies and in more technology-based civilizations.

Societies may also be organized according to their political structure. In order of increasing size
and complexity, there are bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and state societies. These structures may
have varying degrees of political power, depending on the cultural geographical, and historical
environments that these societies must contend with. Thus, a more isolated society with the same
level of technology and culture as other societies is more likely to survive than one in closer
proximity to others that may encroach on their resources (see history for examples). A society
that is unable to offer an effective response to other societies it competes with will usually be
subsumed into the culture of the competing society (see technology for examples).

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Shared belief or common goal

People of many nations united by common political and cultural traditions, beliefs, or values are
sometimes also said to be a society (such as Judeo-Christian, Eastern, and Western). When used
in this context, the term is employed as a means of contrasting two or more "societies" whose
members represent alternative conflicting and competing worldviews (see Secret Societies).

Some academic, learned and scholarly associations describe themselves as societies (for
example, the American Mathematical Society). More commonly, professional organizations
often refer to themselves as societies (e.g., the American Society of Civil Engineers, American
Chemical Society). In the United Kingdom and the United States, learned societies are normally
nonprofit and have charitable status. In science, they range in size to include national scientific
societies (i.e., the Royal Society) to regional natural history societies. Academic societies may
have interest in a wide range of subjects, including the arts, humanities and science.

In some countries (for example the United States and France), the term "society" is used in
commerce to denote a partnership between investors or the start of a business. In the United
Kingdom, partnerships are not called societies, but cooperatives or mutuals are often known as
societies (such as friendly societies and building societies). In Latin America, the term society
may be used in commerce denoting a partnership between investors, or anonymous investors; for
example: "Proveedor Industrial Anahuac S.A." where S.A. stands for Anonymous Society
(Sociedad Annima); however in Mexico in other type of partnership it would be declared as
S.A. de C.V. or S.A. de R.L., indicating the level of commitment of capital and the
responsibilities from each member towards their own association and towards the society in
general and supervised by the corresponding jurisdictional civil and judicial authorities.

Society today

The term society is currently used to cover both a number of political and scientific connotations
as well as a variety of associations.

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Western society

Western society shown as dark blue

The development of the Western world has brought with it the emerging concepts of Western
culture, politics and ideas, often referred to simply as Western society. Geographically, it covers
at the very least the countries of Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand
and sometimes also includes South America and Israel. The cultures and lifestyles of all of these
stem from Western Europe. They all enjoy relatively strong economies and stable governments,
allow freedom of religion, have chosen democracy as a form of governance, favor capitalism and
international trade, are heavily influenced by Judeo-Christian values, and have some form of
political and military alliance or cooperation.

Information society

Although the concept of information society has been under discussion since the 1930s, in the
modern world it is almost always applied to the manner in which information technologies have
impacted society and culture. It therefore covers the effects of computers and
telecommunications on the home, the workplace, schools, government and various communities
and organizations, as well as the emergence of new social forms in cyberspace.

One of the European Union's areas of interest is the Information Society. Here policies are
directed towards promoting an open and competitive digital economy, research into information
and communication technologies, as well as their application to improve social inclusion, public
services and quality of life.

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World Summit on the Information Society, Geneva

The International Telecommunications Union's World Summit on the Information Society in

Geneva and Tunis (2003/2005) has led to a number of policy and application areas where action
is required. These include:

promotion of ICTs for development;

information and communication infrastructure;
access to information and knowledge;
capacity building;
building confidence and security in the use of ICTs;
enabling environment;
ICT applications in the areas of government, business, learning, health, employment,
environment, agriculture and science;
cultural and linguistic diversity and local content;
media;
ethical dimensions of the Information Society;
international and regional cooperation.

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Knowledge society

The Seoul Cyworld control room

As access to electronic information resources increased at the beginning of the 21st century,
special attention was extended from the Information Society to the knowledge society.

In the words of an Irish governmental analysis, "The capacity to manipulate, store and transmit
large quantities of information cheaply has increased at a staggering rate over recent years. The
digitisation of information and the associated pervasiveness of the Internet are facilitating a new
intensity in the application of knowledge to economic activity, to the extent that it has become
the predominant factor in the creation of wealth. As much as 70 to 80 percent of economic
growth is now said to be due to new and better knowledge."

The Second World Summit on the Knowledge Society, held in Chania, Crete, in September
2009, gave special attention to the following topics:

business and enterprise computing;

technology-enhanced learning;
social and humanistic computing;
culture, tourism and technology;
e-government and e-democracy;
innovation, sustainable development and strategic management;
service science, management and engineering;
intellectual and human capital development;
ICTs for ecology and the Green Economy;
future prospects for the Knowledge Society;
technologies and business models for the creative industries.

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Well-known societies

While there are literally thousands of societies representing virtually every interest, a number of
them are widely recognized. A few examples demonstrating the variety of a society's scope and
interests are given below.

The Royal Society

Illustration from Sprat's History of the Royal Society

The Royal Society, officially the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural
Knowledge, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most
to be the oldest such society still in existence.

Fellowship, granted for life, is awarded to scientists after their election by existing fellows, and
is considered a great honour. Fellows must be citizens or residents of a member of the
Commonwealth of Nations or the Republic of Ireland, while the smaller number of Foreign
Members are drawn from other countries. Up to 44 new Fellows are elected each year. The
Society's statutes state that candidates for election must have made "a substantial contribution to
the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical
science."

The Fabian Society

Britain's best-known socialist society is the Fabian Society, a membership organization affiliated
with the Labour Party. It was founded in 1884, some years before the creation of the Labour
Party itself. Although membership is relatively small (around 7,000), the society is very
influential.

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It is best known for its ground-breaking work from the late 19th century until World War I. The
society laid many of the foundations of the Labour Party. Today, it is a vanguard "think tank" of
the New Labour movement.

Famous members have included George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Virginia Woolf, Ramsay
MacDonald, Tony Benn, Harold Wilson, and more recently Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Society of Friends

World Conference of Friends, London, 1920

The Society of Friends is a Christian organization whose members are commonly known as
Quakers. It was founded in 17th century England by George Fox who called for a radical,
egalitarian, spirit-filled Christianity that would not be oppressive of people on account of race,
sex, or class. Women and men were given equal status as all were children of God. A person
should not set himself up with honors and distinctions as these were meaningless in the sight of
God. From this came the Quaker practices of simple living, plain dress and plain speech.

Quakers maintain that the teaching of Jesus is a practical method for the guidance of the world
today and that religion is concerned with the whole of life.

Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) is the international Quaker organization
which loosely unifies the diverse groups of Friends from around the world.

A number of leading charities today were founded with participation from Quakers, such as
Oxfam and Amnesty International.

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Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Hong Kong's SPCA

Throughout the English-speaking world, there are a considerable number of societies for the
prevention of cruelty to animals, often known as SPCAs. Their operations may include
protecting and providing shelter to animals in danger, striving to relieve the suffering of animals
and ensuring law enforcement for the protection of animals. They are non-profit organizations
that campaign for animal welfare and take in abused or abandoned animals, and help them to get
adopted.

Among the large national organizations are the American ASPCA with over one million
supporters across the United States and the British RSPCA with voluntary funding of over 80
million a year.

Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and
institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force-backed structures
of a state (regardless of that state's political system) and commercial institutions of the market.

Definition

There are myriad definitions of civil society in the post-modern sense. The London School of
Economics Centre for Civil Society's working definition is illustrative:

Civil society refers to the arena of uncoerced collective action around shared interests, purposes and
values. In theory, its institutional forms are distinct from those of the state, family and market, though in
practice, the boundaries between state, civil society, family and market are often complex, blurred and
negotiated. Civil society commonly embraces a diversity of spaces, actors and institutional forms, varying
in their degree of formality, autonomy and power. Civil societies are often populated by organizations

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such as registered charities, development non-governmental organizations, community groups, women's
organizations, faith-based organizations, professional associations, trade unions, self-help groups, social
movements, business associations, coalitions and advocacy groups.

Origins

From an historical perspective, the actual meaning of the concept of civil society has changed
twice from its original, classical form. The first change occurred after the French Revolution, the
second during the fall of communism in Europe.

Pre-modern history

The concept of civil society in its pre-modern classical republican understanding is usually
connected to the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century. However, it has much older history
in the realm of political thought. Generally, civil society has been referred to as a political
association governing social conflict through the imposition of rules that restrain citizens from
harming one another. In the classical period, the concept was used as a synonym for the good
society, and seen as indistinguishable from the state. For instance, Socrates taught that conflicts
within society should be resolved through public argument using dialectic, a form of rational
dialogue to uncover truth. According to Socrates, public argument through dialectic was
imperative to ensure civility in the polis and good life of the people. For Plato, the ideal state
was a just society in which people dedicate themselves to the common good, practice civic
virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation and justice, and perform the occupational role to which
they were best suited. It was the duty of the Philosopher king to look after people in civility.
Aristotle thought the polis was an association of associations that enables citizens to share in
the virtuous task of ruling and being ruled. His koinonia politike as political community.

The concept of societas civilis is Roman and was introduced by Cicero. The political discourse
in the classical period, places importance on the idea of a good society in ensuring peace and
order among the people. The philosophers in the classical period did not make any distinction
between the state and society. Rather they held that the state represented the civil form of society
and civility represented the requirement of good citizenship. Moreover, they held that human
beings are inherently rational so that they can collectively shape the nature of the society they
belong to. In addition, human beings have the capacity to voluntarily gather for the common
cause and maintain peace in society. By holding this view, we can say that classical political
thinkers endorsed the genesis of civil society in its original sense.

The Middle Ages saw major changes in the topics discussed by political philosophers. Due to the
unique political arrangements of feudalism, the concept of classical civil society practically
disappeared from mainstream discussion. Instead conversation was dominated by problems of
just war, a preoccupation that would last until the end of Renaissance.

The Thirty Years' War and the subsequent Treaty of Westphalia heralded the birth of the
sovereign states system. The Treaty endorsed states as territorially-based political units having
sovereignty. As a result, the monarchs were able to exert control domestically by emasculating
the feudal lords and to stop relying on the latter for armed troops. Hencefore, monarchs could
form national armies and deploy a professional bureaucracy and fiscal departments, which
enabled them to maintain direct control and supreme authority over their subjects. In order to
meet administrative expenditures, monarchs controlled the economy. This gave birth to
absolutism. Until the mid-eighteenth century, absolutism was the hallmark of Europe.

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The absolutist nature of the state was disputed in the Enlightenment period. As a natural
consequence of Renaissance, Humanism, and the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment
thinkers raised fundamental questions such as What legitimacy does heredity confer?, Why
are governments instituted?, Why should some human beings have more basic rights than
others?, and so on. These questions led them to make certain assumptions about the nature of
the human mind, the sources of political and moral authority, the reasons behind absolutism, and
how to move beyond absolutism. The Enlightenment thinkers believed in the inherent goodness
of the human mind. They opposed the alliance between the state and the Church as the enemy of
human progress and well-being because the coercive apparatus of the state curbed individual
liberty and the Church legitimated monarchs by positing the theory of divine origin. Therefore,
both were deemed to be against the will of the people.

Strongly influenced by the atrocities of Thirty Years' War, the political philosophers of the time
held that social relations should be ordered in a different way than in natural law conditions.
Some of their attempts led to the emergence of social contract theory that contested social
relations existing in accordance with human nature. They held that human nature can be
understood by analyzing objective realities and natural law conditions. Thus they endorsed that
the nature of human beings should be encompassed by the contours of state and established
positive laws. Thomas Hobbes underlined the need of a powerful state to maintain civility in
society. For Hobbes, human beings are motivated by self-interests (Graham 1997:23). Moreover,
these self-interests are often contradictory in nature. Therefore, in state of nature, there was a
condition of a war of all against all. In such a situation, life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish
and short (Ibid: 25). Upon realizing the danger of anarchy, human beings became aware of the
need of a mechanism to protect them. As far as Hobbes was concerned, rationality and self-
interests persuaded human beings to combine in agreement, to surrender sovereignty to a
common power (Kaviraj 2001:289). Hobbes called this common power, state, Leviathan.

The social contract theory of Thomas Hobbes set forth two types of relationship. One was
vertical, between the Leviathan and the people; therefore, the latter submitted themselves to the
former. The second system was the realm of horizontal relationship among the people. In that
system, people, under the surveillance of Leviathan, were compelled to limit their natural rights
in a way that would not harm the rights of others. The first system denotes the state and the
second represents civil society. In Hobbess paradigm, the formation of the civil society led to
the formation of government, state, and laws. Therefore, in his view, the state is imperative to
sustain civility among men. Thus, Hobbess concepts of the state of nature and the sovereignty
of the state led to the later germination of realism that defined the nature of the relationship
between the state and civil society.

John Locke had a similar concept to Hobbes about the political condition in England. It was the
period of the Glorious Revolution, marked by the struggle between the divine right of the Crown
and the political rights of Parliament. This influenced Locke to forge a social contract theory of a
limited state and a powerful society. In Lockes view, human beings led also an unpeaceful life
in the state of nature. However, it could be maintained at the sub-optimal level in the absence of
a sufficient system (Brown 2001:73). From that major concern, people gathered together to sign
a contract and constituted a common public authority. Nevertheless, Locke held that the
consolidation of political power can be turned into autocracy, if it is not brought under reliable
restrictions (Kaviraj 2001:291). Therefore, Locke set forth two treaties on government with
reciprocal obligations. In the first treaty, people submit themselves to the common public
authority. This authority has the power to enact and maintain laws. The second treaty contains
the limitations of authority, i. e., the state has no power to threaten the basic rights of human
beings. As far as Locke was concerned, the basic rights of human beings are the preservation of

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life, liberty and property. Moreover, he held that the state must operate within the bounds of civil
and natural laws.

Both Hobbes and Locke had set forth a system, in which peaceful coexistence among human
beings could be ensured through social pacts or contracts. They considered civil society as a
community that maintained civil life, the realm where civic virtues and rights were derived from
natural laws. However, they did not hold that civil society was a separate realm from the state.
Rather, they underlined the co-existence of the state and civil society. The systematic approaches
of Hobbes and Locke (in their analysis of social relations) were largely influenced by the
experiences in their period. Their attempts to explain human nature, natural laws, the social
contract and the formation of government had challenged the divine right theory. In contrast to
divine right, Hobbes and Locke claimed that humans can design their political order. This idea
had a great impact on the thinkers in the Enlightenment period.

The Enlightenment thinkers argued that human beings are rational and can shape their destiny.
Hence, no need of an absolute authority to control them. Both Jean-Jacques Rousseau and
Immanuel Kant argued that people are peace lovers and that wars are the creation of absolute
regimes (Burchill 2001:33). As far as Kant was concerned, this system was effective to guard
against the domination of a single interest and check the tyranny of the majority (Alagappa
2004:30).

Modern history

G.W.F. Hegel completely changed the meaning of civil society, giving rise to a modern liberal
understanding of it as a form of market society as opposed to institutions of modern nation-state.
Unlike his predecessors, the leading thinker of the Romanticism considered civil society as a
separate realm, a "system of needs", that stood for the satisfaction of individual interests and
private property. Hegel held that civil society had emerged at the particular period of capitalism
and served its interests: individual rights and private property (Dhanagare 2001:169). Hence, he
used the German term "brgerliche Gesellschaft" to denote civil society as "civilian society" - a
sphere regulated by the civil code. For Hegel, civil society manifests contradictory forces. Being
the realm of capitalist interests, there is a possibility of conflicts and inequalities within it.
Therefore, the constant surveillance of the state is imperative to sustain moral order in society.
Hegel considered the state as the highest form of ethical life. Therefore, the political state has the
capacity and authority to correct the faults of civil society. Alexis de Tocqueville, after
comparing despotic France and democratic America, contested Hegel, putting weight on the
system of civilian and political associations as a counterbalance to both liberal individualism and
centralization of the state. Hence, Hegel's perception of social reality was followed in general by
Tocqueville who distinguished between political society and civil society.

This was the theme taken further by Karl Marx. For Marx, civil society was the base where
productive forces and social relations were taking place, whereas political society was the
'superstructure'. Agreeing with the link between capitalism and civil society, Marx held that the
latter represents the interests of the bourgeoisie (Edwards 2004:10). Therefore, the state as
superstructure also represents the interests of the dominant class; under capitalism, it maintains
the domination of the bourgeoisie. Hence, Marx rejected the positive role of state put forth by
Hegel. Marx argued that the state cannot be a neutral problem solver. Rather, he depicted the
state as the defender of the interests of the bourgeoisie. He considered the state and civil society
as the executive arms of the bourgeoisie; therefore, both should wither away (Brown 2001:74).

This negative view about civil society was rectified by Antonio Gramsci (Edwards 2004:10).
Departing somehow from Marx, Gramsci did not consider civil society as coterminous with the

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socio-economic base of the state. Rather, Gramsci located civil society in the political
superstructure. He underlined the crucial role of civil society as the contributor of the cultural
and ideological capital required for the survival of the hegemony of capitalism (Ehrenberg
1999:208). Rather than posing it as a problem, as in earlier Marxist conceptions, Gramsci viewed
civil society as the site for problem-solving. Agreeing with Gramsci, the New Left assigned civil
society a key role in defending people against the state and the market and in asserting the
democratic will to influence the state (Ibid:30). At the same time, Neo-liberal thinkers consider
civil society as a site for struggle to subvert Communist and authoritarian regimes (Ibid: 33).
Thus, the term civil society occupies an important place in the political discourses of the New
Left and Neo-liberals.

Post-modern history

The post-modern way of understanding civil society was first developed by political opposition
in the former Soviet block East European countries in the 1980s. From that time stems a practice
within the political field of using the idea of civil society instead of political society. However, in
the 1990s with the emergence of the nongovernmental organizations and the New Social
Movements (NSMs) on a global scale, civil society as a third sector became a key terrain of
strategic action to construct an alternative social and world order. Henceforth, postmodern
usage of the idea of civil society became divided into two main : as political society and as the
third sector - apart from plethora of definitions.

The Washington consensus of the 1990s, which involved conditioned loans by the World Bank
and IMF to debt-laden developing states, also created pressures for states in poorer countries to
shrink. This in turn led to practical changes for civil society that went on to influence the
theoretical debate. Initially the new conditionality led to an even greater emphasis on `civil
society' as a panacea, replacing the state's service provision and social care, Hulme and Edward
suggested that it was now seen as `the magic bullet.' Some development political scientists
cautioned that this view created new dangers. For instance, in `Let's get Civil Society Straight'
Whaites argued that the often politicized and potentially divisive nature of civil society was
being ignored by some policy makers.

By the end of the 1990s civil society was seen less as a panacea amid the growth of the anti-
globalization movement and the transition of many countries to democracy; instead, civil society
was increasingly called on to justify its legitimacy and democratic credentials. This led to the
creation by the UN of a high level panel on civil society . Post-modern civil society theory has
now largely returned to a more neutral stance, but with marked differences between the study of
the phenomena in richer societies and writing on civil society in developing states. Civil society
in both areas is, however, often viewed as a counter-poise and complement rather than an
alternative in relation to the state , or as Whaites stated in his 1996 article, `the state is seen as a
precondition of civil society'

Democracy

The literature on relations between civil society and democratic political society have their roots
in early liberal writings like those of Alexis de Tocqueville. However they were developed in
significant ways by 20th century theorists like Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, who identified
the role of political culture in a democratic order as vital.

They argued that the political element of many voluntary organizations facilitates better
awareness and a more informed citizenry, who make better voting choices, participate in politics,
and hold government more accountable as a result. The statutes of these organizations have often

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been considered micro-constitutions because they accustom participants to the formalities of
democratic decision making.

More recently, Robert D. Putnam has argued that even non-political organizations in civil society
are vital for democracy. This is because they build social capital, trust and shared values, which
are transferred into the political sphere and help to hold society together, facilitating an
understanding of the interconnectedness of society and interests within it.

Others, however, have questioned how democratic civil society actually is. Some have noted that
the civil society actors have now obtained a remarkable amount of political power without
anyone directly electing or appointing them. Finally, other scholars have argued that, since the
concept of civil society is closely related to democracy and representation, it should in turn be
linked with ideas of nationality and nationalism.

Globalization

The term civil society is currently often used by critics and activists as a reference to sources of
resistance to, and the domain of social life which needs to be protected against, globalization.
This is because it is seen as acting beyond boundaries and across different territories. However,
as civil society can, under many definitions, include and be funded and directed by those
businesses and institutions (especially donors linked to European and Northern states) who
support globalization, this is a contested use. Rapid development of civil society on the global
scale after the fall of the communist system was a part of neo-liberal strategies linked to the
Washington consensus. Some studies have also been published, which deal with unresolved
issues regarding the use of the term in connection with the impact and conceptual power of the
international aid system (see for example Tvedt 1998).

On the other hand, others see globalization as a social phenomenon expanding the sphere of
classical liberal values, which inevitably led to a larger role for civil society at the expense of
politically derived state institutions.

Law

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Lady Justice is the symbol of the judiciary. Justice is depicted as a goddess equipped with three
symbols of the rule of law: a sword symbolizing the court's coercive power; scales representing
the weighing of competing claims; and a blindfold indicating impartiality.

Law is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics,
economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations
between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on
derivatives markets. Property law defines rights and obligations related to the transfer and title of
personal (often referred to as chattel) and real property. Trust law applies to assets held for
investment and financial security, while tort law allows claims for compensation if a person's
rights or property are harmed. If the harm is criminalised in a statute, criminal law offers means
by which the state can prosecute the perpetrator. Constitutional law provides a framework for the
creation of law, the protection of human rights and the election of political representatives.
Administrative law is used to review the decisions of government agencies, while international
law governs affairs between sovereign nation states in activities ranging from trade to
environmental regulation or military action. Writing in 350 BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle
declared, "The rule of law is better than the rule of any individual."

Legal systems elaborate rights and responsibilities in a variety of ways. A general distinction can
be made between civil law jurisdictions, which codify their laws, and common law systems,
where judge made law is not consolidated. In some countries, religion informs the law. Law
provides a rich source of scholarly inquiry, into legal history, philosophy, economic analysis or
sociology. Law also raises important and complex issues concerning equality, fairness and
justice. "In its majestic equality", said the author Anatole France in 1894, "the law forbids rich
and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread." In a typical
democracy, the central institutions for interpreting and creating law are the three main branches
of government, namely an impartial judiciary, a democratic legislature, and an accountable
executive. To implement and enforce the law and provide services to the public, a government's
bureaucracy, the military and police are vital. While all these organs of the state are creatures
created and bound by law, an independent legal profession and a vibrant civil society inform and
support their progress.

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 Legal subjects

All legal systems deal with the same basic issues, but each country categorises and identifies its
legal subjects in different ways. A common distinction is that between "public law" (a term
related closely to the state, and including constitutional, administrative and criminal law), and
"private law" (which covers contract, tort and property). In civil law systems, contract and tort
fall under a general law of obligations, while trusts law is dealt with under statutory regimes or
international conventions. International, constitutional and administrative law, criminal law,
contract, tort, property law and trusts are regarded as the "traditional core subjects", although
there are many further disciplines which may be of greater practical importance.

International law

Providing a constitution for public international law, the United Nations system was agreed
during World War II

International law can refer to three things: public international law, private international law or
conflict of laws and the law of supranational organisations.

Public international law concerns relationships between sovereign nations. The sources
for public international law development are custom, practice and treaties between
sovereign nations, such as the Geneva Conventions. Public international law can be
formed by international organisations, such as the United Nations (which was established
after the failure of the League of Nations to prevent the Second World War), the
International Labour Organisation, the World Trade Organisation, or the International
Monetary Fund. Public international law has a special status as law because there is no
international police force, and courts (e.g. the International Court of Justice as the
primary UN judicial organ) lack the capacity to penalise disobedience. However, a few
bodies, such as the WTO, have effective systems of binding arbitration and dispute
resolution backed up by trade sanctions.

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 Conflict of laws (or "private international law" in civil law countries) concerns which
jurisdiction a legal dispute between private parties should be heard in and which
jurisdiction's law should be applied. Today, businesses are increasingly capable of
shifting capital and labour supply chains across borders, as well as trading with overseas
businesses, making the question of which country has jurisdiction even more pressing.
Increasing numbers of businesses opt for commercial arbitration under the New York
Convention 1958.

European Union law is the first and, so far, only example of a supranational legal
framework. Given the trend of increasing global economic integration, many regional
agreementsespecially the Union of South American Nationsare on track to follow
the same model. In the EU, sovereign nations have gathered their authority in a system of
courts and political institutions. These institutions are allowed the ability to enforce legal
norms both against or for member states and citizens in a manner which is not possible
through public international law. As the European Court of Justice said in the 1960s,
European Union law constitutes "a new legal order of international law" for the mutual
social and economic benefit of the member states.

Constitutional and administrative law

The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, whose principles still have
constitutional value

Constitutional and administrative law govern the affairs of the state. Constitutional law concerns
both the relationships between the executive, legislature and judiciary and the human rights or
civil liberties of individuals against the state. Most jurisdictions, like the United States and
France, have a single codified constitution, with a Bill of Rights. A few, like the United
Kingdom, have no such document. A "constitution" is simply those laws which constitute the
body politic, from statute, case law and convention. A case named Entick v Carrington illustrates
a constitutional principle deriving from the common law. Mr Entick's house was searched and
ransacked by Sheriff Carrington. When Mr Entick complained in court, Sheriff Carrington

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argued that a warrant from a Government minister, the Earl of Halifax, was valid authority.
However, there was no written statutory provision or court authority. The leading judge, Lord
Camden, stated that,

The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property. That right is preserved
sacred and incommunicable in all instances, where it has not been taken away or abridged by some public
law for the good of the whole ... If no excuse can be found or produced, the silence of the books is an
authority against the defendant, and the plaintiff must have judgment.

The fundamental constitutional principle, inspired by John Locke, holds that the individual can
do anything but that which is forbidden by law, and the state may do nothing but that which is
authorised by law. Administrative law is the chief method for people to hold state bodies to
account. People can apply for judicial review of actions or decisions by local councils, public
services or government ministries, to ensure that they comply with the law. The first specialist
administrative court was the Conseil d'tat set up in 1799, as Napoleon assumed power in
France.

Criminal law

Criminal law, also known as penal law, pertains to crimes and punishment. It thus regulates the
definition of and penalties for offences found to have a sufficiently deleterious social impact but,
in itself, makes no moral judgement on an offender nor imposes restrictions on society that
physically prevents people from committing a crime in the first place. Investigating,
apprehending, charging, and trying suspected offenders is regulated by the law of criminal
procedure. The paradigm case of a crime lies in the proof, beyond reasonable doubt, that a
person is guilty of two things. First, the accused must commit an act which is deemed by society
to be criminal, or actus reus (guilty act). Second, the accused must have the requisite malicious
intent to do a criminal act, or mens rea (guilty mind). However for so called "strict liability"
crimes, an actus reus is enough. Criminal systems of the civil law tradition distinguish between
intention in the broad sense (dolus directus and dolus eventualis), and negligence. Negligence
does not carry criminal responsibility unless a particular crime provides for its punishment.

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A depiction of a 1600s criminal trial, for witchcraft in Salem

Examples of crimes include murder, assault, fraud and theft. In exceptional circumstances
defences can apply to specific acts, such as killing in self defence, or pleading insanity. Another
example is in the 19th century English case of R v Dudley and Stephens, which tested a defence
of "necessity". The Mignonette, sailing from Southampton to Sydney, sank. Three crew members
and Richard Parker, a 17 year old cabin boy, were stranded on a raft. They were starving and the
cabin boy was close to death. Driven to extreme hunger, the crew killed and ate the cabin boy.
The crew survived and were rescued, but put on trial for murder. They argued it was necessary to
kill the cabin boy to preserve their own lives. Lord Coleridge, expressing immense disapproval,
ruled, "to preserve one's life is generally speaking a duty, but it may be the plainest and the
highest duty to sacrifice it." The men were sentenced to hang, but public opinion was
overwhelmingly supportive of the crew's right to preserve their own lives. In the end, the Crown
commuted their sentences to six months in jail.

Criminal law offences are viewed as offences against not just individual victims, but the
community as well. The state, usually with the help of police, takes the lead in prosecution,
which is why in common law countries cases are cited as "The People v ..." or "R (for Rex or
Regina) v ..." Also, lay juries are often used to determine the guilt of defendants on points of
fact: juries cannot change legal rules. Some developed countries still condone capital punishment
for criminal activity, but the normal punishment for a crime will be imprisonment, fines, state
supervision (such as probation), or community service. Modern criminal law has been affected
considerably by the social sciences, especially with respect to sentencing, legal research,
legislation, and rehabilitation. On the international field, 108 are members of the International
Criminal Court, which was established to try people for crimes against humanity.

Contract law

The famous Carbolic Smoke Ball advertisement to cure influenza was held to be a unilateral
contract

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Contract law concerns enforceable promises, and can be summed up in the Latin phrase pacta
sunt servanda (agreements must be kept). In common law jurisdictions, three key elements to the
creation of a contract are necessary: offer and acceptance, consideration and the intention to
create legal relations. In Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company a medical firm advertised that
its new wonder drug, the smokeball, would cure people's flu, and if it did not, the buyers would
get 100. Many people sued for their 100 when the drug did not work. Fearing bankruptcy,
Carbolic argued the advert was not to be taken as a serious, legally binding offer. It was an
invitation to treat, mere puff, a gimmick. But the court of appeal held that to a reasonable man
Carbolic had made a serious offer. People had given good consideration for it by going to the
"distinct inconvenience" of using a faulty product. "Read the advertisement how you will, and
twist it about as you will", said Lord Justice Lindley, "here is a distinct promise expressed in
language which is perfectly unmistakable".

"Consideration" indicates the fact that all parties to a contract have exchanged something of
value. Some common law systems, including Australia, are moving away from the idea of
consideration as a requirement. The idea of estoppel or culpa in contrahendo, can be used to
create obligations during pre-contractual negotiations. In civil law jurisdictions, consideration is
not required for a contract to be binding. In France, an ordinary contract is said to form simply
on the basis of a "meeting of the minds" or a "concurrence of wills". Germany has a special
approach to contracts, which ties into property law. Their 'abstraction principle'
(Abstraktionsprinzip) means that the personal obligation of contract forms separately from the
title of property being conferred. When contracts are invalidated for some reason (e.g. a car
buyer is so drunk that he lacks legal capacity to contract) the contractual obligation to pay can be
invalidated separately from the proprietary title of the car. Unjust enrichment law, rather than
contract law, is then used to restore title to the rightful owner.

Tort law

The "McLibel" two were involved in the longest running case in UK history for publishing a
pamphlet criticising McDonald's restaurants.

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Torts, sometimes called delicts, are civil wrongs. To have acted tortiously, one must have
breached a duty to another person, or infringed some pre-existing legal right. A simple example
might be accidentally hitting someone with a cricket ball. Under the law of negligence, the most
common form of tort, the injured party could potentially claim compensation for his injuries
from the party responsible. The principles of negligence are illustrated by Donoghue v
Stevenson. A friend of Mrs Donoghue ordered an opaque bottle of ginger beer (intended for the
consumption of Mrs Donoghue) in a caf in Paisley. Having consumed half of it, Mrs Donoghue
poured the remainder into a tumbler. The decomposing remains of a snail floated out. She
claimed to have suffered from shock, fell ill with gastroenteritis and sued the manufacturer for
carelessly allowing the drink to be contaminated. The House of Lords decided that the
manufacturer was liable for Mrs Donoghue's illness. Lord Atkin took a distinctly moral
approach, and said,

The liability for negligence ... is no doubt based upon a general public sentiment of moral wrongdoing for
which the offender must pay ... The rule that you are to love your neighbour becomes in law, you must
not injure your neighbour; and the lawyer's question, Who is my neighbour? receives a restricted reply.
You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be
likely to injure your neighbour.

This became the basis for the four principles of negligence; (1) Mr Stevenson owed Mrs
Donoghue a duty of care to provide safe drinks (2) he breached his duty of care (3) the harm
would not have occurred but for his breach and (4) his act was the proximate cause, or not too
remote a consequence, of her harm. Another example of tort might be a neighbour making
excessively loud noises with machinery on his property. Under a nuisance claim the noise could
be stopped. Torts can also involve intentional acts, such as assault, battery or trespass. A better
known tort is defamation, which occurs, for example, when a newspaper makes unsupportable
allegations that damage a politician's reputation. More infamous are economic torts, which form
the basis of labour law in some countries by making trade unions liable for strikes, when statute
does not provide immunity.

Property law

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A painting of the South Sea Bubble, one of the world's first ever speculations and crashes, led to
strict regulation on share trading.

Property law governs valuable things that people call 'theirs'. Real property, sometimes called
'real estate' refers to ownership of land and things attached to it. Personal property, refers to
everything else; movable objects, such as computers, cars, jewelry, and sandwiches, or intangible
rights, such as stocks and shares. A right in rem is a right to a specific piece of property,
contrasting to a right in personam which allows compensation for a loss, but not a particular
thing back. Land law forms the basis for most kinds of property law, and is the most complex. It
concerns mortgages, rental agreements, licences, covenants, easements and the statutory systems
for land registration. Regulations on the use of personal property fall under intellectual property,
company law, trusts and commercial law. An example of a basic case of most property law is
Armory v Delamirie. A chimney sweep's boy found a jewel encrusted with precious stones. He
took it to a goldsmith to have it valued. The goldsmith's apprentice looked at it, sneakily
removed the stones, told the boy it was worth three halfpence and that he would buy it. The boy
said he would prefer the jewel back, so the apprentice gave it to him, but without the stones. The
boy sued the goldsmith for his apprentice's attempt to cheat him. Lord Chief Justice Pratt ruled
that even though the boy could not be said to own the jewel, he should be considered the rightful
keeper ("finders keeper") until the original owner is found. In fact the apprentice and the boy
both had a right of possession in the jewel (a technical concept, meaning evidence that
something could belong to someone), but the boy's possessory interest was considered better,
because it could be shown to be first in time. Possession may be nine tenths of the law, but not
all.

This case is used to support the view of property in common law jurisdictions, that the person
who can show the best claim to a piece of property, against any contesting party, is the owner.
By contrast, the classic civil law approach to property, propounded by Friedrich Carl von
Savigny, is that it is a right good against the world. Obligations, like contracts and torts are
conceptualised as rights good between individuals. The idea of property raises many further
philosophical and political issues. Locke argued that our "lives, liberties and estates" are our
property because we own our bodies and mix our labour with our surroundings.

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Equity and trusts

The Court of Chancery, London, early 19th century

Equity is a body of rules that developed in England separately from the "common law". The
common law was administered by judges. The Lord Chancellor on the other hand, as the King's
keeper of conscience, could overrule the judge made law if he thought it equitable to do so. This
meant equity came to operate more through principles than rigid rules. For instance, whereas
neither the common law nor civil law systems allow people to split the ownership from the
control of one piece of property, equity allows this through an arrangement known as a 'trust'.
'Trustees' control property, whereas the 'beneficial' (or 'equitable') ownership of trust property is
held by people known as 'beneficiaries'. Trustees owe duties to their beneficiaries to take good
care of the entrusted property. In the early case of Keech v Sandford a child had inherited the
lease on a market in Romford, London. Mr Sandford was entrusted to look after this property
until the child matured. But before then, the lease expired. The landlord had (apparently) told Mr
Sandford that he did not want the child to have the renewed lease. Yet the landlord was happy
(apparently) to give Mr Sandford the opportunity of the lease instead. Mr Sandford took it. When
the child (now Mr Keech) grew up, he sued Mr Sandford for the profit that he had been making
by getting the market's lease. Mr Sandford was meant to be trusted, but he put himself in a
position of conflict of interest. The Lord Chancellor, Lord King, agreed and ordered Mr
Sandford should disgorge his profits. He wrote,

I very well see, if a trustee, on the refusal to renew, might have a lease to himself few trust-estates would
be renewed ... This may seem very hard, that the trustee is the only person of all mankind who might not
have the lease; but it is very proper that the rule should be strictly pursued and not at all relaxed.

Of course, Lord King LC was worried that trustees might exploit opportunities to use trust
property for themselves instead of looking after it. Business speculators using trusts had just
recently caused a stock market crash. Strict duties for trustees made their way into company law
and were applied to directors and chief executive officers. Another example of a trustee's duty
might be to invest property wisely or sell it. This is especially the case for pension funds, the
most important form of trust, where investors are trustees for people's savings until retirement.
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But trusts can also be set up for charitable purposes, famous examples being the British Museum
or the Rockefeller Foundation.

Further disciplines

Law spreads far beyond the core subjects into virtually every area of life. Three categories are
presented for convenience, though the subjects intertwine and overlap.

Law and society

A trade union protest by UNISON while on strike

Labour law is the study of a tripartite industrial relationship between worker, employer
and trade union. This involves collective bargaining regulation, and the right to strike.
Individual employment law refers to workplace rights, such as job security, health and
safety or a minimum wage.
Human rights, civil rights and human rights law are important fields to guarantee
everyone basic freedoms and entitlements. These are laid down in codes such as the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights
(which founded the European Court of Human Rights) and the U.S. Bill of Rights. The
Treaty of Lisbon makes the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
legally binding in all member states except Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
European Union Poland and the United Kingdom.
Civil procedure and criminal procedure concern the rules that courts must follow as a
trial and appeals proceed. Both concern a citizen's right to a fair trial or hearing.
Evidence law involves which materials are admissible in courts for a case to be built.
Immigration law and nationality law concern the rights of foreigners to live and work
in a nation-state that is not their own and to acquire or lose citizenship. Both also involve
the right of asylum and the problem of stateless individuals.
Social security law refers to the rights people have to social insurance, such as
jobseekers' allowances or housing benefits.

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 Family law covers marriage and divorce proceedings, the rights of children and rights to
property and money in the event of separation.

Law and commerce

Company law sprang from the law of trusts, on the principle of separating ownership of
property and control. The law of the modern company began with the Joint Stock
Companies Act 1856, passed in the United Kingdom, which provided investors with a
simple registration procedure to gain limited liability under the separate legal personality
of the corporation.
Commercial law covers complex contract and property law. The law of agency,
insurance law, bills of exchange, insolvency and bankruptcy law and sales law are all
important, and trace back to the medival Lex Mercatoria. The UK Sale of Goods Acts
and the US Uniform Commercial Code are examples of codified common law
commercial principles.
Admiralty law and the Law of the Sea lay a basic framework for free trade and
commerce across the world's oceans and seas, where outside of a country's zone of
control. Shipping companies operate through ordinary principles of commercial law,
generalised for a global market. Admiralty law also encompasses specialised issues such
as salvage, maritime liens, and injuries to passengers.
Intellectual property law aims at safeguarding creators and other producers of
intellectual goods and services. These are legal rights (copyrights, trademarks, patents,
and related rights) which result from intellectual activity in the industrial, literary and
artistic fields.
Restitution deals with the recovery of someone else's gain, rather than compensation for
one's own loss.
Unjust enrichment is the third pillar of civil law (along with contract and tort). When
someone has been unjustly enriched (or there is an "absence of basis" for a transaction) at
another's expense, this event generates the right to restitution to reverse that gain.

Law and regulation

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The New York Stock Exchange trading floor after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, before tougher
banking regulation was introduced

Tax law involves regulations that concern value added tax, corporate tax, income tax.
Banking law and financial regulation set minimum standards on the amounts of capital
banks must hold, and rules about best practice for investment. This is to insure against the
risk of economic crises, such as the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Regulation deals with the provision of public services and utilities. Water law is one
example. Especially since privatisation became popular and took management of services
away from public law, private companies doing the jobs previously controlled by
government have been bound by varying degrees of social responsibility. Energy, gas,
telecomms and water are regulated industries in most OECD countries.
Competition law, known in the U.S. as antitrust law, is an evolving field that traces as
far back as Roman decrees against price fixing and the English restraint of trade doctrine.
Modern competition law derives from the U.S. anti-cartel and anti-monopoly statutes (the
Sherman Act and Clayton Act) of the turn of the 20th century. It is used to control
businesses who attempt to use their economic influence to distort market prices at the
expense of consumer welfare.
Consumer law could include anything from regulations on unfair contractual terms and
clauses to directives on airline baggage insurance.
Environmental law is increasingly important, especially in light of the Kyoto Protocol
and the potential danger of climate change. Environmental protection also serves to
penalise polluters within domestic legal systems.

Legal systems

In general, legal systems can be split between civil law and common law systems. The term
"civil law" referring to a legal system should not be confused with "civil law" as a group of legal
subjects distinct from criminal or public law. A third type of legal system accepted by some
countries without separation of church and stateis religious law, based on scriptures. The
specific system that a country is ruled by is often determined by its history, connections with
other countries, or its adherence to international standards. The sources that jurisdictions adopt as
authoritatively binding are the defining features of any legal system. Yet classification is a matter
of form rather than substance, since similar rules often prevail.

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Civil law

First page of the 1804 edition of the Napoleonic Code

Civil law is the legal system used in most countries around the world today. In civil law the
sources recognised as authoritative are, primarily, legislationespecially codifications in
constitutions or statutes passed by governmentand custom. Codifications date back millennia,
with one early example being the Babylonian Codex Hammurabi. Modern civil law systems
essentially derive from the legal practice of the Roman Empire whose texts were rediscovered in
medieval Europe. Roman law in the days of the Roman Republic and Empire was heavily
procedural, and lacked a professional legal class. Instead a lay person, iudex, was chosen to
adjudicate. Precedents were not reported, so any case law that developed was disguised and
almost unrecognised. Each case was to be decided afresh from the laws of the state, which
mirrors the (theoretical) unimportance of judges' decisions for future cases in civil law systems
today. During the 6th century AD in the Eastern Roman Empire, the Emperor Justinian I codified
and consolidated the laws that had existed in Rome, so that what remained was one-twentieth of
the mass of legal texts from before. This became known as the Corpus Juris Civilis. As one legal
historian wrote, "Justinian consciously looked back to the golden age of Roman law and aimed
to restore it to the peak it had reached three centuries before." Western Europe, meanwhile,
slowly slipped into the Dark Ages, and it was not until the 11th century that scholars in the
University of Bologna rediscovered the texts and used them to interpret their own laws. Civil law
codifications based closely on Roman law, alongside some influences from religious laws such
as Canon law and Islamic law, continued to spread throughout Europe until the Enlightenment;
then, in the 19th century, both France, with the Code Civil, and Germany, with the Brgerliches
Gesetzbuch, modernised their legal codes. Both these codes influenced heavily not only the law
systems of the countries in continental Europe (e.g. Greece), but also the Japanese and Korean
legal traditions. Today, countries that have civil law systems range from Russia and China to
most of Central and Latin America. The United States follows the common law system described
below.

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Common law and equity

King John of England signs Magna Carta

Common law and equity are legal systems where decisions by courts are explicitly
acknowledged to be legal sources. The "doctrine of precedent", or stare decisis (Latin for "to
stand by decisions") means that decisions by higher courts bind lower courts. Common law
systems also rely on statutes, passed by the legislature, but may make less of a systematic
attempt to codify their laws than in a "civil law" system. Common law originated from England
and has been inherited by almost every country once tied to the British Empire (except Malta,
Scotland, the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the Canadian province of Quebec). In medieval
England, the Norman conquest led to a unification of various tribal customs and hence a law
"common" to the whole country. Perhaps influenced by Islamic legal practices around the time
of the Crusades, the common law developed when the English monarchy had been weakened by
the enormous cost of fighting for control over large parts of France. King John had been forced
by his barons to sign a document limiting his authority to pass laws. This "great charter" or
Magna Carta of 1215 also required that the King's entourage of judges hold their courts and
judgments at "a certain place" rather than dispensing autocratic justice in unpredictable places
about the country. A concentrated and elite group of judges acquired a dominant role in law-
making under this system, and compared to its European counterparts the English judiciary
became highly centralised. In 1297, for instance, while the highest court in France had fifty-one
judges, the English Court of Common Pleas had five. This powerful and tight-knit judiciary gave
rise to a rigid and inflexible system of common law. As a result, as time went on, increasing
numbers of citizens petitioned the King to override the common law, and on the King's behalf
the Lord Chancellor gave judgment to do what was equitable in a case. From the time of Sir
Thomas More, the first lawyer to be appointed as Lord Chancellor, a systematic body of equity
grew up alongside the rigid common law, and developed its own Court of Chancery. At first,
equity was often criticised as erratic, that it varied according to the length of the Chancellor's
foot. But over time it developed solid principles, especially under Lord Eldon. In the 19th
century the two systems were fused into one another. In developing the common law and equity,
academic authors have always played an important part. William Blackstone, from around 1760,

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was the first scholar to describe and teach it. But merely in describing, scholars who sought
explanations and underlying structures slowly changed the way the law actually worked.

Religious law

Religious law is explicitly based on religious precepts. Examples include the Jewish Halakha and
Islamic Shariaboth of which translate as the "path to follow"while Christian canon law also
survives in some church communities. Often the implication of religion for law is unalterability,
because the word of God cannot be amended or legislated against by judges or governments.
However a thorough and detailed legal system generally requires human elaboration. For
instance, the Quran has some law, and it acts as a source of further law through interpretation,
Qiyas (reasoning by analogy), Ijma (consensus) and precedent. This is mainly contained in a
body of law and jurisprudence known as Sharia and Fiqh respectively. Another example is the
Torah or Old Testament, in the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses. This contains the basic code
of Jewish law, which some Israeli communities choose to use. The Halakha is a code of Jewish
law which summarises some of the Talmud's interpretations. Nevertheless, Israeli law allows
litigants to use religious laws only if they choose. Canon law is only in use by members of the
clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican
Communion.

A trial in the Ottoman Empire, 1879, when religious law applied under the Mecelle

Until the 18th century, Sharia law was practiced throughout the Muslim world in a non-codified
form, with the Ottoman Empire's Mecelle code in the 19th century being first attempt at
codifying elements of Sharia law. Since the mid-1940s, efforts have been made, in country after
country, to bring Sharia law more into line with modern conditions and conceptions. In modern
times, the legal systems of many Muslim countries draw upon both civil and common law
traditions as well as Islamic law and custom. The constitutions of certain Muslim states, such as
Egypt and Afghanistan, recognise Islam as the religion of the state, obliging legislature to adhere
to Sharia. Saudi Arabia recognises Quran as its constitution, and is governed on the basis of
Islamic law. Iran has also witnessed a reiteration of Islamic law into its legal system after 1979.
During the last few decades, one of the fundamental features of the movement of Islamic
resurgence has been the call to restore the Sharia, which has generated a vast amount of literature
and affected world politics.

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Legal theory
History of law

King Hammurabi is revealed the code of laws by the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash, also
revered as the god of justice

The history of law is closely connected to the development of civilization. Ancient Egyptian law,
dating as far back as 3000 BC, contained a civil code that was probably broken into twelve
books. It was based on the concept of Ma'at, characterised by tradition, rhetorical speech, social
equality and impartiality. By the 22nd century BC, the ancient Sumerian ruler Ur-Nammu had
formulated the first law code, which consisted of casuistic statements ("if ... then ..."). Around
1760 BC, King Hammurabi further developed Babylonian law, by codifying and inscribing it in
stone. Hammurabi placed several copies of his law code throughout the kingdom of Babylon as
stelae, for the entire public to see; this became known as the Codex Hammurabi. The most intact
copy of these stelae was discovered in the 19th century by British Assyriologists, and has since
been fully transliterated and translated into various languages, including English, German, and
French.

The Old Testament dates back to 1280 BC, and takes the form of moral imperatives as
recommendations for a good society. The small Greek city-state, Ancient Athens, and from
about 8th century BC was the first society to be based on broad inclusion of its citizenry;
excluding women and the slave class. However, Athens had no legal science, and no word for
"law" as an abstract concept. Yet Ancient Greek law contained major constitutional innovations
in the development of democracy.

Roman law was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, but its detailed rules were developed
by professional jurists, and were highly sophisticated. Over the centuries between the rise and
decline of the Roman Empire, law was adapted to cope with the changing social situations, and
underwent major codification during Justinian I. Although it declined in significance during the
Dark Ages, Roman law was rediscovered around the 11th century when medival legal scholars

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began to research Roman codes and adapt their concepts. In medival England, the King's
judges developed a body of precedent, which later became the common law. A Europe-wide Lex
Mercatoria was formed so that merchants could trade with common standards of practice; rather
than with the many splintered facets of local laws. The Lex Mercatoria, a precursor to modern
commercial law, emphasised the freedom of contract and alienability of property. As nationalism
grew in the 18th and 19th centuries, Lex Mercatoria was incorporated into countries' local law
under new civil codes. The French Napoleonic Code and the German became the most
influential. In contrast to English common law, which consists of enormous tomes of case law,
codes in small books are easy to export and easy for judges to apply. However, today there are
signs that civil and common law are converging. EU law is codified in treaties, but develops
through the precedent laid down by the European Court of Justice.

The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution for a country, containing 444
articles, 12 schedules, numerous amendments and 117,369 words

Islamic law and jurisprudence developed during the Middle Ages. The methodology of legal
precedent and reasoning by analogy (Qiyas) used in early Islamic law was similar to that of the
later English common law system. This was particularly the case for the Maliki school of Islamic
law active in North Africa, Islamic Spain and the Emirate of Sicily. Between the 8th and 11th
centuries, Maliki law developed several legal institutions that were parallel with later common
law institutions.

Ancient India and China represent distinct traditions of law, and have historically had
independent schools of legal theory and practice. The Arthashastra, probably compiled around
100 AD (although it contains older material), and the Manusmriti (c. 100300 AD) were
foundational treatises in India, and comprise texts considered authoritative legal guidance.
Manu's central philosophy was tolerance and Pluralism, and was cited across Southeast Asia.
This Hindu tradition, along with Islamic law, was supplanted by the common law when India
became part of the British Empire. Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Hong Kong also adopted the
common law. The eastern Asia legal tradition reflects a unique blend of secular and religious
influences. Japan was the first country to begin modernising its legal system along western lines,

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by importing bits of the French, but mostly the German Civil Code. This partly reflected
Germany's status as a rising power in the late 19th century. Similarly, traditional Chinese law
gave way to westernisation towards the final years of the Ch'ing dynasty in the form of six
private law codes based mainly on the Japanese model of German law. Today Taiwanese law
retains the closest affinity to the codifications from that period, because of the split between
Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists, who fled there, and Mao Zedong's communists who won control
of the mainland in 1949. The current legal infrastructure in the People's Republic of China was
heavily influenced by Soviet Socialist law, which essentially inflates administrative law at the
expense of private law rights. Due to rapid industrialisation, today China undergoing a process of
reform, at least in terms of economic, if not social and political, rights. A new contract code in
1999 represented a move away from administrative domination. Furthermore, after negotiations
lasting fifteen years, in 2001 China joined the World Trade Organisation.

Philosophy of law

But what, after all, is a law? [...] When I say that the object of laws is always general, I mean that law
considers subjects en masse and actions in the abstract, and never a particular person or action. [...] On this
view, we at once see that it can no longer be asked whose business it is to make laws, since they are acts of the
general will; nor whether the prince is above the law, since he is a member of the State; nor whether the law
can be unjust, since no one is unjust to himself; nor how we can be both free and subject to the laws, since they
are but registers of our wills.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, II, 6.

The philosophy of law is commonly known as jurisprudence. Normative jurisprudence is

essentially political philosophy, and asks "what should law be?", while analytic jurisprudence
asks "what is law?". John Austin's utilitarian answer was that law is "commands, backed by
threat of sanctions, from a sovereign, to whom people have a habit of obedience". Natural
lawyers on the other side, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, argue that law reflects essentially
moral and unchangeable laws of nature. The concept of "natural law" emerged in ancient Greek
philosophy concurrently and in entanglement with the notion of justice, and re-entered the
mainstream of Western culture through the writings of Thomas Aquinas and the commentaries of
Islamic philosopher and jurist Averroes.

Hugo Grotius, the founder of a purely rationalistic system of natural law, argued that law arises
from both a social impulseas Aristotle had indicatedand reason. Immanuel Kant believed a
moral imperative requires laws "be chosen as though they should hold as universal laws of
nature". Jeremy Bentham and his student Austin, following David Hume, believed that this
conflated the "is" and what "ought to be" problem. Bentham and Austin argued for law's
positivism; that real law is entirely separate from "morality". Kant was also criticised by
Friedrich Nietzsche, who rejected the principle of equality, and believed that law emanates from
the will to power, and cannot be labelled as "moral" or "immoral".

In 1934, the Austrian philosopher Hans Kelsen continued the positivist tradition in his book the
Pure Theory of Law. Kelsen believed that although law is separate from morality, it is endowed
with "normativity"; meaning we ought to obey it. While laws are positive "is" statements (e.g.
the fine for reversing on a highway is 500); law tells us what we "should" do. Thus, each legal
system can be hypothesised to have a basic norm (Grundnorm) instructing us to obey. Kelsen's
major opponent, Carl Schmitt, rejected both positivism and the idea of the rule of law because he
did not accept the primacy of abstract normative principles over concrete political positions and
decisions. Therefore, Schmitt advocated a jurisprudence of the exception (state of emergency),
which denied that legal norms could encompass of all political experience.

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Bentham's utilitarian theories remained dominant in law until the 20th century

Later in the 20th century, H. L. A. Hart attacked Austin for his simplifications and Kelsen for his
fictions in The Concept of Law. Hart argued law is a system of rules, divided into primary (rules
of conduct) and secondary ones (rules addressed to officials to administer primary rules).
Secondary rules are further divided into rules of adjudication (to resolve legal disputes), rules of
change (allowing laws to be varied) and the rule of recognition (allowing laws to be identified as
valid). Two of Hart's students continued the debate: In his book Law's Empire, Ronald Dworkin
attacked Hart and the positivists for their refusal to treat law as a moral issue. Dworkin argues
that law is an "interpretive concept", that requires judges to find the best fitting and most just
solution to a legal dispute, given their constitutional traditions. Joseph Raz, on the other hand,
defended the positivist outlook and criticised Hart's "soft social thesis" approach in The Authority
of Law. Raz argues that law is authority, identifiable purely through social sources and without
reference to moral reasoning. In his view, any categorisation of rules beyond their role as
authoritative instruments in mediation are best left to sociology, rather than jurisprudence.

Economic analysis of law

In the 18th century Adam Smith presented a philosophical foundation for explaining the
relationship between law and economics. The discipline arose partly out of a critique of trade
unions and U.S. antitrust law. The most influential proponents, such as Richard Posner and
Oliver Williamson and the so-called Chicago School of economists and lawyers including
Milton Friedman and Gary Becker, are generally advocates of deregulation and privatisation, and
are hostile to state regulation or what they see as restrictions on the operation of free markets.

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Richard Posner, one of the Chicago School, runs a blog with Bank of Sweden Prize winning
economist Gary Becker.

The most prominent economic analyst of law is 1991 Nobel Prize winner Ronald Coase, whose
first major article, The Nature of the Firm (1937), argued that the reason for the existence of
firms (companies, partnerships, etc.) is the existence of transaction costs. Rational individuals
trade through bilateral contracts on open markets until the costs of transactions mean that using
corporations to produce things is more cost-effective. His second major article, The Problem of
Social Cost (1960), argued that if we lived in a world without transaction costs, people would
bargain with one another to create the same allocation of resources, regardless of the way a court
might rule in property disputes. Coase used the example of a nuisance case named Sturges v
Bridgman, where a noisy sweetmaker and a quiet doctor were neighbours and went to court to
see who should have to move. Coase said that regardless of whether the judge ruled that the
sweetmaker had to stop using his machinery, or that the doctor had to put up with it, they could
strike a mutually beneficial bargain about who moves house that reaches the same outcome of
resource distribution. Only the existence of transaction costs may prevent this. So the law ought
to pre-empt what would happen, and be guided by the most efficient solution. The idea is that
law and regulation are not as important or effective at helping people as lawyers and government
planners believe. Coase and others like him wanted a change of approach, to put the burden of
proof for positive effects on a government that was intervening in the market, by analysing the
costs of action.

Sociology of law

Sociology of law is a diverse field of study that examines the interaction of law with society and
overlaps with jurisprudence, economic analysis of law and more specialised subjects such as
criminology. The institutions of social construction and legal frameworks are the relevant areas
for the discipline's inquiry. At first, legal theorists were suspicious of the discipline. Kelsen
attacked one of its founders, Eugen Ehrlich, who sought to make distinct the differences between
positive law, which lawyers learn and apply, and other forms of 'law' or social norms that
regulate everyday life, generally preventing conflicts from reaching lawyers and courts.
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Max Weber in 1917, Weber began his career as a lawyer, and is regarded as one of the founders
of sociology and sociology of law,

Around 1900 Max Weber defined his "scientific" approach to law, identifying the "legal rational
form" as a type of domination, not attributable to people but to abstract norms. Legal rationalism
was his term for a body of coherent and calculable law which formed a precondition for modern
political developments and the modern bureaucratic state and developed in parallel with the
growth of capitalism. Another sociologist, mile Durkheim, wrote in The Division of Labour in
Society that as society becomes more complex, the body of civil law concerned primarily with
restitution and compensation grows at the expense of criminal laws and penal sanctions. Other
notable early legal sociologists included Hugo Sinzheimer, Theodor Geiger, Georges Gurvitch
and Leon Petraycki in Europe, and William Graham Sumner in the U.S.

Legal institutions
It is a real unity of them all in one and the same person, made by covenant of every man with every man, in
such manner as if every man should say to every man: I authorise and give up my right of governing myself to
this man, or to this assembly of men, on this condition; that thou givest up, thy right to him, and authorise all
his actions in like manner.

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, XVII

Law is less a body of static rules than a "dynamic process by which rules are constantly changed,
created, and molded to fit particular situations." Changes are continuously made by various
institutions in a society. Law's main institutions in liberal democracies are the independent
judiciaries, the justice systems, the representative legislatures or parliaments, an accountable
executive, a competent and non-corrupt bureaucracy, a police force, a civilian control of the
military and a robust legal profession ensuring people's access to justice and a pluralistic civil
societya term used to refer to the social institutions, communities and partnerships that form
law's political basis.

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John Locke, in his Two Treatises of Government, and Baron de Montesquieu in The Spirit of the
Laws, advocated for a separation of powers between the political, legislature and executive
bodies. Their principle was that no person should be able to usurp all powers of the state, in
contrast to the absolutist theory of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan. Max Weber and others reshaped
thinking on the extension of state. Modern military, policing and bureaucratic power over
ordinary citizens' daily lives pose special problems for accountability that earlier writers such as
Locke or Montesquieu could not have foreseen. Modern international organisations tend to focus
on the importance of rule of law and good governance, while other authors explore the relation
of rule of law and efficient governance in modern states.

Judiciary

A judiciary is a number of judges mediating disputes to determine outcome. Most countries have
systems of appeal courts, answering up to a supreme legal authority. In the United States, this is
the Supreme Court; in Australia, the High Court; in the UK, the House of Lords; in Germany, the
Bundesverfassungsgericht; in France, the Cour de Cassation. For most European countries the
European Court of Justice in Luxembourg can overrule national law, when EU law is relevant.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg allows citizens of the Council of Europe
member states to bring cases relating to human rights issues before it.

The judges of the International Court of Justice in the Hague

Some countries allow their highest judicial authority to over-rule legislation they determined as
unconstitutional. In Roe v Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Texas law which forbade
the granting of assistance to women seeking abortion. The U.S.'s constitution's fourteenth
amendment was interpreted to give Americans a right to privacy, and thus a woman's right to
choose abortion.

A judiciary is theoretically bound by the constitution, much as legislative bodies are. In most
countries judges may only interpret the constitution and all other laws. But in common law
countries, where matters are not constitutional, the judiciary may also create law under the
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doctrine of precedent. The UK, Finland and New Zealand assert the ideal of parliamentary
sovereignty, whereby the unelected judiciary may not overturn law passed by a democratic
legislature. In communist states, such as China, the courts are often regarded as parts of the
executive, or subservient to the legislature; governmental institutions and actors exert thus
various forms of influence on the judiciary. In Muslim countries, courts often examine whether
state laws adhere to the Sharia: the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt may invalidate such
laws, and in Iran the Guardian Council ensures the compatibility of the legislation with the
"criteria of Islam".

Legislature

The debating chamber of the European Parliament

Prominent examples of legislatures are the Houses of Parliament in London, the Congress in
Washington D.C., the Bundestag in Berlin, the Duma in Moscow, the Parlamento Italiano in
Rome and the Assemble nationale in Paris. By the principle of representative government
people vote for politicians to carry out their wishes. Although countries like Israel, Greece,
Sweden and China are unicameral, most countries are bicameral, meaning they have two
separately appointed legislative houses. In the 'lower house' politicians are elected to represent
smaller constituencies. The 'upper house' is usually elected to represent states in a federal system
(as in Australia, Germany or the United States) or different voting configuration in a unitary
system (as in France). In the UK the upper house is appointed by the government as a house of
review. One criticism of bicameral systems with two elected chambers is that the upper and
lower houses may simply mirror one another. The traditional justification of bicameralism is that
an upper chamber acts as a house of review. This can minimise arbitrariness and injustice in
governmental action.

To pass legislation, a majority of Members of Parliament must vote for a bill (proposed law) in
each house. Normally there will be several readings and amendments proposed by the different
political factions. If a country has an entrenched constitution, a special majority for changes to
the constitution will be required, making changes to the law more difficult. A government

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usually leads the process, which can be formed from Members of Parliament (e.g. the UK or
Germany). But in a presidential system, an executive appoints a cabinet to govern from his or her
political allies whether or not they are elected (e.g. the United States or Brazil), and the
legislature's role is reduced to either ratification or veto.

Executive

The G20 meetings are composed of representatives of each country's executive branch

The executive in a legal system serve as a government's centre of political authority. In a

parliamentary system, as with Britain, Italy, Germany, India, and Japan, the executive is known
as the cabinet, and composed of members of the legislature. The executive is chosen by the
Prime Minister or Chancellor, whose office holds power under the confidence of the legislature.
Because popular elections appoint political parties to govern, the leader of a party can change in
between elections. The head of state is apart from the executive, and symbolically enacts laws
and acts as representative of the nation. Examples include the German president (appointed by
the Parliament); the Queen of the United Kingdom (a hereditary title), and the Austrian president
(elected by popular vote). The other important model is the presidential system, found in France,
the U.S. and Russia. In presidential systems, the executive acts as both head of state and head of
government, and has power to appoint an unelected cabinet. Under a presidential system, the
executive branch is separate from the legislature to which is not accountable.

Although the role of the executive varies from country to country, usually it will propose the
majority of legislation, and propose government agenda. In presidential systems, the executive
often has the power to veto legislation. Most executives in both systems are responsible for
foreign relations, the military and police, and the bureaucracy. Ministers or other officials head a
country's public offices, such as a foreign ministry or interior ministry. The election of a different
executive is therefore capable of revolutionising an entire country's approach to government.

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Military and police

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers

While military organizations have existed as long as government itself, the idea of a standing
police force is relatively modern concept. Medival England's system of traveling criminal
courts, or assizes, used show trials and public executions to instill communities with fear to
maintain control. The first modern police were probably those in 17th-century Paris, in the court
of Louis XIV, although the Paris Prefecture of Police claim they were the world's first uniformed
policemen.

Weber famously argued that the state is that which controls the legitimate monopoly of the
means of violence. The military and police carry out enforcement at the request of the
government or the courts. The term failed state refers to states that cannot implement or enforce
policies; their police and military no longer control security and order and society moves into
anarchy, the absence of government.

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Bureaucracy

The United Nations' New York headquarters houses civil servants that serve its 192 member
states.

The etymology of "bureaucracy" derives from the French word for "office" (bureau) and the
Ancient Greek for word "power" (kratos). Like the military and police, a legal system's
government servants and bodies that make up its bureaucracy carry out the directives of the
executive. One of the earliest references to the concept was made by Baron de Grimm, a German
author who lived in France. In 1765 he wrote,

The real spirit of the laws in France is that bureaucracy of which the late Monsieur de Gournay used to
complain so greatly; here the offices, clerks, secretaries, inspectors and intendants are not appointed to
benefit the public interest, indeed the public interest appears to have been established so that offices might
exist.

Cynicism over "officialdom" is still common, and the workings of public servants is typically
contrasted to private enterprise motivated by profit. In fact private companies, especially large
ones, also have bureaucracies. Negative perceptions of "red tape" aside, public services such as
schooling, health care, policing or public transport are a crucial state function making public
bureaucratic action the locus of government power. Writing in the early 20th century, Max
Weber believed that a definitive feature of a developed state had come to be its bureaucratic
support. Weber wrote that the typical characteristics of modern bureaucracy are that officials
define its mission, the scope of work is bound by rules, management is composed of career
experts, who manage top down, communicating through writing and binding public servants'
discretion with rules.

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Legal profession

In civil law systems such as those of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Greece, there is a distinct
category of notary, a legally trained public official, compensated by the parties to a transaction.
This is a 16th-century painting of such a notary by Flemish painter Quentin Massys.

A corollary of the rule of law is the existence of a legal profession sufficiently autonomous to be
able to invoke the authority of the independent judiciary; the right to assistance of an advocate in
a court proceeding emanates from this corollaryin England the function of barrister or
advocate is distinguished from legal counselor (solicitor). As the European Court of Human
Rights has stated, the law should be adequately accessible to everyone and people should be able
to foresee how the law affects them. In order to maintain professionalism, the practice of law is
typically overseen by either a government or independent regulating body such as a bar
association, bar council or law society. Modern lawyers achieve distinct professional identity
through specified legal procedures (e.g. successfully passing a qualifying examination), are
required by law to have a special qualification (a legal education earning the student a Bachelor
of Laws, a Bachelor of Civil Law or a Juris Doctor degree), and are constituted in office by legal
forms of appointment (being admitted to the bar). Most Muslim countries have developed similar
rules about legal education and the legal profession, but some still allow lawyers with training in
traditional Islamic law to practice law before personal status law courts. In China and other
developing countries there are not enough law-trained people to staff the existing judicial
systems, and, accordingly, formal standards are more relaxed.

Once accredited, a lawyer will often work in a law firm, in a chambers as a sole practitioner, in a
government post or in a private corporation as an internal counsel. In addition a lawyer may
become a legal researcher who provides on-demand legal research through a library, a
commercial service or through freelance work. Many people trained in law put their skills to use
outside the legal field entirely. Significant to the practice of law in the common law tradition is
the legal research to determine the current state of the law. This usually entails exploring case-
law reports, legal periodicals and legislation. Law practice also involves drafting documents such
as court pleadings, persuasive briefs, contracts, or wills and trusts. Negotiation and dispute

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resolution skills (including ADR techniques) are also important to legal practice, depending on
the field.

Civil society

A march in Washington D.C. during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in 1963

Classical republican concept of "civil society" dates back to Hobbes and Locke. Locke saw civil
society as people who have "a common established law and judicature to appeal to, with
authority to decide controversies between them." German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Hegel distinguished the "state" from "civil society" (burgerliche Gesellschaft) in Elements of the
Philosophy of Right. Hegel believed that civil society and the state were polar opposites, within
the scheme of his dialectic theory of history. The modern dipole statecivil society was
reproduced in the theories of Alexis de Tocqueville and Karl Marx. Nowadays in post-modern
theory civil society is necessarily a source of law, by being the basis from which people form
opinions and lobby for what they believe law should be. As Australian barrister and author
Geoffrey Robertson QC wrote of international law,

... one of its primary modern sources is found in the responses of ordinary men and women, and of the
non-governmental organizations which many of them support, to the human rights abuses they see on the
television screen in their living rooms.

Freedom of speech, freedom of association and many other individual rights allow people to
gather, discuss, criticise and hold to account their governments, from which the basis of a
deliberative democracy is formed. The more people are involved with, concerned by and capable
of changing how political power is exercised over their lives, the more acceptable and legitimate
the law becomes to the people. The most familiar institutions of civil society include economic
markets, profit-oriented firms, families, trade unions, hospitals, universities, schools, charities,
debating clubs, non-governmental organisations, neighbourhoods, churches, and religious
associations.

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 Freedom
Freedom is the state of not being imprisoned, enslaved, or otherwise constrained, or more
specifically:

Freedom of will, the ability of rational agents to exercise control over their actions,
decisions, or choices
Political freedom, the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the
use of coercion or aggression
Economic freedom, most commonly defined as the freedom to produce, trade and
consume any goods and services acquired without the use of force, fraud or theft

Freedom of religion
Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in
public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance;
the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to
follow any religion. Freedom of religion is considered by many people and nations to be a
fundamental human right. Thomas Jefferson said (1807) "among the inestimable of our
blessings, also, is that ...of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable to
His will; ..."

In a country with a state religion, freedom of religion is generally considered to mean that the
government permits religious practices of other sects besides the state religion, and does not
persecute believers in other faiths.

History of freedom of religion

Minerva as a symbol of enlightened wisdom protects the believers of all religions (Daniel
Chodowiecki, 1791)

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The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) guarantees freedom of religion,
as long as religious activities do not infringe on public order in ways detrimental to society.

Historically freedom of religion has been used to refer to the tolerance of different theological
systems of belief, while freedom of worship was defined as freedom of individual action. Each of
these have existed to varying degrees. While many countries have accepted some form of
religious freedom, this has also often been limited in practice through punitive taxation,
repressive social legislation, and political disenfranchisement. Compare examples of individual
freedom in Italy or the Muslim tradition of dhimmis, literally "protected individuals" professing
an officially tolerated non-Muslim religion.

Antiquity

Freedom of religious worship was established in the Maurya Empire of ancient India by Asoka
the Great in the 3rd century BC, which was encapsulated in the Edicts of Ashoka.

In Antiquity a syncretic point-of-view often allowed communities of traders to operate under

their own customs. When street mobs of separate quarters clashed in a Hellenistic or Roman city,
the issue was generally perceived to be an infringement of community rights. The Greek-Jewish
clashes at Cyrene and Alexandria provided one example of cosmopolitan cities as scenes of
tumult.

Some of the historical exceptions have been in regions where one of the revealed religions has
been in a position of power: Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam. Others have been
where the established order has felt threatened, as shown in the trial of Socrates or where the
ruler has been deified, as in Rome, and refusal to offer token sacrifice was similar to refusing to
take an oath of allegiance. This was the core for resentment and the persecution of early
Christian communities.

Religious freedom for Muslims, Jews and pagans was declared in the Constitution of Medina by
Muhammad in the 7th century AD. The Islamic Caliphate later guaranteed religious freedom
under the conditions that non-Muslim communities accept dhimmi (protected) status and their
adult males pay the jizya tax as a substitute for the zakat paid by Muslim citizens.

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Europe

The cross of the war memorial and a menorah for Hanukkah coexist in Oxford.

The Norman Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II was characterized by its multi-ethnic nature and
religious tolerance. Normans, Jews, Muslim Arabs, Byzantine Greeks, Lombards and "native"
Sicilians lived in harmony. Rather than exterminate the Muslims of Sicily, Roger II's grandson
Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (12151250) allowed them to settle on the mainland and
build mosques. Not least, he enlisted them in his Christian army and even into his personal
bodyguards.

After the fall of the city of Granada Spain in 1492 the Muslim population was promised religious
freedom by the Treaty of Granada, but that promise was short-lived. In 1501 Granada's Muslims
were given an ultimatum to either convert to Christianity or to emigrate. The majority converted,
but only superficially, continuing to dress and speak as they had before and to secretly practice
Islam. The Moriscos (converts to Christianity) were ultimately expelled from Spain between
1609 (Castile) and 1614 (rest of Spain), by Philip III.

The Roman Catholic Church kept a tight rein on religious expression throughout the Middle
Ages. Jews were alternately tolerated and persecuted, the most notable examples of the latter
being the expulsion of all Jews from Spain in 1492. Some of those who remained and converted
were tried as heretics in the Inquisition for allegedly practicing Judaism in secret. Despite the
persecution of Jews, they were the most tolerated non-Catholic faith in Europe.

However, the latter was in part a reaction to the growing movement that became the
Reformation. As early as 1380, John Wycliffe in England denied transubstantiation and began
his translation of the Bible into English. He was condemned in a Papal Bull in 1410, and all his
books were burned.

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In 1414 Jan Hus, a Bohemian preacher of reformation, was given a safe conduct by the Holy
Roman Emperor to attend the Council of Constance. Not entirely trusting in his safety, he made
his will before he left. His forebodings proved accurate, and he was burned at the stake on July 6,
1415. The Council also decreed that Wycliffe's remains be disinterred and cast out. This decree
was not carried out until 1429.

Martin Luther published his famous 95 Theses in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. His aim was
to stop the sale of indulgences and reform the Church from within, but this was not the result. In
1521 he was given the chance to recant at the Diet of Worms before Charles V, Holy Roman
Emperor, then only 19. After he refused to recant he was declared heretic. Partly for his own
protection, he was sequestered on the Wartburg in the possessions of Frederick III, Elector of
Saxony, where he translated the New Testament into German. He was excommunicated by Papal
Bull in 1521.

The Protestant movement, however, continued to gain ground in his absence and spread to
Switzerland. Huldrych Zwingli preached reform in Zrich from 1520 to 1523. He opposed the
sale of indulgences, celibacy, pilgrimages, pictures, statues, relics, altars, and organs. This
culminated in outright war between the Swiss cantons that accepted Protestantism and the
Catholics. The Catholics were victorious, and Zwingli was killed in battle in 1531. The Catholic
cantons were magnanimous in victory.

In the meantime, in Germany Philip Melanchthon drafted the Augsburg Confession as a common
confession for the Lutherans and the free territories. It was presented to Charles V in 1530.

The defiance of Papal authority proved contagious, and in 1533, when Henry VIII of England
was excommunicated for his divorce and remarriage to Anne Boleyn, he promptly established a
state church with bishops appointed by the crown. This was not without internal opposition, and
Thomas More, who had been his Lord Chancellor, was executed in 1535 for opposition to
Henry.

In 1535 the Swiss canton of Geneva became Protestant. In 1536 the Bernese imposed the
reformation on the canton of Vaud by conquest. They sacked the cathedral in Lausanne and
destroyed all its art and statuary. John Calvin, who had been active in Geneva was expelled in
1538 in a power struggle, but he was invited back in 1540.

A U.S. Postage Stamp commemorating religious freedom and the Flushing Remonstrance.

The same kind of seesaw back and forth between Protestantism and Catholicism was evident in
England when Mary I of England returned that country briefly to the Catholic fold in 1553 and
persecuted Protestants. However, her half-sister, Elizabeth I of England was to restore the
Church of England in 1558, this time permanently, and began to persecute Catholics again. The
King James Bible commissioned by King James I of England and published in 1611 proved a
landmark for Protestant worship, with official Catholic forms of worship being banned.
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Hungarian historians consider the first full religious freedom law to be the "act rank" created by
Edict of Turda in Transylvania in 1568. However, this law sets a two-level, unequal playing
field, by declaring the religions of the Hungarian, szkely and Saxons the equivalent of a state
religion, while the Orthodox is conferred only "tolerated" status.

In the Union of Utrecht, January 20, 1579 personal freedom of religion was declared in the
struggle between the Northern Netherlands and Spain. The Union of Utrecht was an important
step in the establishment of the Dutch Republic (from 1581 to 1795). The establishment of a
Jewish community in the Netherlands and New Amsterdam (present day New York)during the
Dutch republic is an example of the freedom of religion. When New Amsterdam surrendered to
the English in 1664, the freedom of religion was guarantied in the Articles of Capitulation.

Intolerance of dissident forms of Protestantism also continued, as evidenced by the exodus of the
Pilgrims who sought refuge, first in the Netherlands, and ultimately in America, founding the
Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620. William Penn, the founder of Philadelphia was
involved in a case which had a profound effect upon future American law and those of England.
In a classic case of jury nullification the jury refused to convict William Penn of preaching a
Quaker sermon, which was illegal. Even though the jury was imprisoned for their acquittal, they
stood by their decision and helped establish the freedom of religion.

In the Holy Roman Empire, Charles V agreed to tolerate Lutheranism in 1555 at the Peace of
Augsburg. Each state was to take the religion of its prince, but within those states, there was not
necessarily religious tolerance. Citizens of other faiths could relocate to a more hospitable
environment.

In 1558 the Transylvanian Diet of Turda declared free practice of both the Catholic and Lutheran
religions, but prohibited Calvinism. Ten years later, in 1568, the Diet extended the freedom to all
religions, declaring that "It is not allowed to anybody to intimidate anybody with captivity or
expelling for his religion". The Edict of Turda is considered by mostly Hungarian historians as
the first legal guarantee of religious freedom in the Christian Europe.

In France, although peace was made between Protestants and Catholics at the Treaty of Saint
Germain in 1570, persecution continued, most notably in the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's
Day on August 24, 1572, in which many Protestants throughout France were killed. It was not
until the converted Protestant prince Henry IV of France came to the throne that religious
tolerance was formalized in the Edict of Nantes in 1598. It would remain in force for over 80
years until its revocation in 1685 by Louis XIV of France. Intolerance remained the norm until
the French Revolution, when state religion was abolished and all Church property confiscated.

Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic) enjoyed religious freedom between 1436 and 1620, and
became one of the most liberal countries of the Christian world during that period of time. The
so-called Basel Compacts of 1436 declared the freedom of religion and peace between Catholics
and Utraquists. In 1609 Emperor Rudolf II granted Bohemia greater religious liberty with his
Letter of Majesty. The privileged position of the Catholic Church in the Czech kingdom was
firmly established after the Battle of White Mountain in 1620. Gradually freedom of religion in
Bohemian lands came to an end and Protestants fled or were expelled from the country. A devout
Catholic, Emperor Ferdinand II forcibly converted Austrian and Bohemian Protestants.

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Contemporary situation of religious freedom in the world

Freedom of religion by country (Pew Research Center study, 2009). Light yellow: low
restriction; red: very high restriction on freedom of religion.

The Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life performed a study on religious
freedom in the world, for which data were gathered from 16 governmental and non-
governmental organisations including the United Nations, the U.S. State Department and
Human Rights Watch - and representing over 99.5 percent of the world's population. According
to the results, that were published in December 2009, about one-third of the countries in the
world have high or very high restrictions on religion, and nearly 70 percent of the world's
population lives in countries with heavy restrictions on freedom of religion. This concerns
restrictions on religion originating from both national authorities and social hostilities undertaken
by private individuals, organisations and social groups. Government restrictions included
constitutional limitations or other prohibitions on free speech.

Social hostilities were measured by religion-related terrorism and violence between religious
groups.

The countries of North and South America reportedly had some of the lowest levels of
government and social restrictions on religion, while The Middle East and North Africa were the
regions with the highest.

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran were the countries that top the list of countries with the overall
highest levels of restriction on religion.

Of the world's 25 most populous countries, Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and India had the
most restrictions, while Brazil, Japan, the United States, Italy, France, South Africa and the
United Kingdom had some of the lowest levels.

While the Middle East, North Africa and the Americas exhibit either extremely high or low
levels of government and social restrictions, these two variables do not always move together:
Vietnam and China, for instance, had high government restrictions on religion but were in the
moderate or low range when it came to social hostilities. Nigeria and Bangladesh follow the
opposite pattern: high in social hostilities but moderate in terms of government actions.

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The study found that government restrictions were relatively low in the U.S., but the levels of
religious hostilities were higher than those reported in a number of other large democracies, such
as Brazil and Japan.

While most countries provided for the protection of religious freedom in their constitutions or
laws, only a quarter of those countries were found to fully respect these legal rights in practice.

In 75 countries - four in 10 in the world - governments limit the efforts of religious groups to
proselytise and in 178 countries - 90 percent - religious groups must register with the
government.

India and China, also exhibited extreme, but different restrictions on religion. China showed very
high levels of government restriction but low to moderate levels of social hostilities, while India
showed very high social hostilities but only moderate to high levels of government restrictions.

Topping the government restrictions index were Saudi Arabia, Iran, Uzbekistan, China, Egypt,
Burma, Maldives, Eritrea, Malaysia and Brunei.

At the top of the social hostilities index were Iraq, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia,
Bangladesh, Somalia, Israel, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Saudi Arabia

Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship and/or limitation. The
synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of
verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of
the medium used. In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country and
the right is commonly subject to limitations, such as on "hate speech".

The right to freedom of speech is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The ICCPR recognizes the right
to freedom of speech as "the right to hold opinions without interference. Everyone shall have the
right to freedom of expression". Furthermore freedom of speech is recognized in European, inter-
American and African regional human rights law.

It is different from and not to be confused with the concept of freedom of thought.

The right to freedom of speech and expression

The freedom of speech can be found in early human rights documents and the modern concept of
freedom of speech emerged gradually during the European Enlightenment. Englands Bill of
Rights 1689 granted 'freedom of speech in Parliament' and the Declaration of the Rights of Man
and of the Citizen, which issued from the French Revolution of 1789, specifically affirmed
freedom of speech as an inalienable right. The Declaration provides for freedom of expression in
Article 11, which states that:

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"The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every
citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of
this freedom as shall be defined by law."

Today freedom of speech, or the freedom of expression, is recognized in international and

regional human rights law. The right is enshrined in Article 19 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 13
of the American Convention on Human Rights and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human
and Peoples' Rights. Based on John Stuart Mill's arguments, freedom of speech today is
understood as a multi-faceted right that includes not only the right to express, or disseminate,
information and ideas, but three further distinct aspects:

the right to seek information and ideas;

the right to receive information and ideas;
the right to impart information and ideas.

International, regional and national standards also recognize that freedom of speech, as the
freedom of expression, includes any medium, be it orally, in written, in print, through the
Internet or through art forms. This means that the protection of freedom of speech as a right
includes not only the content, but also the means of expression.

Relationship to other rights

The right to freedom of speech and expression is closely related to other rights, and may be
limited when conflicting with other rights (see Limitations on freedom of speech). The right to
freedom of expression is also related to the right to a fair trial and court proceeding which may
limit access to the search for information or determine the opportunity and means in which
freedom of expression is manifested within court proceedings. As a general principle freedom of
expression may not limit the right to privacy, as well as the honor and reputation of others.
However greater latitude is given when criticism of public figures is involved. The right to
freedom of expression is particularly important for media, which plays a special role as the
bearer of the general right to freedom of expression for all. However, freedom of the press is not
necessarily enabling freedom of speech. Judith Lichtenberg has outlined conditions in which
freedom of the press may constrain freedom of speech, for example where the media suppresses
information or stifles the diversity of voices inherent in freedom of speech. Lichtenberg argues
that freedom of the press is simply a form of property right summed up by the principle "no
money, no voice".

Origins and academic freedom

Freedom of speech and expression has a long history that predates modern international human
rights instruments. Ancient Athenians believed that the power of persuasion is the most enduring
force in a culture, one that must not and can not be stifled. It is thought that ancient Athens
democratic ideology of free speech emerged in the early 7th or later 6th Century BC. Two of the
most cherished values of the Roman Republic were freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
In Islamic ethics freedom of speech was first declared in the Rashidun period by the caliph Umar
in the 7th century. In the Abbasid Caliphate period, freedom of speech was also declared by al-
Hashimi (a cousin of Caliph al-Ma'mun) in a letter to one of the religious opponents he was
attempting to convert through reason. According to George Makdisi and Hugh Goddard, "the
idea of academic freedom" in universities was "modelled on Islamic custom" as practiced in the
medieval Madrasah system from the 9th century. Islamic influence was "certainly discernible in

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the foundation of the first deliberately-planned university" in Europe, the University of Naples
Federico II founded by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor in 1224.

Freedom of speech, dissent and truth

First page of John Milton's 1644 edition of Areopagitica, in it he argued forcefully against the
Licensing Order of 1643.

Before the invention of the printing press a writing, once created, could only be physically
multiplied by the highly laborious and error-prone process of manual copying out and an
elaborate system of censorship and control over scribes existed. Printing allowed for multiple
exact copies of a work, leading to a more rapid and widespread circulation of ideas and
information (see print culture). The origins of copyright law in most European countries lies in
efforts by the church and governments to regulate and control the output of printers. In 1501
Pope Alexander VI issued a bull against the unlicensed printing of books and in 1559 the Index
Expurgatorius, or List of Prohibited Books, was issued for the first time. While governments and
church encouraged printing in many ways, which allowed the dissemination of Bibles and
government information, works of dissent and criticism could also circulate rapidly. As a
consequence, governments established controls over printers across Europe, requiring them to
have official licences to trade and produce books.

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Title page of Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or List of Prohibited Books, (Venice 1564).

The notion that the expression of dissent or subversive views should be tolerated, not censured or
punished by law, developed alongside the rise of printing and the press. The Areopagitica,
published in 1644 under the full title Areopagitica: A speech of Mr. John Milton for the liberty of
unlicensed printing to the Parliament of England, was John Milton's response to the British
parliament re-introducing government licensing of printers, hence publishers. Milton made an
impassioned please for freedom of expression and toleration of falsehood, stating:

"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties."

Milton's defence of freedom of expression was grounded in a Protestant world view and he
thought that the English people had the mission to work out the truth of the Reformation, which
would lead to the enlightenment of all people. But Milton also articulated the main strands of
future discussions about freedom of expression. By defining the scope of freedom of expression
and of "harmful" speech Milton argued against the principle of pre-censorship and in favour of
tolerance for a wide range of views.

As the "menace" of printing spread governments established centralised control mechanism. The
French crown repressed printing and the printer Etienne Dolet was burned at the stake in 1546.
In 1557 the British Crown thought to stem the flow of seditious and heretical books by
chartering the Stationers' Company. The right to print was limited to the members of that guild,
and thirty years later the Star Chamber was chartered to curtail the "greate enormities and
abuses" of "dyvers contentyous and disorderlye persons professinge the arte or mystere of
pryntinge or selling of books." The right to print was restricted to two universities and to the 21
existing printers in the city of London, which had 53 printing presses. As the British crown took
control of type founding in 1637 printers fled to the Netherlands. Confrontation with authority
made printers radical and rebellious, with 800 authors, printers and book dealers being
incarcerated in the Bastille before it was stormed in 1789.

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The free speech zone at the 2004 Democratic National Convention

A succession of English thinkers developed the idea of a right to freedom of expression, starting
with John Milton (160874), then John Lock (16321704) and culminating in John Stuart Mill
(18061873). Locke established the individual as the unit of value and the bearer of rights to life,
liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness. It was the role of Government to protect these
rights and this believe was first enshrined in the US Constitution, with the First Amendment
adding the guarantee that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press". John Stuart Mill argued that human freedom is good and without it there can be no
progress in science, law or politics, which according to Mill required free discussion of opinion.
Mill's On Liberty, published in 1859 became a classic defence of the right to freedom of
expression. Mill argued that truth drives out falsity, therefore the free expression of ideas, true or
false, should not be feared. Truth is not stable or fixed, but evolves with time. Mill argued that
much of what we once considered true has turned out false. Therefore views should not be
prohibited for their apparent falsity. Mill also argued that free discussion is necessary to prevent
the "deep slumber of a decided opinion". Discussion would drive the onwards march of truth and
by considering false views the basis of true views could be re-affirmed.

In Evelyn Beatrice Hall's biography of Voltaire, she coined the following phrase to illustrate
Voltaire's beliefs: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say
it." Hall's quote is frequently cited to describe the principle of freedom of speech. In the 20th
Century Noam Chomsky states that: "If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in
freedom of speech for views you don't like. Stalin and Hitler, for example, were dictators in
favor of freedom of speech for views they liked only. If you're in favor of freedom of speech,
that means you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise." Professor Lee
Bollinger argues that "the free speech principle involves a special act of carving out one area of
social interaction for extraordinary self-restraint, the purpose of which is to develop and
demonstrate a social capacity to control feelings evoked by a host of social encounters."
Bollinger argues that tolerance is a desirable value, if not essential. However, critics argue that
society should be concerned by those who directly deny or advocate, for example, genocide (see
Limitations on freedom of speech).

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Democracy

The notion of freedom of expression is intimately linked to political debate and the concept of
democracy. The norms on limiting freedom of expression mean that public debate may not be
completely suppressed even in times of emergency. One of the most notable proponents of the
link between freedom of speech and democracy is Alexander Meiklejohn. He argues that the
concept of democracy is that of self-government by the people. For such a system to work an
informed electorate is necessary. In order to be appropriately knowledgeable, there must be no
constraints on the free flow of information and ideas. According to Meiklejohn, democracy will
not be true to its essential ideal if those in power are able to manipulate the electorate by
withholding information and stifling criticism. Meiklejohn acknowledges that the desire to
manipulate opinion can stem from the motive of seeking to benefit society. However, he argues,
choosing manipulation negates, in its means, the democratic ideal. Eric Barendt has called the
defence of free speech on the grounds of democracy "probably the most attractive and certainly
the most fashionable free speech theory in modern Western democracies".

Thomas I. Emerson expanded on this defence when he argued that freedom of speech helps to
provide a balance between stability and change. Freedom of speech acts as a "safety valve" to let
off steam when people might otherwise be bent on revolution. He argues that "The principle of
open discussion is a method of achieving a moral adaptable and at the same time more stable
community, of maintaining the precarious balance between healthy cleavage and necessary
consensus." Emerson furthermore maintains that "Opposition serves a vital social function in
offsetting or ameliorating (the) normal process of bureaucratic decay."

Research undertaken by the Worldwide Governance Indicators project at the World Bank,
indicates that freedom of speech, and the process of accountability that follows it, have a
significant impact in the quality of governance of a country. "Voice and Accountability" within a
country, defined as "the extent to which a country's citizens are able to participate in selecting
their government, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of association, and free media" is
one of the six dimensions of governance that the Worldwide Governance Indicators measure for
more than 200 countries.

Social interaction and community

Richard Moon has developed the argument that the value of freedom of speech and freedom of
expression lies with social interactions. Moon writes that "by communicating an individual
forms relationships and associations with others - family, friends, co-workers, church
congregation, and countrymen. By entering into discussion with others an individual participates
in the development of knowledge and in the direction of the community."

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Limitations on freedom of speech

A National Geographic Magazine censored by Iranian authorities. The picture hidden beneath
the white sticker is of an embracing couple. February 2006.
For specific country examples see Freedom of speech by country, and Criminal speech.

According to the Freedom Forum Organization, legal systems, and society at large, recognize
limits on the freedom of speech, particularly when freedom of speech conflicts with other values
or rights. Limitations to freedom of speech may follow the "harm principle" or the "offense
principle", for example in the case of pornography or "hate speech". Limitations to freedom of
speech may occur through legal sanction and/or social disapprobation.

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Members of Westboro Baptist Church have been specifically banned from entering Canada for
hate speech.

In "On Liberty" (1859) John Stuart Mill argued that "...there ought to exist the fullest liberty of
professing and discussing, as a matter of ethical conviction, any doctrine, however immoral it
may be considered." Mill argues that the fullest liberty of expression is required to push
arguments to their logical limits, rather than the limits of social embarrassment. However, Mill
also introduced what is known as the harm principle, in placing the following limitation on free
expression: "the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a
civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.

In 1985 Joel Feinberg introduced what is known as the "offence principle", arguing that Mill's
harm principle does not provide sufficient protection against the wrongful behaviours of others.
Feinberg wrote "It is always a good reason in support of a proposed criminal prohibition that it
would probably be an effective way of preventing serious offense (as opposed to injury or harm)
to persons other than the actor, and that it is probably a necessary means to that end." Hence
Feinberg argues that the harm principle sets the bar too high and that some forms of expression
can be legitimately prohibited by law because they are very offensive. But, as offending
someone is less serious than harming someone, the penalties imposed should be higher for
causing harm. In contrast Mill does not support legal penalties unless they are based on the harm
principle. Because the degree to which people may take offense varies, or may be the result of
unjustified prejudice, Feinberg suggests that a number of factors need to be taken into account
when applying the offense principle, including: the extent, duration and social value of the
speech, the ease with which it can be avoided, the motives of the speaker, the number of people
offended, the intensity of the offense, and the general interest of the community at large.

The Internet and Information Society

Jo Glanville, editor of the Index on Censorship, states that "the Internet has been a revolution for
censorship as much as for free speech". International, national and regional standards recognise
that freedom of speech, as one form of freedom of expression, applies to any medium, including
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the Internet. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Declaration of Principles
adopted in 2003 makes specific reference to the importance of the right to freedom of expression
for the "Information Society" in stating:

"We reaffirm, as an essential foundation of the Information Society, and as outlined in Article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
expression; that this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Communication is a
fundamental social process, a basic human need and the foundation of all social organisation. It is central
to the Information Society. Everyone, everywhere should have the opportunity to participate and no one
should be excluded from the benefits of the Information Society offers."

Freedom of information

Freedom of information is an extension of freedom of speech where the medium of expression is

the Internet. Freedom of information may also refer to the right to privacy in the context of the
Internet and information technology. As with the right to freedom of expression, the right to
privacy is a recognised human right and freedom of information acts as an extension to this right.
Freedom of information may also concern censorship in an information technology context, i.e.
the ability to access Web content, without censorship or restrictions.

Freedom of information is also explicitly protected by acts such as the Freedom of Information
and Protection of Privacy Act of Ontario, in Canada.

Internet censorship

A website blocked in Bahrain

The concept of freedom of information has emerged in response to state sponsored censorship,
monitoring and surveillance of the internet. Internet censorship includes the control or
suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet. The Global Internet
Freedom Consortium claims to remove blocks to the "free flow of information" for what they

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term "closed societies". According to the Reporters without Borders (RSF) "internet enemy list"
the following states engage in pervasive internet censorship: Belarus, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran,
Myanmar/Burma, North Korea, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

A widely publicised example of internet censorship is the "Great Firewall of China" (in reference
both to its role as a network firewall and to the ancient Great Wall of China). The system blocks
content by preventing IP addresses from being routed through and consists of standard firewall
and proxy servers at the Internet gateways. The system also selectively engages in DNS
poisoning when particular sites are requested. The government does not appear to be
systematically examining Internet content, as this appears to be technically impractical. Internet
censorship in the People's Republic of China is conducted under a wide variety of laws and
administrative regulations. In accordance with these laws, more than sixty Internet regulations
have been made by the People's Republic of China (PRC) government, and censorship systems
are vigorously implemented by provincial branches of state-owned ISPs, business companies,
and organizations.

Freedom of thought
Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience and freedom of ideas) is the freedom
of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others'
viewpoints. It is different from and not to be confused with the concept of freedom of
expression.

Explanation

To deny a person's freedom of thought is to deny what can be considered one's most basic
freedom: to think for oneself.

Since the whole concept of 'freedom of thought' rests on the freedom of the individual to believe
whatever one thinks is best (freedom of belief), the notion of 'freedom of religion' is closely
related and inextricably bound up with these. While in many societies and forms of government,
there has been effectively no freedom of religion or belief, this same freedom has been cherished
and developed to a great extent in the modern western world, such that it has often been taken for
granted.

This development was enshrined in words in the United States Constitution by the Bill of Rights,
which contains the famous guarantee in the First Amendment that laws may not be made that
interfere with religion "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". Today nearly all democratic
nations around the world contain similar language within their respective Constitutions.

A US Supreme Court Justice (Benjamin Cardozo) later went on to reason in Palko v.

Connecticut (1937) that:

"Freedom of thought... is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other
form of freedom. With rare aberrations a pervasive recognition of this truth can be
traced in our history, political and legal."

In other words, without the right to freedom of thought, other rights such as the right to freedom
of speech hold little meaning.

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Such ideas regarding freedom of thought, as developed over time, ultimately became a vital part
of international human rights law. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), it is
listed under Article 18:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes
freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with
others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance.

The Human Rights Committee states that the above Article 18, which became legally binding on
member states with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

"distinguishes the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief from the freedom to
manifest religion or belief. It does not permit any limitations whatsoever on the freedom
of thought and conscience or on the freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of one's
choice. These freedoms are protected unconditionally."

Similarly, Article 19 of the UDHR guarantees that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion
and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference..."

Suppression of freedom of thought

One obvious impediment to those who would suppress freedom of thought, is that no one human
being can possibly even know what everyone else is really thinking let alone successfully
regulate it.

This impossibility of controlling thought is perhaps summarized in the biblical context in

Ecclesiastes 8:8: "There is no man that has power over the spirit, to retain it; neither has he
power in the day of death." In other words, trying to control the thoughts of others is as futile as
trying to control death. A similar sentiment is expressed in the teachings of Jesus in the New
Testament, where he seems to liken those who vainly attempt to control the emotions of their
neighbours to "the children in the marketplace" who try to produce dancing with a happy song
and mourning with a dirge, and then express frustration at their futility in trying to do so.
(Matthew 11:16)

Laws that attempt to regulate what goes on inside a person's head have long been regarded with
suspicion. Queen Elizabeth I removed one such law, several hundred years ago, because,
according to Sir Francis Bacon, "'Not liking to make windows into men's souls and secret
thoughts".

Freedom of expression can be limited in several ways through censorship, arrests, book
burning, or propaganda, and this tends to discourage freedom of thought. Examples of effective
campaigns against freedom of expression are the Soviet suppression of genetics research in favor
of a theory known as Lysenkoism, the book burning campaigns of Nazi Germany, the radical
anti-intellectualism enforced in Cambodia under Pol Pot, and the strict laws and crackdown upon
freedom of expression by the communist government of the Peoples Republic of China.

Freedom of expression can also be stifled without institutional interference when the views of
the majority become so widely accepted that other ways of expression are repressed. For this
reason, some condemn "political correctness" as a form of limiting freedom of thought. Although
proponents of "political correctness" claim that it aims to give minority views an equal
representation, critics point to instances in which the majority view is also the view which is seen

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as "politically correct." For example, college student Max Karson was arrested following the
Virginia Tech shootings for politically incorrect comments that authorities saw as "sympathetic
to the killer." Karson's arrest raised important questions regarding freedom of thought and
whether or not it applies in educational settings.

The SapirWhorf hypothesis, which states that thought is inherently embedded in language,
would support the claim that an effort to limit the use of words of language is actually a form of
restricting freedom of thought. This was explored in George Orwell's novel 1984, with the idea
of Newspeak, a stripped-down form of the English language lacking the capacity for metaphor
and limiting expression of original ideas.

Internet censorship and freedom of thought

A current example of censorship and therefore attempted suppression of freedom of thought, is

the control of information on the World Wide Web in such countries as Iran, Saudi Arabia, UK,
Egypt, China, and others. In October 2006, Iranian mullahs ordered internet service providers to
reduce connection speeds for home and cafe computers.

Drug prohibition

Patterns of brain activity can be altered by taking psychoactive drugs ranging from caffeine to
fluoxetine (Prozac) to LSD. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines a
psychoactive substance as "any substance that people take to change either the way they feel,
think, or behave."

Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley and Terence McKenna have argued that certain psychoactive
drugs, especially entheogens, may be used to favorably alter the way we think.

Religious groups and shamans have also traditionally used specific plants to alter thought, aiding
members in worship or helping to put them in touch with God. The Rastafari movement
encourages cannabis use, Islamic Sufi mystics use hashish to be present with the Godhead,
indigenous Amazonian people use ayahuasca tea ritualistically to connect with the spirit(s) of the
jungle, Native American use peyote, and chewing khat (heralded as a "pipeline to Allah") is
popular among many Muslims in Eastern Africa.

Some non-governmental organizations, such as the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics,
argue that placing limits on the use of certain drugs is akin to placing a limit on thought itself
thus violating the right to cognitive liberty.

Constitutional rights-based arguments against blanket drug prohibition have featured in US legal
history since the 1960s. In February 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right to religious
drug use, ruling for Unio do Vegetal in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do
Vegetal. This case now features in arguments for and against drug prohibition.

Legal Definitions
Canada

In Canada certain credentialed medical practitioners may, and apparently at their sole discretion,
make state sanctioned investigations into and diagnosis of "mental illness". These diagnoses
appear to be based at least in part, and in some cases entirely upon, the investigator's expressed
perception of the validity of the subject's thoughts and beliefs. This aspect of diagnosis is

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manifest in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Text Revision (DSM-IV-
TR) glossary definition of "delusion" which begins; "A false belief based on...", and is found on
page 821 of the DSM-IV-TR and, similarly, elsewhere. Significantly the presence of "delusions"
seem to form a primary criterion for the diagnosis of the majority of DSM-IV-TR "psychotic"
disorders including Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder (Criterion A1 in the case of
Schizophrenia). The DSM-IV-TR also states the "No laboratory findings have been identified that
are diagnostic of Schizophrenia". This statement is also applied to Major Depressive episodes
and Manic episodes.

The application of DSM-IV-TR criteria to the various pieces of criminal as well as federal health
and provincial mental health law in Canada seems still to occur in spite of their conflict in this
respect with Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees
the "fundamental" "freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression". Part VIIGeneral, of
the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982 states that "any law that is inconsistent with the provisions
of the Constitution "...(which contains the Charter of Rights and Freedoms)..."is, to the extent of
the inconsistency, of no force or effect".

The potential for state sanctioned involuntary detainment and treatment exists pursuant to the
Criminal Code of Canada, and these health acts. The Ontario Mental Health Act, for example
contains references to circumstances under which involuntary admission to psychiatric facilities
can occur.

However, legal involvement and involuntary detainment and treatment is not fundamental to the
DSM-IV-TR nor are implications of violent behavior at frequencies exceeding that of the general
population attributed to those diagnosed. To a significant degree courts are in fact cautioned
against the use of DSM-IV diagnosis in the DSM-IV introduction itself in its section entitled Use
of DSM-IV in Forensic Settings.

In the Canadian criminal justice system, again, in spite of the Charter Freedoms, individuals
continue to be subjected to discrimination based on DSM IV diagnosis within the context of part
XX.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada, . This part sets out provisions for, among other things,
court ordered attempts at "treatment" before individuals receive a trial as described in section
672.58 of the Criminal Code. Also provided for are external court ordered "psychiatric
assessments" that may involve detention and the selective procurement of anecdotal accounts,
psychiatric records, and records of past diagnosis and treatment.

The position of the Canadian Psychiatric Association itself, stated in The Confidentiality of
Psychiatric Records and the Patient's Right to Privacy(2000-21S),and holds that "in recent
years, serious incursions have been made by governments, powerful commercial interests, law
enforcement agencies, and the courts on the rights of persons to their privacy."

An outline of this process as it occurs in the Canadian Province of Ontario is attempted in the
publication The Forensic Mental Health System In Ontario published by the Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health, in Toronto. The Guide states; "Whatever you tell a forensic
psychiatrist and the other professionals assessing you is not confidential." The accused, their
families, friends, physicians and other sources close to them are by law under no compulsion to
participate in these investigations. They may, however, feel compelled and indeed coerced on
ethical and medical grounds to divulge information to "assessors" in order to attempt to provide
for and ensure safe and appropriate treatment of an accused placed in the custody and exclusive
care of an individual or team imbued with the dual, and (in light of the above quotation from The
Guide), conflicting roles of caregiver and assessor. This dynamic arguably constitutes torture not
only of the accused but potentially of their afore mentioned families, caregivers and associates in

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light of the dangers reasonably associated with modern psychiatric treatment and the potential
for non-treatment or mistreatment by the lawful omission of information pertaining to existing
medical conditions whether related or not. This experience of torture indeed may extend to
members of the forensic mental health community itself faced with the conflicting demands of
ethical patient care and court mandated assessment.

With a finding of "Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder" as described in

section 672.34 of the Criminal Code lifelong restrictions on freedom, mandatory "treatment",
and indefinite detention subject to periodic non-judicial review appear possible well beyond the
scope of set limits for detention for those found to be criminally responsible for the same or even
much more serious offenses. Section 672.12 of the Criminal Code states "The court may make
an assessment order at any stage of proceedings against the accused of its own motion, on
application of the accused or, subject to subsections (2)and (3), on application of the prosecutor"
implying that the test is not universally applied.

Violence

U.N. rates of physical violence resulting in death, per 100,000 inhabitants by country in 2004.
no data less than 200 200-400 400-600 600-800 800-1000 1000-1200 1200-1400
1400-1600 1600-1800 1800-2000 2000-3000 more than 3000

Violence is the expression of physical or verbal force against self or other, compelling action
against one's will on pain of being hurt. Worldwide, violence is used as a tool of manipulation
and also is an area of concern for law and culture which take attempts to suppress and stop it.
The word violence covers a broad spectrum. It can vary from between a physical altercation
between two beings where a slight injury may be the outcome to war and genocide where
millions may die as a result.

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 Psychology and sociology

The causes of violent behavior in humans are often topics of research in psychology and
sociology. Neurobiologist Jan Volavka emphasizes that for those purposes, violent behavior is
defined as overt and intentional physically aggressive behavior against another person."

or agree on whether violence is inherent in humans. Among prehistoric humans, there is

archaeological evidence for both contentions of violence and peacefulness as primary
characteristics.

Since violence is a matter of perception as well as a measurable phenomenon, psychologists have

found variability in whether people perceive certain physical acts as 'violent'. For example, in a
state where execution is a legalised punishment we do not typically perceive the executioner as
'violent', though we may talk, in a more metaphorical way, of the state acting violently. Likewise
understandings of violence are linked to a perceived aggressor-victim relationship: hence
psychologists have shown that people may not recognise defensive use of force as aggressive or
violent at all, even in cases where the amount of force used is significantly greater than in the
original aggression.

Riane Eisler, who describes early cooperative, egalitarian societies (she coins the term "gylanic",
as it is widely agreed that the term matriarchal is inaccurate), and Walter Wink, who coined the
phrase the myth of redemptive violence, suggest that human violence, especially as organized
in groups, is a phenomenon of the last five to ten thousand years.

The violent male ape image is often brought up in discussions of human violence. Dale
Peterson and Richard Wrangham in Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence
write that violence is inherent in humans. However, William L. Ury, editor of a book called
"Must We Fight? From the Battlefield to the SchoolyardA New Perspective on Violent
Conflict and Its Prevention debunks the "killer ape" myth in his book which brings together
discussions from two Harvard Law School symposiums. The conclusion is that we also have
lots of natural mechanisms for cooperation, to keep conflict in check, to channel aggression, and
to overcome conflict. These are just as natural to us as the aggressive tendencies."

James Gilligan writes violence is often pursued as an antidote to shame or humiliation. The use
of violence often is a source of pride and a defence of honor, especially among males who often
believe violence defines manhood.

Stephen Pinker in a New Republic article The History of Violence offers evidence that on the
average the amount and cruelty of violence to humans and animals has decreased over the last
few centuries.

Gender and Crime

"Criminological studies have traditionally ignored half the population: Women are largely
invisible in both theoretical considerations and empirical studies. Since the 1970's, important
feminist works have noted the way in which criminal transgressions by women occur in different
contexts from those by men and how women experiences with the criminal justice system are
influenced by gendered assumptions about appropriate male and female roles. Feminists have
also highlighted the prevalence of violence against women, both at home and in public."

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Of all crimes reported in 2006, 76.2 percent of arestees were men and also there was a huge
imbalance in the ratio of men to women in prison. In 2004, women only made up 7.1 percent of
the prison population.

Crimes against women Men are overwhelmingly the aggressors in certain categories of crime
such as domestic violence, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape. Women are mostly the
victims in these categories. Although they have been practiced by women against men, they
remain almost exclusively crimes against women. It is estimated that women are one quarter of
the victims of violence at some point.

Youth and Crime

Official crime statistics reveal high rates of offense among young people. These offenses include
rape, assault, and theft. About 34 percent of all offenders arrested for criminal offenses in 2006
were under the age of twenty-one (Federal Bureau of Investigations 2007b). Rising crime rates
are often directly related to the moral breakdown among young people and vandalism, school
truancy, and drug use, which illustrates societies increasing permissiveness. The mass murder at
Columbine High School is an example of how moral outrage can deflect attention from larger
issues.

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A case was recently closed regarding a youth crime that happened last June in Iowa. Mark
Becker walked into a gym class and shot his teacher six times, leaving him dead. Becker was
charged with first degree murder, and pleaded not guilty with reasoning being insanity. He was
found guilty, and that charge carries a life sentence in jail. Insanity is one reason for youth crime,
but other sociological reasons could be bullying by other students or parental neglect at home.

According to the book, The Effects of Race and Family Attachment on Self Esteem, Self Control,
and Delinquency, children who are raised by both parents and receive proper affection are more
than likely to grow into a non-violent individual. It is believed that a child needs to bond with
their parents during the early ages of childhood. As a result, the child has a higher chance of not
growing into a violent person. Many children who do not receive the affection they need from
their parents often turn to other sources to fill that void with a common source being a gang.

Gang violence is something that has been around for decades. Many different individuals are
apart of gangs, some with similar needs. The need to feel wanted or needed is common. 94% of
the individuals who occupy gangs are male with 37% of those who are affiliated are under the
age of 18. Of the 94% of those males who are affiliated with a gang, 47% are Hispanic and 31%
are African-American. If you pay careful attention you will understand why this is. African
American men occupy 10.4% of the prison system. These fathers locked away are unable to care
for their children, leading them to continue the cycle. In 2000 there were 791,600 African
American men in prison and 603,032 enrolled in college. In 1980, there were 143,000 black men
in prison and 463,700 enrolled in college. These statistics have swayed the other way however.
According to 2005 Census Bureau statistics, the male African-American population of the
United States aged between 18 and 24 numbered 1,896,000. According to the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, 106,000 African-Americans in this age group were in federal or state prisons at the end
of 2005. If you add the numbers in local jail (measured in mid-2006), you arrive at a grand total
of 193,000 incarcerated young Black males, or slightly over 10 percent. According to the same
census data, 530,000 of these African-American males, or twenty eight percent, were enrolled in
colleges or universities (including two-year-colleges) in 2005. That is five times the number of
young black men in federal and state prisons and two and a half times the total number
incarcerated. If you expanded the age group to include African-American males up to thirty or
thirty five, the college attendees would still outnumber the prisoners.

Diagnosis of psychiatric disorder

The American Psychiatric Association planning and research committees for the forthcoming
DSM-V (2012) have canvassed a series of new Relational disorders which include Marital
Conflict Disorder Without Violence or Marital Abuse Disorder (Marital Conflict Disorder With
Violence). Couples with marital disorders sometimes come to clinical attention because the
couple recognize long-standing dissatisfaction with their marriage and come to the clinician on
their own initiative or are referred by an astute health care professional. Secondly, there is
serious violence in the marriage which is -"usually the husband battering the wife" . In these
cases the emergency room or a legal authority often is the first to notify the clinician. Most
importantly, marital violence "is a major risk factor for serious injury and even death and women
in violent marriages are at much greater risk of being seriously injured or killed (National
Advisory Council on Violence Against Women 2000)." The authors of this study add that "There
is current considerable controversy over whether male-to-female marital violence is best
regarded as a reflection of male psychopathology and control or whether there is an empirical
base and clinical utility for conceptualizing these patterns as relational."

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Recommendations for clinicians making a diagnosis of Marital Relational Disorder should
include the assessment of actual or "potential" male violence as regularly as they assess the
potential for suicide in depressed patients. Further, "clinicians should not relax their vigilance
after a battered wife leaves her husband, because some data suggest that the period immediately
following a marital separation is the period of greatest risk for the women. Many men will stalk
and batter their wives in an effort to get them to return or punish them for leaving. Initial
assessments of the potential for violence in a marriage can be supplemented by standardized
interviews and questionnaires, which have been reliable and valid aids in exploring marital
violence more systematically."

The authors can conclude with what they call "very recent information" on the course of violent
marriages which suggests that "over time a husband's battering may abate somewhat, but perhaps
because he has successfully intimidated his wife. The risk of violence remains strong in a
marriage in which it has been a feature in the past. Thus, treatment is essential here; the clinician
cannot just wait and watch." The most urgent clinical priority is the protection of the wife
because she is the one most frequently at risk, and clinicians must be aware that supporting
assertiveness by a battered wife may lead to more beatings or even death.

It is also important to this topic to understand the paradoxical effects of some sedative drugs.
Serious complications can occur in conjunction with the use of sedatives creating the opposite
effect as to that intended. Malcolm Lader at the Institute of Psychiatry in London estimates the
incidence of these adverse reactions at about 5%, even in short-term use of the drugs. The
paradoxical reactions may consist of depression, with or without suicidal tendencies, phobias,
aggressiveness, violent behavior and symptoms sometimes misdiagnosed as psychosis.

Law

One of the main functions of law is to regulate violence.

Sociologist Max Weber stated that the state claims, for better or worse, a monopoly on legitimate
violence practiced within the confines of a specific territory. Law enforcement is the main means
of regulating nonmilitary violence in society. Governments regulate the use of violence through
legal systems governing individuals and political authorities, including the police and military.
Civil societies authorize some amount violence, exercised through the police power, to maintain
the status quo and enforce laws.

However, German political theorist Hannah Arendt noted: "Violence can be justifiable, but it
never will be legitimate ... Its justification loses in plausibility the farther its intended end
recedes into the future. No one questions the use of violence in self-defence, because the danger
is not only clear but also present, and the end justifying the means is immediate". In the 20th
century in acts of democide governments may have killed more than 260 million of their own
people through police brutality, execution, massacre, slave labor camps, and through sometimes
intentional famine.

Violent acts that are not carried out by the military or police and that are not in self-defence are
usually classified as crimes, although not all crimes are violent crimes. Damage to property is
classified as violent crime in some jurisdictions but not in others. It is usually considered a less
serious offense unless the damage injures, or potentially could injure, others. Unpremeditated or
small-scale acts of random violence or coordinated violence by unsanctioned private groups
usually are prosecuted. While most societies condone the killing of animals for food and sport,
increasingly they have adopted more laws against animal cruelty.

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation classifies violence resulting in homicide into criminal
homicide and justifiable homicide (e.g. self defense).

War

War is a state of prolonged violence, large-scale conflict involving two or more groups of
people, usually under the auspices of government. War is fought as a means of resolving
territorial and other conflicts, as war of aggression to conquer territory or loot resources, in
national self-defense, or to suppress attempts of part of the nation to secede from it.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the lethality of modern warfare has steadily grown. World War I
casualties were over 40 million and World War II casualties were over 70 million.

Nevertheless, some hold the actual deaths from war have decreased compared to past centuries.
In War Before Civilization, Lawrence H. Keeley, a professor at the University of Illinois,
calculates that 87% of tribal societies were at war more than once per year, and some 65% of
them were fighting continuously. The attrition rate of numerous close-quarter clashes, which
characterize endemic warfare, produces casualty rates of up to 60%, compared to 1% of the
combatants as is typical in modern warfare. Stephen Pinker agrees, writing that in tribal
violence, the clashes are more frequent, the percentage of men in the population who fight is
greater, and the rates of death per battle are higher.

Jared Diamond in his award-winning books, Guns, Germs and Steel and The Third Chimpanzee
provides sociological and anthropological evidence for the rise of large scale warfare as a result
of advances in technology and city-states. The rise of agriculture provided a significant increase
in the number of individuals that a region could sustain over hunter-gatherer societies, allowing
for development of specialized classes such as soldiers, or weapons manufacturers. On the other
hand, tribal conflicts in hunter-gatherer societies tend to result in wholesale slaughter of the
opposition (other than perhaps females of child-bearing years) instead of territorial conquest or
slavery, presumably as hunter-gatherer numbers could not sustain empire-building.

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Religious and political ideology

1819 anti-Semitic riots in Frankfurt. On the left, two peasant women are assaulting a Jew with
pitchfork and broom. On the right, a man wearing spectacles, tails, and a six-button waistcoat,
"perhaps a pharmacist or a schoolteacher," holds another Jew by the throat and is about to club
him with a truncheon. A contemporary engraving by Johann Michael Voltz.

Religious and political ideologies have been the cause of interpersonal violence throughout
history. Ideologues often falsely accuse others of violence, such as the ancient blood libel against
Jews, the medieval accusations of casting witchcraft spells against women, caricatures of black
men as violent brutes that helped excuse the late nineteenth century Jim Crow laws in the
United States, and modern accusations of satanic ritual abuse against day care center owners and
others.

Both supporters and opponents of the twenty-first century War on Terrorism regard it largely as
an ideological and religious war.

Vittorio Bufacchi describes two different modern concepts of violence, one the minimalist
conception of violence as an intentional act of excessive or destructive force, the other the
comprehensive conception which includes violations of rights, including a long list of human
needs.

Anti-capitalists assert that capitalism is violent. They believe private property, trade, interest and
profit survive only because police violence defends them and that capitalist economies need war
to expand. They may use the term "structural violence" to describe the systematic ways in which
a given social structure or institution kills people slowly by preventing them from meeting their
basic needs, for example the deaths caused by diseases because of lack of medicine. Free market
supporters argue that it is violently enforced state laws intervening in markets - state capitalism -
which cause many of the problems anti-capitalists attribute to structural violence.

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Frantz Fanon critiqued the violence of colonialism and wrote about the counter violence of the
"colonized victims."

Throughout history, most religions and individuals like Mahatma Gandhi have preached that
humans are capable of eliminating individual violence and organizing societies through purely
nonviolent means. Gandhi himself once wrote: A society organized and run on the basis of
complete non-violence would be the purest anarchy. Modern political ideologies which espouse
similar views include pacifist varieties of voluntarism, mutualism, anarchism and libertarianism.

Health and prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines violence as "Injury inflicted by
deliberate means", which includes assault, as well as "legal intervention, and self-harm". The
World Health Organization ( WHO) in its first World Report on Violence and Health defined
violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself,
another person or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of
resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation."

WHO estimates that each year around 1.6 million lives are lost worldwide due to violence. It is
among the leading causes of death for people ages 1544, especially of males.

Recent estimates for murders per year in various countries include: 55,000 murders in Brazil,
25,000 murders in Colombia, 20,000 murders in South Africa, 15,000 murders in Mexico,
14,000 murders in the United States, 11,000 murders in Venezuela, 8,000 murders in Russia,
6,000 murders in El Salvador, 1,600 murders in Jamaica, 1000 murders in France, 500 murders
in Canada, and 200 murders in Chile.

Sports violence

Sports violence is defined as a behavior which causes harm, occurs outside the rules of the sport,
and is unrelated to the competitive objectives of the sport. Violence is most prevalent in team
contact sports such as, ice hockey hockey football, and rugby.Violence in sports are very
dangerous at times Both in fabrication and reality, violence is integrated into sporting events.
This was very prevalent in Greece during the Olympic games where Wrestling and Boxing was
an entertaining sport, many people would fight to the death in these spectacles. An even more
well known and notorious example is in Rome where Gladiators would fight animals and other
Gladiators until someone was killed in the process, also in theatre a scene that called for a person
to be killed in a violent manner, they would indeed kill an actor or a step-in. In Asia, martial arts
became both a sport and a way of life for followers. Currently, Boxing, Professional Wrestling,
Various Martial Arts and Mixed Martial Arts are a set of violent sports that have become forms
of entertainment worldwide.

Criminal violence includes acts of violence that are extreme, severe and clearly not acceptable.
This type of violence is seen as violating social norms of particular sports.

Violence in the media

Historical examples of violence

Acts of violence are commonly found in historical record. The following is an incomplete list of
some of the more large-scale examples of violence in history.

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- Caesar's campaigns. As many as 1 million people (probably 1 in 4 of the Gauls) died, another
million were enslaved, 300 tribes were subjugated and 800 cities were destroyed during the
Gallic Wars (present-day France). The entire population of city of Avaricum (Bourges) (40,000
in all) was slaughtered. During Julius Caesar's campaign against the Helvetii (modern-day
Switzerland) approximately 60% of the tribe was destroyed, and another 20% was taken into
slavery.

- Boudica's uprising. Boudica (d. 60/61AD) was a queen of the Celtic Iceni people of Norfolk
in Roman-occupied Britain who led a major uprising of the tribes against the occupying forces of
the Roman Empire. They destroyed Camulodunum (Colchester, a settlement for discharged
Roman soldiers), Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St Albans). In the three cities
destroyed, between 70,000 and 80,000 people are said to have been killed. Tacitus says the
Britons had no interest in taking or selling prisoners, only in slaughter by gibbet, fire or cross.
Cassius Dio's account gives more prurient detail: that the noblest women were impaled on spikes
and had their breasts cut off and sewn to their mouths, "to the accompaniment of sacrifices,
banquets, and wanton behaviour" in sacred places, particularly the groves of Andraste.

- Albigensian Crusade. The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade (12091229) was a 20-
year military campaign initiated by the Pope Innocent III of the Roman Catholic Church to
eliminate the heresy of the Cathars of Languedoc. Bziers was a Languedoc stronghold of
Catharism and the first city to be sacked, on July 22, 1209. In the bloody massacre which
followed, no one was spared, not even those who took refuge in the churches. The commander of
the Crusade was the Papal Legate Arnaud-Amaury (or Arnald Amalaricus, Abbot of Citeaux).
When asked by a Crusader how to distinguish between the Catholics and Cathars once they'd
taken the city, the abbot famously replied, "Kill them all, God will know His own" - "Neca eos
omnes. Deus suos agnoscet". According to "Caesarius of Heisterbach: Medieval Heresies," after
the city was taken, at a cost in life of thousands of defenders, about 450 heretics were
"examined" by the inquisitors and many of them claimed to be good Catholics rather than being
heretics. Fearing the possibility that these were lying, must have caused the infamous phrase to
first be uttered. In the end, the Albigensian Crusade killed an estimated 1,000,000 people, not
only Cathars but much of the population of southern France.

- Mongol Empire. Quoting Eric Margolis, Adam Jones observes, in his book Genocide: A
Comprehensive Introduction, that in the 13th century the Mongol horsemen of Genghis Khan
were genocidal killers (gnocidaires) who were known to kill whole nations leaving nothing but
empty ruins and bones. Many ancient sources described Genghis Khan's conquests as wholesale
destruction on an unprecedented scale in their certain geographical regions, and therefore
probably causing great changes in the demographics of Asia. For example, over much of Central
Asia speakers of Iranian languages were replaced by speakers of Turkic languages. The eastern
part of the Islamic world experienced the terrifying holocaust of the Mongol invasions, which
turned northern and eastern Iran into a desert. Between 1220 and 1260, the total population of
Persia may have had dropped from 2,500,000 to 250,000 as a result of mass extermination and
famine.

Before the Mongol invasion, Chinese dynasties reportedly had approximately 120 million
inhabitants; after the conquest was completed in 1279, the 1300 census reported roughly 60
million people. About half of the Russian population died during the Mongol invasion of Rus.
Historians estimate that up to half of Hungary's two million population at that time were victims
of the Mongol invasion of Europe.

The Pope Innocent IVs envoy to the Mongol Khan, who passed through Kiev in February 1246,
wrote:

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"They [the Mongols] attacked Russia, where they made great havoc, destroying cities and fortresses and
slaughtering men; and they laid siege to Kiev, the capital of Russia; after they had besieged the city for a
long time, they took it and put the inhabitants to death. When we were journeying through that land we
came across countless skulls and bones of dead men lying about on the ground. Kiev had been a very
large and thickly populated town, but now it has been reduced almost to nothing, for there are at the
present time scarce two hundred houses there and the inhabitants are kept in complete slavery."

- Timurs conquests. Timur Lenk was a 14th century conqueror of much of Middle East and
Central Asia, and founder of the Timurid dynasty. He thought of himself as a ghazi, but his
biggest wars were against Muslim states. In 1383, Timur started the military conquest of Persia.
He captured Herat, Khorasan and all eastern Persia to 1385 and massacred almost all inhabitants
of Neishapur and other Iranian cities. When revolts broke out in Persia, he ruthlessly suppressed
them, massacring the populations of whole cities. When Timur entered Delhi (India), the city
was sacked, destroyed, and left in ruins. When Timur conquered Persia, Iraq and Syria, the
civilian population was decimated. In the city of Isfahan he ordered the building of a pyramid of
70,000 human skulls, from those that his army had beheaded, and a pyramid of some 20,000
skulls was erected outside the Aleppo. Timur herded thousands of citizens of Damascus into the
Cathedral Mosque before setting it aflame, and had 70,000 people beheaded in Tikrit, and
another 90,000 more in Baghdad. After the capture of Bagdad, Timur ordered that every soldier
should return with at least two severed human heads to show him (many warriors were so scared
they killed prisoners captured earlier in the campaign just to ensure they had heads to present to
Timur). Nestorian Christians east of Iraq were almost entirely eliminated by Timur. As many as
17 million people may have died from his conquests.

- Aztec human sacrifice. The Aztecs sacrificed thousands of victims (often slaves or prisoners
of war) annually to the sun god Huitzilopochtli; an offering to Huitzilopochtli would be made to
restore the blood he lost, as the sun was engaged in a daily battle. Human sacrifices would
prevent the end of the world that could happen on each cycle of 52 years. For the re-consecration
of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs reported that they sacrificed about 80,400
people over the course of four days. According to Ross Hassing, author of Aztec Warfare,
"between 10,000 and 80,400 persons" were sacrificed in the ceremony.

- Vlad the Impaler. Vlad the Impaler, also known as Vlad Dracula, the 15th century ruler of
Wallachia in present-day Romania, has been characterized as exceedingly cruel. Impalement was
his preferred method of torture and execution. As expected, death by impalement was slow and
painful. Victims sometimes endured for hours or days. Impalement was Vlad's favourite method
of torture but was by no means his only one. The list of tortures he is alleged to have employed is
extensive: nails in heads, cutting off of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off of
noses and ears, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in the case of women), scalping, skinning,
exposure to the elements or to animals, and boiling alive. No one was immune to Vlad the
Impaler's attentions. His victims included women and children, peasants and great lords,
ambassadors from foreign powers and merchants. In 1459, he had 30,000 of the Saxon
merchants and officials of the Transylvanian city of Kronstadt who were transgressing his
authority impaled. In 1462 Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, during his campaign against
Wallachia, was greeted by the sight of veritable forest of stakes on which Vlad the Impaler had
impaled 20,000 Turkish prisoners. Dracula was probably killed in battle against the Ottoman
Empire near Bucharest in December of 1476.

- Thirty Years' War. The Thirty Years' War was fought between 1618 and 1648, primarily on
the territory of Holy Roman Empire. Virtually all of the major European powers were involved.
The Thirty Years' War was the most destructive conflict in Europe prior to World War I.
Atrocities and massacres, such as Sack of Magdeburg, became standard methods of warfare.
During the war, Germany's population was reduced by 30% on average; in the territory of

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Brandenburg, the losses had amounted to half, while in some areas an estimated two thirds of the
population died. Germanys male population was reduced by almost half. The population of the
Czech lands declined by a third. The historian Lange claims Swedish armies alone destroyed
2,000 castles, 18,000 villages and 1,500 towns in Germany, one-third of all German towns.

- Reconquest of Ireland. It is estimated that as much as a third of the entire population of

Ireland perished during the civil wars and subsequent Cromwellian conquest in the mid-17th
century. Since the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Ireland had been mainly under the control of the Irish
Confederate Catholics. The Cromwellian reconquest of Ireland was extremely brutal, and it has
been alleged that many of the army's actions during the reconquest would today be called war
crimes or even genocide. William Petty who conducted the first scientific land and demographic
survey of Ireland in the 1650s (the Down Survey), concluded that at least 400,000 people and
maybe as many as 620,000 had died in Ireland between 1641 and 1653, many as a result of
famine and plague. At the time, Ireland had around 1.5 million inhabitants.

- The Deluge. During the 1640s and 1650s the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was
devastated by several conflicts, in which the Commonwealth lost over a third of its populations
(over 3 million people). First, the Chmielnicki Uprising when Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks
massacred tens of thousands of Jews and Poles in the eastern and southern areas he controlled
(today's Ukraine). It is recorded that Khmelnytsky told the people that the Poles had sold them as
slaves "into the hands of the accursed Jews". It is estimated that 100,000 Jews were massacred
and 300 of their communities destroyed. The decrease of the Jewish population during that
period (referred to in Polish history as The Deluge) is estimated at 100,000 to 200,000, which
also includes emigration, deaths from diseases and jasyr (captivity in the Ottoman Empire).

- Revolt in the Vende. Vende is remembered as the place where the peasants revolted against
the French Revolutionary government in 1793. They resented the changes imposed on the
Roman Catholic Church by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790) and broke into open
revolt in defiance of the Revolutionary government's military conscription. This guerrilla war
became known as the Revolt in the Vende, led at the outset by an underground faction called
the Chouans.

Initially the Vende rebels gained the upper hand, so on August 1, 1793 the Committee of Public
Safety ordered General Jean-Baptiste Carrier to carry out a pacification of the region. The
Republican army was reinforced and the Vendan army was eventually defeated. The Reign of
Terror, seen elsewhere in France, was extraordinarily brutal in the Vende. There was a massacre
of 6,000 Vende prisoners, many of them women, after the battle of Savenay. Subsequently,
there was the drowning of 3,000 Vende women at Pont-au-Baux. This was followed by 5,000
Vende priests, old men, women, and children killed by drowning at the Loire River at Nantes in
what was called the "national bath" - tied in groups in barges and then sunk into the Loire. Under
orders from Committee of Public Safety in February 1794 the Republican forces launched their
final "pacification" (the Vende-Veng or "'Vende Avenged") - twelve columns, the colonnes
infernales ("infernal columns") under Louis-Marie Turreau, were marched through the Vende,
indiscriminately targeting not only the remaining rebels and the people who had given them
support, but the innocent as well.

Beyond these massacres there were formal orders for forced evacuation and 'scorched earth' -
farms were destroyed, crops and forests burned, and villages razed. There were many reported
atrocities and a campaign of mass killing universally targeted at residents of the Vende
regardless of combatant status, political affiliation, age or gender. Some consider these acts to be
the first modern genocide. The campaign was ordered as such by the Comit de Salut public:

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"The committee has prepared measures that tend to exterminate this rebellious race of Vendeans, to
make their abodes disappear, to torch their forests, to cut their crops."

The orders to Turreau were:

"Exterminate the brigands to the last man instead of burning the farms, punish the fleeing ones and the
cowards, and crush that horrible Vende. Combine the most assured means to exterminate all of this race
of brigands."

When the campaign dragged to an end in March 1796 the estimated dead numbered between
117,000 and 500,000, of a population of around 800,000.

- Wahhabist conquests. The Saudi Wahabbist sheiks were convinced that it was their religious
mission to wage holy war (jihad) against all other forms of Islam. In 1801 and 1802, the Saudi
Wahhabists under Abdul Aziz ibn Muhammad ibn Saud attacked and captured the holy Shia
cities of Karbala and Najaf in Iraq, massacred the Shiites and destroyed the tombs of the Shiite
Imam Husayn and Ali bin Abu Talib. In 1802 they occupied Taif where they massacred the
population. In 1803 and 1804 the Wahhabis captured Mecca and Medina. In Mecca and Medina
they destroyed monuments and various holy Muslim sites and shrines, such as the shrine built
over the tomb of Fatima Zahra, the daughter of Muhammad, and even intended to destroy the
grave of the Prophet Muhammad.

- Taiping Rebellion. During the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) that followed the secession of
the Tipng Tingu (, Heavenly Kingdom of Perfect Peace) from the Qing empire
both sides tried to deprive each other of the resources to continue the war and it became standard
practice to destroy agricultural areas, butcher the population of cities and in general exact a
brutal price from captured enemy lands in order to drastically weaken the opposition's war effort.
This war truly was total in that civilians on both sides participated to a significant extent in the
war effort and in that armies on both sides waged war on the civilian population as well as
military forces. In total between 20 and 30 million died in the conflict making it bloodier than
the World War I or Russian Civil War.

- American Civil War. The American Civil War, the deadliest in American history, caused
620,000 soldier deaths and an undetermined number of civilian casualties. Based on 1860 census
figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6% in the North and an
extraordinary 18% in the South.

General Phillip Sheridan's stripping of the Shenandoah Valley starting from September 21, 1864
and continuing for two weeks was considered "total war" in that its purpose was to eliminate
foodstuffs and supplies vital to the South's war plans. Sheridan took the opportunity when he
realized opposing forces had become too weak to resist his army. In another event in that
conflict, Union General Order No. 11 (1863) ordered the near-total evacuation of three and a half
counties in Missouri, which were subsequently looted and burned. U.S. Army General William
Tecumseh Sherman's 'March to the Sea' in November/December 1864 destroyed the resources
required for the South to make war. Sherman is considered one of the first military commanders
to deliberately and consciously use total war as a military strategy. General Ulysses S. Grant and
President Abraham Lincoln initially opposed the plan until Sherman convinced them of its
necessity.

- War of the Triple Alliance. War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) was the bloodiest conflict
in the history of South America, fought between Paraguay and the allied countries of Argentina,
Brazil, and Uruguay. Paraguays prewar population of between one and one-half million was

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reduced to about 221,000 in 1871, of which only about 28,000 were men. Paraguay's dictator,
Francisco Solano Lpez, is widely regarded as being responsible for the war, which led to his
death. "Conquer or die" became the order of the day. Lopez ordered thousands of executions in
the military. In 1868, when the allies were pressing him hard, he convinced himself that his
Paraguayan supporters had actually formed a conspiracy against his life. Thereupon several
hundred prominent Paraguayan citizens were seized and executed by his order, including his
brothers and brothers-in-law, cabinet ministers, judges, prefects, military officers, bishops and
priests, and nine-tenths of the civil officers, together with 500 foreigners, among them several
members of the diplomatic legations (the San Fernando massacres). The bodies were dumped
into mass graves.

- Indian Wars. In his book The Wild Frontier: Atrocities during the American-Indian War from
Jamestown Colony to Wounded Knee, amateur historian William M. Osborn sought to tally every
recorded atrocity in the area that would eventually become the continental United States, from
first contact (1511) to the closing of the frontier (1890), and determined that 9,156 people died
from atrocities perpetrated by Native Americans, and 7,193 people died from those perpetrated
by settlers. Osborn defines an atrocity as the murder, torture, or mutilation of civilians, the
wounded, and prisoners.

The most reliable figures are derived from collated records of strictly military engagements such
as by Gregory Michno which reveal 21,586 dead, wounded, and captured civilians and soldiers
for the period of 185090 alone. Other figures are derived from extrapolations of rather cursory
and unrelated government accounts such as that by Russell Thornton who calculated that some
45,000 Indians and 19,000 whites were killed. This later rough estimate includes women and
children on both sides, since noncombatants were often killed in frontier massacres.

- Second Boer War. The English term "concentration camp" was first used to describe camps
operated by the British in South Africa during the Second Boer War (18991902).

These had originally been set up as "refugee camps" by the Army for families whose farms had
been destroyed by the British under their "Scorched Earth" policy (sweeping the country bare of
everything that could give sustenance to the guerrillas, including women and children, and
including destroying crops, burning down homesteads and farms, poisoning wells, and salting
fields) and thousands of Boers had already been brought into them.

Kitchener succeeded Roberts as commander-in-chief in South Africa in November 29, 1900 and
in an attempt to break the guerrilla campaign, initiated plans to "flush out guerrillas in a series of
systematic drives, organized like a sporting shoot, with success defined in a weekly 'bag' of
killed, captured and wounded, and to sweep the country bare of everything that could give
sustenance to the guerrillas, including women and children... It was the clearance of civilians
uprooting a whole nation that would come to dominate the last phase of the war." Following
Kitchener's new policy, more camps were built and converted to prisons and many tens of
thousands more women and children were forcibly moved to prevent the Boers from resupplying
at their homes.

By August 1901, 93,940 Boers were reported to be in "camps of refuge". A report after the war
concluded that 27,927 Boers (of whom 24,074 [50% of the Boer child population] were children
under 16) had died of starvation, disease and exposure in the concentration camps. In all, about
one in four (25%) of the Boer inmates, mostly children, died.

- Don Cossacks.

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Following the defeat of the White Army in Russian Civil War, a policy of decossackization
(Raskazachivaniye) took place on the surviving Cossacks and their homelands since they were
viewed as potential threat to the new Soviet regime. That was the first example when Soviet
leaders decided to "eliminate, exterminate, and deport the population of a whole territory". The
Cossack homelands were often very fertile, and during the collectivisation campaign many
Cossacks shared the fate of kulaks. The man-made Holodomor famine of 1932-1933 hit the Don
and Kuban territory the hardest. According to historian Michael Kort, "During 1919 and 1920,
out of a population of approximately 1.5 million Don Cossacks, the Bolshevik regime killed or
deported an estimated 300,000 to 500,000".

- Spanish Civil War. The number of casualties is disputed; estimates generally suggest that
between 500,000 and 1 million people were killed in the Spanish Civil War. Over the years,
historians kept lowering the death figures and modern research concludes that 500,000 deaths is
the correct figure. Atrocities during the war were committed on both sides. At least 50,000 were
executed during the civil war. Franco's victory was followed by tens of thousands of summary
executions.

In his recent, updated history of the Spanish Civil War, Antony Beevor "reckons Franco's
ensuing 'white terror' claimed 200,000 lives. The 'red terror' had already killed 38,000." Julius
Ruiz concludes that "although the figures remain disputed, a minimum of 37,843 executions
were carried out in the Republican zone with a maximum of 150,000 executions (including
50,000 after the war) in Nationalist Spain." In Checas de Madrid, Csar Vidal comes to a
nationwide total of 110,965 victims of Republican repression; 11,705 people being killed in
Madrid alone.

- During World War II. Germany.

During World War II, the holocaust initiated by the German National Socialist party killed
millions of people: Slavs, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Serbs, and especially Jews. After
the end of World War II, this genocide came to be known as the Holocaust. Poles, Jehovah's
Witnesses, Roma and homosexuals and anybody considered a threat to the Nazi party were
rounded up and sent to labour camps, death camps, or just killed in their homes.

The Nazi occupation of Poland resulted in the death of one-fifth of the population, some 6
million people, half of them Jewish. The Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people during
the war, about half of all World War II casualties. Of the 5.7 million Soviet POWs captured by
the Germans, 3.5 million had died while in German captivity by the end of the war.

Japan.

Japanese soldiers rounded up and killed millions of civilians and prisoners of wars from
surrounding nations, especially from Korea, China, Philippines and United States during World
War II. At least 20 million Chinese died during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).

Unit 731 was one example of wartime atrocities committed on a civilian population during
World War II, where experiments were performed on thousands of Chinese civilians and Allied
prisoners of war. The Rape of Nanking is another example of atrocity committed by Japanese
soldiers on a civilian population. Many men were killed, while women of were raped and/or
killed.

The Three Alls Policy (Sank Sakusen) was a Japanese scorched earth policy adopted in China
during World War II, the three alls being: "Kill All, Burn All and Loot All". Initiated in 1940 by

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Rykichi Tanaka, the Sank Sakusen was implemented in full scale in 1942 in north China by
Yasuji Okamura who divided the territory into pacified, semi-pacified and unpacified areas. The
approval of the policy was given by Imperial Headquarters Army Order Number 575 on 3
December 1941.

Much of the controversy regarding Japan's role in World War II revolves around the death rates
of prisoners of war and civilians under Japanese occupation. The historian Chalmers Johnson has
written that:

It may be pointless to try to establish which World War Two Axis aggressor, Germany or
Japan, was the more brutal to the peoples it victimised. The Germans killed six million
Jews and 20 million Russians [i.e. Soviet citizens]; the Japanese slaughtered as many as
30 million Filipinos, Malays, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Indonesians and Burmese, at
least 23 million of them ethnic Chinese. Both nations looted the countries they conquered
on a monumental scale, though Japan plundered more, over a longer period, than the
Nazis. Both conquerors enslaved millions and exploited them as forced labourers and,
in the case of the Japanese, as [forced] prostitutes for front-line troops. If you were a
Nazi prisoner of war from Britain, America, Australia, New Zealand or Canada (but not
Russia) you faced a 4% chance of not surviving the war; [by comparison] the death rate
for Allied POWs held by the Japanese was nearly 30%.

On the German side, any organized evacuation of civilians was forbidden by the Nazi
government to boost morale of the troops, now for the first time defending the "Fatherland",
even when the Red Army entered German territory in the last months of 1944. It is estimated that
Soviet soldiers raped at least 2,000,000 German women and girls, an estimated 200,000 of whom
later died from injuries sustained, committed suicide, or were murdered outright.

- Mao Zedong. Maos first political campaigns after founding the Peoples Republic were Land
reform and the suppression of counter-revolutionaries, which centered on mass executions, often
before organized crowds. These campaigns of mass repression targeted former KMT officials,
businessmen, former employees of Western companies, intellectuals whose loyalty was suspect,
and significant numbers of rural gentry. The U.S. State department in 1976 estimated that there
may have been a million killed in the land reform, 800,000 killed in the counterrevolutionary
campaign. Mao himself claimed a total of 700,000 killed during these early years (194953).
However, because there was a policy to select "at least one landlord, and usually several, in
virtually every village for public execution", 1 million deaths seems to be an absolute minimum,
and many authors agree on a figure of between 2 million and 5 million dead. In addition, at least
1.5 million people were sent to "reform through labour" camps (laogai). Maos personal role in
ordering mass executions is undeniable. He defended these killings as necessary for the securing
of power.

It is estimated that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, perished in the violence of the
Cultural Revolution. When Mao was informed of such losses, particularly that people had been
driven to suicide, he responded: "People who try to commit suicide don't attempt to save
them! ... China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people."

- Vietnam War. According to the Vietnamese government, 1,100,000 North Vietnamese Army
and Viet Cong military personnel and 2,000,000 Vietnamese civilians on both sides died in the
conflict. Estimates of civilian deaths caused by American bombing in Operation Rolling Thunder
range from 52,000 to 182,000.

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347 to 504 Vietnam civilians were killed by US soldiers on 16 March, 1968, in the My Lai area
of South Vietnam. See My Lai Massacre.

2,800 to 6,000 civilians were executed by the Viet Cong in the city of Hue during the Tet
Offensive. See Hue Massacre.

- Equatorial Guinea. In September 1968, Francisco Macas Nguema was elected first president
of Equatorial Guinea, and independence was granted in October. In July 1970, Nguema created a
single-party state. In 1972 Nguema took complete control of the government and assumed the
title of President for Life. Nguemas regime was characterized by abandonment of all
government functions except internal security, which was accomplished by terror; he acted as
chief judge who sentenced thousands to death. This led to the death or exile of up to 1/3 of the
country's population. Out of a population of 300,000, an estimated 80,000 had been killed.
Uneasy around educated people, he had killed everyone who wore spectacles. All schools were
ordered closed in 1975. The economy collapsed, and skilled citizens and foreigners left.

- Idi Amin Dada. Idi Amin, dictator of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, is notorious for being one of
the bloodiest dictators of the 20th century. The exact number of people killed is unknown. The
International Commission of Jurists estimated the death toll at no fewer than 80,000 and more
likely around 300,000. An estimate compiled by exile organizations with the help of Amnesty
International puts the number killed at 500,000. The victims soon came to include members of
other ethnic groups, religious leaders, journalists, senior bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, students
and intellectuals, criminal suspects, and foreign nationals. In some cases entire villages were
wiped out. Bodies were dumped into the River Nile, on at least one occasion in quantities
sufficient to clog the Owen Falls Hydro-Electric Dam in Jinja.

- Ethiopia. During Mengistus 17-year reign it was not uncommon to see students, suspected
government critics or rebel sympathisers hanging from lampposts each morning. Mengistu
himself is alleged to have murdered opponents by garroting or shooting them, saying that he was
leading by example. Some experts have estimated that 150,000 university students, intellectuals
and politicians were killed during Mengistu's rule. Amnesty International estimates that up to
500,000 people were killed during the Red Terror of 1977 and 1978. On 12 December 2006
Mengistu Haile Mariam was found guilty of genocide and other offences. He was sentenced to
life in prison in January 2007.

- Western New Guinea. Amnesty International has estimated that more than 100,000 Papuans,
one-sixth of the population, have died as a result of government-sponsored violence against West
Papuans, while others had previously specified much higher death tolls. In 2004 the Yale
University Law School published "Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application
of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control", a 75 page report detailing the
applicability of Indonesian control to each of the genocide conventions.

- Algerian Civil War. During the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s, a variety of massacres
occurred. The massacres peaked in 1997 (with a smaller peak in 1994), and were particularly
concentrated in the areas between Algiers and Oran, with very few occurring in the east or in the
Sahara. An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people lost their lives during the conflict.

Starting around April 1997 (the Thalit massacre), Algeria was wracked by massacres of intense
brutality and unprecedented size; previous massacres had occurred in the conflict, but always on
a substantially smaller scale. Typically targeting entire villages or neighborhoods and
disregarding the age and sex of victims, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) guerrillas killed tens,
and sometimes hundreds, of civilians at a time. These massacres continued through the end of

224
1998, changing the nature of the political situation considerably. The areas south and east of
Algiers were hit particularly hard; the Rais and Bentalha massacres in particular shocked
worldwide observers. Pregnant women were sliced open, children were hacked to pieces or
dashed against walls, men's limbs were hacked off one by one, and, as the attackers retreated,
they would kidnap young women to keep as sex slaves. This quotation by Nesroullah Yous, a
survivor of Bentalha, expresses the apparent mood of the attackers:

"We have the whole night to rape your women and children, drink your blood. Even if
you escape today, we'll come back tomorrow to finish you off! We're here to send you to
your God!"

The GIA's responsibility for these massacres is undisputed; it claimed credit for both Rais and
Bentalha (calling the killings an "offering to God" and the victims "impious" supporters of
tyrants in a press release), and its policy of massacring civilians was cited by the Salafist Group
for Preaching and Combat as one of the main reasons it split off from the GIA. At this stage, it
had apparently adopted a takfirist ideology, believing that practically all Algerians not actively
fighting the government were corrupt to the point of being kafirs, and could be killed righteously
with impunity; an unconfirmed communiqu by Zouabri had stated that "except for those who
are with us, all others are apostates and deserving of death."

- Second Congo War. The Second Congo War, also known as Africa's World War, began in
1998. The largest war in modern African history, one of the deadliest conflicts since World War
II, it directly involved eight African nations, as well as about 25 armed groups. Nearly 5 million
people have died. A U.N. human rights expert reported in July 2007 that sexual atrocities against
Congolese women go 'far beyond rape' and include sexual slavery, forced incest, and
cannibalism.

In 2003, Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of Mbuti Pygmies, told the UN's Indigenous People's
Forum that during the Congo Civil War, his people were hunted down and eaten as though they
were game animals. Both sides of the war regarded them as "subhuman." Makelo asked the UN
Security Council to recognise cannibalism as a crime against humanity and an act of genocide.

Classification & nomenclature

Child abuse
Domestic violence
Psychological abuse
Cyber-bullying
Sexual abuse
Structural violence
Symbolic violence
School bullying

United Nations

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 United Nations

Flag

Map of UN member states

Note that this map does not represent the view of its members or the UN concerning the legal status of any country, nor does it accurately reflect which areas's governme
have UN representation.

Headquarters International territory in Manhattan, New York City

Official languages Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish
Membership 192 member states
Leaders
- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Establishment
United Nations
- 26 June 1945
Charter signed
Entry into force of
- 24 October 1945
Charter
Website
www.un.org
United Nations portal

The United Nations Organization (UNO) or simply United Nations (UN) is an international
organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international
security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world
peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop
wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary
organizations to carry out its missions.

There are currently 192 member states, including nearly every sovereign state in the world. From
its offices around the world, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and
administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout the year. The organization has six
principal organs: the General Assembly (the main deliberative assembly); the Security Council
(for deciding certain resolutions for peace and security); the Economic and Social Council (for
assisting in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development); the
Secretariat (for providing studies, information, and facilities needed by the UN); the
International Court of Justice (the primary judicial organ); and the United Nations Trusteeship
Council (which is currently inactive). Other prominent UN System agencies include the World
Health Organization (WHO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations Children's

226
Fund (UNICEF). The UN's most visible public figure is the Secretary-General, currently Ban Ki-
moon of South Korea, who attained the post in 2007. The organization is financed from assessed
and voluntary contributions from its member states, and has six official languages: Arabic,
Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

The signing of the UN Charter in San Francisco, 1945.

Following in the wake of the failed League of Nations (19191946), which the United States
never joined, the United Nations was established in 1945 to maintain international peace and
promote cooperation in solving international economic, social and humanitarian problems. The
earliest concrete plan for a new world organization was begun under the aegis of the U.S. State
Department in 1939. Franklin D. Roosevelt first coined the term 'United Nations' as a term to
describe the Allied countries. The term was first officially used on 1 January 1942 when 26
governments signed the Atlantic Charter, pledging to continue the war effort. On 25 April 1945,
the UN Conference on International Organization began in San Francisco, attended by 50
governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the Charter
of the United Nations. The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon
ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security CouncilFrance, the
Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United Statesand by a
majority of the other 46 signatories. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations
represented, and the Security Council, took place in Westminster Central Hall in London in
January 1946.

Since its creation, there has been controversy and criticism of the UN organization. In the United
States, an early opponent of the UN was the John Birch Society, which began a "get US out of
the UN" campaign in 1959, charging that the UN's aim was to establish a "One World
Government." After the Second World War, the French Committee of National Liberation was
late to be recognized by the US as the government of France, and so the country was initially
excluded from the conferences that aimed at creating the new organization. Charles de Gaulle
criticized the UN, famously calling it le machin ("the thingie"), and was not convinced that a

227
global security alliance would help maintaining world peace, preferring direct defence treaties
between countries.

Organization

The United Nations system is based on five principal organs (formerly six the Trusteeship
Council suspended operations in 1994); the General Assembly, the Security Council, the
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice.

Four of the five principal organs are located at the main United Nations headquarters located on
international territory in New York City. The International Court of Justice is located in The
Hague, while other major agencies are based in the UN offices at Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi.
Other UN institutions are located throughout the world.

The six official languages of the United Nations, used in intergovernmental meetings and
documents, are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, while the Secretariat
uses two working languages, English and French. Five of the official languages were chosen
when the UN was founded; Arabic was added later in 1973. The United Nations Editorial
Manual states that the standard for English language documents is British usage and Oxford
spelling, the Chinese writing standard is Simplified Chinese. This replaced Traditional Chinese
in 1971 when the UN representation of China was changed from the Republic of China to
People's Republic of China.

General Assembly

United Nations General Assembly hall.

The General Assembly is the main deliberative assembly of the United Nations. Composed of all
United Nations member states, the assembly meets in regular yearly sessions under a president
elected from among the member states. Over a two-week period at the start of each session, all
members have the opportunity to address the assembly. Traditionally, the Secretary-General

228
makes the first statement, followed by the president of the assembly. The first session was
convened on 10 January 1946 in the Westminster Central Hall in London and included
representatives of 51 nations.

When the General Assembly votes on important questions, a two-thirds majority of those present
and voting is required. Examples of important questions include: recommendations on peace and
security; election of members to organs; admission, suspension, and expulsion of members; and,
budgetary matters. All other questions are decided by majority vote. Each member country has
one vote. Apart from approval of budgetary matters, resolutions are not binding on the members.
The Assembly may make recommendations on any matters within the scope of the UN, except
matters of peace and security that are under Security Council consideration.

Conceivably, the one state, one vote power structure could enable states comprising just eight
percent of the world population to pass a resolution by a two-thirds vote. However, as no more
than recommendations, it is difficult to imagine a situation in which a recommendation by
member states constituting just eight percent of the world's population, would be adhered to by
the remaining ninety-two percent of the population, should they object. (See List of countries by
population.)

Security Council

United Nations Security Council chamber.

The Security Council is charged with maintaining peace and security among countries. While
other organs of the United Nations can only make 'recommendations' to member governments,
the Security Council has the power to make binding decisions that member governments have
agreed to carry out, under the terms of Charter Article 25. The decisions of the Council are
known as United Nations Security Council resolutions.

The Security Council is made up of 15 member states, consisting of 5 permanent members

China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States and 10 non-permanent

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members, currently Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Gabon, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico,
Nigeria, Turkey, and Uganda. The five permanent members hold veto power over substantive
but not procedural resolutions allowing a permanent member to block adoption but not to block
the debate of a resolution unacceptable to it. The ten temporary seats are held for two-year terms
with member states voted in by the General Assembly on a regional basis. The presidency of the
Security Council is rotated alphabetically each month, and is held by Gabon for the month of
March 2010.

Secretariat

The United Nations Secretariat Building at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

The United Nations Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General, assisted by a staff of

international civil servants worldwide. It provides studies, information, and facilities needed by
United Nations bodies for their meetings. It also carries out tasks as directed by the UN Security
Council, the UN General Assembly, the UN Economic and Social Council, and other UN bodies.
The United Nations Charter provides that the staff be chosen by application of the "highest
standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity," with due regard for the importance of
recruiting on a wide geographical basis.

The Charter provides that the staff shall not seek or receive instructions from any authority other
than the UN. Each UN member country is enjoined to respect the international character of the
Secretariat and not seek to influence its staff. The Secretary-General alone is responsible for staff
selection.

The Secretary-General's duties include helping resolve international disputes, administering

peacekeeping operations, organizing international conferences, gathering information on the
implementation of Security Council decisions, and consulting with member governments
regarding various initiatives. Key Secretariat offices in this area include the Office of the
Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The

230
Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter that, in his or her
opinion, may threaten international peace and security.

Secretary-General

The current Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon of South Korea.

The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General, who acts as the de facto spokesman and
leader of the UN. The current Secretary-General is Ban Ki-moon, who took over from Kofi
Annan in 2007 and will be eligible for reappointment when his first term expires in 2011.

Envisioned by Franklin D. Roosevelt as a "world moderator", the position is defined in the UN

Charter as the organization's "chief administrative officer", but the Charter also states that the
Secretary-General can bring to the Security Council's attention "any matter which in his opinion
may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security", giving the position greater
scope for action on the world stage. The position has evolved into a dual role of an administrator
of the UN organization, and a diplomat and mediator addressing disputes between member states
and finding consensus to global issues.

The Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly, after being recommended by the
Security Council, any member of which can veto, and the General Assembly can theoretically
override the Security Council's recommendation if a majority vote is not achieved, although this
has not happened so far. There are no specific criteria for the post, but over the years it has
become accepted that the post shall be held for one or two terms of five years, that the post shall
be appointed on the basis of geographical rotation, and that the Secretary-General shall not
originate from one of the five permanent Security Council member states.

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International Court of Justice

Peace Palace, seat of the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), located in The Hague, Netherlands, is the primary
judicial organ of the United Nations. Established in 1945 by the United Nations Charter, the
Court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice. The
Statute of the International Court of Justice, similar to that of its predecessor, is the main
constitutional document constituting and regulating the Court.

It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, sharing the building with the Hague
Academy of International Law, a private centre for the study of international law. Several of the
Court's current judges are either alumni or former faculty members of the Academy. Its purpose
is to adjudicate disputes among states. The court has heard cases related to war crimes, illegal
state interference and ethnic cleansing, among others, and continues to hear cases.

A related court, the International Criminal Court (ICC), began operating in 2002 through
international discussions initiated by the General Assembly. It is the first permanent international
court charged with trying those who commit the most serious crimes under international law,
including war crimes and genocide. The ICC is functionally independent of the UN in terms of
personnel and financing, but some meetings of the ICC governing body, the Assembly of States
Parties to the Rome Statute, are held at the UN. There is a "relationship agreement" between the
ICC and the UN that governs how the two institutions regard each other legally.

Economic and Social Council

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) assists the General Assembly in promoting
international economic and social cooperation and development. ECOSOC has 54 members, all
of which are elected by the General Assembly for a three-year term. The president is elected for
a one-year term and chosen amongst the small or middle powers represented on ECOSOC.
ECOSOC meets once a year in July for a four-week session. Since 1998, it has held another

232
meeting each April with finance ministers heading key committees of the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF). Viewed separate from the specialized bodies it coordinates,
ECOSOC's functions include information gathering, advising member nations, and making
recommendations. In addition, ECOSOC is well-positioned to provide policy coherence and
coordinate the overlapping functions of the UNs subsidiary bodies and it is in these roles that it
is most active.

Specialized institutions

There are many UN organizations and agencies that function to work on particular issues. Some
of the most well-known agencies are the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Food and
Agriculture Organization, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization), the World Bank and the World Health Organization.

It is through these agencies that the UN performs most of its humanitarian work. Examples
include mass vaccination programmes (through the WHO), the avoidance of famine and
malnutrition (through the work of the WFP) and the protection of vulnerable and displaced
people (for example, by the HCR).

The United Nations Charter stipulates that each primary organ of the UN can establish various
specialized agencies to fulfill its duties.

Group of 77

The Group of 77 at the UN is a loose coalition of developing nations, designed to promote its
members' collective economic interests and create an enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the
United Nations. There were 77 founding members of the organization, but the organization has
since expanded to 130 member countries. The group was founded on 15 June 1964 by the "Joint
Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries" issued at the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD). The first major meeting was in Algiers in 1967, where the
Charter of Algiers was adopted and the basis for permanent institutional structures was begun.

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Functions
Peacekeeping and security

UN peacekeeping missions. Dark blue regions indicate current missions , while light blue
regions represent former missions.

The UN, after approval by the Security Council, sends peacekeepers to regions where armed
conflict has recently ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to
discourage combatants from resuming hostilities. Since the UN does not maintain its own
military, peacekeeping forces are voluntarily provided by member states of the UN. The forces,
also called the "Blue Helmets", who enforce UN accords are awarded United Nations Medals,
which are considered international decorations instead of military decorations. The peacekeeping
force as a whole received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988.

The founders of the UN had envisaged that the organization would act to prevent conflicts
between nations and make future wars impossible, however the outbreak of the Cold War made
peacekeeping agreements extremely difficult because of the division of the world into hostile
camps. Following the end of the Cold War, there were renewed calls for the UN to become the
agency for achieving world peace, as there are several dozen ongoing conflicts that continue to
rage around the globe.

A 2005 RAND Corp study found the UN to be successful in two out of three peacekeeping
efforts. It compared UN nation-building efforts to those of the United States, and found that
seven out of eight UN cases are at peace, as compared with four out of eight US cases at peace.
Also in 2005, the Human Security Report documented a decline in the number of wars,
genocides and human rights abuses since the end of the Cold War, and presented evidence, albeit
circumstantial, that international activismmostly spearheaded by the UNhas been the main
cause of the decline in armed conflict since the end of the Cold War. Situations where the UN
has not only acted to keep the peace but also occasionally intervened include the Korean War
(19501953), and the authorization of intervention in Iraq after the Persian Gulf War in 1990.

234
A British armoured car painted as it appeared while deployed on a UN peacekeeping mission.

The UN has also drawn criticism for perceived failures. In many cases, member states have
shown reluctance to achieve or enforce Security Council resolutions, an issue that stems from the
UN's intergovernmental natureseen by some as simply an association of 192 member states
who must reach consensus, not an independent organization. Disagreements in the Security
Council about military action and intervention are seen as having failed to prevent the 1994
Rwandan Genocide, failed to provide humanitarian aid and intervene in the Second Congo War,
failed to intervene in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and protect a refugee haven by the
authorizing the peacekeepers to use force, failure to deliver food to starving people in Somalia,
failure to implement provisions of Security Council resolutions related to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, and continuing failure to prevent genocide or provide assistance in Darfur. UN
peacekeepers have also been accused of child rape, sexual abuse or soliciting prostitutes during
various peacekeeping missions, starting in 2003, in the Congo, Haiti, Liberia, Sudan, Burundi
and Cte d'Ivoire. In 2004, former Israeli ambassador to the UN Dore Gold criticized what it
called the organization's moral relativism in the face of (and occasional support of) genocide and
terrorism that occurred between the moral clarity of its founding period and the present day.
Gold specifically mentions Yasser Arafat's 1988 invitation to address the General Assembly as a
low point in the UN's history.

In addition to peacekeeping, the UN is also active in encouraging disarmament. Regulation of

armaments was included in the writing of the UN Charter in 1945 and was envisioned as a way
of limiting the use of human and economic resources for the creation of them. However, the
advent of nuclear weapons came only weeks after the signing of the charter and immediately
halted concepts of arms limitation and disarmament, resulting in the first resolution of the first
ever General Assembly meeting calling for specific proposals for "the elimination from national
armaments of atomic weapons and of all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction".
The principal forums for disarmament issues are the General Assembly First Committee, the UN
Disarmament Commission, and the Conference on Disarmament, and considerations have been
made of the merits of a ban on testing nuclear weapons, outer space arms control, the banning of

235
chemical weapons and land mines, nuclear and conventional disarmament, nuclear-weapon-free
zones, the reduction of military budgets, and measures to strengthen international security.

The UN is one of the official supporters of the World Security Forum, a major international
conference on the effects of global catastrophes and disasters, taking place in the United Arab
Emirates, in October 2008.

Human rights and humanitarian assistance

Eleanor Roosevelt with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1949.

The pursuit of human rights was a central reason for creating the UN. World War II atrocities
and genocide led to a ready consensus that the new organization must work to prevent any
similar tragedies in the future. An early objective was creating a legal framework for considering
and acting on complaints about human rights violations. The UN Charter obliges all member
nations to promote "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights" and to take "joint
and separate action" to that end. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, though not legally
binding, was adopted by the General Assembly in 1948 as a common standard of achievement
for all. The Assembly regularly takes up human rights issues.

The UN and its agencies are central in upholding and implementing the principles enshrined in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A case in point is support by the UN for countries in
transition to democracy. Technical assistance in providing free and fair elections, improving
judicial structures, drafting constitutions, training human rights officials, and transforming armed
movements into political parties have contributed significantly to democratization worldwide.
The UN has helped run elections in countries with little or no democratic history, including
recently in Afghanistan and East Timor. The UN is also a forum to support the right of women to
participate fully in the political, economic, and social life of their countries. The UN contributes
to raising consciousness of the concept of human rights through its covenants and its attention to
specific abuses through its General Assembly, Security Council resolutions, or International
Court of Justice rulings.

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The purpose of the United Nations Human Rights Council, established in 2006, is to address
human rights violations. The Council is the successor to the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights, which was often criticised for the high-profile positions it gave to member states
that did not guarantee the human rights of their own citizens. The council has 47 members
distributed by region, which each serve three year terms, and may not serve three consecutive
terms. A candidate to the body must be approved by a majority of the General Assembly. In
addition, the council has strict rules for membership, including a universal human rights review.
While some members with questionable human rights records have been elected, it is fewer than
before with the increased focus on each member state's human rights record.

The rights of some 370 million indigenous peoples around the world is also a focus for the UN,
with a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples being approved by the General Assembly
in 2007. The declaration outlines the individual and collective rights to culture, language,
education, identity, employment and health, thereby addressing post-colonial issues which had
confronted indigenous peoples for centuries. The declaration aims to maintain, strengthen and
encourage the growth of indigenous institutions, cultures and traditions. It also prohibits
discrimination against indigenous peoples and promotes their active participation in matters
which concern their past, present and future.

In conjunction with other organizations such as the Red Cross, the UN provides food, drinking
water, shelter and other humanitarian services to populaces suffering from famine, displaced by
war, or afflicted by other disasters. Major humanitarian branches of the UN are the World Food
Programme (which helps feed more than 100 million people a year in 80 countries), the office of
the High Commissioner for Refugees with projects in over 116 countries, as well as
peacekeeping projects in over 24 countries.

Social and economic development

Millennium Development Goals
1. eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
2. achieve universal primary education;
3. promote gender equality and empower women;
4. reduce child mortality;
5. improve maternal health;
6. combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
7. ensure environmental sustainability; and
8. develop a global partnership for development.

The UN is involved in supporting development, e.g. by the formulation of the Millennium

Development Goals. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is the largest multilateral source
of grant technical assistance in the world. Organizations like the World Health Organization
(WHO), UNAIDS, and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are leading
institutions in the battle against diseases around the world, especially in poor countries. The UN
Population Fund is a major provider of reproductive services. It has helped reduce infant and
maternal mortality in 100 countries.

The UN also promotes human development through various related agencies. The World Bank
Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF), for example, are independent, specialized
agencies and observers within the UN framework, according to a 1947 agreement. They were
initially formed as separate from the UN through the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944.

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The UN annually publishes the Human Development Index (HDI), a comparative measure
ranking countries by poverty, literacy, education, life expectancy, and other factors.

The Millennium Development Goals are eight goals that all 192 United Nations member states
have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015. This was declared in the United Nations
Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000.

Mandates

From time to time the different bodies of the United Nations pass resolutions which contain
operating paragraphs that begin with the words "requests", "calls upon", or "encourages", which
the Secretary-General interprets as a mandate to set up a temporary organization or do
something. These mandates can be as little as researching and publishing a written report, or
mounting a full scale peace-keeping operation (usually the exclusive domain of the Security
Council).

Although the specialized institutions, such as the WHO, were originally set up by this means,
they are not the same as mandates because they are permanent organizations that exist
independently of the UN with their own membership structure. One could say that original
mandate was simply to cover the process of setting up the institution, and has therefore long
expired. Most mandates expire after a limited time period and require renewal from the body
which set them up.

One of the outcomes of the 2005 World Summit was a mandate (labeled id 17171) for the
Secretary-General to "review all mandates older than five years originating from resolutions of
the General Assembly and other organs". To facilitate this review and to finally bring coherence
to the organization, the Secretariat has produced an on-line registry of mandates to draw together
the reports relating to each one and create an overall picture.

Other

Over the lifetime of the UN, over 80 colonies have attained independence. The General
Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and
Peoples in 1960 with no votes against but abstentions from all major colonial powers. Through
the UN Committee on Decolonization, created in 1962, the UN has focused considerable
attention on decolonization. It has also supported the new states that have arisen as a result self-
determination initiatives. The committee has overseen the decolonization of every country larger
than 20,000 km and removed them from the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing
Territories, besides Western Sahara, a country larger than the UK only relinquished by Spain in
1975.

The UN declares and coordinates international observances, periods of time to observe some
issue of international interest or concern. Using the symbolism of the UN, a specially designed
logo for the year, and the infrastructure of the United Nations System, various days and years
have become catalysts to advancing key issues of concern on a global scale. For example, World
Tuberculosis Day, Earth Day and International Year of Deserts and Desertification.

Funding
Top 10 donators to the UN budget, 2009

Member state Contribution

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 (% of UN budget)

United States 22.00%

Japan 16.624%

Germany 8.577%

United Kingdom 6.642%

France 6.301%

Italy 5.079%

Canada 2.977%

Spain 2.968%

China 2.667%

Mexico 2.257%

Other member states 23.908%

The UN is financed from assessed and voluntary contributions from member states. The regular
two-year budgets of the UN and its specialized agencies are funded by assessments. The General
Assembly approves the regular budget and determines the assessment for each member. This is
broadly based on the relative capacity of each country to pay, as measured by their Gross
National Income (GNI), with adjustments for external debt and low per capita income.

The Assembly has established the principle that the UN should not be overly dependent on any
one member to finance its operations. Thus, there is a 'ceiling' rate, setting the maximum amount
any member is assessed for the regular budget. In December 2000, the Assembly revised the
scale of assessments to reflect current global circumstances. As part of that revision, the regular
budget ceiling was reduced from 25% to 22%. The U.S. is the only member that has met the
ceiling. In addition to a ceiling rate, the minimum amount assessed to any member nation (or
'floor' rate) is set at 0.001% of the UN budget. Also, for the least developed countries (LDC), a
ceiling rate of 0.01% is applied.

The current operating budget is estimated at $4.19 billion for the 2-year (biennial)period of 2008
to 2009, or a little over 2 billion dollars a year (refer to table for major contributors).

A large share of UN expenditures addresses the core UN mission of peace and security. The
peacekeeping budget for the 20052006 fiscal year is approximately $5 billion (compared to
approximately $1.5 billion for the UN core budget over the same period), with some 70,000
troops deployed in 17 missions around the world. UN peace operations are funded by
assessments, using a formula derived from the regular funding scale, but including a weighted
surcharge for the five permanent Security Council members, who must approve all peacekeeping
operations. This surcharge serves to offset discounted peacekeeping assessment rates for less
developed countries. As of 1 January 2008, the top 10 providers of assessed financial
contributions to United Nations peacekeeping operations were: the United States, Japan,
Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, China, Canada, Spain, and the Republic of Korea.
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Special UN programmes not included in the regular budget (such as UNICEF, the WFP and
UNDP) are financed by voluntary contributions from other member governments. Most of this is
financial contributions, but some is in the form of agricultural commodities donated for afflicted
populations.

Because their funding is voluntary, many of these agencies suffer severe shortages during
economic recessions. In July 2009, the World Food Programme reported that it has been forced
to cut services because of insufficient funding. It has received barely a quarter of the total it
needs for the 09/10 financial year.

Personnel policy

The UN and its agencies are immune to the laws of the countries where they operate,
safeguarding UN's impartiality with regard to the host and member countries. This independence
allows agencies to implement human resources policies that may even be contrary to the laws of
a host or a member country.

Despite their independence in matters of human resources policy, the UN and its agencies
voluntarily apply the laws of member states regarding same-sex marriages, allowing decisions
about the status of employees in a same-sex partnership to be based on nationality. The UN and
its agencies recognize same-sex marriages only if the employees are citizens of countries that
recognize the marriage. This practice is not specific to the recognition of same-sex marriage but
reflects a common practice of the UN for a number of human resources matters. It has to be
noted though that some agencies provide limited benefits to domestic partners of their staff and
that some agencies do not recognise same-sex marriage or domestic partnership of their staff.

Reform

Proposed logo for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, which would involve direct
election of a country's representative by its citizens.

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Since its founding, there have been many calls for reform of the United Nations, although little
consensus on how to do so. Some want the UN to play a greater or more effective role in world
affairs, while others want its role reduced to humanitarian work. There have also been numerous
calls for the UN Security Council's membership to be increased, for different ways of electing
the UN's Secretary-General, and for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly.

The UN has also been accused of bureaucratic inefficiency and waste. During the 1990s the
United States withheld dues citing inefficiency, and only started repayment on the condition that
a major reforms initiative was introduced. In 1994, the Office of Internal Oversight Services
(OIOS) was established by the General Assembly to serve as an efficiency watchdog.

An official reform programme was begun by Kofi Annan in 1997. Reforms mentioned include
changing the permanent membership of the Security Council (which currently reflects the power
relations of 1945), making the bureaucracy more transparent, accountable and efficient, making
the UN more democratic, and imposing an international tariff on arms manufacturers worldwide.

In September 2005, the UN convened a World Summit that brought together the heads of most
member states, calling the summit "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to take bold decisions in
the areas of development, security, human rights and reform of the United Nations." Kofi Annan
had proposed that the summit agree on a global "grand bargain" to reform the UN, renewing the
organisation's focus on peace, security, human rights and development, and to make it better
equipped at facing 21st century issues. The result of the summit was a compromise text agreed
on by world leaders, which included the creation of a Peacebuilding Commission to help
countries emerging from conflict, a Human Rights Council, and a democracy fund, a clear and
unambiguous condemnation of terrorism "in all its forms and manifestations", and agreements to
devote more resources to the Office of Internal Oversight Services, to spend billions more on
achieving the Millennium Development Goals, to wind up the Trusteeship Council because of
the completion of its mission, and that the international community has a "responsibility to
protect" the duty to intervene in when national governments fail to fulfill their responsibility to
protect their citizens from atrocious crimes.

The Office of Internal Oversight Services is being restructured to more clearly define its scope
and mandate, and will receive more resources. In addition, to improve the oversight and auditing
capabilities of the General Assembly, an Independent Audit Advisory Committee (IAAC) is
being created. In June 2007, the Fifth Committee created a draft resolution for the terms of
reference of this committee. An ethics office was established in 2006, responsible for
administering new financial disclosure and whistleblower protection policies. Working with the
OIOS, the ethics office also plans to implement a policy to avoid fraud and corruption. The
Secretariat is in the process of reviewing all UN mandates that are more than five years old. The
review is intended to determine which duplicative or unnecessary programmes should be
eliminated. Not all member states are in agreement as to which of the over 7000 mandates should
be reviewed. The dispute centres on whether mandates that have been renewed should be
examined. As of September 2007, the process is ongoing.

Globalization
Globalization (or globalisation) describes an ongoing process by which regional economies,
societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of
communication and trade. The term is sometimes used to refer specifically to economic
globalization: the integration of national economies into the international economy through
trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology.

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However, globalization is usually recognized as being driven by a combination of economic,
technological, sociocultural, political, and biological factors. The term can also refer to the
transnational circulation of ideas, languages, or popular culture through acculturation.

Definitions

The United Nations Building

An early description of globalization was penned by the American entrepreneur-turned-minister

Charles Taze Russell who coined the term 'corporate giants' in 1897, although it was not until the
1960s that the term began to be widely used by economists and other social scientists. The term
has since then achieved widespread use in the mainstream press by the later half of the 1980s.
Since its inception, the concept of globalization has inspired numerous competing definitions and
interpretations..

The United Nations ESCWA has written that globalization "is a widely-used term that can be
defined in a number of different ways. When used in an economic context, it refers to the
reduction and removal of barriers between national borders in order to facilitate the flow of
goods, capital, services and labor... although considerable barriers remain to the flow of labor...
Globalization is not a new phenomenon. It began in the late nineteenth century, but it slowed
down during the period from the start of the First World War until the third quarter of the
twentieth century. This slowdown can be attributed to the inward-looking policies pursued by a
number of countries in order to protect their respective industries... however, the pace of
globalization picked up rapidly during the fourth quarter of the twentieth century..."

Saskia Sassen writes that "a good part of globalization consists of an enormous variety of micro-
processes that begin to denationalize what had been constructed as national whether policies,
capital, political subjectivity, urban spaces, temporal frames, or any other of a variety of
dynamics and domains."

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HSBC, world's largest bank, operates across the globe.

Tom G. Palmer of the Cato Institute defines globalization as "the diminution or elimination of
state-enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and the increasingly integrated and
complex global system of production and exchange that has emerged as a result."

Thomas L. Friedman has examined the impact of the "flattening" of the world, and argues that
globalized trade, outsourcing, supply-chaining, and political forces have changed the world
permanently, for both better and worse. He also argues that the pace of globalization is
quickening and will continue to have a growing impact on business organization and practice.

Noam Chomsky argues that the word globalization is also used, in a doctrinal sense, to describe
the neoliberal form of economic globalization.

Herman E. Daly argues that sometimes the terms internationalization and globalization are used
interchangeably but there is a significant formal difference. The term "internationalization" (or
internationalisation) refers to the importance of international trade, relations, treaties etc. owing
to the (hypothetical) immobility of labor and capital between or among nations.

Finally, Takis Fotopoulos argues that globalization is the result of systemic trends manifesting
the market economys grow-or-die dynamic, following the rapid expansion of transnational
corporations. Because these trends have not been offset effectively by counter-tendencies that
could have emanated from trade-union action and other forms of political activity, the outcome
has been globalisation. This is a multi-faceted and irreversible phenomenon within the system of
the market economy and it is expressed as: economic globalisation, namely, the opening and
deregulation of commodity, capital and labour markets which led to the present form of
neoliberal globalisation; political globalisation, i.e., the emergence of a transnational elite and
the phasing out of the all powerful-nation state of the statist period; cultural globalisation, i.e.,
the worldwide homogenisation of culture; ideological globalisation; technological globalisation;
social globalisation.

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History

Extent of the Silk Road and Spice trade routes blocked by the Ottoman Empire in 1453 spurring
exploration

The historical origins of globalization are the subject of on-going debate. Though some scholars
situate the origins of globalization in the modern era, others regard it as a phenomenon with a
long history.

Perhaps the most extreme proponent of a deep historical origin for globalization was Andre
Gunder Frank, an economist associated with dependency theory. Frank argued that a form of
globalization has been in existence since the rise of trade links between Sumer and the Indus
Valley Civilization in the third millennium B.C. Critics of this idea point out that it rests upon an
overly-broad definition of globalization.

An early form of globalized economics and culture existed during the Hellenistic Age, when
commercialized urban centers were focused around the axis of Greek culture over a wide range
that stretched from India to Spain, with such cities as Alexandria, Athens, and Antioch at its
center. Trade was widespread during that period, and it is the first time the idea of a
cosmopolitan culture (from Greek "Cosmopolis", meaning "world city") emerged. Others have
perceived an early form of globalization in the trade links between the Roman Empire, the
Parthian Empire, and the Han Dynasty. The increasing articulation of commercial links between
these powers inspired the development of the Silk Road, which started in western China, reached
the boundaries of the Parthian empire, and continued onwards towards Rome. With 300 Greek
ships a year sailing between the Greco-Roman world and India, the annual trade may have
reached 300,000 tons.

The Islamic Golden Age was also an important early stage of globalization, when Jewish and
Muslim traders and explorers established a sustained economy across the Old World resulting in

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a globalization of crops, trade, knowledge and technology. Globally significant crops such as
sugar and cotton became widely cultivated across the Muslim world in this period, while the
necessity of learning Arabic and completing the Hajj created a cosmopolitan culture.

Portuguese carrack in Nagasaki, 17th century Japanese Nanban art

Native New World crops exchanged globally: Maize, Tomato, Potato, Vanilla, rubber tree,
Cacao, Tobacco

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The advent of the Mongol Empire, though destabilizing to the commercial centers of the Middle
East and China, greatly facilitated travel along the Silk Road. This permitted travelers and
missionaries such as Marco Polo to journey successfully (and profitably) from one end of
Eurasia to the other. The so-called Pax Mongolica of the thirteenth century had several other
notable globalizing effects. It witnessed the creation of the first international postal service, as
well as the rapid transmission of epidemic diseases such as bubonic plague across the newly
unified regions of Central Asia. These pre-modern phases of global or hemispheric exchange are
sometimes known as archaic globalization. Up to the sixteenth century, however, even the
largest systems of international exchange were limited to the Old World.

The Age of Discovery brought a broad change in globalization, being the first period in which
Eurasia and Africa engaged in substantial cultural, material and biologic exchange with the New
World. It began in the late 15th century, when the two Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula -
Portugal and Castile - sent the first exploratory voyages around the Horn of Africa and to the
Americas, "discovered" in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. Shortly before the turn of the 16th
century, Portuguese started establishing trading posts (factories) from Africa to Asia and Brazil,
to deal with the trade of local products like gold, spices and timber, introducing an international
business center under a royal monopoly, the House of India.

Global integration continued with the European colonization of the Americas initiating the
Columbian Exchange, the enormous widespread exchange of plants, animals, foods, human
populations (including slaves), communicable diseases, and culture between the Eastern and
Western hemispheres. It was one of the most significant global events concerning ecology,
agriculture, and culture in history. New crops that had come from the Americas via the European
seafarers in the 16th century significantly contributed to the world's population growth.

This phase is sometimes known as proto-globalization. It was characterized by the rise of

maritime European empires, in the 16th and 17th centuries, first the Portuguese and Spanish
Empires, and later the Dutch and British Empires. In the 17th century, globalization became also
a private business phenomenon when chartered companies like British East India Company
(founded in 1600), often described as the first multinational corporation, as well as the Dutch
East India Company (founded in 1602) were established. Because of the large investment and
financing needs and high risks involved in international trade, the British East India Company
became the first company in the world to share risk and enable joint ownership of companies
through the issuance of shares of stock: an important driver for globalization.

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19th century Great Britain become the first global economic superpower, because of superior
manufacturing technology and improved global communications such as steamships and
railroads.

The 19th century witnessed the advent of globalization approaching its modern form.
Industrialization allowed cheap production of household items using economies of scale, while
rapid population growth created sustained demand for commodities. Globalization in this period
was decisively shaped by nineteenth-century imperialism. After the Opium Wars and the
completion of British conquest of India, vast populations of these regions became ready
consumers of European exports. It was in this period that areas of sub-Saharan Africa and the
Pacific islands were incorporated into the world system. Meanwhile, the conquest of new parts
of the globe, notably sub-Saharan Africa, by Europeans yielded valuable natural resources such
as rubber, diamonds and coal and helped fuel trade and investment between the European
imperial powers, their colonies, and the United States. Said John Maynard Keynes,

The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea, the
various products of the whole earth, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon
his doorstep. Militarism and imperialism of racial and cultural rivalries were little
more than the amusements of his daily newspaper. What an extraordinary episode in
the economic progress of man was that age which came to an end in August 1914.
The first phase of "modern globalization" began to break down at the beginning of the 20th
century, with the first world war. The novelist VM Yeates criticised the financial forces of
globalization as a factor in creating World War I. The final death knell for this phase came
during the gold standard crisis and Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

In the middle decades of the twentieth century globalization was largely driven by the global
expansion of multinational corporations based in the United States and Europe, and worldwide
exchange of new developments in science, technology and products, with most significant
inventions of this time having their origins in the Western world according to Encyclopedia
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Britannica. Worldwide export of western culture went through the new mass media: film, radio
and television and recorded music. Development and growth of international transport and
telecommunication played a decisive role in modern globalization.

In late 2000s, much of the industrialized world entered into a deep recession. Some analysts say
the world is going through a period of deglobalization after years of increasing economic
integration. Up to 45% of global wealth had been destroyed by the global financial crisis in little
less than a year and a half. China has recently become the worlds largest exporter surpassing
Germany.

Modern globalization

Globalization, since World War II, is largely the result of planning by politicians to break down
borders hampering trade to increase prosperity and interdependence thereby decreasing the
chance of future war. Their work led to the Bretton Woods conference, an agreement by the
world's leading politicians to lay down the framework for international commerce and finance,
and the founding of several international institutions intended to oversee the processes of
globalization.

These institutions include the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the
World Bank), and the International Monetary Fund. Globalization has been facilitated by
advances in technology which have reduced the costs of trade, and trade negotiation rounds,
originally under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which led
to a series of agreements to remove restrictions on free trade.

Since World War II, barriers to international trade have been considerably lowered through
international agreements GATT. Particular initiatives carried out as a result of GATT and the
World Trade Organization (WTO), for which GATT is the foundation, have included:

Promotion of free trade:

o elimination of tariffs; creation of free trade zones with small or no tariffs
o Reduced transportation costs, especially resulting from development of
containerization for ocean shipping.
o Reduction or elimination of capital controls
o Reduction, elimination, or harmonization of subsidies for local businesses
o Creation of subsidies for global corporations
o Harmonization of intellectual property laws across the majority of states, with
more restrictions
o Supranational recognition of intellectual property restrictions (e.g. patents granted
by China would be recognized in the United States)

Cultural globalization, driven by communication technology and the worldwide marketing of

Western cultural industries, was understood at first as a process of homogenization, as the global
domination of American culture at the expense of traditional diversity. However, a contrasting
trend soon became evident in the emergence of movements protesting against globalization and
giving new momentum to the defense of local uniqueness, individuality, and identity, but largely
without success.

The Uruguay Round (1986 to 1994) led to a treaty to create the WTO to mediate trade disputes
and set up a uniform platform of trading. Other bilateral and multilateral trade agreements,
including sections of Europe's Maastricht Treaty and the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) have also been signed in pursuit of the goal of reducing tariffs and barriers to trade.

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World exports rose from 8.5% in 1970, to 16.2% of total gross world product in 2001.

Measuring globalization

Looking specifically at economic globalization, demonstrates that it can be measured in different

ways. These center around the four main economic flows that characterize globalization:

Goods and services, e.g., exports plus imports as a proportion of national income or per
capita of population
Labor/people, e.g., net migration rates; inward or outward migration flows, weighted by
population
Capital, e.g., inward or outward direct investment as a proportion of national income or
per head of population
Technology, e.g., international research & development flows; proportion of populations
(and rates of change thereof) using particular inventions (especially 'factor-neutral'
technological advances such as the telephone, motorcar, broadband)

As globalization is not only an economic phenomenon, a multivariate approach to measuring

globalization is the recent index calculated by the Swiss think tank KOF. The index measures the
three main dimensions of globalization: economic, social, and political. In addition to three
indices measuring these dimensions, an overall index of globalization and sub-indices referring
to actual economic flows, economic restrictions, data on personal contact, data on information
flows, and data on cultural proximity is calculated. Data is available on a yearly basis for 122
countries, as detailed in Dreher, Gaston and Martens (2008). According to the index, the world's
most globalized country is Belgium, followed by Austria, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the
Netherlands. The least globalized countries according to the KOF-index are Haiti, Myanmar, the
Central African Republic and Burundi.

A.T. Kearney and Foreign Policy Magazine jointly publish another Globalization Index.
According to the 2006 index, Singapore, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and
Denmark are the most globalized, while Indonesia, India and Iran are the least globalized among
countries listed.

Effects of globalization

Globalization has various aspects which affect the world in several different ways such as:

Industrial - emergence of worldwide production markets and broader access to a range of

foreign products for consumers and companies. Particularly movement of material and
goods between and within national boundaries. International trade in manufactured goods
increased more than 100 times (from $95 billion to $12 trillion) in the 50 years since
1955. Chinas trade with Africa rose sevenfold during 2000-07 alone.
Financial - emergence of worldwide financial markets and better access to external
financing for borrowers. By the early part of the 21st century more than $1.5 trillion in
national currencies were traded daily to support the expanded levels of trade and
investment. As these worldwide structures grew more quickly than any transnational
regulatory regime, the instability of the global financial infrastructure dramatically
increased, as evidenced by the Financial crisis of 20072010.

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As of 20052007, the Port of Shanghai holds the title as the World's busiest port.

Economic - realization of a global common market, based on the freedom of exchange of

goods and capital. The interconnectedness of these markets, however meant that an
economic collapse in any one given country could not be contained.

Almost all notable worldwide IT companies are now present in India. Four Indians were among
the world's top 10 richest in 2008, worth a combined $160 billion. In 2007, China had 415,000
millionaires and India 123,000.

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 Health Policy - On the global scale, health becomes a commodity. In developing nations
under the demands of Structural Adjustment Programs, health systems are fragmented
and privatized. Global health policy makers have shifted during the 1990s from United
Nations players to financial institutions. The result of this power transition is an increase
in privatization in the health sector. This privatization fragments health policy by
crowding it with many players with many private interests. These fragmented policy
players emphasize partnerships, specific interventions to combat specific problems (as
opposed to comprehensive health strategies). Influenced by global trade and global
economy, health policy is directed by technological advances and innovative medical
trade. Global priorities, in this situation, are sometimes at odds with national priorities
where increased health infrastructure and basic primary care are of more value to the
public than privatized care for the wealthy.

Britain is a country of rich diversity. As of 2008, 40% of London's total population was
from an ethnic minority group. The latest official figures show that in 2008, 590,000
people arrived to live in the UK whilst 427,000 left, meaning that net inward migration
was 163,000.

Political - some use "globalization" to mean the creation of a world government which
regulates the relationships among governments and guarantees the rights arising from
social and economic globalization. Politically, the United States has enjoyed a position of
power among the world powers, in part because of its strong and wealthy economy. With
the influence of globalization and with the help of The United States own economy, the
People's Republic of China has experienced some tremendous growth within the past
decade. If China continues to grow at the rate projected by the trends, then it is very
likely that in the next twenty years, there will be a major reallocation of power among the
world leaders. China will have enough wealth, industry, and technology to rival the
United States for the position of leading world power.

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 Informational - increase in information flows between geographically remote locations.
Arguably this is a technological change with the advent of fibre optic communications,
satellites, and increased availability of telephone and Internet.
Language - the most popular language is Mandarin (845 million speakers) followed by
Spanish (329 million speakers) and English (328 million speakers).
o About 35% of the world's mail, telexes, and cables are in English.
o Approximately 40% of the world's radio programs are in English.
o About 50% of all Internet traffic uses English.
Competition - Survival in the new global business market calls for improved productivity
and increased competition. Due to the market becoming worldwide, companies in various
industries have to upgrade their products and use technology skillfully in order to face
increased competition.
Ecological - the advent of global environmental challenges that might be solved with
international cooperation, such as climate change, cross-boundary water and air pollution,
over-fishing of the ocean, and the spread of invasive species. Since many factories are
built in developing countries with less environmental regulation, globalism and free trade
may increase pollution. On the other hand, economic development historically required a
"dirty" industrial stage, and it is argued that developing countries should not, via
regulation, be prohibited from increasing their standard of living.

The construction of continental hotels is a major consequence of globalization process in

affiliation with tourism and travel industry, Dariush Grand Hotel, Kish, Iran

Cultural - growth of cross-cultural contacts; advent of new categories of consciousness

and identities which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to increase one's standard of
living and enjoy foreign products and ideas, adopt new technology and practices, and
participate in a "world culture". Some bemoan the resulting consumerism and loss of
languages. Also see Transformation of culture.
o Spreading of multiculturalism, and better individual access to cultural diversity
(e.g. through the export of Hollywood and, to a lesser extent, Bollywood movies).
Some consider such "imported" culture a danger, since it may supplant the local

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 culture, causing reduction in diversity or even assimilation. Others consider
multiculturalism to promote peace and understanding between peoples. A third
position gaining popularity is the notion that multiculturalism to a new form of
monoculture in which no distinctions exist and everyone just shift between
various lifestyles in terms of music, cloth and other aspects once more firmly
attached to a single culture. Thus not mere cultural assimilation as mentioned
above but the obliteration of culture as we know it today.
o Greater international travel and tourism. WHO estimates that up to 500,000
people are on planes at any one time. In 2008, there were over 922 million
international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 1.9% as compared to 2007.
o Greater immigration, including illegal immigration. The IOM estimates there are
more than 200 million migrants around the world today. Newly available data
show that remittance flows to developing countries reached $328 billion in 2008.
o Spread of local consumer products (e.g., food) to other countries (often adapted to
their culture).
o Worldwide fads and pop culture such as Pokmon, Sudoku, Numa Numa,
Origami, Idol series, YouTube, Orkut, Facebook, and MySpace. Accessible to
those who have Internet or Television, leaving out a substantial segment of the
Earth's population.
o Worldwide sporting events such as FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games.
o Incorporation of multinational corporations in to new media. As the sponsors of
the All-Blacks rugby team, Adidas had created a parallel website with a
downloadable interactive rugby game for its fans to play and compete.
Social - development of the system of non-governmental organisations as main agents of
global public policy, including humanitarian aid and developmental efforts.
Technical
o Development of a Global Information System, global telecommunications
infrastructure and greater transborder data flow, using such technologies as the
Internet, communication satellites, submarine fiber optic cable, and wireless
telephones
o Increase in the number of standards applied globally; e.g., copyright laws, patents
and world trade agreements.
Legal/Ethical
o The creation of the international criminal court and international justice
movements.
o Crime importation and raising awareness of global crime-fighting efforts and
cooperation.
o The emergence of Global administrative law.
Religious
o The spread and increased interrelations of various religious groups, ideas, and
practices and their ideas of the meanings and values of particular spaces.

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Cultural effects

Globalization has had an impact on different cultures around the world.

Japanese McDonald's fast food as an evidence of corporate globalization and the integration of
the same into different cultures.

"Culture" is defined as patterns of human activity and the symbols that give these activities
significance. Culture is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold, and activities they
practice. Globalization has joined different cultures and made it into something different. As Erla
Zwingle, from the National Geographic article titled Globalization states, When cultures

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receive outside influences, they ignore some and adopt others, and then almost immediately start
to transform them.

One classic culture aspect is food. Someone in America can be eating Japanese noodles for lunch
while someone in Sydney, Australia is eating classic Italian meatballs. India is known for its
curry and exotic spices. France is known for its cheeses. America is known for its burgers and
fries. McDonalds is an American company which is now a global enterprise with 31,000
locations worldwide. This company is just one example of food causing cultural influence on the
global scale.

Another common practice brought about by globalization is the usage of Chinese symbol in
tattoos. These tattoos are popular with todays youth despite the lack of social acceptance of
tattoos in China. Also, there is a lack of comprehension in the meaning of Chinese characters
that people get, making this an example of cultural appropriation.

The internet breaks down cultural boundaries across the world by enabling easy, near-
instantaneous communication between people anywhere in a variety of digital forms and media.
The Internet is associated with the process of cultural globalization because it allows interaction
and communication between people with very different lifestyles and from very different
cultures. Photo sharing websites allow interaction even where language would otherwise be a
barrier.

Negative effects

Globalization has been one of the most hotly debated topics in international economics over the
past few years. Globalization has also generated significant international opposition over
concerns that it has increased inequality and environmental degradation. In the Midwestern
United States, globalization has eaten away at its competitive edge in industry and agriculture,
lowering the quality of life in locations that have not adapted to the change.

Effect on disease

Globalization, the flow of information, goods, capital and people across political and geographic
boundaries, has also helped to spread some of the deadliest infectious diseases known to humans.
Starting in Asia, the Black Death killed at least one-third of Europe's population in the 14th
century. Modern modes of transportation allow more people and products to travel around the
world at a faster pace, they also open the airways to the transcontinental movement of infectious
disease vectors. One example of this occurring is AIDS/HIV. Approximately 1.1 million persons
are living with HIV/AIDS in the United States, and AIDS remains the leading cause of death
among African American women between ages 25 and 34. Due to immigration, approximately
500,000 people in the United States are believed to be infected with Chagas disease. In 2006, the
tuberculosis (TB) rate among foreign-born persons in the United States was 9.5 times that of
U.S.-born persons.

Brain drain

Opportunities in richer countries drives talent away from poorer countries, leading to brain
drains. Brain drain has cost the African continent over $4.1 billion in the employment of 150,000
expatriate professionals annually. Indian students going abroad for their higher studies costs
India a foreign exchange outflow of $10 billion annually.

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Economic liberalization

The World today is so interconnected that the collapse of the subprime mortgage market in the
U.S. has led to a global financial crisis and recession on a scale not seen since the Great
Depression. Government deregulation and failed regulation of Wall Street's investment banks
were important contributors to the subprime mortgage crisis.

A flood of consumer goods such as televisions, radios, bicycles, and textiles into the United
States, Europe, and Japan has helped fuel the economic expansion of Asian tiger economies in
recent decades. However, Chinese textile and clothing exports have recently encountered
criticism from Europe, the United States and some African countries. In South Africa, some
300,000 textile workers have lost their jobs due to the influx of Chinese goods. A total of 3.2
million one in six U.S. factory jobs have disappeared since the start of 2000.

Effect on Income disparity

A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations
University reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year
2000. The three richest people possess more financial assets than the poorest 10% of the world's
population, combined . The combined wealth of the 10 million millionaires grew to nearly $41
trillion in 2008. In 2001, 46.4% of people in sub-Saharan Africa were living in extreme poverty.
Nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished.

Effect on environmental degradation

Burning forest in Brazil. The removal of forest to make way for cattle ranching was the leading
cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon from the mid 1960s. Recently, soybeans have
become one of the most important contributors to deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.

The Worldwatch Institute said the booming economies of China and India are planetary powers
that are shaping the global biosphere. In 2007, China has overtaken the United States as the

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world's biggest producer of CO2. At present rates, tropical rainforests in Indonesia would be
logged out in 10 years, Papua New Guinea in 13 to 16 years. A major source of deforestation is
the logging industry, driven spectacularly by China and Japan. Thriving economies such as
China and India are quickly becoming large oil consumers. China has seen oil consumption grow
by 8% yearly since 2002, doubling from 19962006. Crude oil prices in the last several years
have steadily risen from about $25 a barrel in August 2003 to over $140 a barrel in July 2008.
State of the World 2006 report said the two countries' high economic growth hid a reality of
severe pollution. The report states:

The world's ecological capacity is simply insufficient to satisfy the ambitions of China,
India, Japan, Europe and the United States as well as the aspirations of the rest of the
world in a sustainable way

Without more recycling, zinc could be used up by 2037, both indium and hafnium could run out
by 2017, and terbium could be gone before 2012. It said that if China and India were to consume
as much resources per capita as United States or Japan in 2030 together they would require a full
planet Earth to meet their needs. In the longterm these effects can lead to increased conflict over
dwindling resources and in the worst case a Malthusian catastrophe.

Food security

The head of the International Food Policy Research Institute, stated in 2008 that the gradual
change in diet among newly prosperous populations is the most important factor underpinning
the rise in global food prices. From 1950 to 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed
agriculture around the world, grain production increased by over 250%. The world population
has grown by about 4 billion since the beginning of the Green Revolution and most believe that,
without the Revolution, there would be greater famine and malnutrition than the UN presently
documents (approximately 850 million people suffering from chronic malnutrition in 2005).

It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain food security in a world beset by a confluence of

"peak" phenomena, namely peak oil, peak water, peak phosphorus, peak grain and peak fish.
Growing populations, falling energy sources and food shortages will create the "perfect storm"
by 2030, according to the UK government chief scientist. He said food reserves are at a 50-year
low but the world requires 50% more energy, food and water by 2030. The world will have to
produce 70% more food by 2050 to feed a projected extra 2.3 billion people and as incomes rise,
the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned. Social scientists have
warned of the possibility that global civilization is due for a period of contraction and economic
re-localization, due to the decline in fossil fuels and resulting crisis in transportation and food
production. One paper even suggested that the future might even bring about a restoration of
sustainable local economic activities based on hunting and gathering, shifting horticulture, and
pastoralism.

The journal Science published a four-year study in November 2006, which predicted that, at
prevailing trends, the world would run out of wild-caught seafood in 2048.

Drug and illicit goods trade

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issued a report that the global drug
trade generates more than $320 billion a year in revenues. Worldwide, the UN estimates there
are more than 50 million regular users of heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs. The international
trade of endangered species is second only to drug trafficking. Traditional Chinese medicine
often incorporates ingredients from all parts of plants, the leaf, stem, flower, root, and also

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ingredients from animals and minerals. The use of parts of endangered species (such as
seahorses, rhinoceros horns, saiga antelope horns, and tiger bones and claws) has created
controversy and resulted in a black market of poachers who hunt restricted animals. In 2003,
29% of open sea fisheries were in a state of collapse.

Sweatshops

A maquila in Mexico

It can be said that globalization is the door that opens up an otherwise resource-poor country to
the international market. Where a country has little material or physical product harvested or
mined from its own soil, large corporations see an opportunity to take advantage of the export
poverty of such a nation. Where the majority of the earliest occurrences of economic
globalization are recorded as being the expansion of businesses and corporate growth, in many
poorer nations globalization is actually the result of the foreign businesses investing in the
country to take advantage of the lower wage rate: even though investing, by increasing the
Capital Stock of the country, increases their wage rate.

One example used by anti-globalization protestors is the use of sweatshops by manufacturers.

According to Global Exchange these Sweat Shops are widely used by sports shoe
manufacturers and mentions one company in particular Nike. There are factories set up in the
poor countries where employees agree to work for low wages. Then if labour laws alter in those
countries and stricter rules govern the manufacturing process the factories are closed down and
relocated to other nations with more conservative, laissez-faire economic policies.

There are several agencies that have been set up worldwide specifically designed to focus on
anti-sweatshop campaigns and education of such. In the USA, the National Labor Committee has
proposed a number of bills as part of the The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition
Act, which have thus far failed in Congress. The legislation would legally require companies to
respect human and worker rights by prohibiting the import, sale, or export of sweatshop goods.

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Specifically, these core standards include no child labor, no forced labor, freedom of association,
right to organize and bargain collectively, as well as the right to decent working conditions.

Tiziana Terranova has stated that globalization has brought a culture of "free labour". In a digital
sense, it is where the individuals (contributing capital) exploits and eventually "exhausts the
means through which labour can sustain itself". For example, in the area of digital media
(animations, hosting chat rooms, designing games), where it is often less glamourous than it may
sound. In the gaming industry, a Chinese Gold Market has been established.

Pro-globalization (globalism)

Supporters of free trade claim that it increases economic prosperity as well as opportunity,
especially among developing nations, enhances civil liberties and leads to a more efficient
allocation of resources. Economic theories of comparative advantage suggest that free trade leads
to a more efficient allocation of resources, with all countries involved in the trade benefiting. In
general, this leads to lower prices, more employment, higher output and a higher standard of
living for those in developing countries.

Dr. Francesco Stipo, Director of the USA Club of Rome suggests that the world government
should reflect the political and economic balances of world nations. A world confederation
would not supersede the authority of the State governments but rather complement it, as both the
States and the world authority would have power within their sphere of competence".

Proponents of laissez-faire capitalism, and some libertarians, say that higher degrees of political
and economic freedom in the form of democracy and capitalism in the developed world are ends
in themselves and also produce higher levels of material wealth. They see globalization as the
beneficial spread of liberty and capitalism.

Supporters of democratic globalization are sometimes called pro-globalists. They believe that the
first phase of globalization, which was market-oriented, should be followed by a phase of
building global political institutions representing the will of world citizens. The difference from
other globalists is that they do not define in advance any ideology to orient this will, but would
leave it to the free choice of those citizens via a democratic process.

Some, such as former Canadian Senator Douglas Roche, O.C., simply view globalization as
inevitable and advocate creating institutions such as a directly-elected United Nations
Parliamentary Assembly to exercise oversight over unelected international bodies.

Anti-globalization

The "anti-globalization movement" is a term used to describe the political group who oppose the
neoliberal version of globalization, while criticisms of globalization are some of the reasons used
to justify this group's stance.

"Anti-globalization" may also involve the process or actions taken by a state or its people in
order to demonstrate its sovereignty and practice democratic decision-making. Anti-globalization
may occur in order to maintain barriers to the international transfer of people, goods and beliefs,
particularly free market deregulation, encouraged by organizations such as the International
Monetary Fund or the World Trade Organization. Moreover, as Naomi Klein argues in her book
No Logo, anti-globalism can denote either a single social movement or an umbrella term that
encompasses a number of separate social movements such as nationalists and socialists. In either
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case, participants stand in opposition to the unregulated political power of large, multi-national
corporations, as the corporations exercise power through leveraging trade agreements which in
some instances damage the democratic rights of citizens, the environment particularly air quality
index and rain forests, as well as national government's sovereignty to determine labor rights,
including the right to form a union, and health and safety legislation, or laws as they may
otherwise infringe on cultural practices and traditions of developing countries.

Some people who are labeled "anti-globalist" or "sceptics" (Hirst and Thompson) consider the
term to be too vague and inaccurate. Podobnik states that "the vast majority of groups that
participate in these protests draw on international networks of support, and they generally call for
forms of globalization that enhance democratic representation, human rights, and
egalitarianism."

Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton write:

The anti-globalization movement developed in opposition to the perceived negative

aspects of globalization. The term 'anti-globalization' is in many ways a misnomer,
since the group represents a wide range of interests and issues and many of the
people involved in the anti-globalization movement do support closer ties between
the various peoples and cultures of the world through, for example, aid, assistance
for refugees, and global environmental issues.
Some members aligned with this viewpoint prefer instead to describe themselves as the "Global
Justice Movement", the "Anti-Corporate-Globalization Movement", the "Movement of
Movements" (a popular term in Italy), the "Alter-globalization" movement (popular in France),
the "Counter-Globalization" movement, and a number of other terms.

Critiques of the current wave of economic globalization typically look at both the damage to the
planet, in terms of the perceived unsustainable harm done to the biosphere, as well as the
perceived human costs, such as poverty, inequality, miscegenation, injustice and the erosion of
traditional culture which, the critics contend, all occur as a result of the economic
transformations related to globalization. They challenge directly the metrics, such as GDP, used
to measure progress promulgated by institutions such as the World Bank, and look to other
measures, such as the Happy Planet Index, created by the New Economics Foundation. They
point to a "multitude of interconnected fatal consequencessocial disintegration, a breakdown of
democracy, more rapid and extensive deterioration of the environment, the spread of new
diseases, increasing poverty and alienation" which they claim are the unintended but very real
consequences of globalization.

The terms globalization and anti-globalization are used in various ways. Noam Chomsky
believes that

The term "globalization" has been appropriated by the powerful to refer to a specific
form of international economic integration, one based on investor rights, with the
interests of people incidental. That is why the business press, in its more honest
moments, refers to the "free trade agreements" as "free investment agreements"
(Wall St. Journal). Accordingly, advocates of other forms of globalization are
described as "anti-globalization"; and some, unfortunately, even accept this term,
though it is a term of propaganda that should be dismissed with ridicule. No sane
person is opposed to globalization, that is, international integration. Surely not the
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 left and the workers movements, which were founded on the principle of
international solidarity that is, globalization in a form that attends to the rights of
people, not private power systems.

The dominant propaganda systems have appropriated the term "globalization" to

refer to the specific version of international economic integration that they favor,
which privileges the rights of investors and lenders, those of people being incidental.
In accord with this usage, those who favor a different form of international
integration, which privileges the rights of human beings, become "anti-globalist."
This is simply vulgar propaganda, like the term "anti-Soviet" used by the most
disgusting commissars to refer to dissidents. It is not only vulgar, but idiotic. Take
the World Social Forum, called "anti-globalization" in the propaganda system
which happens to include the media, the educated classes, etc., with rare exceptions.
The WSF is a paradigm example of globalization. It is a gathering of huge numbers
of people from all over the world, from just about every corner of life one can think
of, apart from the extremely narrow highly privileged elites who meet at the
competing World Economic Forum, and are called "pro-globalization" by the
propaganda system. An observer watching this farce from Mars would collapse in
hysterical laughter at the antics of the educated classes.
Critics argue that:

Poorer countries suffering disadvantages: While it is true that globalization encourages

free trade among countries, there are also negative consequences because some countries
try to save their national markets. The main export of poorer countries is usually
agricultural goods. Larger countries often subsidise their farmers (like the EU Common
Agricultural Policy), which lowers the market price for the poor farmer's crops compared
to what it would be under free trade.
Exploitation of foreign impoverished workers: The deterioration of protections for
weaker nations by stronger industrialized powers has resulted in the exploitation of the
people in those nations to become cheap labor. Due to the lack of protections, companies
from powerful industrialized nations are able to offer workers enough salary to entice
them to endure extremely long hours and unsafe working conditions, though economists
question if consenting workers in a competitive employers' market can be decried as
"exploited". It is true that the workers are free to leave their jobs, but in many poorer
countries, this would mean starvation for the worker, and possible even his/her family if
their previous jobs were unavailable.
The shift to outsourcing: The low cost of offshore workers have enticed corporations to
buy goods and services from foreign countries. The laid off manufacturing sector workers
are forced into the service sector where wages and benefits are low, but turnover is high .
This has contributed to the deterioration of the middle class which is a major factor in the
increasing economic inequality in the United States . Families that were once part of the
middle class are forced into lower positions by massive layoffs and outsourcing to
another country. This also means that people in the lower class have a much harder time
climbing out of poverty because of the absence of the middle class as a stepping stone.
Weak labor unions: The surplus in cheap labor coupled with an ever growing number of
companies in transition has caused a weakening of labor unions in the United States.
Unions lose their effectiveness when their membership begins to decline. As a result
unions hold less power over corporations that are able to easily replace workers, often for
lower wages, and have the option to not offer unionized jobs anymore.

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 Increase exploitation of child labor: for example, a country that experiencing increases
in labor demand because of globalization and an increase the demand for goods produced
by children, will experience greater a demand for child labor. This can be "hazardous" or
exploitive, e.g., quarrying, salvage, cash cropping but also includes the trafficking of
children, children in bondage or forced labor, prostitution, pornography and other illicit
activities.

In December 2007, World Bank economist Branko Milanovic has called much previous
empirical research on global poverty and inequality into question because, according to him,
improved estimates of purchasing power parity indicate that developing countries are worse off
than previously believed. Milanovic remarks that "literally hundreds of scholarly papers on
convergence or divergence of countries incomes have been published in the last decade based
on what we know now were faulty numbers." With the new data, possibly economists will revise
calculations, and he also believed that there are considerable implications estimates of global
inequality and poverty levels. Global inequality was estimated at around 65 Gini points, whereas
the new numbers indicate global inequality to be at 70 on the Gini scale.

The critics of globalization typically emphasize that globalization is a process that is mediated
according to corporate interests, and typically raise the possibility of alternative global
institutions and policies, which they believe address the moral claims of poor and working
classes throughout the globe, as well as environmental concerns in a more equitable way.

The movement is very broad, including church groups, national liberation factions, peasant
unionists, intellectuals, artists, protectionists, anarchists, those in support of relocalization and
others. Some are reformist, (arguing for a more moderate form of capitalism) while others are
more revolutionary (arguing for what they believe is a more humane system than capitalism) and
others are reactionary, believing globalization destroys national industry and jobs.

One of the key points made by critics of recent economic globalization is that income inequality,
both between and within nations, is increasing as a result of these processes. One article from
2001 found that significantly, in 7 out of 8 metrics, income inequality has increased in the twenty
years ending 2001. Also, "incomes in the lower deciles of world income distribution have
probably fallen absolutely since the 1980s". Furthermore, the World Bank's figures on absolute
poverty were challenged. The article was skeptical of the World Bank's claim that the number of
people living on less than $1 a day has held steady at 1.2 billion from 1987 to 1998, because of
biased methodology.

A chart that gave the inequality a very visible and comprehensible form, the so-called
'champagne glass' effect, was contained in the 1992 United Nations Development Program
Report, which showed the distribution of global income to be very uneven, with the richest 20%
of the world's population controlling 82.7% of the world's income.

Distribution of world GDP, 1989

Quintile of Population Income

Richest 20% 82.7%

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Second 20% 11.7%

Third 20% 2.3%

Fourth 20% 2.4%

Poorest 20% 0.2%

Source: United Nations Development Program. 1992 Human Development Report

Economic arguments by fair trade theorists claim that unrestricted free trade benefits those with
more financial leverage (i.e. the rich) at the expense of the poor.

Americanization related to a period of high political American clout and of significant growth of
America's shops, markets and object being brought into other countries. So globalization, a much
more diversified phenomenon, relates to a multilateral political world and to the increase of
objects, markets and so on into each others countries.

Critics of globalization talk of Westernization. A 2005 UNESCO report showed that cultural
exchange is becoming more frequent from Eastern Asia but . In 2002, China was the third largest
exporter of cultural goods, after the UK and US. Between 1994 and 2002, both North America's
and the European Union's shares of cultural exports declined, while Asia's cultural exports grew
to surpass North America. Related factors are the fact that Asia's population and area are several
times that of North America.

Some opponents of globalization see the phenomenon as the promotion of corporatist interests.
They also claim that the increasing autonomy and strength of corporate entities shapes the
political policy of countries.

International Social Forums

The first WSF in 2001 was an initiative of the administration of Porto Alegre in Brazil. The
slogan of the World Social Forum was "Another World Is Possible". It was here that the WSF's
Charter of Principles was adopted to provide a framework for the forums.It proved to be a
vibrant player in macro level.

The WSF became a periodic meeting: in 2002 and 2003 it was held again in Porto Alegre and
became a rallying point for worldwide protest against the American invasion of Iraq. In 2004 it
was moved to Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay, in India), to make it more accessible to the
populations of Asia and Africa. This last appointment saw the participation of 75,000 delegates.

In the meantime, regional forums took place following the example of the WSF, adopting its
Charter of Principles. The first European Social Forum (ESF) was held in November 2002 in
Florence. The slogan was "Against the war, against racism and against neo-liberalism". It saw
the participation of 60,000 delegates and ended with a huge demonstration against the war

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(1,000,000 people according to the organizers). The other two ESFs took place in Paris and
London, in 2003 and 2004 respectively.

Recently there has been some discussion behind the movement about the role of the social
forums. Some see them as a "popular university", an occasion to make many people aware of the
problems of globalization. Others would prefer that delegates concentrate their efforts on the
coordination and organization of the movement and on the planning of new campaigns. However
it has often been argued that in the dominated countries (most of the world) the WSF is little
more than an 'NGO fair' driven by Northern NGOs and donors most of which are hostile to
popular movements of the poor.

Political correctness
Political correctness (adjectivally, politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to
PC) is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize
social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation,
handicap, and age-related contexts. In current usage, the terms are almost exclusively pejorative,
connoting intolerant and intolerance whilst the usage politically incorrect, denotes an
implicitly positive self-description. Examples include the conservative Politically Incorrect
Guides published by the Regnery editorial house and the television talk show Politically
Incorrect. Thus, politically incorrect connotes language, ideas, and behavior, unconstrained by
orthodoxy and the fear of giving offense.

History
Early usages

Early usages of the phrase, "politically correct", have been found in various contexts, which do
not relate to the current terminology.

The current usage of the term is often traced to MarxistLeninist vocabulary concerning the
ideologically correct line, particularly the works of Mao.

In New Left rhetoric

By 1970, New Left proponents had adopted the term political correctness. In the essay The
Black Woman, Toni Cade Bambara says: . . . a man cannot be politically correct and a [male]
chauvinist too. The New Left later re-appropriated the term political correctness as satirical
self-criticism; per Debra Shultz: Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the New Left, feminists, and
progressives . . . used their term politically correct ironically, as a guard against their own
orthodoxy in social change efforts. Hence, it is a popular English usage in the underground
comic book Merton of the Movement, by Bobby London, while ideologically sound, an
alternative term, followed a like lexical path, appearing in Bart Dickons satirical comic strips.
Moreover, Ellen Willis says: . . . in the early 80s, when feminists used the term political
correctness, it was used to refer sarcastically to the anti-pornography movements efforts to
define a feminist sexuality .

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Current usage

Widespread use of the term "politically correct" and its derivatives began when it was adopted as
a pejorative term by the political right in the 1990s, in the context of the Culture Wars. Writing
in the New York Times in 1990, Richard Bernstein noted "The term 'politically correct,' with its
suggestion of Stalinist orthodoxy, is spoken more with irony and disapproval than with
reverence. But across the country the term p.c., as it is commonly abbreviated, is being heard
more and more in debates over what should be taught at the universities." Bernstein referred to a
meeting of the Western Humanities Conference in Berkeley, California, on " 'Political
Correctness' and Cultural Studies", which examined "what effect the pressure to conform to
currently fashionable ideas is having on scholarship". Bernstein also referred to "p.c.p" for
"politically correct people", a term which did not take root in popular discussion.

Within a few years, this previously obscure term featured regularly in the lexicon of the
conservative social and political challenges against curriculum expansion and progressive
teaching methods in US high schools and universities. In 1991, addressing a graduating class of
the University of Michigan, U.S. President George H. W. Bush spoke against . . . a movement
[that would] declare certain topics off-limits, certain expressions off-limits, even certain
gestures off-limits in allusion to liberal Political Correctness. The most common usage here is
as a pejorative term to refer to excessive deference to particular sensibilities at the expense of
other considerations. The converse term "politically incorrect" came into use as an implicit term
of self-praise, indicating that the user was not afraid to give offense.

The central uses of the term relate to issues of race and gender, and encompass both the language
in which issues are discussed and the viewpoints that are expressed. Proponents of the view that
differences in IQ test scores between blacks and whites are (primarily or largely) genetically
determined state that criticism of these views is based on political correctness.

Examples of language commonly criticised as "politically correct" include:

"African-American" in place of "Black", "Negro" and other terms

"Native American" in place of "Indian"
Gender-neutral terms such as "firefighter" in place of "fireman"
Terms relating to disability, such as "visually challenged" in place of "blind"
"Holiday" in place of "Christmas" (see Christmas controversy)

More generally, any policy or factual claim opposed by the political right, such as the claim that
global warming is a serious problem requiring a policy response may be criticized as "politically
correct".

Political correctness gone mad

In the United Kingdom, "political correctness gone mad" is a widely-used catchphrase associated
with the conservative Daily Mail newspaper. A literal interpretation might be that the
catchphrase applies to instances where political correctness, desirable in moderation, is taken too
far. In reality, however, "political correctness is almost used pejoratively and the catchphrase is
applied to stories (frequently apocryphal) seen as representing extreme forms of political
correctness

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World-wide

The term politically correct is popular in Scandinavia (politiskt korrekt abbreviated PK), in
Portugal, Spain, and Latin America (Sp., polticamente correcto | Port., politicamente correcto),
France (politiquement correct), Germany (politisch korrekt), Poland (poprawno polityczna,
poprawny politycznie), Slovenia (politino korekten), the Netherlands and Flanders (politiek
correct), Italy (politicamente corretto), Russia (, ), and
New Zealand, .

Explanations
As Cultural Marxism

Right-wing, conservative and libertarian critics claim that political correctness is a Marxist
undermining of Western values. In The Abolition of Britain, Peter Hitchens says: What
Americans describe with the casual phrase . . . political correctness is the most intolerant
system of thought to dominate the British Isles since the Reformation. William S. Lind and
Patrick Buchanan have characterized PC as a technique originated by the Frankfurt School,
whose work aimed at undermining Western values, by influencing popular culture through
Cultural Marxism. In The Death of the West, Buchanan says: Political Correctness is Cultural
Marxism, a regime to punish dissent and to stigmatize social heresy as the Inquisition punished
religious heresy. Its trademark is intolerance.

As a linguistic concept

In addressing the linguistic problem of naming, Edna Andrews says that using inclusive and
neutral language is based upon the concept that language represents thought, and may even
control thought. This claim has been derived from the SapirWhorf hypothesis, which states
that a languages grammatical categories shape the speakers ideas and actions; although
Andrews says that moderate conceptions of the relation between language and thought are
sufficient to support the reasonable deduction . . . [of] cultural change via linguistic change.

Other cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics works indicate that word-choice has
significant framing effects on the perceptions, memories, and attitudes of speakers and
listeners. The relevant empirical question is whether or not sexist language promotes sexism, i.e.
sexist thought and action.

Advocates of inclusive language defend it as inoffensive-language usage whose goal is multi-

fold:

1. The rights, opportunities, and freedoms of certain people are restricted because they are
reduced to stereotypes.
2. Stereotyping is mostly implicit, unconscious, and facilitated by the availability of
pejorative labels and terms.
3. Rendering the labels and terms socially unacceptable, people then must consciously think
about how they describe someone unlike themselves.
4. When labelling is a conscious activity, the described person's individual merits become
apparent, rather than his or her stereotype.

Critics of such arguments, and of inclusive language in general, commonly use the terminology
of "political correctness" .

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A common criticism is that terms chosen by an identity group, as acceptable descriptors of
themselves, then pass into common usage, including usage by the racists and sexists whose
racism and sexism, et cetera, the new terms mean to supersede. The new terms are thus devalued,
and another set of words must be coined, giving rise to lengthy progressions such as Negro,
Coloured, Black, African-American, and so on, (cf. Euphemism treadmill).

As an engineered political term

Some left-wing commentators claimed that after 1980, right-wing American conservatives re-
engineered the term political correctness to ideologically re-frame US politics as a culture war.
Hutton reports:

"Political correctness is one of the brilliant tools that the American Right developed in the mid-1980s, as
part of its demolition of American liberalism. . . . What the sharpest thinkers on the American Right saw
quickly was that by declaring war on the cultural manifestations of liberalism by levelling the charge
of political correctness against its exponents they could discredit the whole political project."

Moreover, the commentators claimed there never was a Political Correctness movement in the
US, and that many who use the term do so to distract attention from substantive debate about
racial, class and gender discrimination and unequal legal treatment. Similarly, Polly Toynbee
argued that the phrase is an empty right-wing smear designed only to elevate its user.

Commenting on the UK's 2009 Equality Bill, Toynbee wrote that:

"The phrase "political correctness" was born as a coded cover for all who still want to say Paki, spastic or
queer, all those who still want to pick on anyone not like them, playground bullies who never grew up.
The politically correct society is the civilised society, however much some may squirm at the more
inelegant official circumlocutions designed to avoid offence."

Criticism
General

University of Pennsylvania professor Alan Charles Kors and lawyer Harvey A. Silverglate
connect political correctness to Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse. He claimed that liberal
ideas of free speech were repressive, arguing that such Marcusean logic is the base of speech
codes in US universities. Kors and Silvergate later established the Foundation for Individual
Rights in Education, which campaigns against PC speech codes.

The academic Camille Paglia said that PC empowers the enemies of the Left, and alienates the
masses against feminism.

Critics of PC have been accused of displaying the same sensitivity to word choice that they claim
to oppose, and of perceiving non-existent political agenda. For example, some newspapers
reported that a school had altered the nursery rhyme Baa Baa Black Sheep to read Baa Baa
Rainbow Sheep. But it is also reported that a better description is that the Parents and Children
Together (PACT) nursery had the children turn the song into an action rhyme. . . . They sing
happy, sad, bouncing, hopping, pink, blue, black and white sheep etc. That nursery rhyme story
was circulated and later extended to suggest that like language bans applied to the terms black
coffee and blackboard. The Private Eye magazine reported that like stories, all baseless, ran
in the British press since The Sun first published them in 1986.

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Structuralist philosopher and feminist icon Julia Kristeva, seen as a theorist who was
instrumental in providing the philosophical basis for American political correctness, denounced
political correctness in 2001 in New York Times and said her works have been distorted by
Americans. She labeled identity politics and political correctness in general as totalitarian.

Exclusion of some groups

An article by Larry Elder in FrontPage Magazine referred to an incident on Jerry Maher's

Politically Incorrect where the term "white trash" was used in reference to guests on the Jerry
Springer Show and asked 'Why Is It Okay to Say "White Trash?"'. Commenting on this, and
citing an instance of the term in a glossy magazine, blogger Ed Driscoll asked "Why Is "White
Trash" An Acceptable Phrase In PC America?".

Lists of PC euphemisms include terms such as "caucasian culturally-disadvantaged" for "white

trash", but it is not clear whether such terms are in widespread use.

Political correctness and science

Groups opposing mainstream scientific views on evolution, global warming, passive smoking,
AIDS, race, and other contentious scientific matters argue that PC is responsible for the failure of
their perspectives to receive a fair public hearing; thus, in Lamarcks Signature: How Retrogenes
are Changing Darwins Natural Selection Paradigm, Assoc. Prof. Edward J. Steele says: We
now stand on the threshold of what could be an exciting new era of genetic research. . . .
However, the politically correct thought agendas of the neoDarwinists of the 1990s are
ideologically opposed to the idea of Lamarckian Feedback, just as the Church was opposed to
the idea of evolution based on natural selection in the 1850s!

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, by Tom Bethell, is a comprehensive presentation

argument that mainstream science is dominated by politically correct thinking. Bethell rejects
mainstream views about evolution and global warming, and supports AIDS denialism.

Right wing political correctness

Accusations of political correctness, in the sense of enforced orthodoxy, have also been directed
against the political right. Before the US invasion of Iraq, the Dixie Chicks country band played
in London. During the 10 March 2003 concert, they introduced the song Travelin Soldier; The
Guardian quoted Texan Natalie Maines: Just so you know, were on the good side with yall.
We do not want this war, this violence, and were ashamed that the President of the United States
is from Texas.

Newspaper columnist Don Williams described the resulting backlash against the band as the
price for freely speaking political views disapproved by the Right Wing the ugliest form of
political correctness occurs whenever theres a war on. Then youd better watch what you say.
He noted that Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly called the musicians comment treasonous.

Bill Maher's show Politically Incorrect was canceled soon after remarks he made about the 9/11
hijackers. Mr. Maher and other individuals who made statements that were deemed as too
controversial suffered as a result of backlash. Ari Fleischer who was White House press
secretary under President Bush at the time stated, "people have to watch what they say and watch
what they do." Two journalists lost their jobs soon after the 9/11 attacks for statements critical of
the president.

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Linguistic examples of right-wing adjustments to language, criticised as examples of political
correctness include renaming French fries as Freedom fries on the model of US manufacturers
renaming sauerkraut as Liberty cabbage during the First World War as a marketing tool to
avoid potential public disapproval of a product with a German name.

In 2004, then Australian Labor leader Mark Latham described conservative calls for "civility" as
"The New Political Correctness".

Satirical use

Political correctness often is satirised, for example in the Politically Correct Manifesto (1992),
by Saul Jerushalmy and Rens Zbignieuw X, and Politically Correct Bedtime Stories (1994), by
James Finn Garner, presenting fairy tales re-written from an exaggerated PC perspective.

Other examples include the television program Politically Incorrect, George Carlins
"Euphemisms" routine, and The Politically Correct Scrapbook. The popularity of the libertarian
South Park cartoon program on the Right led to the creation of the term South Park Republican
by Andrew Sullivan, and later the book South Park Conservatives by Brian C. Anderson.

Replying to the Freedom Fries matter, wits suggested that the Fama-French model used in
corporate finance be renamed the Fama-Freedom model.

British comedian Stewart Lee also satirised the oft used phrase of criticism for political
correctness: "it's political correctness gone mad." In which Lee, himself, criticised people for
over using this phrase without even understanding the concept of political correctness (including
many people's confusion of it with Health & Safety laws). He in particular criticised Daily Mail
columnist Richard Littlejohn for his over zealous use of the phrase.

Future

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The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge his future in Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

The future is a time period commonly understood to contain all events that have yet to occur. It
is the opposite of the past, and is the time after the present. In the Occidental view, which uses a
linear conception of time, the future is the portion of the projected time line that is anticipated to
occur. In special relativity the future is considered to be absolute future or the future light cone.
In physics, time is considered to be the fourth dimension.

In the philosophy of time, presentism is the belief that only the present exists and the future and
the past are unreal. Religions consider the future when they address issues such as karma, life
after death, and eschatologies that study what the end of time and the end of the world will be.
Religious figures have claimed to see into the future, such as prophets and diviners. Organized
efforts to predict or forecast the future may have derived from observations by early man of
heavenly objects.

Future studies, or futurology, is the science, art and practice of postulating possible futures.
Modern practitioners stress the importance of alternative and plural futures, rather than one
monolithic future, and the limitations of prediction and probability, versus the creation of
possible and preferable futures.

In art and culture, the future was explored in several art movements and genres. The futurism art
movement at the beginning of the 20th century explored every medium of art, including painting,
sculpture, poetry, theatre, music, architecture and even gastronomy. Futurists had passionate
loathing of ideas from the past, especially political and artistic traditions. Instead, they espoused
a love of speed, technology, and violence. Futuristic music involved homage to, inclusion of, or
imitation of machines. Futurism expanded to encompass other artistic domains and ultimately
included industrial design, textiles, and architecture. Science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein
defines science fiction as "realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on
adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the
nature and significance of the scientific method." More generally, science fiction is a broad genre
of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology.
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 Forecasting

Organized efforts to predict or forecast the future may have derived from observations by early
man of heavenly objects, which changed position in predictable patterns. The practice of
astrology, today considered pseudoscience, evolved from the human desire to forecast the future.
Much of physical science can be read as an attempt to make quantitative and objective
predictions about events. These respective futures would take place after the present, in the times
that follow. In other similar words, what follows is the future. And if you're right in predicting
said future, then you're right. But this is not forecasting. Forecasting is the process of estimation
in unknown situations. Due to the element of the unknown, risk and uncertainty are central to
forecasting and prediction. Statistical forecasting is the process of estimation in unknown
situations. It can refer to estimation of time series, cross-sectional or longitudinal data.

Prediction is a similar, but more general term. Both can refer to estimation of time series, cross-
sectional or longitudinal data. Econometric forecasting methods use the assumption that it is
possible to identify the underlying factors that might influence the variable that is being forecast.
If the causes are understood, projections of the influencing variables can be made and used in the
forecast. Judgmental forecasting methods incorporate intuitive judgments, opinions and
probability estimates, as in the case of the Delphi method, scenario building, and simulations.
Forecasting is applied in many areas, including weather forecasting, earthquake prediction,
transport planning, and labour market planning.

Despite the development of cognitive instruments for the comprehension of future, the stochastic
nature of many natural and social processes has made precise forecasting of the future elusive.
Modern efforts such as future studies attempt to predict social trends, while more ancient
practices, such as weather forecasting, have benefited from scientific and causal modelling.

Future studies

Future studies or futurology is the science, art and practice of postulating possible, probable, and
preferable futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them. Futures studies seeks to
understand what is likely to continue, what is likely to change, and what is novel. Part of the
discipline thus seeks a systematic and pattern-based understanding of past and present, and to
determine the likelihood of future events and trends. A key part of this process is understanding
the potential future impact of decisions made by individuals, organisations and governments.
Leaders use results of such work to assist in decision-making.

Take hold of the future or the future will take hold of you.
Patrick Dixon, author of Futurewise
Futures is an interdisciplinary field, studying yesterday's and today's changes, and aggregating
and analyzing both lay and professional strategies, and opinions with respect to tomorrow. It
includes analyzing the sources, patterns, and causes of change and stability in the attempt to
develop foresight and to map possible futures. Modern practitioners stress the importance of
alternative and plural futures, rather than one monolithic future, and the limitations of prediction
and probability, versus the creation of possible and preferable futures.

Three factors usually distinguish futures studies from the research conducted by other disciplines
(although all disciplines overlap, to differing degrees). First, futures studies often examines not
only possible but also probable, preferable, and "wild card" futures. Second, futures studies
typically attempts to gain a holistic or systemic view based on insights from a range of different
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disciplines. Third, futures studies challenges and unpacks the assumptions behind dominant and
contending views of the future. The future thus is not empty but fraught with hidden
assumptions.

Futures studies does not generally include the work of economists who forecast movements of
interest rates over the next business cycle, or of managers or investors with short-term time
horizons. Most strategic planning, which develops operational plans for preferred futures with
time horizons of one to three years, is also not considered futures. But plans and strategies with
longer time horizons that specifically attempt to anticipate and be robust to possible future
events, are part of a major subdiscipline of futures studies called strategic foresight.

The futures field also excludes those who make future predictions through professed
supernatural means. At the same time, it does seek to understand the models such groups use and
the interpretations they give to these models.

Physics

A visualisation of the future light cone (at top), the present, and the past light cone in 2D space.

In classical physics the future is just a half of the timeline. In special relativity the future is
considered as absolute future or the future light cone. In physics, time is considered to be a
fourth dimension. Physicists argue that space-time can be understood as a sort of stretchy fabric
that can bend due to forces such as gravity. While a person can move backwards or forwards in
the three spatial dimensions, many physicists argue you are only able to move forward in time.

The physicist who advised the makers of the fictional time-travel film Dj Vu claims that a
person could hypothetically travel into the future if they had a spaceship that could travel at
almost the speed of light. After a voyage on this ship, if a person returned to Earth, millions of
years would have passed in Earth time. Some physicists claim that by using a wormhole to
connect two regions of space-time a person could theoretically travel in time. Physicist Michio
Kaku points out that to power this hypothetical time machine and "punch a hole into the fabric of

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space-time", it would require the energy of a star. Another theory is that a person could travel in
time with cosmic strings.

Philosophy

In the philosophy of time, presentism is the belief that only the present exists and the future and
the past are unreal. Past and future "entities" are to be construed as logical constructions or
fictions. The opposite of presentism is 'eternalism', which is the belief that things in the past and
things yet to come exist eternally. One other view (that has not been held by very many
philosophers) is sometimes called the 'growing block' theory of time, which is a theory that takes
the past and present to exist but the future to be nonexistent.

Presentism is compatible with Galilean relativity, in which time is independent of space but is
probably incompatible with Lorentzian/Einsteinian relativity in conjunction with certain other
philosophical theses which many find uncontroversial. Saint Augustine proposed that the present
is a knife edge between the past and the future and could not contain any extended period of
time.

Contrary to Saint Augustine, some philosophers propose that conscious experience is extended in
time. For instance, William James said that time is "the short duration of which we are
immediately and incessantly sensible". Augustine proposed that God is outside of time and
present for all times, in eternity. Other early philosophers who were presentists include the
Buddhists (in the tradition of Indian Buddhism). A leading scholar from the modern era on
Buddhist philosophy is Stcherbatsky, who has written extensively on Buddhist presentism:

Everything past is unreal, everything future is unreal, everything imagined, absent,

mental... is unreal... Ultimately real is only the present moment of physical efficiency

[i.e., causation].

Psychology

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Mother and child personify the optimistic "Spirit of Tomorrow" at Walt Disney World's Epcot.

While ethologists consider animal behavior to be largely based on fixed action patterns or other
learned traits in an animal's past, human behavior is known to encompass an anticipation of the
future. Anticipatory behavior can be the result of a psychological outlook toward the future, for
examples optimism, pessimism, and hope.

Optimism is an outlook on life such that one maintains a view of the world as a positive place.
People would say that optimism is seeing the glass "half full" of water as opposed to half empty.
It is the philosophical opposite of pessimism. Optimists generally believe that people and events
are inherently good, so that most situations work out in the end for the best.Hope is a belief in a
positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope implies a certain amount
of despair, wanting, wishing, suffering or perseverance i.e., believing that a better or positive
outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary. "Hopefulness" is
somewhat different from optimism in that hope is an emotional state, whereas optimism is a
conclusion reached through a deliberate thought pattern that leads to a positive attitude.

Religion

Religions consider the future when they address issues such as karma, life after death, and
eschatologies that study what the end of time and the end of the world will be. In religion, major
prophets are said to have the power to change the future. Common religious figures have claimed
to see into the future, such as minor prophets and diviners. The term "afterlife" refers to the
continuation of existence of the soul, spirit or mind of a human (or animal) after physical death,
typically in a spiritual or ghostlike afterworld. Deceased persons are usually believed to go to a
specific region or plane of existence in this afterworld, often depending on the rightness of their
actions during life.

Some believe the afterlife includes some form of preparation for the soul to be transferred to
another body (reincarnation). The major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism
and metaphysics. There are those who are skeptical of the existence of the afterlife, or believe
that it is absolutely impossible, such as the materialist-reductionists, who state that the topic is
supernatural, therefore does not really exist or is unknowable. In metaphysical models, theists
generally believe some sort of afterlife awaits people when they die. Atheists generally believe
that there is not a life after death. Members of some generally non-theistic religions such as
Buddhism, tend to believe in an afterlife like reincarnation but without reference to God.

Agnostics generally hold the position that like the existence of God, the existence of supernatural
phenomena, such as souls or life after death, is unverifiable and therefore unknowable. Some
philosophies (i.e. posthumanism, Humanism, and often empiricism) generally hold that there is
not an afterlife. Many religions, whether they believe in the souls existence in another world
like Christianity, Islam and many pagan belief systems, or in reincarnation like many forms of
Hinduism and Buddhism, believe that ones status in the afterlife is a reward or punishment for
their conduct during life. With the exception of Christianity, which believes one's status in the
afterlife is a gift from God and cannot be earned during life. For by grace are you saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.
(Ephesians 2: 8,9)

Eschatology is a part of theology and philosophy concerned with the final events in the history of
the world, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world.
While in mysticism the phrase refers metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and reunion

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with the Divine, in many traditional religions it is taught as an actual future event prophesied in
sacred texts or folklore. More broadly, eschatology may encompass related concepts such as the
Messiah or Messianic Age, the end time, and the end of days.

In art and culture

Futurism

Futurism was an art movement that originated in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century.
Futurism was a largely Italian and Russian movement, although it also had adherents in other
countries, England and Portugal for example. The Futurists explored every medium of art,
including painting, sculpture, poetry, theatre, music, architecture and even gastronomy. Futurists
had passionate loathing of ideas from the past, especially political and artistic traditions. They
also espoused a love of speed, technology, and violence. Futurists dubbed the love of the past
passisme. The car, the plane, the industrial town were all legendary for the Futurists, because
they represented the technological triumph of people over nature. The Futurist Manifesto had
declared, "We will glorify war - the world's only hygiene - militarism, patriotism, the destructive
gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman." Although it
owed much of its character and some of its ideas to radical political movements, it was not much
involved in politics until the autumn of 1913.

One of the many 20th century classical movements in music was one which involved homage to,
inclusion of, or imitation of machines. Closely identified with the central Italian Futurist
movement were brother composers Luigi Russolo and Antonio Russolo, who used instruments
known as "intonarumori", which were essentially sound boxes used to create music out of noise.
Luigi Russolo's futurist manifesto, The Art of Noises, is considered to be one of the most
important and influential texts in 20th century musical aesthetics. Other examples of futurist
music include Arthur Honegger's Pacific 231, which imitates the sound of a steam locomotive,
Prokofiev's "The Steel Step", and the experiments of Edgard Varse.

Literary futurism made its debut with F.T. Marinetti's Manifesto of Futurism (1909). Futurist
poetry used unexpected combinations of images and hyper-conciseness (not to be confused with
the actual length of the poem). Futurist theater works have scenes that are few sentences long,
and which use nonsensical humor and which attempt to discredit the deep-rooted dramatic
traditions with parody. The longer forms of literature, such as the novel, had no place in the
Futurist aesthetic, which was obsessed with speed and compression.

Futurism expanded to encompass other artistic domains and ultimately included painting,
sculpture, ceramics, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, theatre design, textiles,
drama, literature, music and architecture. In architecture, it was characterized by a distinctive
thrust towards rationalism and modernism through the use of advanced building materials. The
ideals of futurism remain as significant components of modern Western culture; the emphasis on
youth, speed, power and technology finding expression in much of modern commercial cinema
and culture. Futurism has produced several reactions, including the 1980s-era literary genre of
cyberpunk in which technology was often treated with a critical eye.

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Science fiction

Print (c. 1882) by Albert Robida showing a futuristic view of air travel over Paris in the year
2000 as people leave the opera.

Science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein defines science fiction as:

realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate

knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of

the nature and significance of the scientific method.

More generally, science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based
on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television,
films, games, theater, and other media. Science fiction differs from fantasy in that, within the
context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established
or scientifically postulated laws of nature (though some elements in a story might still be pure
imaginative speculation). Settings may include the future, or alternative time lines, and stories
may depict new or speculative scientific principles, such as time travel or psionics, or new
technology, such as nanotechnology, faster-than-light travel or robots. Exploring the
consequences of such differences is the traditional purpose of science fiction, making it a
"literature of ideas".

Some science fiction authors construct a postulated history of the future called a "future history"
which serves as a common background for their fiction. Sometimes the author publishes a
timeline of events in their history, while other times the reader can reconstruct the order of the
stories from information provided therein. Some works were published which constituted "future
history" in a more literal sense - i.e., stories or whole books purporting to be excerpts of a history
book from the future and which are written in the form of a history book - i.e., having no
personal protagonists but rather describing the development of nations and societies over
decades and centuries. Examples include H.G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come (1933),

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which was written in the form of a history book published in the year 2106 and - in the manner
of a real history book - containing numerous footnotes and references to the works of (mostly
fictitious) prominent historians of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Knowledge

Personification of knowledge (Greek , Episteme) in Celsus Library in Ephesus, Turkey.

Knowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as (i) expertise, and skills acquired by a
person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject;
(ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information; or (iii) awareness or
familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. Philosophical debates in general start with
Plato's formulation of knowledge as "justified true belief." There is however no single agreed
definition of knowledge presently, nor any prospect of one, and there remain numerous
competing theories.

Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning,

communication, association and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to mean the
confident understanding of a subject with the ability to use it for a specific purpose if
appropriate. See knowledge management for additional details on that discipline.

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 Defining knowledge (philosophy)

Robert Reid, Knowledge (1896). Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.

We suppose ourselves to possess unqualified scientific knowledge of a thing, as
opposed to knowing it in the accidental way in which the sophist knows, when we
think that we know the cause on which the fact depends, as the cause of that fact and
of no other, and, further, that the fact could not be other than it is. Now that
scientific knowing is something of this sort is evident witness both those who
falsely claim it and those who actually possess it, since the former merely imagine
themselves to be, while the latter are also actually, in the condition described.
Consequently the proper object of unqualified scientific knowledge is something
which cannot be other than it is.
Aristotle, Posterior Analytics (Book 1 Part 2)

The definition of knowledge is a matter of on-going debate among philosophers in the field of
epistemology. The classical definition, described but not ultimately endorsed by Plato , specifies
that a statement must meet three criteria in order to be considered knowledge: it must be
justified, true, and believed. Some claim that these conditions are not sufficient, as Gettier case
examples allegedly demonstrate. There are a number of alternatives proposed, including Robert
Nozick's arguments for a requirement that knowledge 'tracks the truth' and Simon Blackburn's
additional requirement that we do not want to say that those who meet any of these conditions
'through a defect, flaw, or failure' have knowledge. Richard Kirkham suggests that our definition
of knowledge requires that the belief is self-evident to the believer.

In contrast to this approach, Wittgenstein observed, following Moore's paradox, that one can say
"He believes it, but it isn't so", but not "He knows it, but it isn't so". He goes on to argue that
these do not correspond to distinct mental states, but rather to distinct ways of talking about
conviction. What is different here is not the mental state of the speaker, but the activity in which
they are engaged. For example, on this account, to know that the kettle is boiling is not to be in a
particular state of mind, but to perform a particular task with the statement that the kettle is

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boiling. Wittgenstein sought to bypass the difficulty of definition by looking to the way
"knowledge" is used in natural languages. He saw knowledge as a case of a family resemblance.
Following this idea, "knowledge" has been reconstructed as a cluster concept that points out
relevant features but that is not adequately captured by any definition.

Communicating knowledge

Symbolic representations can be used to indicate meaning and can be thought of as a dynamic
process. Hence the transfer of the symbolic representation can be viewed as one ascription
process whereby knowledge can be transferred. Other forms of communication include imitation,
narrative exchange along with a range of other methods. There is no complete theory of
knowledge transfer or communication.

While many would agree that one of the most universal and significant tools for the transfer of
knowledge is writing (of many kinds), argument over the usefulness of the written word exists
however, with some scholars skeptical of its impact on societies. In his collection of essays
Technopoly Neil Postman demonstrates the argument against the use of writing through an
excerpt from Plato's work Phaedrus (Postman, Neil (1992) Technopoly, Vintage, New York, pp
73). In this excerpt the scholar Socrates recounts the story of Thamus, the Egyptian king and
Theuth the inventor of the written word. In this story, Theuth presents his new invention
"writing" to King Thamus, telling Thamus that his new invention "will improve both the wisdom
and memory of the Egyptians" (Postman, Neil (1992) Technopoly, Vintage, New York, pp 74).
King Thamus is skeptical of this new invention and rejects it as a tool of recollection rather than
retained knowledge. He argues that the written word will infect the Egyptian people with fake
knowledge as they will be able to attain facts and stories from an external source and will no
longer be forced to mentally retain large quantities of knowledge themselves (Postman, Neil
(1992) Technopoly, Vintage, New York ,pp 74).

Andrew Robinson also highlights, in his work The Origins of Writing, the possibility for writing
to be used to spread false information and there for the ability of the written word to decrease
social knowledge (Robinson, Andrew (2003) The Origins of Writing in Crowley and Heyer (eds)
Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society, Boston pp 34). People are often
internalizing new information which they perceive to be knowledge but are in reality fill their
minds with false knowledge.

Situated knowledge

Situated knowledge is knowledge specific to a particular situation.

Some methods of generating knowledge, such as trial and error, or learning from experience,
tend to create highly situational knowledge. One of the main benefits of the scientific method is
that the theories it generates are much less situational than knowledge gained by other methods.
Situational knowledge is often embedded in language, culture, or traditions.

Knowledge generated through experience is called knowledge "a posteriori", meaning

afterwards. The pure existence of a term like "a posteriori" means this also has a counterpart. In
this case that is knowledge "a priori", meaning before. The knowledge prior to any experience
means that there are certain "assumptions" that one takes for granted. For example if you are
being told about a chair it is clear to you that the chair is in space, that it is 3D. This knowledge
is not knowledge that one can "forget", even someone suffering from amnesia experiences the
world in 3D.

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Partial knowledge

One discipline of epistemology focuses on partial knowledge. In most realistic cases, it is not
possible to have an exhaustive understanding of an information domain, so then we have to live
with the fact that our knowledge is always not complete, that is, partial. Most real problems have
to be solved by taking advantage of a partial understanding of the problem context and problem
data. That is very different from the typical simple maths problems one might solve at school,
where all data is given and one has a perfect understanding of formulas necessary to solve them.

This idea is also present in the concept of bounded rationality which assumes that in real life
situations people often have a limited amount of information and make decisions accordingly.

Scientific knowledge

The development of the scientific method has made a significant contribution to our
understanding of knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on
gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of
reasoning. The scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and
experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.. Science, and the nature of
scientific knowledge have also become the subject of Philosophy. As science itself has
developed, knowledge has developed a broader usage which has been developing within
biology/psychologydiscussed elsewhere as meta-epistemology, or genetic epistemology, and
to some extent related to "theory of cognitive development".

Sir Francis Bacon, "Knowledge is Power"

Note that "epistemology" is the study of knowledge and how it is acquired. Science is the
process used everyday to logically complete thoughts through inference of facts determined by
calculated experiments. Sir Francis Bacon, critical in the historical development of the scientific

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method, his works established and popularized an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry.
His famous aphorism, "knowledge is power", is found in the Meditations Sacrae (1597)..

Until recent times, at least in the Western tradition, it was simply taken for granted that
knowledge was something possessed only by humans (and/or God) and probably adult
humans at that. Sometimes the notion might stretch to (ii) Society-as-such, as in (e.g.) "the
knowledge possessed by the Coptic culture" (as opposed to its individual members), but that was
not assured either. Nor was it usual to consider unconscious knowledge in any systematic way
until this approach was popularized by Freud.

Other biological domains where "knowledge" might be said to reside, include: (iii) the immune
system, and (iv) in the DNA of the genetic code. See the list of four "epistemological domains":
Popper, (1975); and Traill (2008 : Table S, page 31)also references by both to Niels Jerne.

Such considerations seem to call for a separate definition of "knowledge" to cover the biological
systems. For biologists, knowledge must be usefully available to the system, though that system
need not be conscious. Thus the criteria seem to be:

The system should apparently be dynamic and self-organizing (unlike a mere book on its
own).
The knowledge must constitute some sort of representation of "the outside world", or
ways of dealing with it (directly or indirectly).
There must be some way for the system to access this information quickly enough for it
to be useful.

Religious meaning of knowledge

In many expressions of Christianity, such as Catholicism and Anglicanism, knowledge is one of

the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In Islam, knowledge (Arabic: , ilm) is given great significance. "The All-Knowing" (al-
Alm) is one of the 99 names reflecting distinct attributes of God. The Qur'an asserts that
knowledge comes from God (2:239) and various hadith encourage the acquisition of knowledge.
Muhammad is reported to have said "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave" and "Verily
the men of knowledge are the inheritors of the prophets". Islamic scholars, theologians and
jurists are often given the title alim, meaning "knowledgable".

Hindu Scriptures present two kinds of knowledge, Paroksha Gnyana and Aporoksha Gnyana.
Paroksha Gnyana (also spelled Paroksha-Jnana) is secondhand knowledge: knowledge obtained
from books, hearsay, etc. Aporoksha Gnyana (also spelled Aparoksha-Jnana) is the knowledge
borne of direct experience, i.e., knowledge that one discovers for oneself.

The Old Testament's tree of the knowledge of good and evil contained the knowledge that
separated Man from God: "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to
know good and evil" (Genesis 3:22)

In Gnosticism divine knowledge or gnosis is hoped to be attained and escape from the
demiurge's physical world. And in Thelema knowledge and conversation with one's Holy
Guardian Angel is the purpose of life, which is similar to Gnosis or enlightenment in other
mystery religions.

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The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), by Thomas Kuhn, is an analysis of the history of
science. Its publication was a landmark event in the sociology of scientific knowledge, and
popularized the terms paradigm and paradigm shift.

History
The work was first published as a monograph in the International Encyclopedia of Unified
Science, then as a book by University of Chicago Press in 1962. (All page numbers below refer
to the third edition of the text, published in 1996). In 1969, Kuhn added a postscript to the book
in which he replied to critical responses to the first edition of the book.

Kuhn dated the genesis of his book to 1947, when he was a graduate student at Harvard
University and had been asked to teach a science class for humanities undergraduates with a
focus on historical case studies. Kuhn later commented that until then, "I'd never read an old
document in science." Aristotle'sPhysics was astonishingly unlike Isaac Newton's work in its
concepts of matter and motion. Kuhn concluded that Aristotle's concepts were not "bad Newton,"
just different.

Synopsis
Basic approach
Kuhn's approach to the history and philosophy of science has been described as focusing on
conceptual issues: what sorts of ideas were thinkable at a particular time? What sorts of
intellectual options and strategies were available to people during a given period? What types of
lexicons and terminology were known and employed during certain epochs? Stressing the
importance of not attributing modern modes of thought to historical actors, Kuhn's book argues
that the evolution of scientific theory does not emerge from the straightforward accumulation of
facts, but rather from a set of changing intellectual circumstances and possibilities. Such an
approach is largely commensurate with the general historical school of non-linear history.
Historical examples
Kuhn explains his ideas using examples taken from the history of science. For instance, at a
particular stage in the history of chemistry, some chemists began to explore the idea of atomism.
When many substances are heated they have a tendency to decompose into their constituent
elements, and often (though not invariably) these elements can be observed to combine only in

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set proportions. At one time, a combination of water and alcohol was generally classified as
a compound. Nowadays it is considered to be a solution, but there was no reason then to suspect
that it was not a compound. Water and alcohol would not separate spontaneously, but they could
be separated when heated. Water and alcohol can becombined in any proportion.

A chemist favoring atomic theory would have viewed all compounds whose elements combine in
fixed proportions as exhibiting normal behavior, and all known exceptions to this pattern would
be regarded as anomalies whose behavior would probably be explained at some time in the
future. On the other hand, if a chemist believed that theories of the atomicity of matter were
erroneous, then all compounds whose elements combined in fixed proportions would be regarded
as anomalies whose behavior would probably be explained at some time in the future, and all
those compounds whose elements are capable of combining in any ratio would be seen as
exhibiting the normal behavior of compounds. Nowadays the consensus is that the atomists' view
was correct. But if one were to restrict oneself to thinking about chemistry using only the
knowledge available at the time, either point of view would be defensible.
The Copernican Revolution
What is arguably the most famous example of a revolution in scientific thought is the Copernican
Revolution. In Ptolemy's school of thought, cycles and epicycles (with some additional concepts)
were used for modeling the movements of the planets in a cosmos that had a stationary Earth at
its center. As the accuracy of celestial observations increased, the complexity of the Ptolemaic
cyclical and epicyclical mechanisms had to increase in step with the increased accuracy of the
observations, in order to maintain the calculated planetary positions close to the observed
positions. Copernicus proposed a cosmology in which the Sun was at the center and
the Earth was one of the planets revolving around it. For modeling the planetary motions,
Copernicus used the tools he was familiar with, namely the cycles and epicycles of the Ptolemaic
toolbox. But Copernicus' model needed more cycles and epicycles than existed in the then-
current Ptolemaic model, and due to a lack of accuracy in calculations, Copernicus's model did
not appear to provide more accurate predictions than the Ptolemy model. Copernicus'
contemporaries rejected his cosmology, and Kuhn asserts that they were quite right to do so:
Copernicus' cosmology lacked credibility.

Thomas Kuhn illustrates how a paradigm shift later became possible when Galileo
Galilei introduced his new ideas concerning motion. Intuitively, when an object is set in motion,
it soon comes to a halt. A well-made cart may travel a long distance before it stops, but unless
something keeps pushing it, it will eventually stop moving. Aristotle had argued that this was
presumably a fundamental property of nature: in order for the motion of an object to be
sustained, it must continue to be pushed. Given the knowledge available at the time, this
represented sensible, reasonable thinking.

Galileo put forward a bold alternative conjecture: suppose, he said, that we always observe
objects coming to a halt simply because some friction is always occurring. Galileo had no

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equipment with which to objectively confirm his conjecture, but he suggested that without any
friction to slow down an object in motion, its inherent tendency is to maintain its speed without
the application of any additional force.

The Ptolemaic approach of using cycles and epicycles was becoming strained: there seemed to
be no end to the mushrooming growth in complexity required to account for the observable
phenomena.Johannes Kepler was the first person to abandon the tools of the Ptolemaic paradigm.
He started to explore the possibility that the planet Mars might have an elliptical orbit rather than
a circular one. Clearly, the angular velocity could not be constant, but it proved very difficult to
find the formula describing the rate of change of the planet's angular velocity. After many years
of calculations, Kepler arrived at what we now know as the law of equal areas.

Galileo's conjecture was merely that a conjecture. So was Kepler's cosmology. But each
conjecture increased the credibility of the other, and together, they changed the prevailing
perceptions of the scientific community. Later, Newton showed that Kepler's three laws could all
be derived from a single theory of motion and planetary motion. Newton solidified and unified
the paradigm shift that Galileo and Kepler had initiated.
Coherence
One of the aims of science is to find models that will account for as many observations as
possible within a coherent framework. Together, Galileo's rethinking of the nature of motion and
Keplerian cosmology represented a coherent framework that was capable of rivaling the
Aristotelian/Ptolemaic framework.

Once a paradigm shift has taken place, the textbooks are rewritten. Often the history of
science too is rewritten, being presented as an inevitable process leading up to the current,
established framework of thought. There is a prevalent belief that all hitherto-unexplained
phenomena will in due course be accounted for in terms of this established framework. Kuhn
states that scientists spend most (if not all) of their careers in a process of puzzle-solving. Their
puzzle-solving is pursued with great tenacity, because the previous successes of the established
paradigm tend to generate great confidence that the approach being taken guarantees that a
solution to the puzzle exists, even though it may be very hard to find. Kuhn calls this
process normal science.

As a paradigm is stretched to its limits, anomalies failures of the current paradigm to take into
account observed phenomena accumulate. Their significance is judged by the practitioners of
the discipline. Some anomalies may be dismissed as errors in observation, others as merely
requiring small adjustments to the current paradigm that will be clarified in due course. Some
anomalies resolve themselves spontaneously, having increased the available depth of insight
along the way. But no matter how great or numerous the anomalies that persist, Kuhn observes,
the practicing scientists will not lose faith in the established paradigm for as long as no credible
alternative is available; to lose faith in the solubility of the problems would in effect mean
ceasing to be a scientist.

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In any community of scientists, Kuhn states, there are some individuals who are bolder than
most. These scientists, judging that a crisis exists, embark on what Thomas Kuhn
calls revolutionary science, exploring alternatives to long-held, obvious-seeming assumptions.
Occasionally this generates a rival to the established framework of thought. The new candidate
paradigm will appear to be accompanied by numerous anomalies, partly because it is still so new
and incomplete. The majority of the scientific community will oppose any conceptual change,
and, Kuhn emphasizes, so they should. In order to fulfill its potential, a scientific community
needs to contain both individuals who are bold and individuals who are conservative. There are
many examples in the history of science in which confidence in the established frame of thought
was eventually vindicated. Whether the anomalies of a candidate for a new paradigm will be
resolvable is almost impossible to predict. Those scientists who possess an exceptional ability to
recognize a theory's potential will be the first whose preference is likely to shift in favour of the
challenging paradigm. There typically follows a period in which there are adherents of both
paradigms. In time, if the challenging paradigm is solidified and unified, it will replace the old
paradigm, and a paradigm shift will have occurred.
Three phases
Chronologically, Kuhn distinguishes between three phases. The first phase, which exists only
once, is the pre-paradigm phase, in which there is no consensus on any particular theory, though
the research being carried out can be considered scientific in nature. This phase is characterized
by several incompatible and incomplete theories. If the actors in the pre-paradigm community
eventually gravitate to one of these conceptual frameworks and ultimately to a widespread
consensus on the appropriate choice of methods, terminology and on the kinds of experiment that
are likely to contribute to increasedinsights, then the second phase, normal science, begins, in
which puzzles are solved within the context of the dominant paradigm. As long as there is
general consensus within the discipline, normal science continues. Over time, progress in normal
science may reveal anomalies, facts which are difficult to explain within the context of the
existing paradigm. While usually these anomalies are resolved, in some cases they may
accumulate to the point where normal science becomes difficult and where weaknesses in the old
paradigm are revealed. Kuhn refers to this as a crisis, and they are often resolved within the
context of normal science. However, after significant efforts of normal science within a
paradigm fail, science may enter the third phase, that of revolutionary science, in which the
underlying assumptions of the field are reexamined and a new paradigm is established. After the
new paradigm's dominance is established, scientists return to normal science, solving puzzles
within the new paradigm. A science may go through these cycles repeatedly, though Kuhn notes
that it is a good thing for science that such shifts do not occur often or easily.
Incommensurability
According to Kuhn, the scientific paradigms preceding and succeeding a paradigm shift are so
different that their theories are incommensurable the new paradigm cannot be proven or
disproven by the rules of the old paradigm, and vice versa. The paradigm shift does not merely

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involve the revision or transformation of an individual theory, it changes the way terminology is
defined, how the scientists in that field view their subject, and, perhaps most significantly, what
questions are regarded as valid, and what rules are used to determine the truth of a particular
theory. The new theories were not, as the scientists had previously thought, just extensions of old
theories, but were instead completely new world views. Such incommensurability exists not just
before and after a paradigm shift, but in the periods in between conflicting paradigms. It is
simply not possible, according to Kuhn, to construct an impartial language that can be used to
perform a neutral comparison between conflicting paradigms, because the very terms used are
integral to the respective paradigms, and therefore have different connotations in each paradigm.
The advocates of mutually exclusive paradigms are in an invidious position: "Though each may
hope to convert the other to his way of seeing science and its problems, neither may hope to
prove his case. The competition between paradigms is not the sort of battle that can be resolved
by proof." (SSR, p. 148). Scientists subscribing to different paradigms end up talking past one
another.

Kuhn (SSR, section XII) states that the probabilistic tools used by verificationists are inherently
inadequate for the task of deciding between conflicting theories, since they belong to the very
paradigms they seek to compare. Similarly, observations that are intended to falsify a statement
will fall under one of the paradigms they are supposed to help compare, and will therefore also
be inadequate for the task. According to Kuhn, the concept of falsifiability is unhelpful for
understanding why and how science has developed as it has. In the practice of science, scientists
will only consider the possibility that a theory has been falsified if an alternative theory is
available which they judge to be credible. If there isn't, scientists will continue to adhere to the
established conceptual framework. If a paradigm shift has occurred, the textbooks will be
rewritten to state that the previous theory has been falsified.

Kuhn's opinion on scientific progress

The first edition of SSR ended with a chapter entitled "Progress through Revolutions", in which
Kuhn spelled out his views on the nature of scientific progress. Since he considered problem
solving to be a central element of science, Kuhn saw that for a new candidate for paradigm to be
accepted by a scientific community, "First, the new candidate must seem to resolve some
outstanding and generally recognized problem that can be met in no other way. Second, the new
paradigm must promise to preserve a relatively large part of the concrete problem solving
activity that has accrued to science through its predecessors." And overall Kuhn maintained that
the new paradigm must also solve more problems than its predecessor, which therefore entailed
the number of newly solved problems must be greater than those solved in the old paradigm but
no longer solved in the new one.

In the second edition of SSR, Kuhn added a postscript in which he elaborated his ideas on the
nature of scientific progress. He described a thought experiment involving an observer who has
the opportunity to inspect an assortment of theories, each corresponding to a single stage in a

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succession of theories. What if the observer is presented with these theories without any explicit
indication of their chronological order? Kuhn anticipates that it will be possible to reconstruct
their chronology on the basis of the theories' scope and content, because the more recent a theory
is, the better it will be as an instrument for solving the kinds of puzzle that scientists aim to
solve. Kuhn remarked: "That is not a relativist'sposition, and it displays the sense in which I am a
convinced believer in scientific progress."

Influence of SSR
In 1987, Kuhn's work was reported to be the twentieth-century book most frequently cited in the
period 1976-83 in the Arts and the Humanities and the Times Literary Supplement labeled it one
of "The Hundred Most Influential Books Since the Second World War." The book's basic
concepts have been adopted and co-opted by a variety of fields and disciplines beyond those
encompassing the history and philosophy of science.

SSR is viewed by postmodern and post-structuralist thinkers as having called into question the
enterprise of science by demonstrating that scientific knowledge is dependent on the culture and
historical circumstances of groups of scientists rather than on their adherence to a specific,
definable method. In this regard, Kuhn is considered a precursor to the more radical thinking
of Paul Feyerabend. Kuhn's work has also been regarded as blurring the demarcation between
scientific and non-scientific enterprises, because it describes the mechanism of scientific
progress without invoking any idealizedscientific method that is capable of distinguishing
science from non-science. In the years following the publication of The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions, debate raged with adherents of Karl Popper'sdoctrine of falsificationism, such
as Imre Lakatos.

On the one hand, logical positivists and many scientists have criticized Kuhn's "humanizing" of
the scientific process for going too far, while the postmodernists, together with Feyerabend, have
criticized Kuhn for not going far enough. SSR has also been embraced by those wishing to
discredit or attack the authority of science, such as creationists and radical environmentalists, and
it was also in tune with the national change in attitudes towards science which was occurring at
the time of the book's publication (Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in the same year
as SSR). Indeed, modern scholars have speculated whether Kuhn would have been more explicit
about his intention not to create a tool that could be used for attempting to undermine science
and the scientific process if he had been able to foresee these developments.

The changes that occur in politics, society and business are often expressed in Kuhnian terms,
however poor their parallel with the practice of science may seem to scientists and historians of
science. The terms "paradigm" and "paradigm shift" have become such notorious clichs and
buzzwords that they are viewed in many circles as being effectively devoid of content. Misused
and overused to the point of becoming meaningless, their use in these contexts rarely has any
firm foundation in Kuhn's original definitions.

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Criticisms of Kuhn and SSR
Kuhn's SSR was soon criticized by his colleagues in the history and philosophy of science. In
1965, a special symposium on Kuhn's SSR was held at an International Colloquium on the
Philosophy of Science that took place at Bedford College, London, and was chaired by Sir Karl
Popper. The symposium led to the publication of the symposium's presentations plus other
essays, most of them critical, which eventually appeared in an influential volume of essays that
by 1999 had gone through 21 printings. Kuhn expressed the opinion that his critics' readings of
his book were so inconsistent with his own understanding of it that he was "...tempted to posit
the existence of two Thomas Kuhns," one the author of his book, the other the individual who
had been criticized in the symposium by "Professors Popper, Feyerabend, Lakatos, Toulmin and
Watkins."
Concept of paradigm
In his 1972 work, Human Understanding, Stephen Toulmin argued that a more realistic picture
of science than that presented in SSR would admit the fact that revisions in science take place
much more frequently, and are much less dramatic than can be explained by the model of
revolution/normal science. In Toulmin's view, such revisions occur quite often during periods of
what Kuhn would call "normal science." In order for Kuhn to explain such revisions in terms of
the non-paradigmatic puzzle solutions of normal science, he would need to delineate what is
perhaps an implausibly sharp distinction between paradigmatic and non-paradigmatic science.
Incommensurability of paradigms
In a series of texts published in the early 1970s, C.R. Kordig asserted a position somewhere
between that of Kuhn and the older philosophy of science. His criticism of the Kuhnian position
was that the incommensurability thesis was too radical, and that this made it impossible to
explain the confrontation of scientific theories which actually occurs. According to Kordig, it is
in fact possible to admit the existence of revolutions and paradigm shifts in science while still
recognizing that theories belonging to different paradigms can be compared and confronted on
the plane of observation. Those who accept the incommensurability thesis do not do so because
they admit the discontinuity of paradigms, but because they attribute a radical change in
meanings to such shifts.

Kordig maintains that there is a common observational plane. For example,

when Kepler and Tycho Brahe are trying to explain the relative variation of the distance of the
sun from the horizon at sunrise, both see the same thing (the same configuration is focused on
the retina of each individual). This is just one example of the fact that "rival scientific theories
share some observations, and therefore some meanings." Kordig suggests that with this
approach, he is not reintroducing the distinction between observations and theory in which the
former is assigned a privileged and neutral status, but that it is possible to affirm more simply the
fact that, even if no sharp distinction exists between theory and observations, this does not imply
that there are no comprehensible differences at the two extremes of this polarity.

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At a secondary level, for Kordig there is a common plane of inter-paradigmatic standards or
shared norms which permit the effective confrontation of rival theories.

In 1973, Hartry Field published an article which also sharply criticized Kuhn's idea of
incommensurability. In particular, he took issue with this passage from Kuhn:

"Newtonian mass is immutably conserved; that of Einstein is convertible into energy. Only at
very low relative velocities can the two masses be measured in the same way, and even then they
must not be conceived as if they were the same thing." (Kuhn 1970).

Field takes this idea of incommensurability between the same terms in different theories one step
further. Instead of attempting to identify a persistence of the reference of terms in different
theories, Field's analysis emphasizes the indeterminacy of reference within individual theories.
Field takes the example of the term "mass", and asks what exactly "mass" means in modern post-
relativistic physics. He finds that there are at least two different definitions:

1) Relativistic mass: the mass of a particle is equal to the total energy of the particle divided by
the speed of light squared. Since the total energy of a particle in relation to one system of
reference differs from the total energy in relation to other systems of reference, while the speed
of light remains constant in all systems, it follows that the mass of a particle has different values
in different systems of reference.

2) "Real" mass: the mass of a particle is equal to the non-kinetic energy of a particle divided by
the speed of light squared. Since non-kinetic energy is the same in all systems of reference, and
the same is true of light, it follows that the mass of a particle has the same value in all systems of
reference.

Projecting this distinction backwards in time onto Newtonian dynamics, we can formulate the
following two hypotheses:

HR: the term "mass" in Newtonian theory denotes relativistic mass.

Hp: the term "mass" in Newtonian theory denotes "real" mass.

According to Field, it is impossible to decide which of these two affirmations is true. Prior to the
theory of relativity, the term "mass" was referentially indeterminate. But this does not mean that
the term "mass" did not have a different meaning than it now has. The problem is not one of
meaning but of reference. The reference of such terms as mass is only partially determined: we
don't really know how Newton intended his use of this term to be applied. As a consequence,
neither of the two terms fully denotes (refers). It follows that it is improper to maintain that a
term has changed its reference during a scientific revolution; it is more appropriate to describe
terms such as "mass" as "having undergone a denotional refinement."
Incommensurability and perception
The close connection between the interpretationalist hypothesis and a holistic conception of
beliefs is at the root of the notion of the dependence of perception on theory, a central concept in

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SSR. Kuhn maintained that the perception of the world depends on how the
percipient conceives the world: two scientists who witness the same phenomenon and are
steeped in two radically different theories will see two different things. According to this view, it
is our interpretation of the world which determines what we see.

Jerry Fodor attempts to establish that this theoretical paradigm is fallacious and misleading by
demonstrating the impenetrability of perception to the background knowledge of subjects. The
strongest case can be based on evidence from experimental cognitive psychology, namely the
persistence of perceptual illusions. Knowing that the lines in the Muller-Lyer illusion are equal
does not prevent one from continuing to see one line as being longer than the other. It is this
impenetrability of the information elaborated by the mental modules which limits the scope of
interpretationalism.

In epistemology, for example, the criticism of what Fodor calls the interpretationalist hypothesis
accounts for the common-sense intuition (on which nave physics is based) of the independence
of reality from the conceptual categories of the experimenter. If the processes of elaboration of
the mental modules are in fact independent of the background theories, then it is possible to
maintain the realist view that two scientists who embrace two radically diverse theories see the
world exactly in the same manner even if they interpret it differently. The point is that it is
necessary to distinguish between observations and the perceptual fixation of beliefs. While it is
beyond doubt that the second process involves the holistic relationship between beliefs, the first
is largely independent of the background beliefs of individuals.

Other critics, such as Israel Sheffler, Hilary Putnam and Saul Kripke, have focused on
the Fregeandistinction between sense and reference in order to defend a position of scientific
realism. Sheffler contends that Kuhn confuses the meanings of terms such as "mass" with their
references. While their meanings may very well differ, their references (the objects or entities to
which they correspond in the external world) remain fixed.
Eurocentrism
More recently, criticism from a different direction has been developed by Arun Bala in his
study The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).
He charges that The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is itself a profoundly Eurocentric work,
although it is often perceived as opening the door to the multicultural turn in historical studies of
science. Bala charges that Kuhn ignores the significant impact of Arabic and Chinese
science when he writes:

Every civilization of which we have records has possessed a technology, an art, a religion, a
political system, laws and so on. In many cases those facets of civilizations have been as
developed as our own. But only the civilizations that descend from Hellenic Greece have
possessed more than the most rudimentary science. The bulk of scientific knowledge is a product
of Europe in the last four centuries. No other place and time has supported the very special
communities from which scientific productivity comes.

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Kuhn, 1962, pp. 167-168

Bala argues that it is precisely Kuhns postmodern epistemological paradigm which obstructs
recognition of non-Western influences on modern science. Bala argues that this leads Kuhn to
treat different cultural scientific traditions as separate intellectual universes isolated from each
other. Instead, Bala argues, we would have a different multicultural picture of science by
including the contributions from Arabic, Chinese,ancient Egyptian and Indian
traditions of philosophy, mathematics, astronomy and physics that went into shaping the birth of
modern science.

Technology

By the mid 20th century, humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the
atmosphere of the Earth for the first time and explore space.

Technology is the usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, and crafts, or is systems or
methods of organization, or is a material product (such as clothing) of these things. The word
technology comes from the Greek technologa () tchn (), 'craft' and -loga (-
), the study of something, or the branch of knowledge of a discipline. The term can either
be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include "construction technology", "medical
technology", or "state-of-the-art technology".

Technologies significantly affect human as well as other animal species' ability to control and
adapt to their natural environments. The human species' use of technology began with the

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conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The prehistorical discovery of the ability to
control fire increased the available sources of food and the invention of the wheel helped humans
in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including
the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to
communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale. However, not all
technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapons of ever-increasing
destructive power has progressed throughout history, from clubs to nuclear weapons.

Technology has affected society and its surroundings in a number of ways. In many societies,
technology has helped develop more advanced economies (including today's global economy)
and has allowed the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-
products, known as pollution, and deplete natural resources, to the detriment of the Earth and its
environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and new
technology often raises new ethical questions. Examples include the rise of the notion of
efficiency in terms of human productivity, a term originally applied only to machines, and the
challenge of traditional norms.

Philosophical debates have arisen over the present and future use of technology in society, with
disagreements over whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-
Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar movements criticise the pervasiveness of technology
in the modern world, opining that it harms the environment and alienates people; proponents of
ideologies such as transhumanism and techno-progressivism view continued technological
progress as beneficial to society and the human condition. Indeed, until recently, it was believed
that the development of technology was restricted only to human beings, but recent scientific
studies indicate that other primates and certain dolphin communities have developed simple tools
and learned to pass their knowledge to other generations.

Definition and usage

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The invention of the printing press made it possible for scientists and politicians to communicate
their ideas with ease, leading to the Age of Enlightenment; an example of technology as a
cultural force.

The use of the the term technology has changed significantly over the last 200 years. Before the
20th century, the term was uncommon in English, and usually referred to the description or study
of the useful arts. The term was often connected to technical education, as in the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (chartered in 1861). "Technology" rose to prominence in the 20th
century in connection with the second industrial revolution. In the process, the concept of
technology became associated with the worlds of science, big business, and engineering,
implicitly excluding workers, women, and non-Western peoples. The meanings of technology
changed in the early 20th century when American social scientists, beginning with Thorstein
Veblen, translated ideas from the German concept of Technik into "technology." In German and
other European languages, a distinction exists between Technik and Technologie that is absent in
English, as both terms are usually translated as "technology." By the 1930s, "technology"
referred not to the study of the industrial arts, but to the industrial arts themselves. In 1937, the
American sociologist Read Bain wrote that "technology includes all tools, machines, utensils,
weapons, instruments, housing, clothing, communicating and transporting devices and the skills
by which we produce and use them." Bain's definition remains common among scholars today,
especially social scientists. But equally prominent is the definition of technology as applied
science, especially among scientists and engineers, although most social scientists who study
technology reject this definition. More recently, scholars have borrowed from European
philosophers of "technique" to extend the meaning of technology to various forms of
instrumental reason, as in Foucault's work on technologies of the self.

Dictionaries and scholars have offered a variety of definitions. The Merriam-Webster dictionary
offers a definition of the term: "the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular
area" and "a capability given by the practical application of knowledge". Ursula Franklin, in her
1989 "Real World of Technology" lecture, gave another definition of the concept; it is "practice,
the way we do things around here". The term is often used to imply a specific field of
technology, or to refer to high technology or just consumer electronics, rather than technology as
a whole. Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time, 1, defines technology in two ways: as "the
pursuit of life by means other than life", and as "organized inorganic matter."

Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial, created by
the application of mental and physical effort in order to achieve some value. In this usage,
technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems. It is a
far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more
complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not
be material; virtual technology, such as computer software and business methods, fall under this
definition of technology.

The word "technology" can also be used to refer to a collection of techniques. In this context, it
is the current state of humanity's knowledge of how to combine resources to produce desired
products, to solve problems, fulfill needs, or satisfy wants; it includes technical methods, skills,
processes, techniques, tools and raw materials. When combined with another term, such as
"medical technology" or "space technology", it refers to the state of the respective field's
knowledge and tools. "State-of-the-art technology" refers to the high technology available to
humanity in any field.

Technology can be viewed as an activity that forms or changes culture. Additionally, technology
is the application of math, science, and the arts for the benefit of life as it is known. A modern

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example is the rise of communication technology, which has lessened barriers to human
interaction and, as a result, has helped spawn new subcultures; the rise of cyberculture has, at its
basis, the development of the Internet and the computer. Not all technology enhances culture in a
creative way; technology can also help facilitate political oppression and war via tools such as
guns. As a cultural activity, technology predates both science and engineering, each of which
formalize some aspects of technological endeavor.

Science, engineering and technology

The distinction between science, engineering and technology is not always clear. Science is the
reasoned investigation or study of phenomena, aimed at discovering enduring principles among
elements of the phenomenal world by employing formal techniques such as the scientific
method. Technologies are not usually exclusively products of science, because they have to
satisfy requirements such as utility, usability and safety.

Engineering is the goal-oriented process of designing and making tools and systems to exploit
natural phenomena for practical human means, often (but not always) using results and
techniques from science. The development of technology may draw upon many fields of
knowledge, including scientific, engineering, mathematical, linguistic, and historical knowledge,
to achieve some practical result.

Technology is often a consequence of science and engineering although technology as a

human activity precedes the two fields. For example, science might study the flow of electrons in
electrical conductors, by using already-existing tools and knowledge. This new-found knowledge
may then be used by engineers to create new tools and machines, such as semiconductors,
computers, and other forms of advanced technology. In this sense, scientists and engineers may
both be considered technologists; the three fields are often considered as one for the purposes of
research and reference.

The exact relations between science and technology in particular have been debated by scientists,
historians, and policymakers in the late 20th century, in part because the debate can inform the
funding of basic and applied science. In immediate wake of World War II, for example, in the
United States it was widely considered that technology was simply "applied science" and that to
fund basic science was to reap technological results in due time. An articulation of this
philosophy could be found explicitly in Vannevar Bush's treatise on postwar science policy,
ScienceThe Endless Frontier: "New products, new industries, and more jobs require
continuous additions to knowledge of the laws of nature... This essential new knowledge can be
obtained only through basic scientific research." In the late-1960s, however, this view came
under direct attack, leading towards initiatives to fund science for specific tasks (initiatives
resisted by the scientific community). The issue remains contentiousthough most analysts
resist the model that technology simply is a result of scientific research.

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Role in human history
Paleolithic (2.5 million 10,000 BC)

A primitive chopper

The use of tools by early humans was partly a process of discovery, partly of evolution. Early
humans evolved from a race of foraging hominids which were already bipedal, with a brain mass
approximately one third that of modern humans. Tool use remained relatively unchanged for
most of early human history, but approximately 50,000 years ago, a complex set of behaviors
and tool use emerged, believed by many archaeologists to be connected to the emergence of
fully-modern language.

Stone tools

Hand axes from the Acheulian period

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A Clovis point, made via pressure flaking

Human ancestors have been using stone and other tools since long before the emergence of
Homo sapiens approximately 200,000 years ago. The earliest methods of stone tool making,
known as the Oldowan "industry", date back to at least 2.3 million years ago, with the earliest
direct evidence of tool usage found in Ethiopia within the Great Rift Valley, dating back to 2.5
million years ago. This era of stone tool use is called the Paleolithic, or "Old stone age", and
spans all of human history up to the development of agriculture approximately 12,000 years ago.

To make a stone tool, a "core" of hard stone with specific flaking properties (such as flint) was
struck with a hammerstone. This flaking produced a sharp edge on the core stone as well as on
the flakes, either of which could be used as tools, primarily in the form of choppers or scrapers.
These tools greatly aided the early humans in their hunter-gatherer lifestyle to perform a variety
of tasks including butchering carcasses (and breaking bones to get at the marrow); chopping
wood; cracking open nuts; skinning an animal for its hide; and even forming other tools out of
softer materials such as bone and wood.

The earliest stone tools were crude, being little more than a fractured rock. In the Acheulian era,
beginning approximately 1.65 million years ago, methods of working these stone into specific
shapes, such as hand axes emerged. The Middle Paleolithic, approximately 300,000 years ago,
saw the introduction of the prepared-core technique, where multiple blades could be rapidly
formed from a single core stone. The Upper Paleolithic, beginning approximately 40,000 years
ago, saw the introduction of pressure flaking, where a wood, bone, or antler punch could be used
to shape a stone very finely.

Fire

The discovery and utilization of fire, a simple energy source with many profound uses, was a
turning point in the technological evolution of humankind. The exact date of its discovery is not
known; evidence of burnt animal bones at the Cradle of Humankind suggests that the
domestication of fire occurred before 1,000,000 BC; scholarly consensus indicates that Homo
erectus had controlled fire by between 500,000 BC and 400,000 BC. Fire, fueled with wood and
charcoal, allowed early humans to cook their food to increase its digestibility, improving its
nutrient value and broadening the number of foods that could be eaten.

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Clothing and shelter

Other technological advances made during the Paleolithic era were clothing and shelter; the
adoption of both technologies cannot be dated exactly, but they were a key to humanity's
progress. As the Paleolithic era progressed, dwellings became more sophisticated and more
elaborate; as early as 380,000 BC, humans were constructing temporary wood huts. Clothing,
adapted from the fur and hides of hunted animals, helped humanity expand into colder regions;
humans began to migrate out of Africa by 200,000 BC and into other continents, such as Eurasia.

Humans began to work bones, antler, and hides, as evidenced by burins and racloirs produced
during this period.

Neolithic through Classical Antiquity (10,000BC 300AD)

An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools.

Man's technological ascent began in earnest in what is known as the Neolithic period ("New
stone age"). The invention of polished stone axes was a major advance because it allowed forest
clearance on a large scale to create farms. The discovery of agriculture allowed for the feeding of
larger populations, and the transition to a sedentist lifestyle increased the number of children that
could be simultaneously raised, as young children no longer needed to be carried, as was the case
with the nomadic lifestyle. Additionally, children could contribute labor to the raising of crops
more readily than they could to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

With this increase in population and availability of labor came an increase in labor
specialization. What triggered the progression from early Neolithic villages to the first cities,
such as Uruk, and the first civilizations, such as Sumer, is not specifically known; however, the
emergence of increasingly hierarchical social structures, the specialization of labor, trade and
war amongst adjacent cultures, and the need for collective action to overcome environmental
challenges, such as the building of dikes and reservoirs, are all thought to have played a role.

Metal tools

Continuing improvements led to the furnace and bellows and provided the ability to smelt and
forge native metals (naturally occurring in relatively pure form). Gold, copper, silver, and lead,
were such early metals. The advantages of copper tools over stone, bone, and wooden tools were
quickly apparent to early humans, and native copper was probably used from near the beginning
of Neolithic times (about 8000 BC). Native copper does not naturally occur in large amounts, but
copper ores are quite common and some of them produce metal easily when burned in wood or
charcoal fires. Eventually, the working of metals led to the discovery of alloys such as bronze
and brass (about 4000 BC). The first uses of iron alloys such as steel dates to around 1400 BC.

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Energy and Transport

Meanwhile, humans were learning to harness other forms of energy. The earliest known use of
wind power is the sailboat. The earliest record of a ship under sail is shown on an Egyptian pot
dating back to 3200 BC. From prehistoric times, Egyptians probably used "the power of the
Nile" annual floods to irrigate their lands, gradually learning to regulate much of it through
purposely-built irrigation channels and 'catch' basins. Similarly, the early peoples of
Mesopotamia, the Sumerians, learned to use the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for much the same
purposes. But more extensive use of wind and water (and even human) power required another
invention.

The wheel was invented in circa 4000 BC.

According to archaeologists, the wheel was invented around 4000 B.C. The wheel was probably
independently invented in Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq) as well. Estimates on when this
may have occurred range from 5500 to 3000 B.C., with most experts putting it closer to 4000
B.C. The oldest artifacts with drawings that depict wheeled carts date from about 3000 B.C.;
however, the wheel may have been in use for millennia before these drawings were made. There
is also evidence from the same period of time that wheels were used for the production of
pottery. (Note that the original potter's wheel was probably not a wheel, but rather an irregularly
shaped slab of flat wood with a small hollowed or pierced area near the center and mounted on a
peg driven into the earth. It would have been rotated by repeated tugs by the potter or his
assistant.) More recently, the oldest-known wooden wheel in the world was found in the
Ljubljana marshes of Slovenia.

The invention of the wheel revolutionized activities as disparate as transportation, war, and the
production of pottery (for which it may have been first used). It didn't take long to discover that
wheeled wagons could be used to carry heavy loads and fast (rotary) potters' wheels enabled
early mass production of pottery. But it was the use of the wheel as a transformer of energy
(through water wheels, windmills, and even treadmills) that revolutionized the application of
nonhuman power sources.

Modern history (300 AD )

Tools include both simple machines (such as the lever, the screw, and the pulley), and more
complex machines (such as the clock, the engine, the electric generator and the electric motor,
the computer, radio, and the Space Station, among many others). As tools increase in
complexity, so does the type of knowledge needed to support them. Complex modern machines
require libraries of written technical manuals of collected information that has continually
increased and improved their designers, builders, maintainers, and users often require the
mastery of decades of sophisticated general and specific training. Moreover, these tools have
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become so complex that a comprehensive infrastructure of technical knowledge-based lesser
tools, processes and practices (complex tools in themselves) exist to support them, including
engineering, medicine, and computer science. Complex manufacturing and construction
techniques and organizations are needed to construct and maintain them. Entire industries have
arisen to support and develop succeeding generations of increasingly more complex tools. The
relationship of technology with society ( culture) is generally characterized as synergistic,
symbiotic, co-dependent, co-influential, and co-producing, i.e. technology and society depend
heavily one upon the other (technology upon culture, and culture upon technology). It is also
generally believed that this synergistic relationship first occurred at the dawn of humankind with
the invention of simple tools, and continues with modern technologies today. Today and
throughout history, technology influences and is influenced by such societal issues/factors as
economics, values, ethics, institutions, groups, the environment, government, among others. The
discipline studying the impacts of science, technology, and society and vice versa is called
Science and technology in society.

Technology and philosophy

Technicism

Generally, technicism is an over reliance or overconfidence in technology as a benefactor of

society.

Taken to extreme, some argue that technicism is the belief that humanity will ultimately be able
to control the entirety of existence using technology. In other words, human beings will someday
be able to master all problems and possibly even control the future using technology. Some, such
as Monsma, connect these ideas to the abdication of religion as a higher moral authority.

Optimism

Optimistic assumptions are made by proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and

singularitarianism, which view technological development as generally having beneficial effects
for the society and the human condition. In these ideologies, technological development is
morally good. Some critics see these ideologies as examples of scientism and techno-utopianism
and fear the notion of human enhancement and technological singularity which they support.
Some have described Karl Marx as a techno-optimist.

Pessimism

On the somewhat pessimistic side are certain philosophers like Herbert Marcuse and John
Zerzan, who believe that technological societies are inherently flawed a priori. They suggest that
the result of such a society is to become evermore technological at the cost of freedom and
psychological health.

Many, such as the Luddites and prominent philosopher Martin Heidegger, hold serious
reservations, although not a priori flawed reservations, about technology. Heidegger presents
such a view in "The Question Concerning Technology": "Thus we shall never experience our
relationship to the essence of technology so long as we merely conceive and push forward the
technological, put up with it, or evade it. Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to
technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it."

Some of the most poignant criticisms of technology are found in what are now considered to be
dystopian literary classics, for example Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and other writings,

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Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. And, in
Faust by Goethe, Faust's selling his soul to the devil in return for power over the physical world,
is also often interpreted as a metaphor for the adoption of industrial technology.

An overtly anti-technological treatise is Industrial Society and Its Future, written by Theodore
Kaczynski (aka The Unabomber) and printed in several major newspapers (and later books) as
part of an effort to end his bombing campaign of the techno-industrial infrastructure.

Appropriate technology

The notion of appropriate technology, however, was developed in the 20th century (e.g., see the
work of Jacques Ellul) to describe situations where it was not desirable to use very new
technologies or those that required access to some centralized infrastructure or parts or skills
imported from elsewhere. The eco-village movement emerged in part due to this concern.

Other animal species

This adult gorilla uses a branch as a walking stick to gauge the water's depth; an example of
technology usage by primates.
Credit: Public Library of Science

The use of basic technology is also a feature of other animal species apart from humans. These
include primates such as chimpanzees, some dolphin communities, and crows. Considering a
more generic perspective of technology as ethology of active environmental conditioning and
control, we can also refer to animal examples such as beavers and their dams, or bees and their
honeycombs.

The ability to make and use tools was once considered a defining characteristic of the genus
Homo. However, the discovery of tool construction among chimpanzees and related primates has
discarded the notion of the use of technology as unique to humans. For example, researchers
have observed wild chimpanzees utilising tools for foraging: some of the tools used include leaf

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sponges, termite fishing probes, pestles and levers. West African chimpanzees also use stone
hammers and anvils for cracking nuts, as do capuchin monkeys of Boa Vista, Brazil.

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 Actual Issues Of Philosophy For
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