Thursday, January 30, 2020
The Integrative Nature of Psychology and Music Essay Example for Free
The Integrative Nature of Psychology and Music Essay Creativity, while it is recognized and valued by many, means different things to different people. Artists, musicians, and poets are considered to be creative individuals because their products are creative. Art works are valued for their novelty, beauty, uniqueness, and a host of other qualities that are considered to reflect creativity. Scientists who discover a new medicine or cure are considered creative. Young children who have created a finger painting or a poem are praised for their creativity. Often proud parents will even excuse perverse behavior traits in their offspring by saying, â€Å"he is just being ‘creative’. † Creativity is a part of everyday life as much as eating is.            However, creativity is a concept that is difficult to define with specific measures and parameters. For the purposes of this discussion, the author provides theories on creativity in terms of psychological concepts. Freud’s (1952) psychoanalytic technique seems to be the prerogatives of art. The creation of a meaning for a patient’s random acts resembles literary creation. In both psychiatric interpretation and artistic creativity meaning does not emerge fully clothed out of the raw material of incident and language. Rather, from a first experience significance is gradually inferred and elaborated by a process of free association.            What links psychoanalysis and creativity is the notion of symbolic function. Ricouer (1970) speaks of the symbolic function as meaning something other than what is said and therefore he defines a symbol as â€Å"a double meaning linguistic expression that requires an interpretation†(p. 9). An interpretation is seen as a work of understanding that aims at deciphering symbols. Psychoanalysis is first and foremost a form of interpretation, hermeneutic that arrives at an understanding of the facts of mental life by regarding both dreams and neurotic symptoms as symbols to be analyzed. Freud’s interpretation of dreams reveals the dynamics of the mental processes, the â€Å"strategies of man’s deepest desires and instincts†, and provides the paradigm for the analysis of all men’s cultural activities (Ricoeur, 1970, p. 162).            For Freud the dream symbolism is not merely one device of the dreamwork; but rather provides the dreamwork with the material for condensation, displacement and dramatization. These devices then, are all methods of disguise clothing the unconscious symbolic meaning. This universal symbolism is not limited to dreams, but is to be found in fairy-tales, myths, legends, folklore, and also underlies all art, including music.            According to Dalhaus (1978), absolute music is historically rooted in the idea of an unspeakable sublime, in the idea that â€Å"music expresses that words are not even capable of stammering†(p. 63). As a performer, composing or listening to some Western music is an experience of the sublime. As with Freud’s dream symbolism, every music symbolizes something that requires interpretation. Music, through which some of feelings of the musicians are expresses, is essentially a system of symbols. Each symbol is equivalent to an event or an object; when these symbols are put together they give us a kind of an interpretation of the world. According to Langer (1957), the world of sentiments and emotions could also be expressed in a symbolic manner. Music is, therefore, an alternative means of symbolic expression. Elements of music, just as with dreams, do not contain in themselves fixed references to things, but rather a flexible system of symbols capable of expressing various complex feelings. Through music, a composer can express ambivalent and contradictory feelings simultaneously.  With dreams which, as Freud explains, are disguised fulfillment of repressed wishes or desires of the dreamer. Since the instincts hide themselves in dreams, interpretation is necessary to reveal them. The same thing is true with music.            To illustrate this, Kivy (1991) Bach’s Prelude in C Minor from the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier. In referring to this piece he gives an â€Å"autumnal†interpretation, â€Å"the rustling sixteenth-notes figure, in both the right and left hands, that pervades the entire piece, represents the rustling of the dry autumn leaves in the cold October wind†(p. 206-207). What is relevant is the meaning of the listener fins departing from musical experience and musical analysis. Or at least that is what the listener thinks he does. Perhaps this is the point which Kivy describes when the listener who obtains pleasure from absolute music without needing free associations.            On the most basic level, the interpretation of art is analogous to the interpretation of dreams, for art is based on the same universal symbolism of the unconscious. The first assumption of a Freudian aesthetic then is that it is possible to analyze a work of art in order to reveal its hidden motivations in the same way as we unlock the secrets of the dream.            Weiss has extended and placed more emphasis on Freud’s analysis of the condensation of psychic energy that gives a minimum of pleasure in wit, and discovered that the spectator gets pleasure, at least in regarding a painting, from two kinds of perceptual economies, one quantitative and one qualitative. The pleasure of perceptual economy which form affords is the pleasure of overcoming repression of archaic visual modes by sharing in the artist’s childish and primitive visualization (Shapiro, 1966).            However, this pleasure does have the more noteworthy effect of contributing, in the form of a bonus, to the erotic, aggressive and cynical tendencies of the mind. That is, the technique of wit, the use of puns, strange and funny combinations and the like, seduces us to enjoy those sadistic or obscene tendencies whose expression would repel us if it were not combined with the skillful technical creation of the joke itself. In the same way, all the aesthetic pleasure we gain from the work of the imaginative writer is of the same type as this ‘forepleasure’. Therefore, the true enjoyment of art proceeds from the release of unconscious tensions in our minds.            According to Freud (1958), †¦the capacity of certain art forms to express and elicit emotions directly, that is, without reference to representational or symbolic images of drive related objects. This is expressed in the idea that art forms are isometric with the forms of feeling and mood. (p. 11) According to this view, significant content could include those art elements and forms capable of effecting instinctual discharge through the relatively immediate arousal of affective states. This seems to be particularly true of music. The question – whether is it the work or the emotions the work arouses in us that conveys the powerful meaning of music – by saying that our emotions by themselves are the result of our interaction with the music. They are the byproduct of the musical experience. Music seems to create similar emotions and furthermore a similar meaning for different people. People can all have different ways to express our subjective feelings and meanings of the music but at the same time relate to an object that has its own characteristics. Another such psychological concept is the psychology of perception. The most influential theory of perception in the first half of the twentieth century was developed by the gestalt psychologists Kohler and Koffka. In a series of experiments, they were able to demonstrate that inherent in the process of seeing is a natural tendency to bisect the visual field into two distinct areas, a significant figure and an insignificant ground. They also maintained that it is impossible to hold within a single sweep of vision figure and ground simultaneously, focusing on one automatically excludes the other.  Even when perceiving the famous Rubin profiles, a series of diagram whose meaning is ambiguous because figure and ground are equally significant, attention is forced to centre on either the figure, so that a certain diagram will appear as the outline of two vases, or on the ground, in which case the same diagram appears as two faces in profile. The apparent ambiguity in these visual counterchanges arises from the fact that either the figure or ground represents a coherent object but attention cannot perceive both meaning at the same time.            This mutually exclusive, ‘either-or’ structure of attention is found in aural phenomena as well, particularly in the perception of music in which a clear melodic line is distinguished from the harmonic matrix of chords in which it is situated. Finally, the significant figures or forms spotlighted by attention tend to possess the properties of simplicity, wholeness, and coherence while at the same time eliminating any vague, incoherent or inarticulate structures from our perception (Ehrenzweig, 1965).            Through the study of philosophers, theorists, and musicians, aesthetics is no longer simply a â€Å"theory of nice feelings†(as Hegel put it) but a complex philosophy of art: it involves interpretation, criticism and reflection upon works of art. A work of art, such as a symphony, has an existence, a history and a place that constitute it as the object of the aesthetic experience. Having said that, psychoanalysis presents a new way of looking at things – not only at music or art. It is in this way the departure point for an aesthetic revolution, in the sense of a new treatment of what we hear (and see) in the world.            Musical works have represented an enormous value for each culture. In psychoanalytic terms we can say that music generates a jouissance, which for many musicians and non-musicians alike becomes on occasion an experience of the sublime. References: Dalhaus, C. (1978). The idea of absolute music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Ehrenzweig, A. (1965). The psychoanalysis of artistic vision and hearing. London. Freud, S. (1952). A general introduction to psychoanalysis. New York. Freud, S. (1958). The Moses of Michelangelo. In S. Freud (Ed.), On creativity and the unconscious. New York. Kivy, P. P. (1991). Sound and semblance. Cornell University Press. Langer, S. (1957). Philosophy in a new key. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Ricoeur, P. (1970). Freud and philosophy. New Haven. Shapiro, M. (1966). Leonardo and Freud: An art historical study. Journal of the History of Ideas, 17(2).
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Biography Of Karl Marx :: essays research papers
Karl Heinrich Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in the city of Trier in the Rhine province of Prussia, now in Germany. Marx was an economic theorist who composed the idea of communism which included the idea of all the people owning all the property and infrastructure. These theories played a large role in international politics and the cold war in the mid to late 20th century. Marx was the oldest surviving boy of nine children. (Perhaps this is where his theory on equality of resources began. Competing with eight brothers and sisters for attention would have seen an unequal distribution of the parent’s resources to the children) His mother, born Henrietta Pressburg, was from Holland. Both parents were Jewish and were descended from a long line of rabbis, but, a year or so before Karl was born, his father--probably because his professional career required it--was baptized in the Evangelical Established Church. Karl was baptized when he was six years old. Even though Karl was baptized as a youth he still faced discrimination because of his Jewish background. (Marx may have seen from this discrimination that religion wasn’t necessary and was “ the opium of the masses) In October 1835 Marx matriculated at the University of Bonn. The courses he attended were exclusively in the humanities, in subjects such as Greek and Roman mythology and the history of art. He participated in the usual student activities got involved in a fight and spent a day in jail for being drunk and disorderly. Mark left the University and enrolled at the Berlin University to start a law degree. Here Marx joined a Hegelian club these clubs followed the teachings of a philosopher called Hegel. The club denounced religion particularly Christianity. In January 1842 Marx began contributing to a newspaper newly founded in Cologne, the Rheinische Zeitung. It was the liberal democratic organ of a group of young merchants, bankers, and industrialists. By October 1842 Marx became editor of the newspaper. Marx built up the circulation and began writing controversial editorials. Eventually the Prussian authorities suspended production of the newspaper because it was seen as being too controversial. In June 1843 Marx married his fiancà ©e of seven years, Jenny von Westphalen. They moved to Paris which was at the time the centre of socialist thought. Marx met his life long buddy Frederich Engels here and they wrote the French – German yearbook.
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Boeing 777 Finance Case Study Essay
Boeing is currently operating with the majority market share of the commercial sector of aircraft manufacturing. Frank Shrontz, our CEO, has recently stated his goal to increase the company’s return on equity from its current average of 12%. The following summary will delve into the most appealing project for the future of this firm: the 777 aircraft. The purpose of this new product is to maintain our competitive advantage in commercial airline production by completing a family of Boeing airplanes. The following net present value analysis will be used to determine the potential profitability of the 777 project. Our analysts concluded that a levered equity beta of 1.2939 was appropriate for the commercial division of Boeing. The levered equity beta was important to use due to its representation of the capital structure of Boeing and its value to the WACC calculation. This equity beta was calculated by removing the financial risk of four similar defense-oriented benchmark companies (over half of all revenues from their respective defense divisions). The Value Line betas of Lockheed, Northrop, Grumman, and McDonnell-Douglas were unlevered using the following formula U = (L) / (1+(1-t)(D/E)). The betas of these firms are important because by using the pure play approach, we can calculate an accurate equity beta for Boeing. Several adjustments must be made however, and those are discussed in the remainder of this paragraph. Once averaged, the Value Line betas equaled 0.4758. The next step required unlevering the total Boeing beta, which was found at 1.00. The formula used to unlever Boeing’s beta U = (1.00) / (1+(.66*.018)) = 0.9883. With the two betas we have calculated, Boeing’s unlevered commercial beta could be found. We found that the percentage of revenues derived from the defense division was 26%. The following formula provided the answer to Boeing’s commercial beta: U = (U-Boeing – (% defense)(U-Defense)) / (%commercial) = (0.9883 – (.26*.4758))/(.74) = 1.1683. After obtaining the unlevered commercial beta, our analysts then levered it by using the debt to equity ratio of 14%. The D/E ratio of 14% was chosen over the current 4% D/E ratio due to the additional financing needs in the future if the project were accepted. This yielded a levered equity commercial beta of 1.2939. The cost of equity of the project was then found using the equation: RE = rf + (market risk premium). Our team of analysts chose to use the long-term yield on treasury bonds in 1990 (8.82%) because it was similar to our investment horizon. The market risk premium is 5.4%. When these values are plugged into the previously stated SML equation, the cost of equity is (0.0882 + 1.2939*(.054)) = 15.81%. The return on equity for all-equity financing would be 15.13%. The only difference in the formula would be the use of the unlevered commercial beta 1.1683 instead of the levered commercial beta of 1.2939. This discrepancy between the two RE calculations makes sense because levering up increases the cost of equity. The weighted average cost of capital is then calculated with this equation: WACC = [RD * (1-t) * WD] + (RE * WE). The only new unknown is the cost of debt, which was 9.73%. The average yield to maturity of a AA-rated debt with 5 years to maturity is 9.73%–the cost of debt used in our analysts’ WACC calculation. Furthermore, a 34% tax rate and 14% weight of debt were used. WACC = [9.73% * 0.66 * 0.14] + (15.81% * 0.86) = 14.49% With all of the pieces of information our analysts gathered, the net present value (NPV) of all future cash flows could be found. Boeing has estimated the selling price of each 777 will be $130 million and includes adjustments for inflation over the time horizon of the project. After calculating the NPV over the 35-year project horizon, our analysts found it to be $1,736.34 million. Against our hurdle rate, the Boeing 777 project is very attractive. The key to this project being economically attractive is that the return outperforms inflation to provide real value to the firm. The sensitivity analysis provided reveals several gambles made by Boeing. They include the use of the highest estimated selling price per plane, units per year, rate of price increases, and market size among others. Even with all of the risks and estimations, Boeing should launch the 777 in October 1990 because the firm must not only stay competitive but keep their market share in the future. While the 777 project represents a huge risk with high levels of capital, it is a necessary risk since other firms are also completing their full product lines of airplanes. Also, the introduction of a derivative after 10 years and reduction in R&D costs could provide additional sales revenue and further affect the NPV of the project. While this project was certainly a gamble for Boeing in 1990, hindsight shows they made the right decision in creating the new 777. In October of 1990, right after the project was implemented, United Airlines placed a $28 billion order therefore â€Å"cementing the program Boeing was close to scrapping.†By March of 1994 they were already loaded down with 147 firm orders and 108 options with expectations of quickly increasing numbers. In June of 2008 it became evident that this aircraft had the differentiating ability to beat out its competitors. Headlines read â€Å"Boeing under intense pressure to increase production of top-selling fuel thrifty 777-300 ER†¦as airlines struggle with the soaring price of fuel.†In November of 2007 production of the 777 was sold out through 2012 and just 6 months later all remaining 2012 and 2013 slots were filled; the next available date for a new order was in 2014. Boeing officials stated they were â€Å"experiencing unprecedented demand†and were â€Å"producing at a rate of 7 [aircraft] monthly.†In November of 2011 the 777 became one of Boeing’s best-selling models, and on March 5, 2012 United Arab Emirates, the largest operator of the 777 with a fleet of 102, purchased Boeing’s 1000th 777, surpassing the numbers they forecast back in 1990.
Monday, January 6, 2020
Race And Ethnic Stratification Research Paper - 2992 Words
Essay 2: Race and Ethnic Stratification Research Paper In 1957, Malaysia became an independent country and in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Within seven years, the two countries underwent critical transformations from a history of systematic oppression to new freedoms. Both the United States and Malaysia are comprised of multiple ethnicities, races, and dynamics that define their social and economic relationships. Because of the timing of social and economic change, residual effects of oppression influence the ability of both countries to lessen racial and ethnic inequalities. However, similarities between racial and ethnic dynamics in the two countries end there. After independence, Malaysian society was able to progress in a way that significantly reduced socioeconomic stratification, while in the U.S., the progress was less notable. Much of this discrepancy is due to the differences between ethnicity and race: in Malaysia, ethnic differences are complex and subtle, making them easier to ignore or forg et; in the U.S., racial distinctions are often as clear and rigid as the difference between black and white, making significant and lasting progress more difficult to achieve. A number of reasons for this contrast between Malaysia and the U.S. will be discussed. For one thing, the conditions succeeding from the U.S. racial climate did not favor African Americans in terms of employment and status, whereas in Malaysia, independence had aShow MoreRelatedTopic . The Goals Of My Research Strive To Assess The Biopolitical1457 Words  | 6 Pages Topic The goals of my research strive to assess the biopolitical construction of a socially embedded hierarchy of otherness in Singapore, with specific regards to its impact on the reproduction of low-skilled migrant workers. 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