Transcendence and Immanence

Transcendence and Immanence Transcendence and Immanence Simone de Beauvoir, in her groundbreaking mid-20th century work The Second Sex, presented the concepts of transcendence and immanence as integral features of her theoretical analysis of the structures of patriarchal oppression in Western society. This essay will explore these concepts in terms of Beauvoirs feminist analysis. In this context, it will be argued that these concepts cannot be considered to be gender biased if bias is understood in terms of a negative or unsubstantiated scholarship. Rather, as will be argued, Beauvoirs use of these concepts to describe how the lives of women and men in society are distinctly culturally gendered is not only substantiated when considered in its own historical context but also illuminates our understanding of gender roles in Western society in the early 21st century. In The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir presents the concepts of transcendence and immanence in the course of attempting to answer the fundamental question of what is a woman (Beauvoir 1949). Beauvoir contends that the view of generic terms such as masculine and feminine as being symmetrical only applies in the technicalities of legal documents, for in Western society and culture the two are radically distinct (Beauvoir 1949). She contends that the masculine is the normative default in Western society, and that the feminine is defined against this: She is defined and differentiated with reference to man, and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute she is the Other. (Beauvoir 1949, p.5) Of course, Beauvoir is aware of that the conceptual binary Self/Other is a principle of differentiation that applies to more than simply the relations between men and women. For example, she notes its referents throughout the cultural history of the West, with analogies to myth, as well as its use to support racist attitudes with respect to Blacks and Jews, and its related use to support class-based oppression (Beauvoir 1949). This is a clear strength in her work for, as critics widely acknowledge, Beauvoir was never solely preoccupied with oppression based upon gender, but recognized and struggled against oppression in a variety of forms (Simons 1999).[1] It is against this context of oppression that Beauvoir defines her concepts of transcendence and immanence. Beauvoir argues, in The Second Sex and other writings, that related to this conceptualization of Self/Other is another dichotomy that is a basic feature of oppression: the differentiation of the human population into two groups those who achieve transcendence through creative and dynamic life-enriching activities, and those relegated to lives of immanence concerned simply with the maintenance of life in its basic conditions (Beauvoir 1949). It is important to recognize that these are not simply theoretical concepts but, rather, are intended by Beauvoir as descriptive of the daily lives of humanity. From this perspective, transcendence and immanence are defined in terms of the everyday work and actions of human beings. Thus, transcendent work includes writing, exploring, inventing, creating, studying, while immanent work includes such work as cooking, cleaning, bureaucratic paper pushing and even biological actions such as giving birth (Veltman 2004). The key point to grasp in this differentiation is that activities which involve immanence are basically futile in that they consume time and energy, but accomplishes nothing of fundamental significance (Veltman 2004). Of course, in making this differentiation Beauvoir is not arguing that these activities are not often essential. After all, we all need to provide for ourselves, or have provided for us, cooking, cleaning and other services. Similarly, child birth is a basic fundamental requirement for the continuation of the human species. Moreover, as critics of Beauvoir have noted, it is important to recognize complexities in her understanding of these concepts throughout her various works. For example, Beauvoir acknowledges that immanent work may sometimes be creative, just as activities of transcendence can often involve numbing repetition (Veltman 2004). Good examples of each would be the case of a mother knitting clothes for her children to wear as a creative activity of immanence, while an author painstakingly proof-reading her novel would be an example of repetitive transcendent activity. Given this complexity, it would be useful to differentiate between the concepts of transcendence and immanence based upon their respective relations to two key qualities: (1) existential justification, and (2) durability across time. As one critic notes of Beauvoirs depiction of these concepts: Since activities of immanence merely sustain life and achieve nothing more than its continuation, they also cannot serve to justify life as its raison detre. Rather, existential justification can be established only within transcendent activities that move beyond the maintenance of life itself. . . . If a life is to have reason for being rather than persist solely without reason, it must reach outward toward the future through the production of something creative, constructive, enlightening or otherwise durable. (Veltman 2004, p.124) Having thus explored and delineated the parameters of Beauvoirs concepts of transcendence and immanence, the question of whether these concepts are gender biased remains to confront us. It is undeniable, for example, that Beauvoir uses the concepts in The Second Sex in order to explore the processes by which women have been oppressed throughout history in general, and in the context of mid-20th century Western society in particular. As Beauvoir argues in The Second Sex: the situation of woman is that she a free and autonomous being like all human creatures nevertheless finds herself living in a world where men compel her to assume the status of Other. They propose to stabilize her as an object and to doom her to immanence since her transcendence is to be overshadowed . . . . (Beauvoir 1949, p.20) Clearly, Beauvoirs use of the concepts of transcendence and immanence in her work is situated within a broader context of social and cultural oppression of women by men. Moreover, it is also clear that Beauvoir has a definite agenda in her work in that she does not regard this oppression dispassionately. Rather, she repeatedly questions how women can throw off this oppression and achieve transcendence in their daily lives: How can a human being in womans situation attain fulfilment? What roads are open to her? . . . . How can independence be recovered in a state of dependency? What circumstances limit womans liberty and how can they be overcome? These are the fundamental questions on which I would . . . throw some light. This means that I am interested in the fortunes of the individual as defined not in terms of happiness but in terms of liberty. (Beauvoir 1949, p.20) The above passage is significant in understanding the issue of gender bias in Beauvoirs use of the concepts of transcendence and immanence in that we can see that she is not unbiased in her objectives. Clearly, Beauvoir makes no effort to obscure or hide the fact that she is biased in favour of promoting womens liberty and their capacity to transcendent activity. This being said, however, it cannot justly be extrapolated from this conclusion that Beauvoirs use of these concepts displays a gender bias in the sense of a negative or scholarly unsubstantiated argument. Indeed, as has been noted above, Beauvoir grounds her work in carefully delineated arguments that reference a wide range of theoretical and philosophical models in Western civilization. Moreover, it is noteworthy how in her use of the concepts Beauvoir takes extraordinary care in their description and application. For example, as noted above, she is careful to note subtle complexities in the use of the concepts in everyday life with reference to how immanent activities may be creative, while some transcendent activities may be repetitive and boring. In conclusion, while it may justly be said that Beauvoir is biased in her use of the concepts of transcendence and immanence as descriptive models of the structures that support the oppression of women in everyday life, and in her objectives to subvert this oppression and promote the liberty of women, it cannot be said that her work display gender bias in this area. This term implies a level of prejudice that potentially undermines the value of a work given the particular interests or agenda of the author. Given the extraordinary care and attention of Beauvoir in her use of these concepts to reinforce her arguments with respect to the oppression of women in Western society, and the fact that these arguments have withstood the text of time and the critique of leading authorities and scholars over the past half-century, Beauvoirs use of transcendence and immanence cannot be represented as displaying gender bias. Works Cited Beauvoir, S.   (1949).   The second sex.   Trans. H.M. Parsley. London: Penguin. Butler, J.   (1986).   Sex and gender in Simone de Beauvoirs Second Sex.   Yale French Studies, 72: pp.35-49. Simons, M.   (1999).   Beauvoir and The Second Sex: Feminism, race and the origins of existentialism.   Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Veltman, A.   (2004).   The Sisyphean torture of housework: Simone de Beauvoir and inequitable divisions of domestic work in marriage.   Hypatia, 19.3: pp.121-143. [1] Here it is important to note the distinction that Beauvoir makes between sex and gender. As Beauvoir declared: one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. Thus, as Judith Butler observes, it is critical that we recognize the operation of the sex/gender distinction between biological bodies and social constructions in reading Beauvoirs work (see, Butler 1986).

Article Analysis of Gasoline Consumption Essay

Gasoline is one of the most demanded resources that Americans count on to get us from point A to point B in our vehicles, and it is also used to help us heat our homes. Ethanol with gasoline can be combined for a blended gasoline, which is better for some vehicles. The following information is from two articles appropriate for this topic. In the first article, â€Å"Trends in U.S. Gasoline and Ethanol Use, and Petroleum Production and Imports† by Dr. Robert Wisner, a Biofuels Economist with the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, states that â€Å"Several decades ago, the U.S. was a net exporter of petroleum products. However, that picture has changed dramatically in recent years as gasoline consumption trended upward and environmental constraints on new wells plus declining production from existing wells failed to keep pace with rising domestic demand. U.S. energy policies in the early 1990s were altered to encourage increased production of biofuels, in part because of a desire to reduce the nation’s dependence on imported oil† (Wisner, 2011). The demand for gasoline and oil is unbelievable. Some observers suggest that oil company collusion, anticompetitive mergers, or other anticompetitive conduct (not market forces) may be the primary cause of higher gasoline prices. If the market price of gasoline is higher than the equilibrium price, a negative slope in the demand and curve will result. The negative slope of the demand curve for buyers will mean that the quantity demanded will be less than the equilibrium quantity. A positive slope of the supply curve for sellers will mean that the quantity supplied will be greater than the equilibrium quantity; hence the quantity supplied will be greater than the quantity demanded. If the market price of gasoline is below the equilibrium price will result in a negative slope and if that happens, the demand curve ensures that there will be a greater quantity demanded than at the equilibrium price. A positive slope of the supply curve ensures that there will be a smaller quantity supplied than at the equilibrium price. Hence the quantity demanded will exceed the quantity supplied. This excess demand will force consumers to spend more time looking for sellers who have the goods available, and to spend more time waiting in line if they do find a seller with the good. These search costs and queuing costs will lead some consumers to offer more for the good, and hence the price will tend to rise. Dr. Wisner also states in the article that â€Å"future trends in the nation’s use of these fuels will depend on a number of factors including the health of the economy and employment levels, automotive technology, the rate at which consumers accept hybrid automobiles, and the possibility of a sharp increase in government-mandated fleet average fuel mileage requirements in the years ahead that has recently been advocated by administration officials. Blending of ethanol with gasoline is mandated to increase sharply in the 2012-2022 period† (Wisner, 2011). Price elasticity of demand is elastic when the percent change in demands is greater than the percent change in price. Inelastic is the opposite. So, I would have to say that gasoline is inelastic because the demand for gas is high and even though prices are rising, people are still buying gas, just not as much as they want to purchase. If there are substitutes (such as electricity or liquid fuel) for a gasoline usually will be elastic. If there are no substitutes it will be inelastic because it is a necessity. I know that no one is happy about gas prices rising, but everyone sure does get excited when the prices drop. When the price of gas increases, consumers will not purchase as much of the product as they would when prices decrease. In the second article, â€Å"Explaining the variation in elasticity estimates of gasoline demand in the United States: A meta-analysis† by Molly Espey, published in Energy Journal; states that Espey examined 101 different studies and found that in the short-run (defined as one year or less), the average price-elasticity of demand for gasoline is -0.26. That is, a 10 percent hike in the price of gasoline lowers quantity demanded by 2.6 percent. In the long-run (defined as longer than one year), the price elasticity of demand is -0.58; a 10 percent hike in gasoline causes quantity demanded to decline by 5.8 percent in the long run. In conclusion, if the price of gasoline continues to rise, there will be a decrease in the demand of the product. If the price decreases, there will be an increase in the demand of the product. When prices are high, demand is low and when prices are low, demand is high. The prices of gasoline will fluctuate because demand is always high. References: http://www.agmrc.org/renewable_energy/energy/trends-in-u-s-gasoline-and-ethano l-use-and-petroleum-production-and-imports http://www.ftc.gov/reports/gasprices05/050705gaspricesrpt.pdf

Assessment and Feedback Essay

Assessment drives the choices students make about their learning. It is widely recognised that assessment and feedback contain the strongest potential to change how, and what, students do to succeed in their learning (Ramsden, 2003). This Effective Teaching Guide on Assessment provides practical suggestions on assessment and feedback. Assessment of Learning and Assessment for Learning David Boud, a recognised researcher and scholar of assessment in higher education, suggests that assessment has many purposes, but particularly to help students to improve their learning and certify students’ learning. These two purposes lead to different ways of thinking about what, how, and when to assess students: |Assessment OF Learning |Assessment FOR Learning | |Focused on learning that has already happened; |Focused on learning for the future; | |Making a judgement about final performance; |Goal is to provide useful information to students about how to learn | |Designed to discriminate between students’ achievement and performance; |more effectively; | | Focused on grades, precision and measurement; |Helps students to identify what they do and don’t know – focus is on | |Concerned that tasks are reliable and valid; |improvement; and, | |Testing usually takes place under ‘standardised’ conditions; and, |Develops students’ judgements about the quality of their work – and how | |Grade contributes to final certification. |to improve. | According to Boud and Associate’s Seven Propositions for Assessment Reform in Higher Education (2010), assessment has most effect when: 1. Assessment is used to engage students in learning that is productive (including the need for assessment to be designed to focus students on learning); 2. Feedback is used to actively improve student learning; 3. Students and teachers become responsible partners in learning and assessment; 4. Students are inducted into the assessment practices and cultures of higher education; 5. Assessment for learning is placed at the centre of subject and project design; 6. Assessment for learning is a focus for staff and institutional development; and, 7. Assessment provides inclusive and trustworthy representation of student achievement. The power of feedback Feedback plays an important role in improving students’ learning. A useful summary is that provided by Gibbs and Simpson’s (2004). In their meta-study of the research about how assessment and feedback support student learning, 7 of their 10 identified conditions relate to feedback, and students’ understanding of feedback. These are:  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Sufficient feedback is provided, both often enough and in enough detail; †¢ Feedback focuses on students’ performance, on their learning and on actions under the students’ control, rather than on the students themselves and on their characteristics; †¢ Feedback is timely in that it is received by students while it still matters to them, and in time for them to pay attention to further learning or receive further assistance; †¢ Feedback is appropriate to the purpose of the assignment and to its criteria for success; †¢ Feedback is appropriate, in relation to students’ understanding of what they are supposed to be doing; †¢ Feedback is received and attended to; and, †¢ Feedback is acted on by the student. Hounsell (2004) also makes the following points about feedback: †¢ It can be extrinsic (assessment-focused) or intrinsic (activity and practice-based); †¢ It can be immediate and verbal (in order to address the potential lack of engagement when it arrives after an assessment); †¢ It can be provided to be a whole class; †¢ It can be many to many where students are involved in identifying the strengths and weaknesses (peer feedback); and, †¢ Feedback can be a loop – it can be offered on unfinished work. Another useful idea is feed-forward. Feed-forward encourages students to use something like a marking rubric (also captured by the idea of criteria and standards) to help plan their approach to an assessment. While a marking rubric is routinely used by university teachers to mark/grade students’ work (as an expression of what a student needs to demonstrate (and the level they need to achieve) to receive a particular grade), the idea of feed-forward is about encouraging students to use that same information in the rubric to plan their work, and perhaps even, to self-assess it before submitting it for formal feedback. In summary: Feedback example: Develop a marking rubric as a cover sheet. The rubric identifies the elements of the assignment, together with a breakdown of marks for each element or a description of the standard for an A, B, C, D, P etc. Feed-forward example: Provide the marking rubric to students before the assignment is due so that they clearly understand what’s expected, the levels of achievement, and can plan their approach accordingly. In marking student work, you’ll need a suite of feedback techniques. Remember, if you’re going to be spending a lot of time providing feedback, you want to make sure that students read, use and engage with your feedback to improve their next assignment. The best way to do that is to have a range of techniques that you can draw on, when you need to. The table below describes some feedback techniques. |Technique |Why use this technique? |How would I use this technique? | |Use a marking rubric that contains information |To encourage students to engage, wrestle |Set aside time to discuss the rubric with students| |about criteria and standards. Offer it to |with and develop an understanding of the |in class. Provide examples of what an A, B, C, D | |students so that they can use it to plan high |criteria and standards related to an |and P level answer /assignment looks like. Explain| |achieving work. |assessment task before embarking on their|the differences to students and engage them in a | | |work. |dialogue. Get them to mark assignments samples so | | | |that they have to engage with the criteria and | | | |standards before embarking on their own | | | |assignment. | |Provide verbal ‘global’ feedback to the whole |To emphasise the common achievements and |As you mark assignments, make a list of 3 things | |class. |errors made across all assignments within|done well, and 3 things in need of improvement | | |a student cohort. |across the whole cohort. Use the next available | | | |class to provide feedback to the whole cohort. Be | | | |specific and provide an example. Post a summary on| | | |Moodle. | |Provide written feedback only. The mark/grade |To focus students’ improvement efforts on| | |is released only after students demonstrate a |the written comment rather than the | | |plan for improvement. |number/grade. The technique assumes that | | | |the learning for students is located in | | | |the staff comments. | | |Invite students to tell you 2-3 specific |To develop students’ capacity to |Ask students to write these 2-3 elements somewhere| |elements of the assignment they would like you |self-assess the quality of their |on the assignment cover sheet before submitting | |to focus your feedback on. |submitted work. |it. Your feedback on these elements does not need | | | |to be extensive but they warrant comment. | |Ask students to indicate the grade (ie, A, B, |To encourage students to engage with the |Invite students to write a 100 word justification | |C, D) they think their assignment should |criteria and standards for the assignment|about the grade they’ve nominated. Your final | |receive. |as part of their planning. |feedback and grade does not need to align with the| | | |students but you may wish to note any differences | | | |in each of your perceptions about the quality of | | | |the work. | |Encourage students to demonstrate/write how |For students to demonstrate how they have|Make this aspect a ‘hurdle’ requirement – to be | |they’ve used your feedback as part of the next |used feedback to improve future learning. |submitted with the next immediate assignment. | |assignment. | | | One observation you might make about each of these techniques is that they are focused on: (i) engaging students with the criteria and standards, and (ii) with what the student does with the feedback they receive. If you’d like to read more about these two ideas (and others like them), two articles may be especially useful to you: Rust, Price & O’Donovan (2003) and Price, O’Donovan & Rust (2004). Consistency and fairness in marking and feedback Consistency in marking, or moderation, is aimed at ensuring fairness in marking, and requires finding or establishing agreement between markers. Making sure that assignments contain criteria and standards is a good start because the expectations involved are clear to the student and clear to the marker. Although this does not absolve the marker from interpreting students’ work, without criteria or standards, the job of marking ends up being much harder. The procedures for marking are set out in the University’s Assessment Procedures (an excerpt of the principles is below): Where there is more than one marker, selected pieces of work from each assessment task should be reviewed by the subject coordinator to verify the level and consistency of the marks allocated by the marker. This process, called moderation, increases the reliability of the assessment process and application of standards, promotes consistency, supports objectivity and establishes a shared understanding of standards and fairness in assessment. The university also has a grading schema with a range of Pass grades. |80-100% |A | |70-79% |B | |60-69% |C | |50-59% |D | |Ungraded |P (may also denote satisfactory completion of a Masters Prelim course of | | |postgraduate thesis) | Graduate capabilities Alongside the conventional grading schema, from 2012, all commencing first year students will receive a result on the achievement of the university’s six graduate capabilities at the end of the year: †¢ Writing †¢ Speaking †¢ Inquiry/Research †¢ Critical thinking †¢ Creative Problem-solving †¢ Teamwork There are some subjects which have been designated cornerstone, mid-point and capstone status. This means that their curriculum has been designed to teach, assess, provide feedback and report specifically on these graduate capabilities. For each graduate capability, students will receive one of three results: exceeded expectations, met expectations or did not meet expectations. Each faculty has carefully crafted a description of what these standards look like. It may be the case that you will be asked to provide feedback to students about their graduate capability achievement as well. Because faculties will have already done substantial work outlining those standards, it is likely you will be asked to offer students that feedback. Summary When considered together, assessment and feedback are incredibly powerful levers for influencing the direction of students’ efforts, and their learning. For many students, the assessment in the subject is the actual curriculum. It is largely students’ reading and perception of what the assessment demands of them which is a key determinant in how they spend their time in a subject. Therefore, the messages that students take away about assessment from the documents; the Subject Guide; from interaction with other students, are important considerations. In the second week, you will discover just how crucial feedback is to this process and how the adoption of standards and criteria will help you mark and grade more efficiently and effectively. References Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2004). Conditions Under Which Assessment Supports Student Learning. Learning and Teaching, Issue 1, pp: 3-31. Hattie, J. & Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112. Hounsell, D. (2004). Reinventing Feedback in the Contemporary Scottish University. Scottish Quality Enhancement Workshop on Assessment, University of Glasgow [available online at: www. enhancementthemes. ac. uk/documents/events/20040604/Hounsellpaper. pdf]. O’Donovan, B. , Price, M. , & Rust, C. (2004). Know what I mean? Enhancing student understanding of assessment standards and criteria. Teaching in Higher Education, 9(3), 325-335. Orrell, J. (2006). Assessment beyond intuition. Central Queensland University [available online at: http://www. learning. cq. edu. au/FCWViewer/view. do? page=8896, accessed Feb 2011]. Price, M. , O’Donovan, B. , & Rust, C. (2004). Know what I mean? Enhancing student understanding of assessment standards and criteria. Teaching in Higher Education, 9(3), 325-335. Ramsden, P. (2003). Learning to teach in higher education. (2nd edition). Routledge, NY & London. Rust, C. , Price, M. , & O’Donovan, B. (2003). Improving Students’ Learning by Developing their Understanding of Assessment Criteria and Processes. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 28(2), 147-164. Taylor, J. (2008). Assessment in First Year University: A model to manage transition. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 5(1).

The Wisdom of King Lears Fool in Shakespeares King Lear...

The Wisdom of King Lears Fool in Shakespeares King Lear King Lears fool is undoubtedly one of the wisest characters in the play. He is not only able to accurately analyze a situation which many other characters are blind to, but he is also able to foreshadow the actions of many characters and many other incidents to come. The main instruction the fool gives to the king is to beware of doing things that are unnatural, such as giving his inheritance, (splitting his kingdom among his daughters) to his daughters before he his dead. By doing this unnaturally, Lear must face many adverse consequences, such as losing his identity, self-worth, and respect from his daughters. Many connections between the fool and Cordelia, Kent†¦show more content†¦-More clearly, the Fool is warning Lear that giving up his Kingdom (a necessity for Lear) before his time was unwise. 2. Then tis like the breath of an unfeed lawyer; you gave me nothing fort. Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle? (I, IV, 127.) -The Fools question to Lear Can you make no use of nothing#8230; is not really a question concerning what Lear has given the Fool, but a direct question of Lears life. He had given away all he had to his daughters, which meant he literally had nothing. What the fool meant is that having nothing, he (Lear) cannot expect to make anything of it. -The Fool is pointing out to Lear the obvious foolishness in giving away all he had to his two undeserving daughters. -Ironically, Lear truly is the fool in this story, and even more ironically the Fool is one of the wisest characters. 3. That lord that counseled thee To give away thy land, Come place him here by me; Do thou for him stand. The sweet and bitter fool Will presently appear: The one in motley here, The other found out there. (I, IV, 138.) -The Fool is showing the error in Lears way. 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