Life :: essays research papers

1. Evolutionary Psychology assumes that human behavior, just like human anatomy and physiology has been shaped by the evolutionary process. A. Can you justify that assumption? Yes, because it is saying that the mental mechanisms that underlie human behavior are held in common among people all over the world. These mental organs constrain and shape people's thoughts, perceptions and behaviors. Also, evolved mechanisms in the brain channel the evolution of human societies and human culture that make some outcomes more likely than others. B. Don't the advanced learning capacities of humans negate the relevance of an evolutionary approach to human behavior? No, because not all behavior is learned or just there from the beginning. According to human behavioral ecology, peoples' interests are defined in evolutionary terms: as wanting to maximize their fitness. 2. Evolutionary psychology assumes that the brain is composed of many domain-specific cognitive modules. A. What does the phrase â€Å"domain-specific† mean? It means that there are socialized cognitive mechanisms designed to solve problems important in the EEA. B. Why is this assumption justified theoretically? Because empirical evidence shows that animals are predisposed to learn some things and not others. C. What empirical evidence exists to suggest that it is correct? A study on rats concluded that their food aversions are based solely on the taste of foods that have made them sick, not the food's size, shape or color. However, there are certain foods that rats won't touch because their diet is strictly controlled by genes. 3. Human mating and parenting behaviors are critical to fitness and should have been responsive to selection. A.Do you expect men and women to have the same mating and parenting adaptations? Why or why not? No, because with women and men are predisposed to certain types of mating and parenting adaptations. Women tend to mate with fewer people and are more inclined to heavily partake in parenting of the offspring. Men are generally inclined to mate with whomever, whenever, and however often they can and because they aren't sure of paternity, they are less inclined to parenting the offspring.

Plato, Machiavelli Essay

Machiavelli says the prince only has to seem good, not be good. Plato insists that seeming is bad, being is good. Nicolo Machiavelli is known as being an realist who accepted that fact that humans are brutal, selfish, and fickle while Plato was an idealist who believed people could be ruled by a philosopher king who ruled over the warriors and tradesmen of his ideal republic with rationality. In his view the philosopher-king was in charge of making the state a â€Å"utopia† in that everyone had his/her place and all worked together for the common good of the state. Machiavelli said that this was a foolish idea. Machiavelli philosophy of government was centered on the ruler. He believed the king, or despot, had the right to do whatever was necessary for his own gain, or whatever the monarch considered the â€Å"good of the state† which he called Virtu’. Machiavelli believed the only purpose for a ruler was to make war, and protect its citizens from attacks by other states. He advocated the slaughter of surrendered generals in order to crush hopes of revolution – even rationalizing that it was worth the risk of revolution should it anger the people. Machiavelli believed a ruler should be immoral using deception and illusion for power and never allowing the people to know the â€Å"real† him In Machiavelli’s time, as it is today, the States whole reason for being was to serve the citizens. The ruler, therefore, is justified in doing whatever is necessary to maintain the country or state, even if it is unjust. In Plato’s time, man served the state. According to the viewed that ethics and politics are the same, or at least co-terminous. There was no distinction between private life and public life, as there is today. Plato argues a ruler can never be unjust. Plato argues against this type of ruler, who rules solely by might. Plato tries to prove that it is always better to be just than unjust , claiming that there is a strong connection between justice , personal happiness and the well being of the state. Machiavelli underlines the fact that moral principles are not necessarily connected with the efficiency of the act of ruling . If the principles of morality and justice need to be broken in for the state to be prosperous , than this is how things should be done. In the end, Plato and Machiavelli lived very different lives, contributing to their differing thoughts on the world. Plato grew up in the upper aristocratic class but was â€Å"adopted† by Socrates. As he followed Socrates, he learned all he would need for his later life as a philosopher when he essentially wandered around Greece without pay. In this way he was untouched by wealth’s corruption. Machiavelli, on the other hand, grew up in a wealthy Italian home and lived well supplied for by his patrons. The wealth that he was accustomed to was the main cause for his philosophy centered around personal gain.

Introduction to Consumer Surplus