The modern Western alphabet: A brief history
Thesis - 2 pages - Linguistics & languages
As the introductory quote suggests, the history of the modern western alphabet is extensive and has evolved through many different forms to arrive at its present day state. Small modifications over thousands of years have resulted in the system of single phonemic symbol writing that we use today....
An anthropological perspective on Western rituals
Thesis - 2 pages - Philosophy
One of the most fascinating and yet utterly odd rituals that the group being studied undertakes in involves a complex mouth ritual preformed by many inhabitants twice or three times daily. It should be added that while appearing ‘strange', it is not without its own distinct function as a...
Investigation tools for Westminster Presbyterian Church
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
Change is an element of any congregation which survives to serve more than a single generation. Your congregation contracted this firm to give you tools to examine the nature and identity of Westminster Presbyterian, but also to discover the congregation's environment. Congregations are centers...
Black theology and homiletics for the Mainline Church
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
Liberation, community, bitterness, deficit, grim statistics having faces and names instead of numbers; this full litany shows itself in communities of faith. Pastorally, this litany plays out in several ways. The personhood of all those in our church communities show the wounds this world gives...
Atonement
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
What happened on the cross? When Jesus suffered and died, what happened? Atonement theology often claims that the death was a sacrifice for the sins of the world. This statement becomes nuanced in contemporary theologies because surrogate suffering was used to oppress others, salvific violence...
Plato and education
Thesis - 2 pages - Philosophy
Creationism was the prevalent education style used to explain how the Earth came to be and how humans came to be. When the theory of Evolution came into being, teachers began telling students about it. Obviously there was an enormous amount of reluctance to teach this new idea as well as learn...
Struggle for freedom and sanity in one flew over the cuckoo's nest
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
The struggle for freedom and sanity in society is a constant one. Societal leaders relentlessly place standards and requirements on people, and this produces a detrimental effect in many cases. The unavoidable contradiction between the interest of the whole and the cause of the individual...
Revolt against blandness: Language, sexuality and idealism in The Catcher in the Rye
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
J.D. Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was published in the early 1950's, a time of refinement and standardized ways of living. Salinger experienced firsthand the terrors of World War II, as well as life in America during an uncertain time. Salinger's early influences at school and in...
Water vs. fire
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
Life is a constant struggle with those around us. In Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, this struggle is the constant desire to overcome the opponent. Despite similarities, two characters in Moby-Dick showcase this constant desire to defeat one another. The wily Captain Ahab and mysterious white...
Irrelevant cynicism
Essay - 1 pages - Literature
In John Gardner's Grendel, the Dragon's most important character trait is his complete and limitless knowledge of the past, present, and future, producing his biting and relentless sarcasm and his ability to understand the complete and utter irrelevance of the daily exploits of Grendel and...
The warmth in life: (Despite the frost)
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
It is from the ancient Greeks and the Miltonic era that romantic poets have learned to so casually reject their profound place in society. They claim often to be some small part of an awesome whole; the vastness of earth, its circularity (life cycle), the infinitudes of time all decreasing the...
How humans communicate by spatial language
Thesis - 2 pages - Linguistics & languages
In “'What' and ‘Where' in Spatial Language and Spatial Cognition,” Landau and Jackendoff discuss the human ability to express spatial experiences through language (i.e. what things are and where they are). They posit that the organization of spatial language can be used to better...
Listening to a native language lowers reading comprehension more than a second language
Thesis - 3 pages - Linguistics & languages
Dual tasking is among some of the most studied topics of today. It seems that contemporary society is busier than ever. With the advancement in technology and the fast pace nature of the world, divided attention is at an all time high. One of the most classic studies of dual tasking is the...
Homeless Mothers: Book review and topic discussion
Book review - 3 pages - Literature
Homeless Mothers: Face to Face with Women and Poverty by Deborah R. Connolly (University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, 2000) is an ethnography based on participant observation and extensive interviews and written for the general public. Its main subjects are homeless mothers and their...
Physical deterioration of Beckett Characters
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
As a playwright, Samuel Beckett wrote unconventional plays that tested the boundaries of theater. His stories are often perplexing upon first glance, and many employ devices not often seen by audiences, including disembodied voices, the lack of a full physical body throughout the play, and...
Greek language and literature
Essay - 1 pages - Linguistics & languages
The Greek language has been spoken for nearly 4,000 years. It is the oldest oral language in Europe. The alphabet consists of 24 letters and is the official language in Greece. It's related to Latin, Hittie, Old Slavic, Celtic, and Germanic languages. To create the Greek language, Greeks...
Hume's skepticism
Thesis - 2 pages - Philosophy
Hume's skepticism of miracles centered around the use of them to explain things that could not be explained in any other way. Doing so sets a limit on what we can achieve through human understanding. Take for instance intelligent design. Intelligent design states that there are objects...
The appeal of Toru
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
The main character of Norwegian Wood is Toru Watanabe. As the central figure in the novel, he meets and interacts with many other characters in the book. He finds himself in a position where, at least in his own opinion, there are a lot of characters that are drawn to him for one reason or...
Berkeley's theory of knowledge
Thesis - 2 pages - Philosophy
Berkeley's theory of reality and reality can be considered to be the opposite of Descartes' theory. For Descartes, the one true thing that could not be disproved was that people have their own thoughts and they can perceive themselves as having these thoughts. Even if they cannot prove anything...
Plato's epistemology
Thesis - 2 pages - Philosophy
Epistemology deals with what knowledge is, how we acquire knowledge, and how we justify what we believe. Plato's theory of knowledge is generally referred to as “justified true belief.” This epistemological theory basically states that knowledge is gained through an explanation...
Baudrillard on image: Illusion
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
Our modern society is obsessed with the image in many different ways. The more our technology has progressed, the more we have found ways in which to create images in ways that are indiscernible from reality. Special effects in movies are defining the way that we view cinema, and televisions...
Law and violence in Jewish and Islamic perspectives
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
When the above is read at a glance, one would think Jewish Law states that a son who does not obey his parents shall be put to death. However, we do not see this implemented in society today - nor are there notable instances of this occurring in history. Has it been ignored? Does this suggest...
The Church of our holy death, identity and human emission
Thesis - 5 pages - Philosophy
Eros is the sum of life-preserving instincts that manifest as impulses to gratify basic needs like sex, as sublimated impulses motivated by the same basic needs, and as impulses to protect and preserve the body and mind. Thanatos is Greek for death. “Death” is more than the physical...
The ancient history and literature of England
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
The Romans, following their usual policy, had destroyed all jealousies among the British tribes, but, at the same time, had destroyed their power of self-defense. When the last Roman garrison was withdrawn in 410, Britain was like a derelict ship. The “Picts” and the “Scots”...
Famous women poets: Emily Dickinson
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
As a byproduct of the sheer amount of Emily Dickinson poetry that has been recovered, readers have been given a unique slant into the progression of her innermost, clandestine perspectives. Over time topics have been revisited, and perspectives rewritten by her lush poems, brimmed with new...
The changing English language
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
Over the past 700 years or so, English sentences have shrunk from around 70 words per sentence in circa 1380 to around 20 words in a typical general-internet book today. An analysis of a work each from the respective periods indicates that such change in the linguistic features of the language...
White noise
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
Traditional nature writers often describe the benefit man can derive from interacting with nature. For example, in Nature , Ralph Waldo Emerson describes “in the presence of nature a wild delight runs through man, in spite of real sorrows” (Emerson 38). Furthermore, he purports that...
Colonialism in Things fall apart
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
Colonialism is the enforcement of political, cultural, economic, and military troops over the weak nations in order to exploit them; it is the method employed to spread capitalism and its values. When Britain embraced Capitalism, it started to colonize nations so as to secure its material...
Character analysis: Okonkwo
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
Okonkwo is the main character of the book “Things Fall Apart,” by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. This character is a hero to his village, a clansman, warrior, farmer and family man. However, no one is ever perfect. As Aristotle said, a tragic hero is defined by a noble or heroic person...
An Upheaval by Anton Chekhov
Essay - 1 pages - Literature
“An Upheaval” by Anton Chekhov is a story about a young girl, Mashenka Pavletsky, who works as a governess for an upper-class household. Mashenka, who once felt herself superior to the lady of the house, has had her room searched because her boss, Fedosya Vassilyevna Kushkin, had lost a...
