Biography of Jean Baptiste Lamarck

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was born in Northern France on August 1, 1744. He was the youngest of eleven children born to Philippe Jacques de Monet de La Marck and Marie-Franà §oise de Fontaines de Chuignolles, a noble but not rich family. Most men in Lamarcks family went into the military, including his father and older brothers. However, Jeans father pushed him toward a career in the Church, so Lamarck went to a Jesuit college in the late 1750s. When his father died in 1760, Lamarck rode off to a battle in Germany and joined the French army. He quickly rose through the military ranks and became a commanding Lieutenant over troops stationed in Monaco. Unfortunately, Lamarck was injured during a game he was playing with his troops and after surgery made the injury worse, he was decommissioned. He then went off to study medicine with his brother but decided along the way that the natural world, and particularly botany, were a better choice for him. Biography In 1778 he published Flore franà §aise, a book that contained the first dichotomous key that helped identify different species based on contrasting characteristics. His work earned him the title of Botanist to the King which was given to him by Comte de Buffon in 1781. He was able to then travel around Europe and collect plant samples and data for his work. Turning his attention to the animal kingdom, Lamarck was the first to use the term invertebrate to describe animals without backbones. He began collecting fossils and studying all sorts of simple species. Unfortunately, he became completely blind before he finished his writings on the subject, but he was assisted by his daughter so he could publish his works on zoology. His most well-known contributions to zoology were rooted in the Theory of Evolution. Lamarck was the first to claim that humans had evolved from a lower species. In fact, his hypothesis stated that all living things built up from the most simple all the way up to humans. He believed that new species spontaneously generated and body parts or organs that were not used would just shrivel up and go away. His contemporary, Georges Cuvier, quickly denounced this idea and worked hard to promote his own nearly opposite ideas. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was one of the first scientists to publish the idea that adaptation occurred in species to help them better survive in the environment. He went on to assert that these physical changes were then passed down to the next generation. While this is now known to be incorrect, Charles Darwin used these ideas when forming his theory of Natural Selection. Personal Life Jean-Baptiste Lamarck had a total of eight children with three different wives. His first wife, Marie Rosalie Delaporte, gave him six children before she died in 1792. However, they did not marry until she was on her deathbed. His second wife, Charlotte Victoire Reverdy gave birth to two children but died two years after they were married. His final wife, Julie Mallet, did not have any children before she died in 1819. It is rumored that Lamarck may have had a fourth wife, but it has not been confirmed. However, it is clear that he had one deaf son and another son who was declared clinically insane. His two living daughters took care of him on his deathbed and were left poor. Only one living son was making a good living as an engineer and had children at the time of Lamarcks death.

Paralleled Ideals between Fredrickson and Jefferson...

Social Contract is a theory that has been studied by many in an attempt to decide if it is modifiable or unchanging. In Thomas Jefferson’s letters to Virginia, he reveals his feelings on the issues of slavery and the assimilation of Negros into the colonial population. Some of these ideas and beliefs paralleled in concepts when compared to the theories coined by Fredrickson: Group Separatism, Ethnic Hierarchy, Cultural Pluralism, and One Way Assimilation. When analyzing Fredrickson’s theories it is easy to identify similarities within the studied beliefs of Jefferson addressed in his letters to Virginia manuscript, but also you are able to identify differences as well. In his manuscript, Jefferson philosophies point towards an ethnocentric viewpoint when he talks about the needs and elitism of the colonial whites. He says that in order to maintain a purer society of whites the negro slaves must be removed, â€Å"This unfortunate difference of color, and perhaps of faculty, is a powerful obstacle to the emancipation of these people [†¦] while they wish to vindicate their liberty of human nature, are anxious also to preserve its dignity and beauty† (Jefferson 105). He hoped that by making policy around the removal and extradition of the slaves, the moral fabric of the colonies would remain pure and unaffected by the interaction or presence of Negro slaves in their population. This ideal most identifies with the Ethnic Hierarchy theory Fredrickson is responsible for. FredricksonShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesof the world’s human population for the first time in history. He gives considerable attention to changes in city planning, patterns of urban growth, and important differences between industrialized Europe and North America and the developing world, as well as the contrasts in urban design and living conditions between different sorts of political regimes— communist, capitalist, colonial, and fascist. Particularly revealing are Spodek’s discussions of the influence of prominent urban planners

Critical Thinking and Perception Free Essays

Prepare a 700-1000 words essay on ‘Critical thinking and Perception. ’ Perception is Reality. Identify an instance in your life where your perception of the reality situation was different from actual reality. We will write a custom essay sample on Critical Thinking and Perception or any similar topic only for you Order Now What did you think was going on? What was actually going on? Why was there such a difference? What did you learn and how has your thinking changed because of this? Critical Thinking Critical thinking is the purposeful and reflective judgment about what to believe or what to do in response to our observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguements. It involves determining the meaning and significance of what is observed or expressed, concerning a given inference or argument, determining whether there is adequate justification to accept the conclusion as true. Fisher Scriven define critical thinking as â€Å"Skilled, active, interpretation and evaluation of observations, communications, information, and argumentation. † Parker Moore define it more naturally as† the careful, deliberate determination of whether one should accept, reject, or suspend judgment about a claim and the degree of confidence with which one accepts or rejects it. In simpler terms, Critical thinking is disciplined logical thinking governed by clear intellectual standards. Critical thinkers must always seek truth and reality. It employs not only logic but broad intellectual criteria such as clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance and fairness. While thinking critically we must give due consideration to the evidence, the context of judgment, the relevant criteria for making the judgment correctly, the applicable methods or techniques for forming the judgment, and the applicable theoretical constructs for understanding the problem and the question at hand. Critical Thinking and Perception Perception is an extremely common word used to define our own thinking and beliefs about certain situations and facts. The word â€Å"perception† comes from the Latin words perceptio, percipio, and means â€Å"receiving, collecting, action of taking possession, apprehension with the mind or senses. † It is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information. The classic question, â€Å"Is the glass half empty or half full? † serves to demonstrate the way an object can be perceived in different ways. People with different mindsets and different experiences in life will perceive it differently. Optimistic people and individuals with a positive outlook towards life will perceive it a glass half full. Whereas pessimistic people will view it as a glass half empty. Thus it can be maintained that Perception is unique to every individual and is simply one’s interpretation of reality. When we view something with a preconceived concept about it, we tend to take those concepts and see them whether or not they are there. This problem of perception stems from the fact that humans are unable to understand new information, without the inherent base of their previous knowledge. Thus we always tend to perceive things based on their past experiences, previous knowledge, point of views and our socio cultural environment. Critical Thinking does not recognize perception as the correct reasoning technique and calls for evident, logical and accurate facts. It seeks to achieve and establish reality and truth as it is without any distortions. It also maintains that perceptions are not always coincidental with reality. Life Instance and ‘My Perception’ (What did I think was going on? ) Since childhood I had been quite an opinionated girl. Most of the times I strongly maintained my own point of view but I was never rigid. As all people I also had my own perceptions based on whatever I saw, read or heard about, experienced personally and experiences of people close to me. I grew up in a cozy and protected environment where I had very limited interactions with people from a socio cultural background different than mine. As a result I had my own pre-conceived notions about people from different religion especially about Muslims and their beliefs and lifestyle. As a child studying in a Convent school, I never had Muslim friends. The only interaction or limited exposure I had about Muslims been limited to bits of information passed on by my dad about his workers and the news channels. As a result of this I was wary of making friends. Somehow I had a weird theory in my mind where I perceived all Muslims to be an absolute different type of people with a very different lifestyle. I imagined Muslim men to be huge giantly men with strange beards dressed in white kurtas with keffiyah on their shoulders. I had also thought them to be mostly uneducated, orthodox and backward people. On my brief trips to old Delhi I had always seen Muslim women clad in burqas. I thought those women would feel restricted and oppressed all their lives since their contact with outside world is so limited. No body could see their beautiful clothes and accessories. I also thought of Islam as a rigid religion with strict rules forcing people to read Namaaz five times a day. In my ignorance, I perceived it to be an unfair social system for women as polygamy is acceptable. It is quite obvious that my perceptions were far from reality and were just those – narrow-minded perceptions. Rendezvous with ‘Reality’ (What was actually going on? ) My perception about the religion changed drastically changed with my growing up years and especially when I joined college. My graduation college (a leading fashion design college in Delhi) was truly cosmopolitan in nature. It was a melting pot of various cultures and lifestyles. It had students from all walks of life and varied socio cultural backgrounds. As a class all of us were supposed to interact with maximum number of people and work together as a team. There I met many new friends and made some for lifetime. One of them was Aslam- a lanky but a super stylish Muslim boy. He was an absolute contrast to my ill-conceived perceptions about Muslims. He did not wear ill fitted kurtas and had done his schooling from a leading school of Delhi. He belonged to a very educated family. I was surprised and I started changing my thinking. After some time when we became close friends I realized Islam is not a rigid religion and does not force people to read Namaaz five times a day. It is in fact the most misinterpreted religion, which only suggested that men could remarry to support helpless women in times of distress and war etc. I realized all the burqa-clad women I always saw in Old Delhi were not the only Islamic lifestyle. My friend’s mother is a businesswoman and his sisters lived their lives in a manner quite similar to mine. The biggest revelation was that he is a vegetarian by choice and very secular in nature. He also faced same late teenage issues as mine and held similar political and social beliefs. In short his life was very similar to anyone else’s life of our age. The only difference lied in the gods we prayed to and the way we prayed. It was an eye opener as well as a heart-warming experience for me. And today he is one of my dearest friends whose friendship I will always cherish. His friendship has enriched me as a person in many ways. A Changed Me (What did I learn and how has my thinking changed because of this instance? ) My friendship with Aslam over a period of 4 years has changed me and made me a changed person today. I now realize my perceptions about Islam and Muslims were absolutely baseless and wrong. All my childhood years I was not thinking critically or correctly and I had fallen prey to unwarranted assumptions about Muslims, which were not based on any proofs or conclusive evidence. Based on my little and incorrect knowledge, I had mistakenly perceived and stereo typed a huge group of diverse people into an uneducated, unaware and rigid community. I drew a wrong conclusion about a large group of people from an extremely small sample of very few Muslims I indirectly came across my brief Old Delhi trips and my father’s conversations. I learnt that one must not formulate their own theories and view point about people, situations and facts without confirming the logic behind it. Every individual is different and one must never stereotype a large group based on inaccurate information or perceptive theories. But since we are human beings and we are bound to perceive, it always helps to be a little flexible about our opinions and welcome rightful changes. The experience of getting to know someone from a completely different religion has changed my perspective towards people. Today I am not that narrow-minded girl anymore but a better individual with a broader thinking capacity and a deeper understanding of our Indian multi lingual religious and cultural social fabric. I am now open and mentally well prepared to make friends from different backgrounds. This experience has also helped me to cope up with social life in MBA College where students belong to varied nationalities and milieu. As a matter of fact I now look forward to interact with new and different people and make as many friends as possible irrespective of their religion, nationality, ethnical backdrops etc. (*** PS : This is just to explain how I have changed as a person and not to hurt anyone’s religious sentiments. I am very glad I came across this experience as it has changed my wrong perceptions and opened my eyes to a new world full of new and good How to cite Critical Thinking and Perception, Papers

Principles of Microeconomics Business System - MyAssignment.com

Question: Discuss about the Principles of Microeconomics Business. Answer: Introduction: The demand for a product depends on a number of factors like the price of the product, the income of the individual, the availability and price of other related commodities like substitutes and complements and the tastes and preferences of the consumers. On the other hand, the primary determinants of the supply of a product is the demand structure in the market, the price of the product, the price of inputs and other intermediate goods used in the production process, the availability of the factors of production required to produce the commodity, etc. (Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 2009). The demand for desktops depends primarily on the price of desktops, the incomes of individuals who can generate the demand for desktops, the availability and price of other related goods like laptops and tablets which act as substitutes and internet, software programs, etc. that would be complementary and also the tastes and preferences of the potential consumers in the market. The supply of desktops will again depend on the ongoing market price of similar desktops in the market, the prices and availability of inputs required in the production process like capital and labour or the price of keyboards and mouse required to be supplied with the desktop (Varian, 2009). Demand for Desktop The demand for desktops essentially depends on the price of desktops. When the price of desktops increases, the demand for desktops will fall and vice versa given that the other factors determining demand are constant (Mankiw, 2009). There is an inverse relationship between the price and the demand for desktops. Hence the demand for desktops with respect to price is represented by the downward sloping demand curve D. When the price was P, the demand for desktops was Q. when price increases to P, the demand falls to Q. Hence price determines the demand. Another primary determinant of the demand is the income of the individuals who generate potential demand for desktops. As the income of consumers increase, the demand for desktops will increase (Varian, 2009). This is shown in the following figure: As the income of the consumer increases, given the price, the demand curve shifts to the right. This is as shown in the figure by the movement from D to D. For the same price P, the demand increases from Q to Q with the increase in the income. Thus there is a positive relationship between the demand for desktops and the income of consumers. The demand for desktops will also depend on the price of related products like substitutes and complements. The primary substitute of desktop is laptop (Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 2009). When the price of laptop falls, the demand for desktops will shift to that of laptops. Laptop, as a device, is much more convenient to be used than a desktop. But people still purchase desktops because of the relatively mower price of the same. However, if the price of laptop falls, the demand for laptops will increase and that for desktops will fall. Another remote substitute can be tablets which serve at least some of the purpose. This is shown in the following figure: A decline in the price of laptops reduces the demand for desktops as represented by the shift of the demand curve from D to D. Thus, even when the price of desktops remains the same, the demand for desktops falls from Q to Q. Consumers will now substitute their purchase of desktops with that of laptops. Another substitute for desktops will be the same kind of desktops produced by other competitors. Thus when the price fluctuates for one brand, people might shift to purchasing some other brand (Mankiw, 2014). The complements of desktops may be an internet connection or some software programs that a person needs to use. Individuals primarily purchase desktops to enable the use of internet at home. However, if the cost of internet service is high, then the demand for desktops will fall because the main purpose of buying a desktop will not be solves if people cannot afford to purchase the internet connection (Varian, 2009). Again, let an individual wants to buy a desktop to install some software that he might want to learn. If the price of the software increases, the demand for the desktop will also increase again because the main purpose of purchasing the desktop will not be fulfilled. This is shown in the following diagram: The figure is the same as the above case. When the price of internet connection or different software programs increase, the demand for these will fall. This fall in the demand for complementary goods will translate into a fall in the demand for desktops on the part of consumers who want to use both together. This is represented by a shift of the demand curve from D to D. The quantity demanded of desktops falls from Q to Q. Thus cheaper substitute goods reduce the demand for desktops and cheaper complementary goods increases the demand for the same (Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 2009). The demand for desktops is also determined by the tastes and preferences of consumers. The demand changes with changes in the tastes and preferences of potential consumers in the desktop markets. With changing economic conditions, the tastes and preferences of consumers change and hence their demand for desktops will also change. As and when the economy is advancing, there is an evident shift in the demand for desktops because people are demanding more of laptops due to the convenience involved. Hence the demand for desktops will fall. The supply of desktops fundamentally depends on the price of desktops. When the market price increases, the supply of laptops will also increase as shown in the following diagram: The curve S represents the supply of desktops with respect to the price. When the price is P, the supply is Q. As the price increases to P the supply also increases to Q. Thus supply is positively relative to the tentative price in the market. As the demand for a desktops rises in the market, the price increases in order to eliminate excess demand. However, the supply also adjusts in order to meet the increasing demand. Hence, when demand increases, the supply also rises (Mankiw, 2014). The supply of desktops also depends on the price of inputs such as hardware, screens, etc. and keyboards, mouse etc. The cost of production basically determines the supply of desktops. As the cost of production increases, the supply of desktops will fall and vice versa. Thus is shown in the following diagram: Given the price of desktops, when the cost of production increases, the supply curve shifts leftwards from S to S. Thus, the supply of desktops will fall from Q to Q. The reduction in the supply is due to a rise in the cost of production resulting from rising factor costs. Conclusion Thus, the demand and supply of desktops depend on a variety of factors. The changes in the two components will depend on the relative changes in all the given factors. The equilibrium in the desktop market is established when the demand for desktops in the market is exactly equal to the supply of desktops. In that case, there will be no excess demand or excess supply in the market (Varian, 2009). The market structure for desktops thus depends on all the determinants of demand and supply. It will change as and when any of these factors change. Other than the given factors, there will be many other random factors that might affect the demand or the supply on an occasional basis. References Pindyck, R. and Rubinfeld, D. (2009). Micreconomics. 7th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Varian, H. (2009). Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach. 8th ed. New York: W. W. Norton Company. Mankiw, N. (2014). Principles of Microeconomics. 7th ed. USA: South-Western College Pub.