Fallacies in the business world can be fatal when making a decision. Fallacies can impede the critical thinking process, causing the decision maker to focus on solutions that are not the most appropriate, or confuse the issue at hand. For these reasons, it is important to understand what fallacies are out there and how they affect the critical thinking process. Only by being aware of them is a person able to circumvent their effects. This paper explores: equivocation, far-fetched hypotheses, and hasty generalizations.

In the short story, "Barn Burning," William Faulkner employs the literary technique of irony in several instances to illustrate character development as well as express his opinions. It is through the experiences of a young Sarty that an older Sarty is able to look back on his life and see the irony and learn from it. Sarty could be the phoenix that rises from the ashes of his father's fires. Perhaps the most distinct illustration of irony can be seen in how the Snopes family always seems to end up at the same place after each of their circumstances. Interestingly, it is as if the family is involved in a viscous circle of defeat despite their determined efforts to escape it. This cycle forces the family to practically start over in a new town regularly. Early in the story, we read that they family is tossed out of one town and that Abner "did not know where they were going. None of them ever did or ever asked, because it was always somewhere, always a house of

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the topic of domestic abuse. Specifically, it will discuss abuse directed toward women, and what can be done to help control this abuse. Domestic abuse is one of the most pervasive problems facing our society today. Often, the abuse is kept secret because of fear or threats from abusive partners. To understand domestic abuse, many studies have been conducted, but one thing remains clear. Domestic abuse is prevalent in all levels of society, and it must be controlled for our society to truly be successful and modern.

In her narrative relating the events of her and several others' capture by Indians in the America of 1682, Mary Rowlandson's writing varies among several styles of language. In the beginning she was very emotional regarding her fate, especially with the death of her daughter. Later her writing increasingly acquires an emotional distance. Throughout her writing remains evident of her deep and unwavering Christian faith, regardless of the events during her journey. Furthermore her descriptions

Sociology has been defined s the scientific study of human interaction and, as such, is accepted as a scientific activity (Leming 1997). Social science aims at discovering and explaining observed events of and in nature by means of a framework that can be tested. The goal of sociology is, therefore, to produce a body of knowledge that will provide a body of knowledge that will provide not only an understanding of the causal processes influencing human behavior but also enable sociologists to predict social behaviors (Leming). As a science, it pursues observable and provable regularities and explains these regularities by means of a set of observable and provable propositions or statements of relationship (Leming). The very effectiveness or success of sociology lies precisely in the explanatory and predictive power of this body of knowledge derived from research. The basic components or elements of a theory are a conceptual scheme, a set of propositions that state

Throughout history, humans have recognized alcohol as a good and positive force in their lives; only within the last two centuries have certain prohibitionist elements in America and Northern Europe sought to vilify this ancient drink and encourage the public to consider it as a poisonous and socially treacherous substance with which one must either abstain totally or become uncontrollably addicted. It is the position of this paper that this all or nothing approach does far more harm than good, and that the best approach to alcohol is not to prohibit it but to encourage its integration into a responsible and healthy lifestyle. For this reason, I believe that the US Air Force should not require total abstinence (from alcohol) in the dormitories but should rather work to educate young airmen on the appropriate and social responsive use of alcohol. Alcohol can indeed be a negative and socially disruptive force if people engage in problem drinking activities. Alco

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the book "The One Minute Manager" by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. Specifically, it will discuss what have I learned from the book that I can utilize professionally as a school administrator. This book should be a must read for every manager in every organization. It makes management more effective, more positive, and simpler, in a time where too much of management just seems to be getting more complex and more convoluted.

The five stages of group development are: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Forming is the first stage of group development. This stage involves members getting to know each other, getting to know how the group operates, and getting to know what is suitable behavior within the group. This is generally a stage where people are wary of the new group, but also on good behavior as most people desire to be accepted by the group. The next stage of group development is storming, which is a stage defined by conflict and disagreement. At this stage, people have often stopped being in good behavior as a means of fitting in. Instead, people begin to question the group. The actual sources of conflict vary for each person, but can include disagreeing with their own role in the group, disagreeing with the roles of others, feeling resentment at other group members, disagr

In 2000 Boeing corporation mad a decision to pay Hughes Electronics Corp. 3.75 billion dollars for a satellite operation meant to not only put Boeing in the satellite business but also boost them into "high-margin, space based services" including linking airline passengers via the internet and digitally delivering movies to flyers (Holmes, 2001). The decision was based on the idea that benefits to the company and employees would increase as profits increased from new services potentially offered by the satellite system. Boeing corporation predicted that the cost to benefit ratio respective to this investment was positive. They also believed that an increased output and better services would result from their initial investment. Though Boeing was incurring excess variable costs associated with implementing a new technology and service to customers, the potential increased financial gains expected from customer interest in the product seemed promising at the t

Teaching English may seem to be, on its surface, the mere teaching of a discipline, much like teaching history or science. More like mathematics, however, one could contend that teaching English involves teaching skills that spill over into a variety of disciplines across the curriculum, beyond that of the English classroom itself. A student's understanding of history will be limited, for example, no matter how great his or her interest and emotional and intellectual involvement with the events of the past, if the student is incapable of formulating his or her thoughts logically and coherently, in a literary and structured format about historical topicsâ€"ditto for scientific topics or economic topics as well. Thus, when developing a national curriculum for teaching English, it is critical that English education is considered to be a skills-related discipline, in other words, that it involves the skills of grammar, sentence structure, essay structure, and writing, as well as involvin

Each person is given the opportunity to influence the world. The choices that we make daily have an impact on the course of our own individual lives and also on the community as a whole. The experiences that I have had throughout my life have helped me to find a balance between meeting my own needs and helping others. My future career will go hand-in- hand with continuing to serve my community. I have always been empathic

Achilles is the main character in Homer's epic work The Iliad. The Iliad can be seen as the story of Achilles' character development, as he first allows himself to become consumed by his own flaws, and then becomes aware of his own flaws and is able to overcome them. This will now be looked at further, by focusing on Achilles' character and how it develops and changes throughout The Iliad. One of the most admirable aspects of Achilles' character is his ability on the battlefield. He is presented as a brave and capable warrior, and this is something that he is both respected and feared for. Apollo describes this aspect of Achilles' character where he says, "Let that man beware, for great and glorious as he is, we mighty gods will wheel on him in anger - look, he outrages the senseless clay in all his fury!"(Homer, XXIV, 58-60). This statement shows that Achilles' ability as a warrior is something that makes him "great and glorious." This statement also suggests that this ability could

Introduction Overall, the regional economy of New England shows encouraging signs of growth during the first quarter of 2004. New England's repeat-sales home price index specifically suggests that prices of individual homes increased in 2004. Total merchandise exports showed strong growth in New England during the first quarter of 2004, with strong growth in exports to Germany, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Malaysia. Further, unemployment rates show signs of dropping both nationally and in New England in the first quarter of 2004. Existing Housing Existing home sales showed strong national growth from 2003 to 2004. In the United States overall, existing home sales roles approximately seven percent from the first quarter of 2003 to the first quarter of 2004. Data for New England was not available for this time, by Maine and Connecticut showed an increase of close to 14 percent, New Hampshire rose over 13 percent, and Massachusetts rose close to 12

According to Paul F. Bork, "the leadership qualities of Moses are thoroughly outlined in the Holy Bible, where his life story is told in Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy" (1978, 25). Thus, with a close reading of these four books, the leadership abilities of Moses the patriarch can easily be discerned. Historically, Moses displayed the true attributes of a great leader, due to the fact that he dared to defy Ramesses II, Pharaoh of Egypt, and insist that his people, being the Israelites, be taken out of bondage and led into the Promised Land, where the new religion of Judaism was founded. Thus, in many of the tales concerning Moses, one can come to understand his leadership qualities through what some scholars have called eye-witness accounts as they are found in the Holy Bible. One of the first important incidents related in the Holy Bible that demonstrates the leadership qualities of Moses is found in Exodus, where it says that Moses wandered out

The challenges of the current situation of a challenged economy have resurrected an enduring debate about the state of the poor. It seems that the ranks are growing despite the attempts near the end of the last century to reform the standards of social welfare. Two schools of thought have lead the debate and conflicted in both theory and implementation. Institutionalism and behaviorism conflict on a few points that challenge the application of social welfare policy, and especially the late 20th century incarnation of Aide for Families with Dependent Children, (AFDC) TANF Temporary Aid to Needy Families, the first of many attempts to redirect the focus of social welfare toward retraining the poor to reduce welfare dependency. PRWORA states that the purposes of the TANF program are to assist needy families, to fight "welfare dependency" by promoting work and marriage, to reduce non-marital births, and to encourage the formation and maintenan

The definition of ethics is a very difficult thing to pin down, since in the modern world it means so many things to so many people. Of course the basic, main meaning of the word is clear enough. Through one's life, and especially when growing up, a person learns what ethics are. This usually entails that one's parents give guidelines according to which life in society should be lived in order to make life as easy as possible for every individual person and for society itself. So on the one hand ethics come from how a person was raised. This in itself is very individual, since some parents do a better job of raising ethical children than others. A child could in this way grow up to be either ethical in a social sense, or unethical. Either way, an individual set of ethics is formed by every person, even though this set of ethics could be negative, or not compatible with the general ethics accepted by society. An ethical system is also derived by an indivi

An individual or team's ability to successfully achieve organizational performance goals depends a great deal on effective decision making. Indeed, well-thought out decisions are more likely to lead to desired results since it involves a critical thinking process that includes systematic steps such as identifying the problem, defining evaluative criteria, gathering information, and developing alternative courses of action. Though the steps outlined make decision making sound fairly simple, it must be noted that there are several types of decision making methods emerging from cause and effect beliefs. Cause and effect beliefs play a central role in decision making since an individual or group's cognitive beliefs result in linking specific alternatives to specific criteria, thereby influencing the manner in which problems are identified, diagnosed, and ultimately solved (Scholl, 1999). It is the objective of this paper to discuss one such model, namely, the rational model of group decision making and its application to a hypothetical workplace situation faced by a line assembly woman supervisor at General Motors.

The women of Winesburgâ€"who may not whine, else the author, Sherwood Anderson, judges them harshly! In his critical introduction to the 1919 edition of Winesburg, Ohio, an anthology of interlocking short stories by the American author Sherwood Anderson, the critic Irwin Howe noted that Anderson had often been accused of "sentimentality" as an author, since the book's publication. This charge might seem particularly applicable to the women of Winesburg, whom are largely seen as virtuous daughters and wives, or conventionally daring women of ill repute with hearts of gold. It could be alleged that, in the face of such allegations, Anderson shows flashes, however brief, of a unique cognizance of the problems that women face because of societal constructions of femininityâ€"in other words, how women suffer because of how society expects them to behave as mothers, daughter, and spinsters. But these flashes, within the context of the s

How does an artist work out of and from a tradition that has colonized his or her people' By colonizing one's people, one also colonizes the art of one's people. Indeed, through the act of colonization itself, a nation such as Britain has deemed an African's very self hood, very person not to be part of the artistic production of tradition, but merely an object of exploitation. African artists almost as a whole must grapple with the fact that their nation has been oppressed and colonized by Western forces, yet many of these artists also wish to draw up

Hammurabi's Code of Laws is a document that lays out the basic laws for the Mesopotamian society. The Code reads much like a legal document because it is to be taken very seriously. It is much like the Ten Commandments because it contains statutes that people must live by. They were even etched in stone. It is also written in a very serious manner because it is a serious document. His code of laws is significant to history because it set a standard for other codes of law. Perhaps the most significant aspect of Hammurabi's Code of Laws is that he felt a need for establishing laws in order to maintain some sort of control over society. From this we can determine that society must have some form of government in tact in order to enforce law and not only maintain control but keep the peace as well. Hammurabi created his code and he was one of Mesopotamia's greatest kings. His place in society gave him significant power and influence. His code reveals a "society

A child is born, shunned by his own mother. He is brilliant and artistic, possessing skills untouched by even the greatest masters in many areas. Perhaps he is also insane, not relating to the human race. Eventually, he will come to be known as a ghost, haunting the world of normal people as he passes in and out of sight in one of the greatest centers of musical performance in the world. Passionate, he falls in love, and in jealousy he falls even further. This plot line has the potential to be studied in depth by sociologists, psychologists, historians, and artists on so many levels, exploring the child himself and the life and events that build around him. Similar to any number of ancient myths and fairy tales, this love story about an extraordinary outsider was first introduced as "Le Fantome de l'Opera" by Gaston Leroux, a French journalist in the late 1800's who happened upon bits and pieces of historical truths and superstitious rumors that were incorpora

Even on a purely grammatical level, it is important to realize the distinction between the Internet' and an intranet.' The Internet, which should be always be capitalized is the proper name of the international network of connectivity, through various domains, networks, and email addresses. However "intranet," a network confined to a smaller group, is a generic term that does not deserve capitalization. It would only be capitalized if one were referring to a specific intranet, such as

Ethics are a development of the standards and guides that a society expects members to uphold. Ethics are developed as individuals in society reflect on intentions and outcomes of their actions. Ethics are based on factors associated with morals, values and beliefs yet, are not wholly the same as these other three factors. One can hold a standard they consider an ethic, based upon many factors and still disregard it in a time of need, yet the standard remains the same. Ethics can surround all of society or can be based upon the ethical standards of a particular group, such as a business or organization. Individual morals are determined by individual standards of right and wrong as well as some that most people considered universal, such as not taking another's life and they are often associated with a person's religious belief system. Beliefs are determined also by religious, spiritual or societal standards but of course can be secular and can be congruent

The United States healthcare system includes health plans, physicians, hospitals, clinics, consumers, and public health programs. When a consumer selects a health plan, doctor and another health professional, his information such as a social security number or diagnosis may pass through many hands, computer systems and files. "Almost all of us are aware that our personal information is being collected and stored by many different entities" (Soloye). Today, Healthcare organizations are required by law to protect that and all other patient related information while still providing superior service. The information age has forced government legislation to help bolster an individual patient's privacy. "In the past decade, we have undergone a dramatic transformation in the way we shop, bank, and go about our daily business--changes that have resulted in an unprecedented proliferation of records and data." (Soloye) The new HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)

A surprising experience of the current healthcare delivery system which has personally affected me involves globalization and the internet. Apparently, as America's population continues to age, a large number of our senior citizens cannot afford the cost of their basic medicines. My neighbor's grandmother is in such a predicament; however, she found cost relief across American's boarders in Canada. Canada's Healthcare Delivery System provides drugs at a much lower rate then here in the Uni