The Concept of Divinity or God According to Parmenides Essay

The Concept of Divinity or God According to Parmenides - Essay Example Philosophers, Presocratic philosophers as they are called, pursued knowledge in a different perspective in an attempt to etch their own reasons on how the universe evolves. It was a complete renascence of the spiritual beliefs in Greece. It was a religious rebirth from traditional theology for the Presocratic. The theologies that they present ignored and even rejected the gods of Homer and Hesiod which were the traditional basis of the Greek religion. One of these Presocratic philosophers is a man named Parmenides, a nobleman who established a new law in Elea stating that all new officials of the city should pledge to follow the Parmenidean law before they were inaugurated. He also built a philosophy Eleatic school which has become a strong inspiration for Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Parmenides was the teacher of Zeno ( Curd 3). They both advocate a single reality of oneness and reality. In Parmenidean doctrine, the â€Å" the One†, who is indivisible and unbounded in time and space is the only true being but is not conceived by Parmenides as we do with God. Instead, he thinks of it as a quantifiable being with infinite extensions which was significant to his logical reasoning (Thomas J. McFarlane, â€Å"Plato’s Parmenides"). Parmenides claims that the senses is deceitful, making our perception of the world different from what it really is. He states that the world is something we cannot comprehend and can only be explained through logic. Parmenides even denied the evidence of the senses, saying that even the distinction between the knower and the known, between the thinker and the object of thought, are illusions. Parmenides argues that since the perception of movement and change can always be thought and spoken of, they are just illusions and everything that is, has always been and will ever be. The core of the argument is: The things that you speak or think is related to something that actually exist, that is both thought and language requ ire objects outside themselves otherwise they would cease to exist in thought. He assumes monotony in the meaning of words and comes up with a conclusion that everything constantly exists and that there is no change because all can be conceive in the mind at all times. Parmenides doctrines regarding the canon of infinity and the perpetuity of the One was rendered in clearer pros by Melissus, an eminent citizen of Samos and an admirer of Parmenides states that everything that exist has a beginning, everything that has no beginning cannot exist, but what exists has not manifested. Therefore it doesn’t have a beginning. Yet again, there is which end in destruction and there are ones that are everlasting. Therefore what exists, being indestructible, has no end. Those which have has no beginning and are everlasting would in fact be infinite. Therefore, what exist is infinite. If something would be infinite, it would be unique. Thus, if there were two they could not be infinite but would have limits against each other. But what exist is infinite; therefore there is no plurality of existence. Therefore what exists is one. (Thomas Knierim, â€Å"Presocratic Greek Philosophy†) What we can see from these pros is a perfect example of classical monism. Parmenides inferences are logically correct but in truth, he is wrong. Even if the resulting theory is flawed, still his methodology was an unpretentious innovation. The problems aroused from his axioms; his assumption of the logical world and the things themselves having a common form of existence. These axioms were where Parmenides derived his logical conclusions in an attempt to build his metaphysics. Hence, in simple words, divinity as defined by Parmenides is one and unchanging. It is an assertion that goes against the usual laws of the world

Franchising of SMEs in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Franchising of SMEs in China - Essay Example Franchising in China proposes great opportunities for local businesses and international small and medium-size enterprises to expand their activities and enter new markets. Following Welsh et al (2006): "franchising is seen as a means of obtaining scarce capital, as the franchise is generally required to make a substantial investment in the business. Franchisees share risk with the franchiser. Franchising is also identified as a way of addressing the agency problem, specifically, the issue of monitoring managers" (2006, p. 130). In China, key to the success of the organization is the mutually dependent relationship between the two companies-the franchisors and the franchise. Miller and Grossman (1986) described franchising as an organizational form structured by a long-term contract whereby the franchisor (usual owner) of a product and service grants the non-exclusive rights to a franchise for the local (in this case Chinese) distribution of the particular product or service. The franchise has to pay a fee and ongoing royalties and agrees to follow to quality standards. Also, a franchise can be defined as "an incentive distribution system for organizing individual firms pursuing their own rewards" (Abbott 1998, p. 76). Taking this perspective into account, researchers determine the phenomenon as an inter-organizational form. A possible, roughly natural rate of SME density also has limited implications for policies designed to promote 'entrepreneurship'. The logic is as follows: Let's assume that heading a small firm is an important mark of entrepreneurship, since the founder of a firm that quickly disappears may be less entrepreneurial than the leader of an SME that exists and survives, whether or not the leader was the original founder. In this analysis, the number of SMEs then becomes a proxy for the number of 'entrepreneurs': Entrepreneurs are the independent leaders of SMEs (Abbott 1998). Once economists accept that this assumption is one logical proxy of entrepreneurial activity (although by no means the only one), we can then say that a roughly natural rate of SME density implies there is little that can help, or hinder, ent repreneurship at the national level in a broadly liberal trading environment (Ambler & Witzel 2003). Ratios of 'entrepreneurs' (leaders of SMEs) are somewhat constant across European national populations. If one measures entrepreneurial activity by the rates of start-ups, then the analysis would change; but it is not clear that high start-up rates on a national scale really correlate with economic success either. The lowest start-up rates in Europe are in rich Sweden, the highest are in southern Europe, where unemployment is high and GDP per capita is lower. Definitions of entrepreneurship should encompass success measured by economic production and profits, and not just frenetic activities, primarily in the low-tech service sector (Justis & Judd 1999). In China, the majority of franchising companies operate as SMEs. In emerging markets like China, "retail franchising can sometimes supplant traditional and local cultural elements, which over time can lead to homogenization and westernization of preferences, especially among the youth. The older generations and the political establishments often resist such cultural shifts" (Welsh et al 2006, p. 132).