Concepts of childhood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Concepts of childhood - Essay Example A number of books on children were published at different time since 1980 and most of these authors acknowledge the difficulty in writing about children. Monographs were used to explore the history of children in many different sub topics. Works of children literature were first seen in the early modern era after a number of women embarked on studying history of childhood. Some scholars investigated the relationship between poverty and children and came up with various conclusions. Different authors wrote on different subjects on matters related to children’s affairs. In addition, scholars have conducted numerous studies on childbirth, pediatrics, and midwifery among others and these works have paved way for other great works by scholars. Cultural studies have also been used to study the history of children. Despite the many works scholars have done on children, there are some neglected areas such as the ancient medieval age. During these years, most children were dependent on non-family members. In my opinion, scholars have done a great job in studying the history of children and bringing a number of factors that affect childhood development into light. With the literatures of these scholars, it is easier to understand and appreciate childhood and do all that it takes to help children develop to be better people in the

Individualism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Individualism - Essay Example The major schools of thought can be broken down into biocentrism, sentientism, ratiocentrism and anthropomorphism (weak and strong). In attempting to discover which of these views is most justified, it is necessary to understand the basic ideas each school of thought represents. Biocentrism is, roughly speaking, a system in which the criterion for inherent worth is based upon the simple-seeming criterion of whether one lives or not. Because all living things have the right to exist, we, as thinking beings, hold moral responsibility to ensure that we do not interfere with this right. â€Å"[Taylor] contends that in addition to our moral obligations toward our fellow humans, we also owe duties to wild living things in their own right †¦ He agrees with Goodpaster’s argument that one can deny that non-humans have rights and yet hold that they are moral patients toward whom moral agents have duties and responsibilities† (Kocer, 2001). Being the center of a life force is grounds enough to fulfill to the biocentrist viewpoint, but this introduces problems as one must consider that all life forms must hold inherent worth equally – the human as well as the cockroach – despite obvious differences in understanding and awareness. As even Taylor hints, there must be something more to the question than simply the idea that one respirates and reproduces. This is where the ideas of sentientism arise. While philosophers such as Singer suggest that this term is applied to any creature that demonstrates capacity to feel pleasure or pain, â€Å"the term ‘sentient’ refers more broadly to consciousness of something or other, rather than to consciousness of pleasure and pain specifically† (Jamieson, 2003: 192). However, when it is applied in this sense, it is usually limited to the view of something being able to express it is feeling pleasure or pain. Under this view, things gain inherent