This great
increase of the quantity of work which, in consequence of the division of labor, the same
number of people are capable of performing, is owing to three different circumstances; first,
to the increase of dexterity in every particular workman; secondly, to the saving
of the time which is commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another; and lastly,
to the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labor, and
enable one man to do the work of many....
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Modern History Sourcebook: Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations, 1776 (Epitome) - 0 views
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Man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favor, and show them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater art of those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.
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In order to avoid the inconvenience of such situations, every prudent man in every period of society, after the first establishment of the division of labor, must naturally have endeavored to manage his affairs in such a manner as to have at all times by him, besides the peculiar produce of his own industry, a certain quantity of some one commodity or other, such as he imagined few people would be likely to refuse in exchange for their produce....It is in this manner that money has become in all civilized nations the universal instrument of commerce, by the intervention of which goods of all kinds are bought and sold, or exchanged for one another....
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partly by the general circumstances of the society,
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partly by the particular nature of each employment
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When the price of any commodity is neither more nor less than what is sufficient to pay the rent of the land, the wages of the labor, and the profits of the stock employed in raising, preparing, and bringing it to market, according to their natural rates, the commodity is then sold for what may be called its natural price.
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he market price of every particular commodity is regulated by the proportion between the quantity which is actually brought to market, and the demand of those who are willing to pay the natural price of the commodity, or the whole value of the rent, labor, and profit, which must be paid in order to bring it thither.
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A competition will immediately begin among them, and the market price will rise more or less above the natural price, according as either the greatness of the deficiency, or the wealth and wanton luxury of the competitors, happen to animate more or less the eagerness of the competition.
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quantity brought to market exceeds the effectual demand
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A monopoly granted either to an individual or to a trading company has the same effect as a secret in trade or manufactures.
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When by an increase in the effectual demand, the market price of some particular commodity happens to rise a good deal above the natural price, those who employ their stocks in supplying that market are generally careful to conceal this change
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The exclusive privileges of corporations, statutes of apprenticeship, and all those laws which restrain, in particular employments, the competition to a smaller number than might otherwise go into them, have the same tendency, though in a less degree. They are a sort of enlarged monopolies,
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THE produce of labor constitutes the natural recompense or wages of labor.
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Such combinations, however, are frequently resisted by a contrary defensive combination of the workmen; who sometimes too, without any provocation of this kind, combine of their own accord to raise the price of their labor.....
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Masters, too, sometimes enter into particular combinations to sink the wages of labor even below this rate
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The demand for those who live by wages, therefore, necessarily increases with the increase of the revenue and stock of every country, and cannot possibly increase without it. The increase of revenue and stock is the increase of national wealth....
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It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe, and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labor as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed, and lodged
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First, by restraining the competition in some employments to a smaller number than would otherwise be disposed to enter into them; Second, by increasing it in others beyond what it naturally would be; and, Third, by obstructing the free circulation of labor and stock, both from employment to employment and from place to place.
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by restraining the competition in some employments to a smaller number than might otherwise be disposed to enter into them
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and to hinder him from employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper without injury to his neighbor is a plain violation of this most sacred property.
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An exclusive corporation necessarily weakens the force of this discipline.
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by increasing the competition in some employments beyond what it naturally would be
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by obstructing the free circulation of labor and stock both from employment to employment, and from place to place,
Developing Self Confidence In Children - 1 views
Toyota, Audi Prep Self-Driving Cars - WSJ.com - 0 views
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Connectivism - 1 views
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These theories, however, were developed in a time when learning was not impacted through technology.
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The amount of knowledge in the world has doubled in the past 10 years and is doubling every 18 months according to the American Society of Training and Documentation (ASTD). To combat the shrinking half-life of knowledge, organizations have been forced to develop new methods of deploying instruction.
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learning as a lasting changed state (emotional, mental, physiological (i.e. skills)) brought about as a result of experiences and interactions with content or other people.
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Objectivism (similar to behaviorism) states that reality is external and is objective, and knowledge is gained through experiences. Pragmatism (similar to cognitivism) states that reality is interpreted, and knowledge is negotiated through experience and thinking. Interpretivism (similar to constructivism) states that reality is internal, and knowledge is constructed.
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Behaviorism states that learning is largely unknowable, that is, we can’t possibly understand what goes on inside a person (the “black box theory”)
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Cognitivism often takes a computer information processing model. Learning is viewed as a process of inputs, managed in short term memory, and coded for long-term recall.
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Constructivism suggests that learners create knowledge as they attempt to understand their experiences
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Constructivism assumes that learners are not empty vessels to be filled with knowledge. Instead, learners are actively attempting to create meaning. Learners often select and pursue their own learning. Constructivist principles acknowledge that real-life learning is messy and complex.
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In today’s environment, action is often needed without personal learning – that is, we need to act by drawing information outside of our primary knowledge.
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We can no longer personally experience and acquire learning that we need to act. We derive our competence from forming connections.
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Unlike constructivism, which states that learners attempt to foster understanding by meaning making tasks, chaos states that the meaning exists – the learner's challenge is to recognize the patterns which appear to be hidden
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The capacity to form connections between sources of information, and thereby create useful information patterns, is required to learn in our knowledge economy.
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Nodes that successfully acquire greater profile will be more successful at acquiring additional connections
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Finding a new job, as an example, often occurs through weak ties. This principle has great merit in the notion of serendipity, innovation, and creativity. Connections between disparate ideas and fields can create new innovations.
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Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories.
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Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.
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This cycle of knowledge development (personal to network to organization) allows learners to remain current in their field through the connections they have formed.
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example of a Maricopa County Community College system project that links senior citizens with elementary school students in a mentor program. The children “listen to these “grandparents” better than they do their own parents, the mentoring really helps the teachers…the small efforts of the many- the seniors – complement the large efforts of the few – the teachers.” (2002). This amplification of learning, knowledge and understanding through the extension of a personal network is the epitome of connectivism.
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The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today. A real challenge for any learning theory is to actuate known knowledge at the point of application.
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acknowledges the tectonic shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity
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Rene Descartes perceptions of philosophy - 0 views
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As Descartes said, “Those who set about giving precepts must esteem themselves more skilful than those to whom they advance them”
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In other words, someone might alter the truth solely so they could come up with something to say, while the real truth might not be capable of being expressed so easily, it can only be observed. Some things in life are too complicated to express, but however there are going to be people who believe they can express those things, even though they cannot accurately do so.
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I have read scientific journals wherein the author reports on complex interactions or relationships on the molecular level. Often I believe that they really cannot accurately do so. Perhaps scientific journals would be better if they were accompanied by videos. That would make them more like blog posts.
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are the emotions which are based off of your opinions even real, since they are based off of opinions?
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Your perception is going to determine what it is that you feel, that is, your conscious and unconscious perception of what is going on is
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For it seemed to me that I might meet with much more truth in the reasonings that each man makes on the matters that specially concern him, and the issue of which would very soon punish him if he made a wrong judgment, than in the case of those made by a man of letters in his study touching speculations that lead to no result, and that bring about no other consequences to himself excepting that he will be all the more vain the more they are removed from common sense, since in this case proves to him to have employed so much more ingenuity and skill trying to make them seem probable.
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More especially did I reflect in each matter that came before me as to anything that could make it subject to suspicion of doubt, and give occasion for mistake, and I rooted out of my mind all the errors that might have formerly crept in. Not that indeed I imitated the skeptics, who only doubt for the sake of doubting, and pretend to by always uncertain; for, on the contrary, my design was only to provide myself with good ground for assurance, and to reject the quicksand and mud in order to find the rock or clay.”
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Accordingly I shall now suppose, not that a true God, who as such must be supremely good and the fountain of truth, but that some malignant genius exceedingly powerful and cunning has devoted all his powers in the deceiving of me; I shall suppose that the sky, the earth, colors, shapes, sounds and all external things are illusions and impostures of which this evil genius has availed himself for the abuse of my credulity…”
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I am, I exist. This is certain. How often? As often as I think. For it might indeed be that if I entirely ceased to think, I should thereupon altogether cease to exist. I am not at present admitting anything which is not necessarily true; and, accurately speaking, I am therefore [taking myself to be] only a thinking thing, that is to say, a mind, an understanding or reason-terms the significance of which has hitherto been unknown to me. I am, then a real thing, and really existent. What thing? I have said it, a thinking thing
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So it really is thought that makes him who he is, since he is thinking about himself all of the time, in addition to thinking about and in regular life.
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Thought determines who someone is because your thoughts are controlled, and all your thoughts over your lifetime caused your emotional development, which causes you to be who you are.
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So it is easy to say that your thoughts understand and/or control who you are, but it is much harder to say that your emotions understand and/or control who you are.
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I recognize it is impossible that He should ever deceive me, since in all fraud and deception there is some element of imperfection. The power of deception may indeed seem to be evidence of subtlety or power; yet unquestionably the will to deceive testifies to malice and feebleness, and accordingly cannot be found in God.
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“To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded”
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conclusive as to whether or not pleasing other people infinitely is going to be self-beneficial, it could be considered a perfect thing to do since it is positively contributing to life.
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Reassessing the industrial revolution - 0 views
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Energy and the English Industrial Revolution, which is launched this week, suggests that the era not only stimulated unprecedented progress and growth, but opened a "Pandora's Box" of hazards. While new wealth was created and entire populations lifted out of poverty, the nature of economies also changed dramatically - from forms that were naturally self-limiting, to models which involve plundering finite natural resources without heeding the attendant dangers.
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The Frontier In American History: Chapter X - 0 views
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As the American pioneer passed on in advance of this new tide of European immigration, he found lands increasingly limited
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. But the captains of industry by applying squatter doctrines to the evolution of American industrial society, have made the process so clear that he who runs may read.
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it seemed not impossible that the outcome of free competition under individualism was to be monopoly of the most important natural resources and processes by a limited group of men whose vast fortunes were so invested in allied and dependent industries that they constituted the dominating force in the industrial life of the nation
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mastering the economic forces of the nation
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The Granger and the Populist were prophets of this reform movement. Mr. Bryan's Democracy, Mr. Debs' Socialism, and Mr. Roosevelt's Republicanism all had in common the emphasis upon the need of governmental regulation of industrial tendencies in the interest of the common man
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"the State University and the public school system which it crowns would be the strongest evidence of its fitness which it could offer."
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"general system of education ascending in regular gradations from township schools to a State University, wherein tuition shall be gratis and equally open to all," expresses the Middle Western conception born in the days of pioneer society and doubtless deeply influenced by Jeffersonian democracy.
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propaganda to induce students to continue
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The times call for educated leaders.
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The test tube and the microscope are needed rather than ax and rifle in this new ideal of conquest
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It is hardly too much to say that the best hope of intelligent and principled progress in economic and social legislation and administration lies in the increasing influence of American universities.
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able to think for themselves, governed Dot by ignorance, by prejudice or by impulse, but by knowledge and reason and high-mindedness,
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At first pioneer democracy had scant respect for the expert.
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That they may perform their work they must be left free, as the pioneer was free, to explore new regions and to report what they find; for like the pioneers they have the ideal of investigation, they seek new horizons.
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Thus it is the function of the university to reveal to the individual the mystery and the glory of life as a whole
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Michael Feldstein - Open Source, Economics, and Higher Education - 0 views
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Summary : Michael Feldstein's contribution to the OSS and OER in Education Series. In this post, he writes about how open source projects work from an economic perspective. Drawing on the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Ronald Coase and Harvard economics professor Yochai Benkler, he will provide some perspective on how open source projects manage to defy conventional wisdom about economics and self-interested behavior, and gives some questions that universities can ask when considering whether a particular open source software project is likely to be successful.
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Communist Manifesto (Chapter 1) - 1 views
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holy alliance to exorcise
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All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.
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It compels all nations, on pain of extinction,
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The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns.
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Because there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce.
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He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him.
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Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself.
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All are instruments of labour, more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex.
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At this stage, the labourers still form an incoherent mass scattered over the whole country, and broken up by their mutual competition.
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Thereupon, the workers begin to form combinations (Trades’ Unions) against the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and there, the contest breaks out into riots.
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so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat,
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The proletarian is without property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer anything in common with the bourgeois family relations;
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The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.
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Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable
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By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labour
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By proletariat, the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live.
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immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation
Self Publishing Revolution - 0 views
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shared by Bri Zabriskie on 31 Oct 10
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IA Books in Browsers 2010 Agenda - Reading 2.0 - 1 views
reading20.posterous.com/-books-in-browsers-2010-agenda
open source publish revolution web2.0 media digiciv
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is it the same as this?: "Monocle is a global briefing covering international affairs, business, culture and design." -- www.monocle.com
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Social reading -- sounds exciting. I've been thinking how cool it would be to have a class group textbook online. SO like you go online to yoru textbook for your class and you can see what other classmates have highlighted and commented on and tagged and add your own thoughts to the discussion. They can link to their blog posts about a subject in teh book that they did expanded self-directed learning on or just that they thought about more, etc. Sounds SUPER cool, huh? (ok ok, I'll blog about it)
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Theories of Religion in Early 20th Century Psychology@Everything2.com - 0 views
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Freud believed humanity is moving through three stages of development: Tribal, Religious, Scientific. He believed society would eventually cast off the unnecessary and unfounded ideals of religion in trade for the exactitudes and truth offered by the scientific method.
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Unlike Sigmund Freud, who believed religion to be an illusory wish fulfillment for the weak minded, Carl Jung advocated religion as an indispensable part of an individual's psychological development. Jung viewed the mind as having three components: the ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. Freud's vision of the mind did not include a collective unconscious. Instead, Freud proposed a moral super-ego, which grew to become the mind's administrator according to a learned sense of morality. Jung believed the self-actualizing properties of Freud's super ego pre-exist in the mind as a collective unconscious which is to be discovered through introspection as opposed to learned from experience.
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John Maynard Keynes: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics | Library of Economics and L... - 0 views
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Contrary to some of his critics’ assertions, Keynes was a relatively strong advocate of free markets. It was Keynes, not adam smith, who said, “There is no objection to be raised against the classical analysis of the manner in which private self-interest will determine what in particular is produced, in what proportions the factors of production will be combined to produce it, and how the value of the final product will be distributed between them.”
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shared by Ariel Szuch on 08 Nov 10
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Differences Between Classical & Keynesian Economics | Small Business - Chron.com - 0 views
smallbusiness.chron.com/-keynesian-economics-3897.html
differences between classical and keynesian economics
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Two economic schools of thought are classical and Keynesian. Each school takes a different approach to the economic study of monetary policy, consumer behavior and government spending. A few basic distinctions separate these two schools.
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Classical economic theory is rooted in the concept of a laissez-faire economic market. A laissez-faire--also known as free--market requires little to no government intervention. It also allows individuals to act according to their own self interest regarding economic decisions.
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Keynesian economic theory relies on spending and aggregate demand to define the economic marketplace. Keynesian economists believe the aggregate demand is often influenced by public and private decisions. Public decisions represent government agencies and municipalities. Private decisions include individuals and businesses in the economic marketplace. Keynesian economic theory relies heavily on the fact that a nation’s monetary policy can affect a company’s economy.
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Too much government spending takes away valuable economic resources needed by individuals and businesses. To classical economists, government spending and involvement can retard a nation’s economic growth by increasing the public sector and decreasing the private sector. Keynesian economics relies on government spending to jumpstart a nation’s economic growth during sluggish economic downturns.
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Keynesian economics often focuses on immediate results in economic theories. Policies focus on the short-term needs and how economic policies can make instant corrections to a nation’s economy. This is why government spending is such a key cog of Keynesian economics.