Criticism Of Secular Humanism - 787 Words

Secular Humanism What is Secular Humanism? Well I will be describing it to you throughout this essay. Secular Humanism is basically a humanist way of thinking. This idea revolves around people believing in a naturalist type world where people don’t believe in a higher power to solve problems. It is mostly about human reasoning, social justice, and naturalism where you make calls and judgments based on what you think is right and wrong and not what someone else said in a book. Now for the definitions gathered from multiple books. The first definition, â€Å"Any set of moral principles or school of moral philosophy whose values do not derive from religion or believe in the supernatural,† from the resource book titled, Ethics Revised Edition,†¦show more content†¦Furthermore, we have the different labels that are tagged with Secular humanism. There are many different names for this particular idea simply because there are so many versions all over the world, but here are a few that I have noticed while reading through book after book. There are names like, Naturalist [which I have used above a few times], Anti-Religion, Non-Theism, Atheism, Agnosticism, Theism, Freethought, and many others from different countries. Depending on how people live their life as a Secular Humanist they have either more intense or less intense names for those whom are willing to give themselves that title. Lastly, we get to the examples of Secular Humanism. There are actually a lot more people who were Secular Humanists then I thought, but I don’t know them all without looking it up on the internet so I’ll just list the ones that are mentioned in Paul Kurtz book What is Secular Humanism? Here are the people Kurtz listed in his book from history, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Galileo, Giordano Bruno, David Hume, Voltaire, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Michel de Montaigne, Gianozzo, Manetti, Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Bertand Russell, John Dewey, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, and many others. All of these people were either scientists or philosophers in some shape or form. So, throughout history we have had a lotShow MoreRelatedChristian Worldview And The Secular Worldview Of Account1245 Words   |  5 PagesTo compare the Christian worldview to the secular worldview of account, one must understand the definition of what a worldview is and wha t a Christian worldview looks like as well as what a secular worldview looks. According to Valk (2012), Worldviews are those larger pictures that inform and in turn form our perceptions of reality. They are visions of life as well as ways of life, are individual and personal, yet bind adherents together communally (p. 1). It is not uncommon for individuals toRead MoreEssay on The Renaissance Humanistic Concept of Man994 Words   |  4 Pagesawakening, the symbol of excellence and rebirth. It gave birth to the doctrines and principles that dominate the philosophy up until nowadays. Humanism developed as one of the principal philosophical concepts of Renaissance. What does this concept mean, why is it so crucial to understanding of the epoch of Renaissance? 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HeRead MoreSummary of Medieval and Renaissance Criticism1505 Words   |  7 Pagesand Renaissance Criticism Submitted by R. Zothanmawia V Semester BA R/no: 1101BA005 MEDIEVAL CRITICISM The period between the Classical Age and the Renaissance is vaguely named the Middle Age or the Medieval Age. In England, this period spans eight centuries and historians place it from the year of composition of Beowulf in 725 AD to 1474 AD when Caxton published the first book ever printed. The only standard work that dealt with Medieval Criticism is English Literary Criticism: The Medieval

Kohlberg`s Three Levels and Six Stages of Moral Reasoning Free Essays

Lawrence Kohlberg, a professor of psychology in the University of Chicago, has created his own theory of moral development. The theory is based on children’s reasoning, when facing moral dilemmas, however, Kohlberg went far beyond that and created a common theory for all ages. Under his theory moral thinking passes through six separate stages, which are broken into three levels. We will write a custom essay sample on Kohlberg`s Three Levels and Six Stages of Moral Reasoning or any similar topic only for you Order Now This paper aims to provide a review of stages and levels proposed by Kohlberg.  The first level is PRE-CONVENTIONAL. This level is more characteristic for children, although it is sometimes passed by adults too. At this level an individual considers exclusively direct consequences of an action for himself. Reasoning at this level is purely egoistic and consists of two stages: Stage 1 An individual concentrates only on direct consequences for himself and the main moral deterrence is fear of punishment. Moral futility of an action is estimated by punishment. The more severe is the punishment, the worse an action is[1]. Stage 2 is characterized by limited interest to the needs of others. However, this interest is of egocentric. A person is interested in getting something for himself for his/her moral behavior[2].  The second level is CONVENTIONAL. This stage is typical for most adults. At this level individuals compare the morality of their actions to social norms and expectations. This level includes the third and fourth stage of moral reasoning. Stage 3 is related to social roles. People act so, as their relatives, friends and members of their group act to receive their praise. Actions are evaluated in terms of personal relationships and social stereotypes. The main deterrence is fear of authority and fear of social condemnation[3]. Stage 4 is similar to stage 3, however it is extended as actions are evaluated in terms of laws and social conventions. Individual needs are overcome at this stage and laws are attributed own value. A distinction between right and wrong in this stage is created by culpability of an action.  The third level is POST-CONVENTIONAL is also called â€Å"principled level†. Actions are evaluated by an individual before they are evaluated by society. A person becomes morally â€Å"autonomous†[4]. The level includes stages 5 and 6. Stage 5 At this stage an individual comes to understanding, that people hold different views and opinions. Laws are understood not only as rules, but as useful social contracts. Those, who act against common good are considered to be morally bad and those have to be changed. The aim of morals is understood as â€Å"as much good for as many people as possible†, which is achieved by decision of the majority. Stage 6 is characterized by abstract reasoning and universality of ethical principles. An individual comes to understanding that any laws may be justified only to the extent they correspond those universal principles[5]. The social consensus is reached after â€Å"seeing the situation from another man’s eyes†. It is firstly necessary to get full understanding of all moral positions on the matter and after that a consensus between those positions should be reached. This action is validated by consent of every person, not only the majority. References 1. Shaffer, David R. (2004). Social and Personality Development, 5th Ed, Wadsworth Publishing 2. Kohlberg, Lawrence; T. Lickona, ed. (1976). â€Å"Moral stages and moralization: The cognitive-developmental approach†, Moral Development and Behavior: Theory, Research and Social Issues. Rinehart and Winston 3. Rawls, John (1971). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Belkap Press of Harvard University Press 4. Kohlberg, Lawrence (1973). â€Å"The Claim to Moral Adequacy of a Highest Stage of Moral Judgment†. Journal of Philosophy 70 [1] Shaffer, David R. (2004). Social and Personality Development, 5th Ed, Wadsworth Publishing, p.- 43                         [2] Kohlberg, Lawrence (1973). â€Å"The Claim to Moral Adequacy of a Highest Stage of Moral Judgment†. Journal of Philosophy 70: 630-646 [3] Supra note                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              [4] Kohlberg, Lawrence; T. Lickona, ed. (1976). â€Å"Moral stages and moralization: The cognitive-developmental approach†, Moral Development and Behavior: Theory, Research and Social Issues. Rinehart and Winston p.-188    [5] Rawls, John (1971). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Belkap Press of Harvard University Press, p.-201 How to cite Kohlberg`s Three Levels and Six Stages of Moral Reasoning, Essay examples

Dfa Case Study free essay sample

INVESTMENTS DFA Case study Introduction Dimensional Fund Advisors, further referred to as DFA, is an investment company that bases its strategy mainly on academic research and related theories. They work together with proponents of the efficient market hypothesis, indicating a relatively strong belief in this theory and thus in efficient markets. However DFA also feels that skilled traders have the ability to contribute to a fund’s profits even when the investment is inherently passive and DFA does adjusts its strategy to new findings in the field. In this report we will evaluate the relevance and accuracy of the theories used by DFA, especially the value premium and the size premium where almost all of their funds are based upon. This will lead to comments on the usefulness of these theories to increase the return of DFA’s funds and to recommendations about changes in strategy that will enhance the performance of DFA overall. We will write a custom essay sample on Dfa Case Study or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Performance and strategy so far DFA has performed relatively well over the years, aside from some relatively rough patches in the late 1990s. Growth of the company had been stable and profits high. There was no need to sell shares for liquidity reasons and shares were only sold if they did not fit into a fund anymore. This didn’t happen very often though as DFA had several funds that were â€Å"connected†, when a stock in the Micro Cap portfolio grew too big it could be placed into a fund with bigger companies (Small Cap portfolio). An important part of DFA’s strategy, that contributed to the performance of DFA so far, is aimed at achieving discounts in trades through buying in large blocks. Results from research by Donald Keim1 show that the average discount obtained by DFA on block trades was 3. 33%. These discounts were largely responsible for the fact that DFA’s passively managed small-stock portfolio outperformed the typical small-stock indexes by about 200 basis points per year on average. Another factor contributing to the relative success of these small cap indexes is the thorough research that DFA performs when it trades with other companies, preventing adverse selection and the negative implications of this phenomenon. Despite DFA’s historic performance, the investment company is â€Å"only† ranked 96th (in Pensions and Investments) among other investment companies, changes in certain elements of DFA’s strategy and an increased ocus on its competitive advantages will lead to a higher position on this list. The logic behind the funds – The use of the Size premium and the Value premium findings DFA manages several funds, based on academic research and different empirical findings. One of these funds is the U. S. Micro Cap Portfolio, which invests in stocks whose market cap fall below a certain cutoff point. This fund had been launched in 1981 as a reaction to findings of, amongst others, Rolf Banz2 (1981). Banz had found that risk adjusted returns on smaller stocks had been higher, on average, than returns on stocks of larger firms. DFA saw an opportunity to acquire investors by using this new insight, because many mutual funds in that time focused only on investments in stocks of large companies. Following the launch DFA added the U. S. Small Cap Portfolio and the U. S. Small XM Portfolio, which had different cut-off points regarding the market cap. In addition to funds that are related to the so-called size premium, DFA also used findings of other economists, Fama and French, to set-up new portfolios. Fama and French had found that â€Å"value stocks†, stocks of companies with a high book-to-market value, had provided a higher return than â€Å"growth stocks†, stocks of companies with a low book-to-market value. As a reaction DFA used the preliminary findings of the authors to set up a U. S. Small Value investment fund in 1992 and several other value funds were created in the following years. 1 Donald Keim, Exhibit 10 from Harvard Business Case (2003). 2 Banz, R. W. , ‘The relationship between return and market value of common stocks’, Journal of Financial Economics, 9 (1981), pp. 3-18. DFA thus used findings related to the value premium and the size premium through creating several funds. DFA’s strategy is as a result of this to a great extent depended on the actual existence and persistence of both effects. Did DFA react too quickly to these still relatively controversial findings, do they fit in with the relatively strong beliefs in efficient markets by DFA and could a change in DFA’s strategy increase both the performance of its funds and the company overall? These questions will be answered by a thorough analysis of the value, and the size premium. Value premium A lot of criticism on the CAPM has arisen over the last decades. One finding by Basu in 1977 is often used by opponents of the model in order to take down the foundation of the CAPM. Basu3 found that stocks with a low price –earnings ratio, called value stocks, tend to outperform stocks with a high priceearnings ratio, named growth stocks. As the CAPM only allows for fundamental risk to explain excess returns on stocks, the finding that stocks from companies with high fundamentals (earnings, sales, dividends) relative to price outperformed growth stocks was in contradiction with the classical CAPM. Proponents of the CAPM and the efficient market argued that the value premium could be explained by their â€Å"classical† risk-and-return rewards, value stocks they argued earned higher returns due to higher risk related to poor performance in the recent history of the firm. Fama and French4 however also concluded that the value premium did exist and even found in the same paper that the book-to-market ratio and size premium together were able to explain excess returns of a stock while fundamental risk, the only ingredient in the CAPM, had no explanatory power anymore. After these findings by Fama and French a lot of other papers have been written about the value premium, while some of these are highly critical on the value premium5 most of them conclude that there has indeed been a premium on returns of stocks with a high book-to-market ratio at least for some periods in time. This premium has been quite extensive in certain times, Fama and French6 for example found that small value stocks had made 8% per year on average in excess of market returns from 1934 till 2006 and that the premium for big value stocks had been 2. 8%. When you look at the graph below however you can also see that the value premium has been far from constant over time. In most of the 90’s for instance growth stocks outperformed value stocks, while after the internet bubble a reversal set-in and value stocks did a lot better than growth stocks. Some argue that cyclical circumstances can clarify these changes in the value premium7, but if you take another look at the graph it is hard to defend this explanation since the value premium was negative and didn’t go up during the most recent â€Å"financial crisis†. 3 Basu,