Do corporations ever do something just because it is the right thing to do? I feel like every message our every good deed is really just a way to get us to trust a company more. A lot of these examples are obvious, like when CBS puts on one of their little CBS cares commercial on or when companies say part if the profits go to a charity. Some are a bit more hidden, like when a controversy comes out so a thousand public relations professionals are brought out. To me though, the biggest and most confusing example of a business teaming up with a charity is breast cancer awareness in the nfl.

Now the nfl is one of the most successful and watched form of entertainment in the country. But there viewers are almost entirely men. So what do you do when you aren’t captiolizing on half of the population. You try to appeal to women. That’s what this whole nfl breast cancer thing is about. Now the nfl does not raise money for breast cancer, they raise awareness. So basically what they are doing by wearing pink every Sunday in October is agreeing to share their thunder with breast cancer foundations in order to raise their own community reputation.

So everyone wins. The NFl raises its own self image by showing that even though they are men that they care about breast cancer. Even though breast cancer effects mostly women. More women will watch the nfl because of the positive message the put out. And breast cancer foundations win because they get free press. Now society as a whole benefits from this when little kids see their favorite players wearing pink. If these super tough alpha male professional athletes care about things as awful as cancer, then others will start to care more also.

Pledge class president. What a terrible idea that was. If I could give any advice to an upcoming freshman next year it would be to never run for pledge class president. My job is to run the whole pledge class. Make sure that we get all of our work done and that the house is spotless. When something needs to be done, I’m the one who has to do it. When we mess us, I’m the one who gets yelled at. But I also have another very important but unwritten job. And that’s to maintain a high pledge class morale level.

So what does one say and do to keep pledges happy. I’ll tell you right now making a group of kids happy is very hard to do when the fraternities job is to make us unhappy. So. What. But there are ways in which to make these kids happy. I have to pick my words very carefully. Everything I say has a positive spin on it. I must make kids forget about all of the bad times and remember the good. If we’re all terrified about to have a pledge meeting, I pretend like I’m not scared. I pretend like I’m having a fun time and just good off. My pledge brothers than see me and start doing what I do. The whole mood becomes much more relaxed.
What you Say can help make a huge difference in a groups morale. But even. More important that what you say is how you say it. Show confidence, pretend like your having fun, you will make everyone else feel better in the end. And if you pretend to be in a good happy mood long enough, eventually even you start to feel better about your situation. Because life’s too short to go through it unhappy.

Who is a better writer, William Shakespear or dr. Sues? Now how stupid of a question is that. How can one possibly try to compare the two. Ask a scholar or a theater major and they will swear by Shakespear. Ask a child or a low achieving high schooler, and they will argue for Sues. So Who is better? Well we cant tell because the write for completely different audiences.

Both of these authors mastered their crafts. But their crafts are completely different. One is writing for emotion, for the sake of rhetoric, and for his love of theater. The other is trying to take young minds and whisk them off to another world while teaching morals the whole time. So when you are writing a piece, now matter what you are writing, you got to know your audience. An Audience is the group of people who will be engaging in your work. If i was writing a text, my wording would be different if I was sending an email to a professor. My Professor would not take me seriously if i drop and lol or a rofl in the middle of an email. Do you think you write a speech the same way you write a resume. I would not want to hire a guy who gives me a piece of paper that sounds like he is screaming at me.

So how does one know what audience they will receive. That seems to be by trail by error. Write a story, see who likes it. Or go to a library. Check out a children’s book and an autobiography. Take some notes and learn. If you can predict what a mass audience wants to read, you will only write best sellers. Sounds a little bit like selling out, but when it comes to impressing a professor, you got to write for the professor.

How i think my speech went.

I was actually pretty happy with my speech. I got a lot of dirty looks from some of the kids but thats what happens when you show a tea party billboard. I feel like the controversial message made people pay attention more. Everyone was looking at me with a zombie like look on their face before I showed it. Then they started to look like an angry mob. But i got my point across, talked for the right amount of time, and do not think i stuttered much. I made eye contact and talked with confidence.

Aristotle was a very famous and influential greek philosopher. He is a student of Plato, and also a teacher of Alexender the great. He was also the first person to study and write his ideas on logic. Now Alexender actually has three different views on ethics. Known as nicomachean, eudemian, and Magna Morali ethics.  But for this we are only going to focus on his most well known theory, nicomachean ethics.

With the books of Nicomachean, he starts by saying that whatever is to be considered moral must be determined by groups and not just the individual. He decides to look at the Ethical theory as a field that is distinct from the theoretical sciences. Your methodology will have to match its subject matter. So basically what is being said here is that one must follow a certain lifestyle to be considered ethical. He try’s to get others to practice things like temperance, justice and courage.

Now what does Aristotle think about his teachers views. He disagrees. Instead of having to educate oneself to be considered ethical, Aristotle wants to focus more on developing social skills. By developing your own social skills you allow yourself to be am ore positive influence in other peoples lives.

Now whats my opinion on all of this. I look at it in the following way. By developing your intellectual skill, as Plato wanted, you are acting in an egotistical way. Now by practicing ones social skills, you strive to make your interactions with others more positive. Now i do believe that Platos views are a nice way of self improvement and also ethical, Aristotles way is both egotistical and altruistic. So I cant really say that one is right or one is wrong, but personally I agree with Aristotle. If you have any opinions please leave them in the comment section. I want to hear your opinion and who you agree with.

Every kid throughout history has used modes of persuasion. Most people probably do not know what the terms ethos pathos and logos mean, but that does not stop people from wielding these weapons to win an argument. How many times have you lost an argument because your mom or dad says the phrase because i said so? That makes no sense at all right? Wrong. Thats what we call Ethos. Ethos means that you use your authority to win an argument. So next time your parents break out the expression because i make the rules, even though wanting to borrow the car seems completely logical to you, blame ethos.

Pathos is when you appeal to someones emotions. Ever turn on the tv and a sad puppy face comes on the tv? And the song eye is on the sparrow plays. Than some washed up actress like Sarah Mcgloclin tells you about how these poor animals will die if you don’t donate to their cause. And then you hate yourself until you pull out your credit card and call their hotline number. That right there is pathos. I personally remember saying things like if you let me do this you’ll be the best parent ever. Now there is absolutely no reason behind statements like this, but they also seem to be very effective.

Finally we have logos. Logos is the appeal to logic. If you are a startreck fan, than just imagine Spock. Spock basically worships logic. Logos seems to be the best way to present your argument even though it may not always be the most effective. So if you tell your parents that you need to borrow the car because it would make sense to drive yourself instead of making your parents waste their time by driving you yourself, you’re using logos. Now go out there and start an argument. Whip some of these strategies out and see how they can influence others.

Civic life draft

Start with some political stuff. Talk about things Obama has done and his approval rate. Get their attention with something current and relevant to them

Show the flyer, read the sentences real quick

Talk about the organization, show some examples of other pieces of work they have done.

Talk about their message. What their trying to do, target audience and strategies

talk about how the flyers is set up. Ways the flyer can persuade you

Finish up with how this relates to civic engagement, Why should we care? why does this effect our community

finish with positive or negative, maybe get class opinions

As a philosophy major I feel almost obligated to write some deep posts on life. So get exited to get some deep thinking on. My first idea for my passion blog was to look at different views on ethics throughout the ages, and then seeing how they hold up in todays society. Looking at people as early as Plato and Aristotle, all the way up to current philosophers. Picking sides and analyzing age old rivalries like Kant vs. Bentham or Pufendorf vs. Thomasius. Than wrap the blog up with my prediction on where morality will go in the future.

My second idea was to look into the lifestyles and philosophies of different martial arts. If you’ve ever seen a cheesy old Kung Fu movie, you know that martial arts isn’t just physical, but also mental. And I would like to find out how martial arts philosophies from all corners of the world differ and relate. And learn more about the importance of a strong mind, and not just a strong body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3BKnmtlMco