Tata Docomo Essay Example for Free

Tata Docomo Essay Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It encompasses seven business sectors: * Communications and information technology * Engineering * Materials * Services * Energy * Consumer products * Chemicals. Tata Group was founded in 1868 by Jamsetji Tata as a trading company. It has operations in more than 80 countries across six continents. Tata Group has over 100 operating companies each of them operates independently out of them 32 are publicly listed. The major Tata companies are Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Teleservices, Titan Industries, Tata Communications and Taj Hotels. The combined market capitalization of all the 32 listed Tata companies was $89.88 billion as of March 2012. Tata receives more than 58% of its revenue from outside India. Tata Group remains a family-owned business, as the descendants of the founder (from the Tata family) owns majority stake in the company. The current chairman of the Tata group is Cyrus Pallonji Mistry, who took over from Ratan Tata in 2012. Tata Sons is the promoter of all key Tata companies and holds the bulk of shareholding in these companies. The chairman of Tata Sons has traditionally been the chairman of the Tata group. About 66% of the equity capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts endowed by members of the Tata family. The Tata Group is perceived to be Indias best-known global brand within and outside the country as per The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India survey. The 2009, annual survey by the Reputation Institute ranked Tata Group as the 11th most reputable company in the world. The survey included 600 global companies. The Tata Group has helped establish and finance numerous quality researches, educational and cultural institutes in India. The group was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 in recognition of its long history of philanthropic activities. HISTORY The Tata Group was founded as a private trading firm in 1868 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata. In 1902 the group incorporated the Indian Hotels Company to commission the Taj Mahal Palace Tower, the first luxury hotel in India, which opened the following year. After Jamsetji’s death in 1904, his son Sir Dorab Tata took over as chair of the Tata Group. Under Dorab’s leadership the group quickly diversified, venturing into a vast array of new industries, including steel (1907), electricity (1910), education (1911), consumer goods (1917), and aviation (1932). Following Dorab’s death in 1932, Sir Nowroji Saklatwala became the group’s chair. Six years later Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (J.R.D.) took over the position. His continued expansion of the company into new sectors—such as chemicals (1939), technology (1945), cosmetics (1952), marketing, engineering, and manufacturing (1954), tea (1962), and software services (1968)—earned Tata Group international recognition. In 1945 Tata Group established the Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO) to manufacture engineering and locomotive products; it was renamed Tata Motors in 2003. In 1991 J.R.D.’s nephew, Indian business mogul Ratan Naval Tata, succeeded him as chairman of the Tata Group. Upon assuming leadership of the conglomerate, Ratan aggressively sought to expand it, and increasingly he focused on globalizing its businesses. In 2000 the group acquired London-based Tetley Tea, and in 2004 it purchased the truck-manufacturing operations of South Korea’s Daewoo Motors. In 2001 Tata Group partnered with American International Group, Inc. (AIG) to create the insurance company Tata-AIG. List of Tata Group Chairmans * Jamsetji Tata (1887–1904) * Dorabji Tata (1904–1932) * Nowroji Saklatwala (1932–1938) * J. R. D. Tata (1938–1991) * Ratan Tata (1991–2012) * Cyrus Mistry (2012–present) The Tata Group has donated a Rs. 220 crore ($50 million) to the  prestigious Harvard Business School (HBS) to build an academic and a residential building on the institute’s campus in Boston, Massachusetts. The new building will be called the Tata Hall and used for the institute’s executive education programmes. The amount is the largest from an international donor in the business schools 102-year-old existence. The recent The Brand Trust Report 2011 has ranked TATA as the second most trusted brands of India. In a 2011 investor poll conducted by equity research firm Equitymaster, TATA Group was voted as the most trustworthy among the Indian corporate houses. Over 61% of the respondents showed their confidence in the Tata Group. The Tata Group retained its Most Trustworthy status in the 2012 edition of the poll. One Tata project that brought together Tata Group companies (TCS, Titan Industries and Tata Chemicals) was developing a compact, in-home water-purification dev ice. It was called Tata swach which means â€Å"clean† in Hindi and would cost less than 1000 rupees (US $21). The idea of Tata swach was thought of from the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which left thousands of people without clean drinking water. This device has filters that last about a year long for a family of five. It is a low-cost product available for people who have no access to safe drinking water in their homes. The advantage of this device is that it does not require the use of electricity. TCS also designed and donated an innovative software package that teaches illiterate adults how to read in 40 hours. â€Å"The children of the people who have been through our literacy program are all in school,† says Pankaj Baliga, global head of corporate social responsibility for TCS. In 1912, Tata Group expanded their CEO’s concept of community philanthropy to be included in the workplace. They instituted an eight-hour workday, before any other company in the world. In 1917, they recommended a medical-services policy for Tata employees. The company would be among the first worldwide to organise modern pension systems, workers’ compensation, maternity benefits, and profit-sharing plans. Trusts created by Tata Group control 65.8% of company shares, so it can be said that about 66% of the profits of Tata Group go to charity. The charitable trusts of Tata Group fund a variety of projects, for example the Tata Swach and the TCS project. They founded and still support such cherished institutions as the Indian Institute of Science, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Tata Memorial Hospital. Each Tata Group company channels more than 4 percent of its operating income to the trusts and every generation of Tata family members has left a larger portion of its profit to them. After the Mumbai attacks, Salaries of then heavily attacked Taj Hotel employees were paid despite the hotel being closed for reconstruction. About 1600 employees were provided food, water, sanitation and first aid through employee outreach centres. Ratan Tata personally visited families of all the employees that were affected. The employee’s relatives were flown to Mumbai from outside areas and were all accommodated for 3 weeks. Tata also covered compensation for railway employees, police staff, and pedestrians. The market vendors and shop owners were given care and assistance after the attacks. A psychiatric institution was established with the Tata Group of Social Science to counsel those who were affected from the attacks and needed help. Tata also granted the education of 46 children of the victims of the terrorist attacks. Tata DoCoMo TATA DOCOMO is an cellular service provider on the GSM,CDMA and platform-arising out of the strategic joint venture between Tata Teleservices (subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Tata Group) and Japanese telecom giant NTT Docomo (subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) in November 2008. It is the countrys sixth largest operator in terms of subscribers (including both GSM and CDMA. TATA DOCOMO is part of the Indian conglomerate Tata Group. The company received licenses to operate GSM services in nineteen telecom circles and was allotted spectrum in eighteen of these circles and launched GSM services on 24 June 2009. It began operations first in South India and currently operates GSM services in eighteen of twenty two telecom circles. It has licences to operate in Delhi but has not been allocated spectrum from the Government. Docomo provides services throughout India. Tata DOCOMO offers both prepaid and postpaid cellular phone services. It has become very popular with its one second pulse especially in semi-urban and rural areas.[citation needed] On 5 November 2010, Tata DOCOMO became the first private sector telecom company  to launch 3G services in India. Tata DOCOMO had about 42.34 million users at the end of December 2010. TATA DOCOMO MARKERT SEGMENTATION: Tata DoCoMo divided the market into smaller segments with distinct needs, characteristics and behavior with separate marketing strategies. TATA DoCoMo used the Demographic segmentation firstly to introduce the new brand keeping an eye on mid and higher end of the Indian consumers. They chose Indian youth as their primary target and started occupying the space in young Indian minds by connecting with them at various levels and through multiple channels The rationale behind this choice were 1. Tata Docomo intended to generate most of its future revenues through its differentiated content based and value added services, which is not so much relevant for low end consumers who are more price sensitive than mid and high end consumers 2. Indian telecom market was soon expecting 3G licenses. This would mean a huge potential for content based and value added services in the near future. Mid and higher end young consumers will be the early adopters of these services as they are more adaptable to change, are dynamic and willing to try new things. 3. They wanted to connect to opinion makers, and Indian youth would be the best fit to that profile. 4. Indian telecom market was soon expecting Mobile Number Portability (MNP). This would mean a potential of switching of telecom vendors by Indian consumers. And targeting the opinion makers would mean an aspiration build up in masses to switch to the brand that is most admired. 5. Tata teleservices has its CDMA offering which already caters to mass market in India. Hence there was no specific need to address this segment. TATA DOCOMO MARKERT TARGETING: * TATA DoCoMo is offering series of differentiated products to their respective markets. * Home calling cards for the family of those professionals who work abroad. * Cheap SMS facility for youth. * Facilities for circle users. Tata Docomo rolls out a marketing campaigns platform over cloud, Hosted Campaign Manager (HCM) service for its Enterprise and SME customers. This service is offered in 16 circles namely Hyderabad, Karnataka, Mumbai Maharashtra, Kerala, UPW, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kolkata and West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and UP East. Aggregators, FMCG, service industry, media and banking insurance companies, outsourcing companies, advertisement agencies and campaign event management companies can get its advantage to the fullest. Through voice blast feature, customers can send a prerecorded message to thousands of phones from a targeted, DND scrubbed dialing list. This solution enables one to conduct effective communication anywhere across the PSTN cloud at blazing speed, said a press note. Tata Docomos Hosted Campaign Management enables customers to reach out to larger target audience, more frequently, at affordable costs without any infrastructure to run th e outbound processes. Differentiation It used tariff plans to differentiate itself from other major players like Vodafone, Airtel and Idea in the GSM category. It has cheaper rates than any other CDMA service provider and the added advantage is that unlike CDMA, a different handset is not required. Pulse rate of per second, where all other services used one minute gave TATA DOCOMO the first mover advantage. Also, services offered were customised as per subscribers. TATA DOCOMO has unveiled a portfolio of Value-Added Services that has reinvented mobile telephony in India. It offers products and services like diet SMS, Free VoiceMail, Timed SMS Service, Missed Call Alerts, Call-me Tunes, etc. All of them are customized to liberate and refresh the subscribers. Brand Positioning TATA DOCOMO has positioned itself as a â€Å"value for money† brand. The first move on this front was to cut through the clutter and redefine the entire pricing paradigm. In the clutter of confusing service providers, TATA DOCOMO is positioned as the country’s most transparent, innovative and liberating telecom brand. * Tata Docomo wanted to create an identity for themselves in the mind of the youth. They realized that their brand should do the  following * Familiarity – they need to create familiarity for the brand in the mind of their target i.e. Indian youth. Youth should always be able to recognize the brand ‘logo’ and its value proposition. In fact, Indian youth should be more than willing to identify themselves with the brand in society * Relationship –They need to associate themselves with attributes like transparent, simple and innovative brand in the mind of their target customers. And over the term of their relationship with their customers, they should be consistent to these attributes in every interaction. * Experience – They need to ensure that customer gets consistent message and promise irrespective of which channel he chooses to interact with the brand. Brand’s communication, new offerings and actions should consistent to its promise to the customers * Trust – They need to stand up to probity in public life and social dealings to be perceived as socially and culturally compatible brand and thereby gain trust of the society. In the already cluttered Indian telecom market, Tata Docomo positioned itself as one of the country’s newest and most-exciting GSM telecom services company that provides value for money and can be easily identified with the attributes as transparency, simplicity and innovation. 1. Positioning based on value for money – Complex pricing mechanisms and processes were used by Indian telecom players. These were not easily understood by consumers and they found difficult to choose the best plans for them. Tata Docomo launched its products with ‘Pay what you use’ policy which were attractive for customers. 2. Positioning based on technology – 3G service and Number Portability were soon to be launched in India. And Tata Docomo leveraging its partnership with NTT Docomo positioned itself as a provider ready to provide 3G services in India. Telecom customers are not really happy with their existing service providers. According to Nielsen Mobile Consumer Insights ‘Close to one in five (18%) of Indian mobile customers said that they would change their operator if they have the ability to retain their number’. It was good enough reason to attract customers who are looking for a better provider. 3. Positioning based on innovative ways – Tata Docomo positioned itself based on its ‘Do the New’ promise. It introduced multiple innovative offerings like ‘Buddy Net’, ‘Diet SMS’, ‘Pay per site’, ‘Pay per second’ etc. To establish their brand equity in Indian telecom industry, Tata Docomo started with their branding activities. Brand/product/company The Tata DOCOMO brand is the 10th entrant in the crowded Indian telecom market which was already ruled by established brands such as Airtel, Reliance, and Vodafone. Despite the stiff competition the company made a dent in the telecom market due to an innovative marketing strategy. In a short span of time the company has been able to differentiate and distinguish itself from the other brands and own a distinct consumer mind space. The company has brought disruptive innovation to the market not only through it products and services but also through unique marketing initiatives that have captured the minds of the consumers. As it stands today, Tata DOCOMO is the fastest growing brand in terms of market share. We (project team) chose to study and analyze the Tata DOCOMO brand due to its uniqueness and the success of its marketing strategy. For consumers, the Tata DOCOMO brand offers a host of differentiated services. Tata DOCOMO boasts the following benefits to consumers on its official website. * We are the fastest growing young telecom brand in the country; we never stop innovating and thinking out of the box. With us every day is new. * We dont need creams to be fair, its in our blood. With us you will get honesty, frankness, transparency. Say hello to the most transparent plans, a world-class network responsive customer care. * We are the first private operator to launch 3G in partnership with the world leader in 3G, NTT DOCOMO, Japan. * We redefined competition with our pay per second tariffs and decided to let the good news spread, therefore we introduced pay per second on STD ISD. You can call USA and Canada @1p/sec. * Keeping up with our mantra of doing the new we have made roaming affordable to the common man by extending the pay per second offers on roaming anywhere in India on our network. * We dont bully you to take what you dont need. And thats why; we have pay per site, that lets you pay only for the site(s) you love @Rs.10 per site per month. * We never ever ask you to count your friends. With BuddyNet you can bond with the whole world @1p/6sec On-Net. Be ready! * We dont decide for you, you decide your own pick from our daily, weekly or monthly packs of Talk-time, GPRS, music, cricket updates, night calling etc. starting at Rs.2. * Why should anyone else decide what song you should listen to when you call someone? With My Song hear your song when you call. * We completely believe why you should pay  for whats not your fault, thats why with us you get free Missed Call alerts in case you miss a call when you are not in coverage area or your phone is switched off. * Fun in limit is no fun. With us you can download unlimited Call-Me tune @Rs.10 per week. * We dont believe in making you pay for reaching out to us. Call our toll free customer care number anytime. * When we say you are important we mean every single word of it. So why should you wait, have direct access to the customer care executive by pressing 9 anytime during the call. * We are all ears. You can call us or online Live Chat with us, anytime. And guess what, you can access your hometown call center even when out of town. Product line TATA Docomo launched many products in the ‘Diet’ product line aimed at reducing the cost for the customer. Following products were launched ï‚ · Diet SMS Its custom made for those who are allergic to typing long. In this service, each SMS merely costs you 1 paisa per character, up to a maximum of 15 characters. And user is not charged for the spaces. ï‚ · Diet Postpay Plans – It offers refreshingly different options to postpaid users. They get opportunity to make their own plans by choosing the service they use most frequently, be it Local, STD or SMS. And to make their own plans they have more than 100 options to choose from. NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IDEA GENERATION Tata group of industries want to introduce their products in almost every field of life. With invention of mobile phone services world become a global village. Increasing number of mobile users attract TATA group of industries to introduce their product in mobile phone services. The board of directors of TATA gets the idea for mobile service operator by its own employees who were using other mobile operators. They think about to bring their own technology or to share any existing company through which they communicate with other employees and officials. IDEA SCREANING: From too many ideas the TATA group selected one to create a telecom company with the experience of any existing company. They decided to introduce a new mobile operator company with the partnership of Japanese telecom giant NTT  Docomo and launch TATA DoCoMo in India. CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT TESTING: The Tata DOCOMO (DO Communication over mobile) brand stands for â€Å"Do†ing things that you want to do. The Tata DOCOMO brand is all about co-creation and user participation. The youth brand that Tata DOCOMO set out to build has been successfully created in the digital space through a balanced mix of design, innovation, technology and engagement. The brand’s main mantra â€Å"Do the new† is a concept that prompts every citizen to do something new, even if it’s a small thing. This concept aligns with the company’s products and services, many of which are new to the market. TATA has good reputation in all over the India. They make a questioner to ask people about new telecom service and when they started their transmission people show positive response towards the product. MARKETING STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT: Being the tenth entrant in the already competitive telecom market, it was difficult for Tata Docomo to differentiate themselves from the existing service providers. Tata was already a well-known household brand name in India, however Docomo was hardly known to Indian masses and hence there was a need to establish the Docomo brand. They wanted to create an identity for ‘Tata Docomo’ which customers would love and trust. Tata Docomo has a vision to be the most loved teleservices brand in India. And their marketing research revealed that their service offering should be centered on transparency, simplicity and relevant ‘life centric’ innovation to achieve this. They found that they should connect to the opinion makers of the society and create brand attraction among Indian masses. This focused approach can give them visibility in highly competitive market. Tata DoCoMo adopted disruptive innovation as a market penetration strategy. This was required to enter the Indian telecom market which had dominant players such Airtel and Vodafone. To capture market, Tata DoCoMo offered services that were unlike anything the consumers had experienced before. The per second tariff also changed the rules of the game by forcing existing service providers to lower their tariffs and also set a benchmark for new entrants such as MTS who now offer similar tariffs. This allowed Tata DoCoMo to capture market quickly. Having penetrated the market successfully, Tata DoCoMo now competes not only on the basis of price but also with value added  services. BUSINESS ANALYSIS: After the market strategy development the TATA group make a telecom operators business analysis. Their Cost, sales, profits and other business routines. They study the Airtel and Vodafone which were already existing very strong telecom operators in the market. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: When TATA group analyzed the other telecom operators business they satisfied with the profit margins and finally started to capture all the India and install their transmission equipment in all the major cities. When transmission equipment installed then TATA start to furnish customer offices in targeted areas and started their services. TEST MARKETING: Finally TATA DoCoMo introduced in market initially. The customer gave positive response and highly like this service in the market. And its first testing sales are too fast and people demanded it and admire it due to its brand name. COMMERCIALIZATION: TATA DoCoMo after first introduction in the market started their full commercialization in market in a very small time they got maximum market share. To bring in the knowledge of people about this new service of DoCoMo they used different channels like TV, newspapers, radio, brushers, magazines, etc.

Parenting Style of the Watsons Essay -- Teaching Essays

Parenting styles are very important in influencing children’s behavior, and the styles form the context in which children’s behavior might occur (Fox para. 2). There are four different types of parenting styles. These styles, developed by child psychologist Diana Baumrind, who provides a majority of the information found in the book Understanding Children and Adolescents,include authoritative, permissive, authoritarian, and neglectful/uninvolved (Forsyth 376). In the extremely funny children’s book The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, the author Christopher Paul Curtis uses the family’s life and adventure as a way of showing many characteristics of a particular parenting style used on the children. The main focus is on Byron and what effect the parenting approach has on the child’s behavior. Throughout this essay I am going to argue that the Watsons, as parents, use the authoritative parenting style and that the parenting style has an effect on the child’s behavior. Using my research, I will define the four types of parenting styles and their effects on child behavior. Baumrind’s work on the classification of the four parenting styles has influence research on the effects parenting has on child behavior (Fox para. 3). I will also use specific examples from Curtis’s book, showing Byron’s behavior, along with various responses that demonstrate that the authoritative approach is used. The first type of parenting style identified by Baumrind is the authoritative approach. Authoritative parents use both parental authority and an explanation of their standards in specific situations. Children raised with the authoritative parenting style have the highest social competence (Forsyth 32). Authoritative par... ...—1964. New York: Bantam, 1995. Darling, Nancy. â€Å"Parenting Style and Its Correlates.† Eric Digest1999. Ebsco. 5 December 2001. Forsyth, Alfred G., Peggy D. Forsyth, David E. Schickedanz, and Judith A. Schickedanz. Understanding Children and Adolescents. 4th ed. Mayfield, 1993. Fox, Roberta A. â€Å"An Empirically Derived Classification of Parenting Practices.† Journal of Genetic Psychology 106 (1999): 343, 14 pp. Masterfile Premier. Ebsco. Joyner Library, Greenville. 2 December 2001. Horton-Parker, Radha J. â€Å"Teaching Children to Care: Engendering Pro-Social Behavior through Humanistic Parenting.† Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education, and Development 37.2 (1998): 66, 12 pp. Masterfile Premier. Ebsco. Joyner Library, Greenville. 2 December 2001.

Enlightenment Philosophers Essay

John Locke (1632-1704) The British philosopher John Locke was especially known for his liberal, anti-authoritarian theory of the state[->0], his empirical theory of knowledge, his advocacy of religious toleration, and his theory of personal identity. In his own time, he was famous for arguing that the divine right of kings is supported neither by scripture nor by the use of reason. In developing his theory of our duty to obey the state, he attacked the idea that might makes right: Starting from an initial state of nature with no government, police or private property, we humans could discover by careful reasoning that there are natural laws[->1] which suggest that we have natural rights[->2] to our own persons and to our own labor. Eventually we could discover that we should create a social contract[->3] with others, and out of this contract emerges our political obligations and the institution of private. This is how reasoning places limits on the proper use of power by government authorities. Regarding epistemology[->4], Locke disagreed with Descartes[->5]‘ rationalist theory that knowledge is any idea that seems clear and distinct to us. Instead, Locke claimed that knowledge is direct awareness of facts concerning the agreement or disagreement among our ideas. By â€Å"ideas,† he meant mental objects, and by assuming that some of these mental objects represent non-mental objects he inferred that this is why we can have knowledge of a world external to our minds. Although we can know little for certain and must rely on probabilities[->6], he believed it is our God-given obligation to obtain knowledge and not always to acquire our beliefs by accepting the word of authorities[->7] or common superstition. Ideally our beliefs should be held firmly or tentatively depending on whether the evidence is strong or weak. He praised the scientific reasoning of Boyle and Newton as exemplifying this careful formation of beliefs. He said that at birth our mind has no innate ideas; it is blank, a tabula rasa. As our mind gains simple ideas from sensation, it forms complex ideas from these simple ideas by processes of combination, division, generalization and abstraction. Radical for his time, Locke asserted that in order to help children not develop bad habits of thinking, they should be trained to base their beliefs on sound evidence, to learn how to collect this evidence, and to believe less strongly when the evidence is weaker. We all can have knowledge of God[->8]‘s existence by attending to the quality of the evidence available to us, primarily the evidence from miracles[->9]. Our moral obligations, says Locke, are divine commands[->10]. We can learn about those obligations both by God’s revealing them to us and by our natural capacities to discover natural laws. He hoped to find a deductive system[->11] of ethics in analogy to our deductive system of truths of geometry. Regarding personal identity[->12], Locke provided an original argument that our being the same person from one time to another consists neither in our having the same soul nor the same body, but rather the same consciousness. Thomas Hobbes (1588 -1679): Moral and Political Philosophy The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes is best known for his political thought, and deservedly so. His vision of the world is strikingly original and still relevant to contemporary politics. His main concern is the problem of social and political order: how human beings can live together in peace and avoid the danger and fear of civil conflict. He poses stark alternatives: we should give our obedience to an unaccountable sovereign (a person or group empowered to decide every social and political issue). Otherwise what awaits us is a â€Å"state of nature† that closely resembles civil war – a situation of universal insecurity, where all have reason to fear violent death and where rewarding human cooperation is all but impossible. His most famous work is Leviathan, a classic of English prose (1651; a slightly altered Latin edition appeared in 1668). Leviathan expands on the argument of De Cive, mostly in terms of its huge second half that deals with questions of religion. One controversy has dominated interpretations of Hobbes. Does he see human beings as purely self-interested or egoistic[->13]? Several passages support such a reading, leading some to think that his political conclusions can be avoided if we adopt a more realistic picture of human nature. However, most scholars now accept that Hobbes himself had a much more complex view of human motivation. A major theme below will be why the problems he poses cannot be avoided simply by taking a less â€Å"selfish† view of human nature. Hobbes’s moral thought is difficult to disentangle from his politics. On his view, what we ought to do depends greatly on the situation in which we find ourselves. Where political authority is lacking (as in his famous natural condition of mankind[->14]), our fundamental right seems to be to save our skins, by whatever means we think fit. Where political authority exists, our duty seems to be quite straightforward: to obey those in power. But we can usefully separate the ethics from the politics if we follow Hobbes’s own division. For him ethics is concerned with human nature, while political philosophy deals with what happens when human beings interact. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778) Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of the most influential thinkers during the Enlightenment in eighteenth century Europe. His first major philosophical work, A Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, was the winning response to an essay contest conducted by the Academy of Dijon in 1750. In this work, Rousseau argues that the progression of the sciences and arts has caused the corruption of virtue and morality. This discourse won Rousseau fame and recognition, and it laid much of the philosophical groundwork for a second, longer work, The Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. The second discourse did not win the Academy’s prize, but like the first, it was widely read and further solidified Rousseau’s place as a significant intellectual figure. The central claim of the work is that human beings are basically good by nature, but were corrupted by the complex historical events that resulted in present day civil society. Rousseau’s praise of nature is a theme that continues throughout his later works as well, the most significant of which include his comprehensive work on the philosophy of education, the Emile, and his major work on political philosophy, The Social Contract: both published in 1762. These works caused great controversy in France and were immediately banned by Paris authorities. Rousseau fled France and settled in Switzerland, but he continued to find difficulties with authorities and quarrel with friends. The end of Rousseau’s life was marked in large part by his growing paranoia and his continued attempts to justify his life and his work. This is especially evident in his later books, The Confessions, The Reveries of the Solitary Walker, and Rousseau: Judge of Jean-Jacques. Rousseau greatly influenced Immanuel Kant’s work on ethics. His novel Julie or the New Heloise impacted the late eighteenth century’s Romantic Naturalism movement, and his political ide als were championed by leaders of the French Revolution. The Social Contract is, like the Discourse on Political Economy, a work that is more philosophically constructive than either of the first two Discourses. Furthermore, the language used in the first and second Discourses is crafted in such a way as to make them appealing to the public, whereas the tone of the Social Contract is not nearly as eloquent and romantic. Another more obvious difference is that the Social Contract was not nearly as well-received; it was immediately banned by Paris authorities. And although the first two Discourses were, at the time of their publication, very popular, they are not philosophically systematic. The Social Contract, by contrast, is quite systematic and outlines how a government could exist in such a way that it protects the equality and character of its citizens. But although Rousseau’s project is different in scope in the Social Contract than it was in the first two Discourses, it would be a mistake to say that there is no philosophical c onnection between them. For the earlier works discuss the problems in civil society as well as the historical progression that has led to them. The Discourse on the Sciences and Arts claims that society has become such that no emphasis is put on the importance of virtue and morality. The Discourse on the Origin of Inequality traces the history of human beings from the pure state of nature through the institution of a specious social contract that results in present day civil society. The Social Contract does not deny any of these criticisms. In fact, chapter one begins with one of Rousseau’s most famous quotes, which echoes the claims of his earlier works: â€Å"Man was/is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.† (Social Contract, Vol. IV, p. 131). But unlike the first two Discourses, the Social Contract looks forward, and explores the potential for moving from the specious social contract to a legitimate one. Voltaire (1694-1778) Voltaire (real name Franà §ois-Marie Arouet) (1694 – 1778) was a French philosopher and writer of the Age of Enlightenment[->15]. His intelligence, wit and style made him one of France’s greatest writers and philosophers, despite the controversy he attracted. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform (including the defense of civil liberties, freedom of religion and free trade), despite the strict censorship laws and harsh penalties of the period, and made use of his satirical works to criticize Catholic dogma and the French institutions of his day. Along with John Locke[->16], Thomas Hobbes[->17] and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his works and ideas influenced important thinkers of both the American and French Revolutions. He was a prolific writer, and produced works in almost every literary form (plays, poetry, novels, essays, historical and scientific works, over 21,000 letters and over two thousand books and pamphlets). As his best-known work, Candideis a satirical examination on numerous themes like religion, philosophy, and government, written in the mordant wit and skepticism that Voltaire employs in so many of his works. Translated to numerous languages and adapted to the stage and screen, Voltaire’s opus continues to be widely read over two centuries later. Voltaire certainly gained enough real life experience to garner a cynical attitude towards established dogmatic institutions that repressed the individual during his lifetime. Why does so much evil exist, seeing that everything is formed by a God whom all theists are agreed in naming â€Å"good?† (â€Å"Why?† Philosophical Dictionary, 1764). In his later years Voltaire championed the rights of victims of religious, cultural, and political persecution, sharing many of the same views as Jean Jacques Rousseau[->18] (1712-1778) Charles- de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755)Montesquieu was a French[->19] social commentator and political thinker[->20] who lived during the Enlightenment[->21]. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers[->22], taken for granted in modern discussions of government[->23] and implemented in many constitutions[->24] throughout the world. Montesquieu’s most influential work divided French society into three classes (or trias politica, a term he coined): the monarchy[->25], the aristocracy[->26], and the commons[->27]. Montesquieu saw two types of governmental power existing: the sovereign[->28] and the administrative. The administrative powers were the executive[->29], the legislative[->30], and the judicial[->31]. These should be separate from and dependent upon each other so that the influence of any one power would not be able to exceed that of the other two, either singly or in combination. This was a radical idea because it completely eliminated the three Estates[->32] structure of the French Monarchy: the clergy[->33], the aristocracy, and the people at large represented by the Estates-General[->34], thereby erasing the last vestige of a feudalistic[->35] structure.Likewise, there were three main forms of government, each supported by a social â€Å"principle†: monarchies[->36] (free governments headed by a hereditary figure, e.g. king, queen, emperor), which rely on the principle of honor; republics[->37] (free governments headed by popularly elected leaders), which rely on the principle of virtue; and despotisms[->38] (enslaved governments headed by dictators[->39]), which rely on fear. The free governments are dependent on fragile constitutional arrangements. Montesquieu devotes four chapters of The Spirit of the Laws to a discussion of England, a contemporary free government, where liberty was sustained by a balance of powers. Montesquieu worried that in France the intermediate powers (i.e., the nobility) which moderated the power of the prince were being eroded. These ideas of the control of power were often used in the thinking of Maximilien de Robespierre[->40].Montesquieu was somewhat ahead of his time in advocating major reform of slavery in The Spirit of the Laws[->41]. As part of his advocacy he presented a satirical hypothetical list of arguments for slavery[->42], which has been open to contextomy[->43]. However, like many of his generation, Montesquieu also held a number of views that might today be judged controversial. He firmly accepted the role of a hereditary aristocracy and the value of primogeniture[->44], and while he endorsed the idea that a woman could head a state, he held that she could not be effective as the head of a family.|| Thomas Jefferson (1741-1826) Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia in 1743 and died on July 4, 1826, t the same day as John[->45] Adams, his life long associate and friend. Their e relationship illustrates the dichotomy that was Thomas Jefferson. He a was the author of the Declaration of Independence, a Secretary of State, a an envoy to France, the third president of the United States, a founder of t the Democratic-Republican party, the anti-federalists party. Baron Charles de Montesquieu’s views on the separation of powers, and t the protection for the rights of the citizenry influenced Jefferson. He believed in the virtues of â€Å"checks and balances† in the formation of the national government, its secured rights and protection for the people. While his views of humanity were more idealistic than those of Madison, they were in agreement for different reasons, for controlling a strong central government. Jefferson, however, opted more for states rights as a means of protection for America’s citizen, an attitude that exemplified his anti-Federalist views. His political thinking was in some respects Newtonian, and he saw social systems as analogous to physical systems. Under this philosophy, love takes the place in the social world that gravity does in the physical world, so that all people are naturally attracted to each other, and it is dependence that corrupts this attraction and results in political problems. Wood argues that, though the phrase â€Å"all men are created equal† was a clichà © in the late 18th century, Jefferson took it further than most. Jefferson held that not only are all men created equal, but they remain equal throughout their lives, equally capable of this attractive love, and that it is their level of dependence that make them unequal in practice. Thus, removing all this corrupting dependence would make all men equal in practice. Thus, Jefferson idealized a future relatively devoid of dependence, in particular those caused by banking or royal influences. Jefferson’s concepts of democracy were rooted in The Enlightenment[->46]. He envisioned democracy an expression of society as a whole, calling for national self-determination, cultural uniformity, and based upon the education of the all the people. The emphasis on uniformity allowed no opportunity for a multiracial republic in which some groups were not fully assimilated into the identical republican values William Blackstone (1723-1780) Blackstone was the great Eighteenth Century English legal scholar whose philosophy and writings were infused with Judeo-Christian principles. The Ten Commandments are at the heart of Blackstone’s philosophy. Blackstone taught that man is created by God and granted fundamental rights by God. Man’s law must be based on God’s law. Our Founding Fathers referred to Blackstone more than to any other English or American authority. Blackstone’s great work, Commentaries on the Laws of England, was basic to the U. S. Constitution. This work has sold more copies in America than in England and was a basic textbook of America’s early lawyers. It was only in the mid-Twentieth Century that American law, being re-written by the U. S. Supreme Court, repudiated Blackstone. An attack on Blackstone is an attack on the U. S. Constitution and our nation’s Judeo-Christian foundations. Blackstone’s Commentaries draws on standard authorities from Bracton onwar d, especially Matthew Hale’s Analysis of the Law, but it is far more accessible. Book I, â€Å"Rights of Persons,† deals with government, church, corporations, and individuals; Book II, â€Å"Rights of Things,† with property, especially land; Book III, â€Å"Private Wrongs,† with torts; and Book IV, â€Å"Public Wrongs,† with crime and punishment. An immediate success—contemporary readers included George III, Burke, Edmund[->47], Charles James Fox, and legions of lawyers and laymen—it went through eight British editions in his lifetime and fifteen more by 1854, as well as numerous abridgements. The standard legal textbook for a century, it helped establish law as a university subject. The first of many American editions appeared in 1771-72, and it was translated into French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. Though outdated in some particulars, Blackstone remains widely read. Though systematic and thorough, Blackstone was conservative and provincial. He argued that the king could do no wrong, though he regarded parliament as essential and endorsed the separation of powers. He was convinced of the superiority of English common law, though his knowledge of civil law was limited (what he knew came from Burlamaqui, Jean-Jacques[->48], Grotius, Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de[->49], and Pufendorf). His constitutional theory drew upon John Locke and Montesquieu, but he was not an Enlightenment creature. He had numerous critics: Priestley, Joseph[->50] objected to his comments on religious dissenters and most famously, Bentham, Jeremy[->51] denounced his views on the sovereignty of government, as did John Austin later. Other critics included Boswell, James[->52], Gibbon, Edward[->53], and Johnson, Samuel[->54].

Livrer - to Deliver - French Verb Conjugations