Achieving Personal Autonomy through Education Dissertation - 1

Achieving Personal Autonomy through Education - Dissertation Example The concept of personal autonomy traces its roots to the ancient Greek philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. Both men proposed that the rational part of the soul is its most important part and the ideal for humanity is associated with self-sufficiency and being non-dependent on other people (Backus, 2003). Kant later developed the idea of moral autonomy as having authority over one’s actions and soon thereafter, the idea of autonomy in learning has become a part of a wide range of educational philosophies and has been identified recently in educational policy to be crucial to the development of learning (Honderich, 2005). Autonomy simply resided on morals in its early years, but then views about this began to change in the 21st century. For Dworkin ( 1988 ), the concept of autonomy includes one’s overall point of view towards how one lives one’s life. He points out that each individual, whether the most learned or the most carefree, conforms to his or her own personal view of what makes life valuable (Dworkin, 1988). Thus, Dworkin is actually saying that each person reveals how he or she conceives goodness or the good life through his or her behavior. For Raz (1988), the concept of personal autonomy is much more specific as he emphasizes that the individual is responsible for whatever happens to his or her life. As such, an individual with personal autonomy is identified not only by his actual choices in life but by the presence of choices themselves (Raz, 1988). Therefore, an individual can really just be autonomous if these choices are available and if the outcome of his or her life is based on the choices that he or she has made along the way. He adds that if the individual does not have these choices in the first place, then he or she cannot really be labeled as autonomous (Raz, 1988).

Midterm paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Midterm paper - Essay Example The story of the famous Pocahontas, well remembered for spearheading interracial marriages, has been adapted by several films including the ‘The Pocahontas’ and the ‘Avatar’. The films have many similarities with the original story as narrated by Charles Dudley Warner but there are several exaggerations and manipulations done. The film ‘Pocahontas’ is an animation that attempts to present the life of Pocahontas. Just like in the story, the 1995 release animation presents Pocahontas as a woman who opposed to the idea of the segregation of Englishmen by her people in Powhatan. Both depict her as an influential character who embraced Captain Smith while they were in Virginia in1608. They describe her as a distinguished girl with great character and a genuine concern for humanity. However, the animation leaves several gaps in explaining the particular traits that she had while young, as explained by the author, â€Å"She was a child of remarkable i ntelligence, and that she early showed a tender regard for the whites and rendered them willing and unwilling service† (Warner 1). Such an expression is missing in the animation. Therefore, the story loses its true meaning. ‘The Avatar’ has a comparable plot to the story but the characters used are different. Warner presents historical events that relates to the romantic woman, Pocahontas, who fell in love with the whites despite herself being an Indian. The movie depicts a future occurrence but frames the incidences to reflect the story. While the story talks about Powhatan as from 1607, the movie talks about the Pandora by 2154. The movie talks about the mining of Unobtanium by the humans in the biosphere that has detrimental elements for human survival. In contrast, the Englishmen set their foot in Powhatan in an effort to mine gold. Despite the variances in characters and the timing both talks of men on a mission that results to a relationship between one of t he inhabitants, the Navi and the Powhatan’s in the movie and story respectively. The story provides many detailed accounts that does not feature in Disney’s ‘Pocahontas’ animations. The animation is very casual presenting shallow information about the characters. Little attention is given flashbacks and flash-forward as used the author. This breaks the sequence of events, as they appear in the story, hence the ability to understand what the events as they follow each other (Bazin 23). The author presents a variety of descriptions to demonstrate the nature of relationship between Pocahontas and Smith, an aspect that the film also portrays but with the magnitude. Again, the animation goes overboard in presenting the romance with Smith and the shooting of Kocoum. However, the storyline appears similar and the characters used are given similar names and similar character traits The author is not definite of the actual occurrences. On several instances, he uses the word ‘or’ meaning any of the things he is talking about might have taken place. Contrary to these views, the two films present very definite situations. This biasness is based on the fact, that a movie cannot present two opposing ideas since they can contradict the viewers. The author mentions, â€Å"Either Strachey was uniformed, or Pocahontas was married to an Indian†, this is presumption made by the author but the two films avoid the argument and do not feature this scene, probably due to its