edgar allan poe bio Essay Example

edgar allan poe bio Essay Example edgar allan poe bio Paper edgar allan poe bio Paper Essay Topic: The Fall of the House Of Usher Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most celebrated of all American authors. Heavily influenced by the German Romantic Ironists, Poe made his mark in Gothic fiction, especially through the tales of the macabre for which he is now so famous. Although he regarded himself primarily as a poet, he is one of the few indisputably great writers of the short story, alongside Guy de Maupassant and O. Henry. Besides redefining that form as a vehicle for literary art, Poe also contributed to the modern detective genre and wrote highly influential literary criticism. Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809 to David Poe, Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins both of whom died before their son was three. Young Edgar went to live in Richmond, Virginia with John Allan, a wealthy tradesman, while his older brother William Henry and his half-sister Rosalie were sent to other families. The Allans regarded Edgar as a son and financed his private school education, but in Edgars adolescent years, conflict arose between Edgar and his guardians over his literary ambitions. Poe enrolled in the University of Virginia but received very little inancial support from John Allan, and was prevented from returning when Allan refused to help him with his hefty gambling debts. In 1827, Poe enlisted in the U. S. Army and rose in two years to the rank of sergeant major, but he chose to leave the Army with the understanding that he would enroll at West Point. Prior to enlisting, Poe had published a volume of poetry, Tamerlane and Other Poems. After his army time and while a student at West Point, he published a second volume: A1 Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems, which critics favorably received. Physically weaker and older than most of his classmates, Poe felt out of place at the school, and he devoted much of his time to studying the Romantic poets such as Byron, Shelley, Coleridge, and Wordsworth. He played pranks involving bloody ganders posing as decapitated heads, and he was eventually dismissed in 1831. Poe followed up his previous publications with a third collection of poems, Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, while he moved to Baltimore to live with his aunt Maria Clemm and his nine-year-old cousin Virginia. In an attempt to remain afloat financially, he wrote rolifically and in 1832, five of Poes short stories were published in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier. They were exclusively comic, satiric tales. Around this time, Poe discovered opium, soon to become a prominent feature of his life. In 1833, his tale of dread, MS Found in a Bottle, won a $50 prize from the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. His exploration of horror fiction, which was to define Poe among future generations, thus began and so, perhaps not coincidentally, began his lifelong dependency on drugs and alcohol. Returning to Richmond in 1835, Poe began writing for the Southern Literary Messenger. He quickly began to garner a reputation with vitriolic reviews, essays on his most famous reviews was a pan of Theodore S. Fays novel Norman Leslie, with criticism so devastating it helped earn Poe the nickname tomahawk man. Later in the year, as he finally gained a grasp on his finances, Poe married Virginia Clemm (not yet fourteen at the time) and became an editor of the Messenger. In 1837 he resigned from the Messenger, which he had helped transform into one of the countrys leading Journals. The next two and a half years were somewhat aimless, as he moved with his aunt and wife to New York City and Philadelphia while working various freelance Jobs. During this time, he released more poems and short stories, including Ligeia, a story about death and love, which he considered his finest tale. In July 1838, Harpers published his only novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, about the strange adventures of a young man on the South Sea. Despite these publications, however, Poe found that he could not successfully support his family. In 1839, Poe became an associate editor of Burtons Gentlemans Magazine in Philadelphia, for which he wrote The Fall of the House of Usher that year. In 1840, he published a collection of his short stories, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Discharged from his Job due to quarrels with William Burton, he served as editor of Grahams Magazine until 1842, where he wrote a number of works, including the groundbreaking story of ratiocination (reasoning), The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Hard times followed and, barely managing to scrounge together carfare for is family, Poe moved to New York in 1844 to work for the New York Mirror. 845 finally saw Poe crowned as a literary sensation in his country, with the publication of his hugely popular poem The Raven. Tragedy, however, was Just around the corner. While gossip surrounded his potentially adulterous relations with Frances Sargent Osgood, Virginias health was rapidly decreasing due to tuberculosis, leading Poe to seek refuge in increase d drinking. Although he briefly held a Job with Godeys Lady Book, he was incapable of maintaining a steady Job and could not afford nough food for his family. Virginia died on January 30, 1847, causing the further deterioration of Poes mental health. Poes violent mood swings became common as drugs and alcohol wore away at his body and mind, although he continued to publish works such as Eureka. He made an attempt at rehabilitation, and he traveled to Richmond in 1849 to court a former friend, Mrs. Shelton. Unfortunately, soon after their engagement, Poe was found in a stupor on a Baltimore street and was taken to a nearby hospital. Four days later, on Sunday, October 7, he died at the age of 40.

Critical Essay Outline

Critical Essay Outline Critical Essay Outline Critical Essay Outline Critical essay outline is a tool that helps you to organize your material logically and helps you to sort and to classify the material systematically. As a result, you are empowered to see the relationships that exist between ideas in your critical essay writing. Outline writing helps you to develop and organize plan for presenting the material. The goals of the outlines are to present logically the general information, to summarize it schematically, and to provide a visual and conceptual plan of the writing process. An outline reflects logical thinking and classification of your ideas. Prior to writing an outline, you should set up the purpose of the critical essay, write down the thesis of essay and think about the ideas you plan to cover. At this stage you can write all of the ideas you want to include in your critical essay writing, plan the work by grouping ideas together that are related to each other, organize the work by dividing the material into groups ranging from the gene ral to the specific, or from abstract to specific. Critical Essay Format Create a title page if it is necessary. Use MLA style for headings, headers and pagination. Type in 12-point font, for example, Arial which is the easiest to read, make it double-spaced with one-inch margins. Always make a back-up copy of your essay on diskette and an additional hard copy. Usually, short critical essay must be minimum 2-3 full pages; the longer critical essay must be minimum 5-7 full pages in length. In the short critical essay, you must include at least three quotes from the works you are analyzing. Add quotation marks around direct quotations; identify the sources of all paraphrased information. Be careful and avoid plagiarism while writing a critical essay: Writing a Critical Essay The purpose of writing a critical essay is to evaluate somebody's work, to express your ideas on the raised theme, and to reveal your understanding of the material. Critical essay is a paper in which you should express your opinion or provide evaluation of the text. Prior to writing a critical essay, have a clear topic in mind. Once more read the text, be sure that the topic in mind correspond to the essay's topic. Develop an argument and state it in your first paragraph. The argument should prove your chosen position. If no one would disagree with what you're saying, it's not an argument. Critical Essay Help It is not easy to write a good critical essay without outline. Moreover, it is even harder to write a good critical essay on the topic you are not familiar with. You are welcome to ask for assistance. We are ready to write an impressive critical essay for you on any topic! In addition, you receive free title page, outline, and bibliography list. Related posts: Hamlet Thesis Dissertation Writers Dissertation Subjects Dissertation Paper Dissertation Help

Blacks and televised news Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Blacks and televised news - Essay Example Most of the sections of the media that have a maximum of white representation, do better in terms of citizenship and attracting the masses, as well, leading to a poor contribution of black people to the news. Black people are stereotypically very outgoing and social and like to be portrayed by the media as yet another group or community of people who are waiting to be heard by the rest of the world. However, they are not able to reach out to the masses and are subdued when it comes to the local news. Local news channels have the ability to showcase whatever they want to; the broadcasters and producers of the channel or the show get to decide whether or not to represent certain pieces of the news and thus, because of this reason, black people are not able to gain much representation on the local news. Furthermore, the local news gives very less importance to crime news with white people and thus if there is black representation, it is mostly about crime and vandalism, because this is what flatters the US audience. Despite this, a number of black women state that, â€Å"Without a doubt black males, young and old, must be held politically accountable for their sexism. Yet this critique must always be contextualized or we risk making it appear that the problem of misogyny, sexism, and all the behaviours this thinking supports and condones, including rape, male violence against women, is a black male thing.† (Brooks, Dwight E.) Black women and men however are suppressed by the community and even though they might have a very outgoing personality, they are not able to show case the same through the news. A lot of statistics show that black people as compared to white people have a 6:1 ratio of being televised because national and local networks portray them on channels and shows that do not require much intelligence. This leads people to believe that they are not

The meaning of Human Sexuality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The meaning of Human Sexuality - Essay Example The purpose of this essay is to explain how the concepts of "Belief versus Knowledge" and "Multiple Truths" are central to the understanding of cross gender communication. The differences between what is perceived as masculine and feminine styles of communication and the obstacles that exist and hinder proper communication processes between the sexes are discussed. In so doing the author proposes to highlight particular aspects of sexuality pertaining to gender and communication. Slater and Muir state that "A belief is a mental representation of a proposition about the world" (231). In simpler terms it can be said that a belief, as a result of underlying emotions or spiritual convictions is held to be true. Knowledge meanwhile refers to explicit information gleaned from study or experience that has its basis in hard fact. Believing is not the same as knowing but often beliefs are treated as facts. Beliefs are determined by a number of factors like religion, societal norms etc. In this particular context beliefs and knowledge or beliefs parading as knowledge are crucial factors in cross gender communication. For the religiously inclined sex and lust are usually portrayed as the epitome of evil. Sexual intercourse must be tolerated for the purpose of procreation and is not to be enjoyed or desired. Further societal or peer pressure dampens sexual enthusiasm. For instance, it is believed that a big penis is a prerequisite for studs and an hourglass figure is essential for a woman to be desirable, therefore men worry about the size of their penises while women obsess about their bodies and this detracts from sexual enjoyment and healthy sexual expression. According to Dreyfus, "fears of rejection, failure, criticism, feelings of embarrassment or awkwardness, body image concerns, performance anxiety, anger towards a partner or women in general, or lack of attraction towards a partner, all play a part in reducing or eliminating the sexual response" (175). Therefore these extraneous variables stemming from belief constitute the complex amalgam that is sexuality and inhibit communication betwe en the sexes. Men are usually loathe to discuss these issues and avoid them completely, while women stew in bewilderment and hurt while wrestling with their own conflicting beliefs about sexuality. Therefore a thorough understanding of the beliefs that color attitudes and influence behavior is necessary for effective communication. Carugati states that "The multiple truths are found via an approach that continuously attacks currently held beliefs from multiple points of view" (154). There are few questions in the world to which completely satisfactory answers have been found. Conflicting evidence and contradictory viewpoints usually exist. Therefore in the words of Lattal and Laipple, "Because competing explanations may each lead to successful working, there may be multiple 'truths'" (48). With regard to sexuality, the concept of "Multiple truths" may be used to explain gender differences in

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Essay Example for Free

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Essay Man is no truly one, but truly two. There are two sides to man, a good, and a bad. This book was written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1885 and is set in the Gothic genre. The gothic genre is associated with darkness, the supernatural, and more importantly, nightlife. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is based on Stevensons own double life. In his daily life he was a respectable Victorian middle classed man, however by night he lived the life of a debauched bohemian. The Victorian society at that time and the lifestyle was very strict. They believed in morality and formality, and the Victorian children were extremely well behaved. The middle and upper class Victorians would meet at public gatherings, for example church and would expect each other to behave in a very ethical manner. This however was not the case at all times, especially men. They would go out late in the night gambling and drinking. Stevenson portrays this using the life style of a doctor who is ethical, principled and lives a very normal and proportioned life. However, by night his personality and his look grow into a monster like creature. Jekyll is described as tall and handsome throughout the book. He is very well known, and is also very rich indeed. He believes in man having two sides, a good, and a bad. He wants to find out how to separate the two personalities and uses himself to show this. Dr Jekyll, the well respected, good natured man, and Mr Hyde the more primitive and ape like of the two. Mr Hyde is also referred to as simian and hairy. He is considerably smaller than Jekyll and is therefore looked upon as lower in the evolutionary scale. Mr Utterson is the main narrator of this book except for Dr Lanyon and Dr Jekyll in the last chapters. Having more than one narrator in a story is a feature of the gothic genre. Utterson is a middle aged Lawyer and is a person who most of the characters can confide in. He leads a moral life, and has a good profession and therefore is probably the books most respected character. In a way he also has a contradicting personality in the way that he is meant to be a person who is friendly to anyone, however he secretly despises Hyde. By keeping these secrets, Stevenson portrays a double life lurking inside Utterson aswell. Jekyll desires to separate the two personalities of man, however he does not tell anybody due to the fact that people may think that he is trying to play God. Later in the book Jekyll becomes addicted into turning into Hyde, and at one time runs out of the ingredients to make the potion to turn into him. Through this Stevenson illustrates that evil is much more powerful than good. My evil, kept awake by ambition, was alert and swift to seize the occasion; and the thing that was projected was Edward Hyde. During the book Jekyll spontaneously turns into Hyde, which portrays that evil is more powerful than good. Charles Darwins evolutionary scale is hinted at a couple of times in this book. Hyde is described as less-upright, simian and ape-like. This is the total opposite to the principles expected of the Victorian society. Jekylls appearances and personality have been juxtaposed to Hyde. In the book Jekyll is often complimented for his looks and his wealthy nature, whereas Hyde is criticised for his ugliness and the fact that he gives the impression of an animal. This therefore suggests that Jekyll is much higher up in the evolutionary scale than Hyde. The return of man to the inhuman state is often recognised in the Gothic genre. By linking Darwinism and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, we can see that Stevenson here is also portraying man higher up in the evolutionary scale as good and man lower in the evolutionary scale as bad. A large part of this book is involves secrecy. Dr Jekyll keeps his relation with Edward Hyde a secret otherwise people would have looked at him in a different way, however the irony of looking at him as a different man can be perceived by us, the viewers. Near the beginning of this book Hyde tramples a young girl, and the family of that girl ask for his name using blackmail, the alternative however was to pay one hundred pounds in order to keep his identity quiet. This shows how much secrecy meant to the Victorian society. Throughout the book there are references to blackmail between Hyde and Jekyll, (ironically the characters in the book do not know that they are the same person), however the only person who believes that blackmailing has occurred between them is Mr Enfield, who is a cousin of Utterson. Blackmail is slightly engaged with homosexuality and a suggestion to homosexuality is made on frequent occasions during the book. Your master seems to repose a great deal of trust in that young man . Victorian society viewed homosexuality as absolutely forbidden, a famous poet and playwright named Oscar Wilde had a homosexual affair just after marrying, and was therefore imprisoned. Stevenson looks into the theories of Freud. Classing Hyde as the Id and Jekyll as the ego. We can easily class the two in this way from the behaviour that Stevenson portrays in this book. Jekyll seeks to separate good from evil and therefore has high expectations and is definitely respected for it. Hyde is classed as the Id, as he attacks violently almost in a state of insanity, there is no morality at all in him, he is a total opposite to the nature of Jekyll. He is totally unaware of what he does, and attacks at will. This book is classed in the gothic genre, as it is mainly set in darkness, and it refers to the supernatural and magical things that take place. It presents fear affected on those who live the simplest lives for example, Dr Lanyon who dies purely of fright. There are also multiple narrations, which is a link to the gothic genre. In this book there are three narrators. Other assets linked to this genre, are symbols like the moon, fog, a special door, city streets, good and evil. The door being a very important feature, as it separates two different types of man, Hyde and Utterson. Through this door Stevenson depicts the two sides of man. Frankenstein and Dracula were also written in the gothic genre and similarly link in the same way as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Frankenstein is about a doctor that creates a monster like man who commits crimes and this therefore links to Mr Hyde who is presented in a similar way in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Dracula however, is about a man who lives a double life, and plays a perfect host during the day to those whom he may invite to his gothic style mansion in Transylvania. By night however, becomes a creature hankering for blood. The character Dracula is more similarly related to Jekyll as he plays by the aristocratic nature during the day, and by night changes into the unthinkable, for a person with such principle. Dr Victor Frankenstein however is less similarly related to Jekyll as he physically doesnt commit any crimes himself, but its his use of science, which links the two characters together. Stevenson, as a student lived life like many of the men that are presented in this book. He lived in Edinburgh, which had two parts to it, a new town where the middle to upper class people housed themselves and lived moral lives, and an old town where many lower classed people slept on the streets and those who earnt a little more lived in disgusting, diseased filled, houses. Due to educated and well-known parents, Stevenson lived a good life as a child and educated himself at Edinburgh University. It was here where he and a group of friends carried out mischievous things, and then he came to realise that he had two lives, a life where he respected others and was a hard workingman like his father, and also a life where he was free from morality and principles. It was this experience that he had which probably led to this story of a man who is trying to prove that there are really to sides of man, good and evil.

Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Essay -- Aesthetic Attitude

Visit any major museum of art, at any given time, and one could find an abundance of monumental names listed on tiny plaques hanging next to even more recognizable works of art. The excitement felt by any art enthusiast when walking into these buildings of time and creation, is undeniable and especially unique. Could it be the atmosphere of the building, the presence of artwork, the people, possibly the grandeur of the space, or perhaps, could it be the spirit of the artists themselves, peering through the work they created? As onlookers peer into the artworks in front of them, there is no question as to whether or not they considered what the artwork means, where it came from and what the artist was interested in who created it. The intrigued viewer quite possibly could also want to have a conversation with that artist and ask them questions about the artwork and what it was that they were thinking about when producing it, with a goal of better understanding what they were looking at. As the viewer and after serious contemplation, would you believe you understood the artwork as the artist or artist’s society believed the work? Could you appreciate the work the same? Walter Benjamin, a well known German-Jewish Marxist literary and cultural critic, philosopher, translator and essayist introduced ideas and questions similar to these in his epic essay, â€Å"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.† He wrote about many different ideas concerning the concept of art, writing, po litics and society. Benjamin was born in Berlin on July 15, 1892. He worked and lived in Germany for the majority of his life. He earned a Ph. D in 1919, but never held an academic career (egs.edu, 2009). â€Å"He dedicated his life’s work to writ... ... 41-46. Ebscohost. Web. 12 Nov. 2009 Luehrman M., Unrath K. â€Å"Bringing Children to Art- Bringing Art to Children.† Art Education. Jan. 2009: 41-47. Print. Peim, Nick. â€Å"Walter Benjamin in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Aura in Education: A Rereading of ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.’† Journal of Philosophy of Education 41.3 (2007): 363-380. Wilson Web. Web. 2 Nov. 2009. Stolnitz, Jerome. â€Å"One The Apparent Demise of Really High Art.† The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 43.4 (1985): 345-358. Wilson Web. Web. 15 Oct. 2009. Stolnitz, Jerome. â€Å"The Aesthetic Attitude’ in the Rise of Modern Aesthetics.†Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 36.4 (1978): 409-422. Wilson Web. Web. 15 Oct. 2009. Townsend, Chris. â€Å"Knowledge as Spectacle.† Art Monthly 322 (Dec.2008/Jan.2009): 11- 14. Wilson Web. Web. 15 Oct. 2009.

The Rational Choice Approach

Whilst people all around the world debate over which political system is the most effective, social scientists are still in debate over which is the best way to analyse politics. Without the correct analysis of political objects how is one supposed to decide which political system or party is the most effective? It is for this reason that the way in which we analyse political objects is so important. There are many different ways to go about analysing politics. One main distinction to be noted is how in America the subject is called political science, whereas many European universities just call it politics.European scholars would suggest that the name political science is flawed in the sense that you cannot conduct certain political experiments. Rational choice theorists would suggest otherwise as I will explain later on in the essay. In a lecture delivered by Professor Mark Franklin at the European University Institute, he stated; â€Å"We cannot take a random sample of people and give them a new political system to see what happens† (Franklin, 2006). Debates such as these go far further than just cross-national. In this essay I intend to give a brief background to the various approaches to studying politics.I will then go on to outline the strengths and weaknesses of the rational choice approach to understanding the political, paying close attention to the definition of self-interest, using various scholars work to form a critique of the rational choice theory. The studying of politics can be dated back to the ‘Platonic era’ of ancient Greece, as early as 420 B. C. However, the departments of politics came much later. Within these departments one of the earliest forms of analysing politics was through the method of institutionalism. This involved the studying of institutions.Institutionalists looked at how institutions were formed, what they did and how they were structured. Rather than looking at philosophical questions, institutionalist s concentrated on normative questions. Institutionalism was criticised for its lack of rigour as it was mainly a descriptive process. Others called it elitist and described it as â€Å"clever people telling others about their own system† (Parvin, 2013). The 1930s saw the American way of thinking revised as a result of the increasing numbers of European scholars entering America.As a result of this, and with the growing criticisms of the conventional approach, analysis took a behavioural standpoint. At the same time of behaviouralism, rational choice theorists were in writing. However, it only flourished in the 1980s. Rational choice theory involves more questioning of peoples decisions and political objectives and was a lot less descriptive. Rational choice theory, first used in the field of economics, suggests individuals are rational and therefore act in their own self-interest. They do this by weighing up the costs and benefits of a situation.It also assumes individuals ar e rational meaning they do not act outside the norm. Another assumption is that individuals make their decisions whilst taking into account what other individuals do, or what they believe the other individuals will do. The first weakness of the rational choice theory I wish to analyse is the assumption that all individuals are self-interested. To tackle this it is important to define being self-interested. It is often defined as one gaining pleasure from an act. However, is an act still self-interested if the person gains pleasure from helping others?If your answer is no, then what if an act pleasures one’s self whilst helping others, but also putting others at a disadvantage. Is this now self-interested again? For example, when a pressure group member of ‘fathers 4 justice’ climbs a building to encourage politicians to allow him to see his child he would be seen as self-interested. On the other hand, he is doing it in order to care for his child and give him the correct up-bringing he needs. In this instance he may not be considered self-interested. On a further note, by climbing up said building police and other services would be called out to resolve the situation.This could lead to a delayed call-out for police to attend another crime scene, putting others at a disadvantage. Does this now make the act self-interested again? From this series example it is evident that there are usually several parties affected by a particular political movement or decision. It is also evident that upon making political decisions people often have multiple incentives which may involve benefiting ones self and benefiting others, making it extremely difficult to give determine if an act is self-interested or not.Furthermore, assuming it was possible to narrow down an act to being self-interested or not, it is  impossible to say every single person is self-interested. This is outlined by the ‘black swan theory’. This theory suggests that no ma tter how many white swans you see, you can never rule out the possibility of there being a black swan. One strength of the rational choice theory is that it offers an explanation as to why there has been a a dramatic decrease in political participation since the middle of the 20th century, as outlined in Colin Hay’s book ‘Why we hate politics’. For example, between 1950 and 2001 electoral turnout in the UK has decreased by 24.2% (Hay, 2008: 49).Decreases in electoral turnout doesn’t stop at the UK, since the middle of the 20th century lots of countries including of the OECD countries, bar two. This decrease in political participation may be as a result of voters weighing up the costs and benefits of voting and then coming to the conclusion the costs outweigh the benefits. People feel as if their vote would count for nothing and that one vote is highly unlikely to change who forms the government. Hay goes on to deliver this point of view in the equation of [Uchosen – Uother] p > Cvoting.In this equation [Uchosen – Uother] p represents the utility the voter receives if the party they vote for goes into power minus the utility received if the other party goes into power. Cvoting represents the cost of voting and the cost is always greater than the benefits to a rational individual (Hay, 2008: 50). This is further examined by Mancur Oslon in his book ‘The logic of Collective Action’. Oslon highlights how individuals do not participate, letting others put in the work and then reaping the rewards of having a strong government (Oslon, 1971).This has also been linked to the power of the minority and how they can choose to opt out of a trade union but still get the benefits, for example; an increasing wage rate. Both theories presented are easy to accept as they suggest strong explanations as to why there has been a decrease in participation. However, on a closer examination to the voting system, it may appear that there are more benefits to be earned from voting. Many people experience a feeling of pleasure from participating as they feel as if they have done a good deed.Which arguably, they have. Moreover, some people may experience a sense of pride as a result of doing something to help their country. Another point to take into account when weighing up the benefits of voting is that some people may genuinely enjoy the process. On the contrary, when weighing the costs it must be noted that the effort and inconvenience of voting isn’t the only cost in certain cases. Some individuals choose not to vote as they believe by voting they are accepting a certain party’s policies, whereas some people do not agree with any party.Others are anarchists who do not believe governments should exist. In this instance the cost would be far greater, providing further support for the rational choice theory. The rational choice theory has also allowed us to predict behaviour through its vigorous m ethodology. In the introduction I briefly mentioned the various views on whether or not politics can be viewed as a science. Although we may not be able to conduct experiments which involve observing people in different political systems, we can put them in situations to observe their decision making and relate it to the political.One experiment involving offering two bank robbers the opportunity to either stay quiet or hand over their accomplice saw individuals being rational. The best outcome was if they both stayed quiet and saw them both have reduced sentences, whilst if one stays quiet and the other hands the accomplice over, the accomplice will be sentenced with the one who handed him over going free. However, if they both handed each other over they would both have an increased sentence. This is part of game theory and is known as the prisoner’s dilemma. Being rational, the prisoners near enough always handed over their partner.Rational choice theorists would suggest t his can be transferred to the political arena by explaining that they would act with this level of self-interest in all situations, including within the political arena. Nonetheless, it is important to note that choosing between imprisonment and who governs are two completely different scenarios. To say that individuals would act the same in both situations with little evidence to show this is somewhat illogical. For example when confronted by a woman asking you for your wallet you may decide to refuse, but when she is holding a gun to your head your answer may change.The game show whereby similar outcomes are offered to two people but instead of prison sentences, the outcome is how much money they receive is evidence of how the answer depends on what is at stake. Within this show there were always different combinations of answers with both self-interested people and people willing to share. From this essay it is clear that there are many weaknesses. However, it should not go un-no ticed that one of the most influential factors that caused the increasing use of the rational choice approach was its vigour. Whilst other approaches offer mere descriptions, rational choice theory goes into deep questioning.Furthermore, the methodology is greater than any other with the use of experiments to allow for more precise, qualitative data to be recorded. On the other hand it could be argued that the use of rational choice approach ignores the study of institutions by focusing solely on the individual. All theories possess strengths and weaknesses. It is also apparent that different approaches may offer more concise measurements in different areas so it is important not to rely on one particular approach, but instead use a variety to allow for a more reliable analysis.Despite the outlined weaknesses, it has had much success in the field of economics. Some may argue that this means we should stick with it as a way of analysing politics. However, I fear that it is not plausi ble to simply transfer a theory from one subject to another, despite both being social sciences. This is due to the nature of politics being focused on equal distribution and fairness (in the vast majority of countries due to the democratic values resulting in a government for all the people).If people were as self-interested as the rational choice approach suggests then there would be a lot more extreme right-wing and left-wing parties present where the rich want to keep all of their money and the poor want as many benefits as possible. Instead we find a middle ground such as the liberal democrats in England. For this reason, it appears that the methodology does not compliment the ontology as no matter what experiments are carried out, none can be related to the political, as the European University Institute outlined. The Rational Choice Approach Whilst people all around the world debate over which political system is the most effective, social scientists are still in debate over which is the best way to analyse politics. Without the correct analysis of political objects how is one supposed to decide which political system or party is the most effective? It is for this reason that the way in which we analyse political objects is so important. There are many different ways to go about analysing politics. One main distinction to be noted is how in America the subject is called political science, whereas many European universities just call it politics.European scholars would suggest that the name political science is flawed in the sense that you cannot conduct certain political experiments. Rational choice theorists would suggest otherwise as I will explain later on in the essay. In a lecture delivered by Professor Mark Franklin at the European University Institute, he stated; â€Å"We cannot take a random sample of people and give them a new political system to see what happens† (Franklin, 2006). Debates such as these go far further than just cross-national. In this essay I intend to give a brief background to the various approaches to studying politics.I will then go on to outline the strengths and weaknesses of the rational choice approach to understanding the political, paying close attention to the definition of self-interest, using various scholars work to form a critique of the rational choice theory. The studying of politics can be dated back to the ‘Platonic era’ of ancient Greece, as early as 420 B. C. However, the departments of politics came much later. Within these departments one of the earliest forms of analysing politics was through the method of institutionalism. This involved the studying of institutions.Institutionalists looked at how institutions were formed, what they did and how they were structured. Rather than looking at philosophical questions, institutionalist s concentrated on normative questions. Institutionalism was criticised for its lack of rigour as it was mainly a descriptive process. Others called it elitist and described it as â€Å"clever people telling others about their own system† (Parvin, 2013). The 1930s saw the American way of thinking revised as a result of the increasing numbers of European scholars entering America.As a result of this, and with the growing criticisms of the conventional approach, analysis took a behavioural standpoint. At the same time of behaviouralism, rational choice theorists were in writing. However, it only flourished in the 1980s. Rational choice theory involves more questioning of peoples decisions and political objectives and was a lot less descriptive. Rational choice theory, first used in the field of economics, suggests individuals are rational and therefore act in their own self-interest. They do this by weighing up the costs and benefits of a situation.It also assumes individuals ar e rational meaning they do not act outside the norm. Another assumption is that individuals make their decisions whilst taking into account what other individuals do, or what they believe the other individuals will do. The first weakness of the rational choice theory I wish to analyse is the assumption that all individuals are self-interested. To tackle this it is important to define being self-interested. It is often defined as one gaining pleasure from an act. However, is an act still self-interested if the person gains pleasure from helping others?If your answer is no, then what if an act pleasures one’s self whilst helping others, but also putting others at a disadvantage. Is this now self-interested again? For example, when a pressure group member of ‘fathers 4 justice’ climbs a building to encourage politicians to allow him to see his child he would be seen as self-interested. On the other hand, he is doing it in order to care for his child and give him the correct up-bringing he needs. In this instance he may not be considered self-interested. On a further note, by climbing up said building police and other services would be called out to resolve the situation.This could lead to a delayed call-out for police to attend another crime scene, putting others at a disadvantage. Does this now make the act self-interested again? From this series example it is evident that there are usually several parties affected by a particular political movement or decision. It is also evident that upon making political decisions people often have multiple incentives which may involve benefiting ones self and benefiting others, making it extremely difficult to give determine if an act is self-interested or not.Furthermore, assuming it was possible to narrow down an act to being self-interested or not, it is  impossible to say every single person is self-interested. This is outlined by the ‘black swan theory’. This theory suggests that no ma tter how many white swans you see, you can never rule out the possibility of there being a black swan. One strength of the rational choice theory is that it offers an explanation as to why there has been a a dramatic decrease in political participation since the middle of the 20th century, as outlined in Colin Hay’s book ‘Why we hate politics’.For example, between 1950 and 2001 electoral turnout in the UK has decreased by 24.2% (Hay, 2008: 49). Decreases in electoral turnout doesn’t stop at the UK, since the middle of the 20th century lots of countries including of the OECD countries, bar two. This decrease in political participation may be as a result of voters weighing up the costs and benefits of voting and then coming to the conclusion the costs outweigh the benefits. People feel as if their vote would count for nothing and that one vote is highly unlikely to change who forms the government. Hay goes on to deliver this point of view in the equation of [Uchosen – Uother] p > Cvoting.In this equation [Uchosen – Uother] p represents the utility the voter receives if the party they vote for goes into power minus the utility received if the other party goes into power. Cvoting represents the cost of voting and the cost is always greater than the benefits to a rational individual (Hay, 2008: 50). This is further examined by Mancur Oslon in his book ‘The logic of Collective Action’. Oslon highlights how individuals do not participate, letting others put in the work and then reaping the rewards of having a strong government (Oslon, 1971).This has also been linked to the power of the minority and how they can choose to opt out of a trade union but still get the benefits, for example; an increasing wage rate. Both theories presented are easy to accept as they suggest strong explanations as to why there has been a decrease in participation. However, on a closer examination to the voting system, it may appear that there are more benefits to be earned from voting. Many people experience a feeling of pleasure from participating as they feel as if they have done a good deed.Which arguably, they have. Moreover, some people may experience a sense of pride as a result of doing something to help their country. Another point to take into account when weighing up the benefits of voting is that some people may genuinely enjoy the process. On the contrary, when weighing the costs it must be noted that the effort and inconvenience of voting isn’t the only cost in certain cases. Some individuals choose not to vote as they believe by voting they are accepting a certain party’s policies, whereas some people do not agree with any party.Others are anarchists who do not believe governments should exist. In this instance the cost would be far greater, providing further support for the rational choice theory. The rational choice theory has also allowed us to predict behaviour through its vigorous m ethodology. In the introduction I briefly mentioned the various views on whether or not politics can be viewed as a science. Although we may not be able to conduct experiments which involve observing people in different political systems, we can put them in situations to observe their decision making and relate it to the political.One experiment involving offering two bank robbers the opportunity to either stay quiet or hand over their accomplice saw individuals being rational. The best outcome was if they both stayed quiet and saw them both have reduced sentences, whilst if one stays quiet and the other hands the accomplice over, the accomplice will be sentenced with the one who handed him over going free. However, if they both handed each other over they would both have an increased sentence. This is part of game theory and is known as the prisoner’s dilemma. Being rational, the prisoners near enough always handed over their partner.Rational choice theorists would suggest t his can be transferred to the political arena by explaining that they would act with this level of self-interest in all situations, including within the political arena. Nonetheless, it is important to note that choosing between imprisonment and who governs are two completely different scenarios. To say that individuals would act the same in both situations with little evidence to show this is somewhat illogical. For example when confronted by a woman asking you for your wallet you may decide to refuse, but when she is holding a gun to your head your answer may change.The game show whereby similar outcomes are offered to two people but instead of prison sentences, the outcome is how much money they receive is evidence of how the answer depends on what is at stake. Within this show there were always different combinations of answers with both self-interested people and people willing to share. From this essay it is clear that there are many weaknesses. However, it should not go un-no ticed that one of the most influential factors that caused the increasing use of the rational choice approach was its vigour. Whilst other approaches offer mere descriptions, rational choice theory goes into deep questioning.Furthermore, the methodology is greater than any other with the use of experiments to allow for more precise, qualitative data to be recorded. On the other hand it could be argued that the use of rational choice approach ignores the study of institutions by focusing solely on the individual. All theories possess strengths and weaknesses. It is also apparent that different approaches may offer more concise measurements in different areas so it is important not to rely on one particular approach, but instead use a variety to allow for a more reliable analysis.Despite the outlined weaknesses, it has had much success in the field of economics. Some may argue that this means we should stick with it as a way of analysing politics. However, I fear that it is not plausi ble to simply transfer a theory from one subject to another, despite both being social sciences. This is due to the nature of politics being focused on equal distribution and fairness (in the vast majority of countries due to the democratic values resulting in a government for all the people).If people were as self-interested as the rational choice approach suggests then there would be a lot more extreme right-wing and left-wing parties present where the rich want to keep all of their money and the poor want as many benefits as possible. Instead we find a middle ground such as the liberal democrats in England. For this reason, it appears that the methodology does not compliment the ontology as no matter what experiments are carried out, none can be related to the political, as the European University Institute outlined.