Last philosophy paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Last philosophy paper - Essay Example nce, if a philosopher asks whether knowledge originates in the senses or in the mind, this presupposes the philosopher has the right concept of knowledge, of mind, of senses, and of origination. Without these more basic concepts, the philosophical enterprise is doomed to wander aimlessly. An equally popular example of a philosophical question is, naturally, What is the meaning of life? Likewise, this question presupposes an understanding of the terms involved, and through a realized insight into what the terms refer to, one might come to understand the answer to the question. The question I am asking reflects on that existential quest for meaning. However, the quest for meaning I am concerned about deals not with life in general, but with the subject of a life. What is the meaning of my life? By changing the question, I have introduced a new term, but one which simplifies the issue and makes my life in particular something which must be grasped before attempting to answer the question. However, it is unclear is how I am to understand my life. As opposed to life in general, my life is defined by particular values and experiences that are not shared between different people or cultures. For example, my career as a Director of Sales and Marketing is driven by my experiences, knowledge, and values that I alone possess. My individuality reduces the issue to one of narrowing down what is important to me and finding values in those experiences. Asking the question in terms of my life provides a certain methodology for understanding how to answer the question, for if life shares certain essential characteristics, then it would not matter if it were my life the question asked about, or my neighbors life. This is the existentialist slant in trying to find an answer to the question. The philosopher Sà ¸ren Kierkegaard called this kind of answer a â€Å"leap of faith†1, and that the values, which belong to individuals, vary enough to give themselves, and their lives,

How successful the Vietnamese people living in the United States are Research Paper

How successful the Vietnamese people living in the United States are today since they came to the United States after 1975 - Research Paper Example ounterparts who immigrated to the United States from East Asia mainly for economic interests, the Vietnamese are less accomplished both financially and academically. Even though the community of Vietnamese immigrants in the United States faces many challenges, their economic status has been reported to have improved dramatically, especially between the late 1980s and the early 2000. In 1989 for instance, the Vietnamese Americans who lived below the poverty line formed 34 percent of the entire Vietnamese American population while in 1999 the number had reduced by more than half to 16 percent (Bankston 213). On the social front, Vietnamese Americans have made notable steps ever since they came to the United States. According to Collette (57), a study carried out in 2008 showed that the Vietnamese community in the United States is one among the most assimilated immigrant communities in the country. Despite the lower rate of economic and cultural assimilation as compared to other immigrant groups, the rate of civic assimilation in the community was the highest among the relatively large groups of immigrants (Collette 59). The study attributed the slower rates of economic and cultural assimilation to the language difference with the American communities. The high rates of civic assimilation were attributed to the fact that, since most of them are political refugees, they expect to stay permanently in the United States and, therefore, have become more involved in politics than most of the other immigrant groups. Most of the Vietnamese Americans are anti-communism. This made most of them support the Republican Party, although the support has reportedly been eroded in the recent past. They preferred the Republican Party since they view the Democratic Party as not as anti-communist as the Republican Party is. However, the second generation of the immigrant group as well as the newer and poorer refugees has been reported to show support for the Democratic Party. Even then,