Motivating Employees in internship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Motivating Employees in internship - Essay Example I believe money can buy most of the thing but it certainly cannot buy everything (Nohria, Groysberg & Lee, 2008). Mental peace, leadership and behavioral approaches of the leaders also motivate me significantly. Leisure time or time off refreshes my mind and it thus motivates me. That is why I don’t get enough motivations from money. To get motivations I need other things apart from the money. Only high money can’t motivate me. During the economic down turn managers can motivate people with the help of continuous persuasion. At that point of time generally subordinates feel that their career goals and objectives are beyond their reach. During that period of time managers should play a role of mentor where the mangers should inspire the people for more hard works. In the context of economic downturn, managers lead by example. During the period of economic boom, employees often feel that they can easily reach towards their goals. Under these circumstances employees generally take everything for granted. It results in to lots of mistakes from the side of the employee. In this circumstances managers should motivated their employees for further more excellence. Diversity in the workforce is highly important for the motivational efforts. It always increases the environment of motivation. Diversity is a factor that creates a sense of unity in the organizational context. Diversity creates an environment of information sharing. With the information sharing employees in the organization can share their ideas among them. It allows them to increase their organizational knowledge (Burton, 2012). Diversity creates cultural bridges among the highly diverse workforce. Cultural bridge can motivate the workforce and creates suitable organizational environment. All the above discussions and arguments are clearly indicating that, diversity in the workforce affects motivation efforts in positive ways. That means

Hathaway and Scottish Power Essay Example for Free

Hathaway and Scottish Power Essay 1.What is the possible meaning of the changes in stock price for Berkshire Hathaway and Scottish Power plc on the day of the acquisition announcement? Specifically, what does the $2.55 billion gain in Berkshire’s market value of equity imply about the intrinsic value of PacifiCorp? 2.Based on the multiples for comparable regulated utilities, what is the range of possible values for PacifiCorp? What questions might you have about this range? 3.Assess the bid for PacifiCorp. How does it compare with the firm’s intrinsic value? As an alternative, the instructor could suggest that students perform a simple discounted cash-flow (DCF) analysis. 4.How well has Berkshire Hathaway performed? How well has it performed in the aggregate? What about its investment in MidAmerican Energy Holdings? 5.What is your assessment of Berkshire’s investments in Buffett’s Big Four: American Express, Coca-Cola, Gillette, and Wells Fargo? 6.From Warren Buffett’s perspective, what is the intrinsic value? Why is it accorded such importance? How is it estimated? What are the alternatives to intrinsic value? Why does Buffett reject them? 7.Critically assess Buffett’s investment philosophy. Be prepared to identify points where you agree and disagree with him. 8.Should Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders endorse the acquisition of PacifiCorp? 1.What does the stock market seem to be saying about the acquisition of PacifiCorp by Berkshire Hathaway? 2.Based on your own analysis, what do you think PacifiCorp was worth on its own before its acquisition by Berkshire? 3.Do you think Buffett is overpaying? 4.Here are the major elements of Buffett’s philosophy. What do those elements mean? Do you agree with them? 5.Let’s return to the basic issue. Is the PacifiCorp acquisition a good or bad deal? Why?

Case Study- Bayfield Mud Company

Case Study- Bayfield Mud Company Dilip Navjot Amanpreet Singh Introduction According to the case study of the bag weight problem, therefore the control department gathered the weight bag as a sample from three different shifts (morning, afternoon, night) every day. As per given report the six samples collected per shift, therefore the size of the sample is six. To analysis the report of three different shift, we will apply x-bar chart and range chart. Moreover we will take mean value i.e is 50, explanation given below. In addition we will also calculate the range chart figure for every samples in different shifts, which will be find out by applying formula (Largest-Smallest). Analysis D3(Value taken from Sigma table)=0 D4 (Value taken from Sigma table)==2.004 N(Sample Size)=6 Standard Deviation=1.2 Desired Control Limit 3Sigma =99.73% Formulation For X Chart UCL x (Upper Control Limit for x bar) = X-Dbl Bar+Zà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ³x Lower Control Limit (Upper Control Limit = X-Dbl Bar-Zà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ³x à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ³x= is calculated by à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ³/Sqrt(n) For R Chart UCLR (Upper Control Limit for the Range) = D4*RBar LCLR(Lower Control Limit for the Range)= D3*Rbar Morning Shift For X Chart For R Chart Samples Time Shifts Average Smallest Largest Range X Bar (Averages) 49.80 R-Bar (CL) 3.45 1 6 Day 1 Morning 49.6 48.7 50.7 2.0 UCLx 51.27 LCL r 0.00 2 7 50.2 49.1 51.2 2.1 LCLx 48.33 UCL r 6.91 3 8 50.6 49.6 51.4 1.8 CL 50 4 9 50.8 50.2 51.8 1.6 5 10 49.9 49.2 52.3 3.1 6 11 50.3 48.6 51.7 3.1 7 12 48.6 46.2 50.4 4.2 8 1 49 46.4 50 3.6 9 6 Day 2 Morning 48.6 47.4 52 4.6 10 7 50 49.2 52.2 3.0 11 8 49.8 49 52.4 3.4 12 9 50.3 49.4 51.7 2.3 13 10 50.2 49.6 51.8 2.2 14 11 50 49 52.3 3.3 15 12 50 48.8 52.4 3.6 16 1 50.1 49.4 53.6 4.2 17 6 Day 3 Morning 48.4 45 49 4.0 18 7 48.8 44.8 49.7 4.9 19 8 49.6 48 51.8 3.8 20 9 50 48.1 52.7 4.6 21 10 51 48.1 55.2 7.1 22 11 50.4 49.5 54.1 4.6 23 12 50 48.7 50.9 2.2 24 1 48.9 47.6 51.2 3.6 Afternoon Shift For X Chart For R Chart Samples Time Shifts Average Smallest Largest Range X Bar (Averages) 48.93 R-Bar (CL) 4.38 1 2 Day 1 Afternoon 49 46 50.6 4.6 UCLx 50.40 LCL r 0.00 2 3 49.8 48.2 50.8 2.6 LCLx 47.46 UCL r 8.78 3 4 50.3 49.2 52.7 3.5 CL 50 4 5 51.4 50 55.3 5.3 5 6 51.6 49.2 54.7 5.5 6 7 51.8 50 55.6 5.6 7 8 51 48.6 53.2 4.6 8 9 50.5 49.4 52.4 3 9 2 Day 2 Afternoon 49.70 48.6 51 2.4 10 3 48.4 47.2 51.7 4.5 11 4 47.20 45.3 50.9 5.6 12 5 46.8 44.1 49 4.9 13 6 46.8 41 51.2 10.2 14 7 50 46.2 51.7 5.5 15 8 47.4 44 48.7 4.7 16 9 47 44.2 48.9 4.7 17 2 Day 3 Afternoon 49.8 48.4 51 2.6 18 3 49.8 48.8 50.8 2 19 4 50 49.1 50.6 1.5 20 5 47.8 45.2 51.2 6 21 6 46.4 44 49.7 5.7 22 7 46.4 44.4 50 5.6 23 8 47.2 46.6 48.9 2.3 24 9 48.4 47.2 49.5 2.3 Night Shifts X Bar Chart R Chart Samples Time Shifts Average Smallest Largest R-Bar X Bar Average 48.65 R- Bar (CL) 3.36 1 10 Day1 Night 49.2 46.1 50.7 4.6 UCLx 51.50 UCLr 6.73 2 11 49 46.3 50.8 4.5 LCLx 45.80 LCLr 0 3 12 48.40 45.4 50.2 4.8 CL 50 4 1 47.6 44.3 49.7 5.4 5 2 47.4 44.1 49.6 5.5 6 3 48.20 45.2 49 3.8 7 4 48 45.5 49.1 3.6 8 5 48.40 47.1 49.6 2.5 9 10 Day 2 Night 47.2 46.6 50.2 3.6 10 11 48.6 47 50 3 11 12 49.8 48.2 50.4 2.2 12 1 49.6 48.4 51.7 3.3 13 2 50 49 52.2 3.2 14 3 50 49.2 50 0.8 15 4 47.2 46.3 50.5 4.2 16 5 47 44.1 49.7 5.6 17 10 Day 3 Night 49.2 48.1 50.7 2.6 18 11 48.40 47 50.8 3.8 19 12 47.2 46.4 49.2 2.8 20 1 47.4 46.8 49 2.2 21 2 48.8 47.2 51.4 4.2 22 3 49.6 49 50.6 1.6 23 4 51 50.5 51.5 1 24 5 50.5 50 51.9 1.9 Analysis Report   Ã‚     Ã‚   After calculating and analysing the three different shifts of three days. We can observe that second shift and third shift consistently out of control. Although, 21 Samples of range chart is only out of control which is 7.10 which is greater than UCLr which is 6.9. Despite, this is only shift which is in control.    By observing the second shift it is clearly seen that x chart is out of control, whereas   R chart of second shift is in control only 13 Samples is out of control which is 10.20 whereas UCLr is 8.7842    Now, for third shift, the X bar Chart the process is consistently out of control whereas the R chart is perfectly in control. Recommendation. In order to control the system, Company should be done some changes, mention below In order to build up the productivity, training should be provide to the new employees especially in the night shift. Another solution company can shift experienced employee in night shift to maintain the balance. Bayfield Mud Company should examine their machinery on regular basis as prescribed by managers. As we know a small issued can convert into big hindrance at the time of execution. Company should hire some quality control specialist who can take proper responsibilities of audit and track every problems with all documents in efficient way. Bayfield Company should do automated testing device to observe the bag weights.

Aeronautical Engineers Essay example -- Papers

Aeronautical Engineers Description Aeronautical engineers apply the principle of science and technology in work with highly sophisticated products such as aircrafts, missiles and space satellites. They usually specialise in research, design manufacture and production, or the management of maintenance programs Qualifications required The usual qualifications for entry into this career is a degree. However, it may be possible to enter with an HND or HNC. Entry to a relevant engineering degree with: * 2/3 A-levels with GCSEs (A-C) 2/3 in other subjects * A relevant GCSE in a vocational subject or Intermediate GNVQ may be acceptable as an alternative to academic GCSEs * At A level, Maths and Physics are often preferred and may be essential. Equivalent qualifications such as an Edexcel (BTEC) or National Certificate or National Diploma or a Vocational A level (Advanced GNVQ) may be acceptable, it may also b advisable to check the prospectus. 1 A-level with 4 GCSEs (A-C). At A level, maths or physics is preferred. Again, equivalent qualifications are usually acceptable. Skills and Qualities necessary * You must be able to combine an analytical, logical approach with creativity and imaginations to solve problems * Engineers must be able to work as part of a team. The ability to encourage other peoples ideas is important, and you must aslope be flexible and able to compromise. You will need strong communication skills to write reports and to explain complex engineering information to people from non-technical backgrounds. * You will need organisationa... ...rlines, the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence. Some Aeronautical Engineers apply their knowledge of Aeronautical in other areas, for example, in companies that make vehicles such as cares, trains and hovercrafts. You can also work in the communication industry, dealing with satellites, or in construction, dealing with high, winds blown structures. Contacts EMTA, Engineering Careers Information Service (ECIS), Emta House, 14 Upton Road, Watford, Hertfordshire WD18 0JT. (Freephone: 0800 282167)] Telephone :01923 238441 Email: ecis@emta.org.uk Website: www. Enginuity.org.uk Employer Engineering and Physicals Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon SN2 1ET (Award) Telephone :01793 444100 Email: infoline@epsrc.ac.uk Website: www. epsrc.ac.uk

Auditory and Visual Essay

If a variety of people are put through numerous trials of visual memory tests and auditory tests, then the people with better auditory memory will outnumber the people with better visual memory. Introduction Visual and auditory memory play vital roles in learning and development. They are both skills required to have throughout life. By definition, auditory memory is the ability to process information presented orally, analyze it, and store it to be recalled later. Visual memory by definition is the ability to process information presented visually, analyze it mentally, and remember it for a later time. Both of these skills are step-by-step developmental processes. They continue to grow when a person is growing themselves. Auditory memory is the ability to process information that is presented orally, analyze it mentally and store it to be remembered later. To be an auditory learner is to have a strong capacity for auditory memory. Auditory memory is also the ability to learn from instructions that were presented orally; it is an important skill that will help in life. Auditory memory has to be one of the most important skills in learning. Some children who show a delayed grasp of language have weak auditory learning skills, they also have difficulty understanding words. Parents can test their child’s auditory memory by saying a sequence of numbers and asking the child to repeat the numbers back to them. Through exercises auditory memory skills can be developed. Children as well as adults can sharpen their auditory memory skills. Visual memory is the ability to psychologically recall visual images in the form of objects, events, or words. Students with disabilities have a serious deficiency with visual memory. Storing and retrieving previously experienced visual sensations and perceptions when stimuli that were evoked originally are no longer present are involved in visual memory. Many researchers have stated that 80% of learning takes place through the eye with visual memory. Visual memory is crucial in the aspect of learning. If a person cannot adequately reproduce a sequence of stimuli, then they may not have developed their visual memory skills. People who have difficulty with visual memory have trouble overall remembering the visual appearance of words, a letter sequence of words, and spelling. When people have trouble with visual memory can often remember the letters in a word but not the sequence. Some people with serious writing and spelling difficulties have trouble with their visual memory skills. The differences are that auditory memory works with the ears auditorally and visual memory works with the eyes visually. To be an auditory learner is to have a strong capacity for auditory memory. Visual memory is the ability to psychologically recall visual images in the form of objects, events, or words. Auditory memory has to be one of the most important skills in learning. Visual memory is crucial in the aspect of learning. When people have trouble with visual memory can often remember the letters in a word but not the sequence. Auditory memory is also the ability to learn from instructions that were presented orally. Parents can test their child’s auditory memory. Caffeine can affect memorization by increasing it. The ability to remember is a basic but important function that is critical to survival today. Memory is especially important for students who live their lives learning. Age can also affect memorization ability. Studies have shown that staying active can help stabilize memory change when it comes to aging. There are a few ways to positively affect memory change; they include physical activity, mental activity and a healthy diet. The primary factor affecting a person’s memorization change is a medical condition. There are a few medical factors that can negatively affect memory change; medical disorders, diseases, emotional problems, medication, medical changes, and a poor diet. Crossword puzzles can help positively affect memorization. Hormonal changes can affect memorization. Adults are twice as likely to lose mental capacity. Many body parts are involved in auditory and visual memory. The posterior parietal cortex is a portion of the parietal lobe in the brain. Activity in the posterior parietal cortex is extremely correlated with the information that can be stored in visual memory. This suggests that the posterior parietal cortex is vital in our visual representation of the world. It acts as a limited storage area for everything we see. Another important body part involved in visual memory are the occipital lobes. They are located at the back of the brain. They receive and process information. The lobes tend to process colors and shapes. They are responsible for identifying colors while visually memorizing objects. Body parts involved in auditory memory are slightly different. Auditory sensory memory tends to be stored in the primary auditory cortex closer to the ear of presentation. However, auditory memory involves many different brain parts. The majority of brain regions involved in auditory memory are located in the prefrontal cortex. This is where the executive control is located, and is responsible for attention control. Brain areas are actually a major factor in understanding why some ways of memorizing things work better than other ways. Visual memory tends to be the most readily available to us. When your brain receives information, it begins to decide what it and isn’t important. It also begins to store it as long-term. Neural connections become more powerful as the information is received and is connected to emotions. Neurons are nerve cells, and a pattern of connections between them forms a memory. Seeing something familiar tends to have a greater impact on the mind than hearing something familiar. The brain can form new neural pathways and alter existing connections. It is very easy to improve visual and auditory memory. If one organizes and structures the information they are trying to memorize, it will help immensely. It is important to visualize concepts to improve memory. Charts, graphs, and photos are all great things to look upon when memorizing. Numerous research studies have been done on visual and auditory memory. Much effort has been dedicated to investigating the capacity limits of memory in the brain. Steven J. Luck and Edward K. Vogel are two men from the University of Iowa who are known for their research on this topic. They sorted memory into two categories- long term and short term. These findings are foundation for all different types of memory. Experimental Procedure 1. In this experiment, number sequences will be needed for the test subjects to remember. Each number sequence should be composed of the numbers 0–9 and be seven digits long. This random number generator can be used to figure out the number sequences. http://www. random. org/nform. html 2. The experimenter should fill out the form on the generator so it has 7 integers, 1 as the smallest value, 9 as the largest value, and a format in 7 columns. Then the experimenter should hit â€Å"Get Numbers† and a new page will appear with 7 listed numbers at the top. To get new numbers, it is not necessary to fill out the form again, so simply click the refresh button on the browser window and a new set of random numbers appears: 3. The experimenter should write one number sequence on each index card, until the deck of cards consists of about 50 different random sequences. This deck will be used for the experiment. 4. The experimenter should find 25 random research participants, and ask each test subject to take two memory tests. Then give them the two following tests: A: To test one’s visual memory, show the subject a card for 30 seconds and time with a timer. Take back the card and have the subject recite the alphabet. Then ask the subject to say what the numbers were. Write down how many numbers the subject got right. This will be the subject’s score. Record the score. B: To test one’s auditory memory, read the sequence of numbers on a different card three times slowly. After the numbers have been read, have the test subject recite the alphabet. Then ask the subject to say what the numbers were. Write down how many numbers the subject got right. This will be the subject’s score. Record the score. 5. Calculate the percentage of people who received each score. Do this by first adding the total number of participants for each test, then divide the number of people receiving the score by the total number of participants in the study. Multiply the answer by 100 to get the percentage. 6. Analyze the data by making a histogram. On the left side of the graph (Y-axis), write a scale for the percentage of people from 0 to 100%. On the bottom of the graph, write a scale for the number of correct responses from 0 to 7.

Hume and Kant on Free Will Essay

Abstract This paper is an attempt to show how Kant’s ideas concerning practical and transcendental freedom of the will was a significant correction to the parallel theories of Hume. It starts out by clarifying Hume’s critique of free will, especially as it appears in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. It draws the conclusion that Hume’s philosophy is espousing skepticism, and that Kant’s effort is to overcome this skepticism and restore trust in reason. The philosophy of Kant is outlined in order to make the last point. It is generally agreed that Kant supplied the definitive stamp to philosophy that ushered in the modern age. Hume, though enormously influential in his time, and a favorite in the French salons of philosophy, fell into disrepute in the Victorian era, and only since has become a subject of restored interest. Yet Hume is the philosopher cited by Kant as having stirred him from his â€Å"dogmatic slumbers’. He had espoused a philosophy of empirical skepticism, so thorough and devastating in its scope that it became impossible for Kant to remain in his settled certainties of Newtonian science. It was the spur that carried him on to compose the Critique of Pure Reason (1781), where reason is restored, and man is once more vindicated as a rational being. Just because he refuted and answered Hume’s skepticism does not imply that the latter philosophy is nullified. We must keep this in mind, that Hume’s skepticism is completely valid as far as sense experience is concerned, and Kant does not refute any part of this philosophy. What he does is posit a further dimension to human understanding, specifically, the synthetic a priori faculty of the mind, the existence of which Hume did not suspect. Only after this addition is the primacy of reason restored. So we cannot say that Kant has destroyed Hume’s philosophy, rather he has added to it. Central to Hume’s skepticism is his critique of â€Å"cause and effect†, which is spelled out to its most profound depths in chapter VII of the An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748). The preliminary task is to outline the copy principle. The premise to this is that all knowledge begins from sense experience. Among such we are able to distinguish between primary and secondary sensations. The primary sensations are extension, motion, inertia etc, which are indeed the concepts that physics tackles. Color, taste, smell etc are said to be secondary sensations, composed or derived from the primary ones. The copy principle says that the primary sensations, though not delivering complete information from the material object – which is more poignantly described as â€Å"the object in itself – nevertheless is a faithful copy of it. This is why primary sensations are distinct and forceful presences in our mind. Secondary sensations are in turn copies of the original copy, and due to this derivative nature they lose distinctness to us. We will examine the copy principle of Hume in a moment. For the time being we accept it as such and consider the consequences. For Hume’s purposes, it has allowed him to refer to objects and their motions with confidence, and not to be held back by the validity of these concepts. For without the principle we don’t know as yet that objects are objects, and motion is motion, and we would have had to deal with a chaos of sense experience, and nothing meaningful to refer to it against (1993, p. 12). So now, with the copy principle of Hume as foundation, we proceed to talk about objects in motion. Next, we observe interdependence between objects, carried out in space and time. We â€Å"know† that motion in one object is â€Å"cause† to motion in another. A billiard ball in motion strikes another, and after impact the second acquires a velocity too, and the faculty of our understanding tells us, without the least inkling of doubt, that the impact imparted by the first ball is the cause of the second ball gaining motion. This understanding is so refined that we can, with a little help from Newton’s mechanics, predict the exact trajectory of the second ball by analyzing the trajectory of the first. We know it, but how do we know it? This is the crucial question for Hume. For if we do not have the answer we are left with skepticism. After impact with the first ball the second could have taken any one of an infinite number of trajectories. But it takes only one, and indeed we expect it to take only that one. A physicist may come along and try to convince us that it could not have taken any other trajectory because the laws of motion stipulates that, with the initial conditions given, the path it takes is the only possible one. But this is not an answer to the observer of the billiard ball, because he doesn’t care what the laws of physics are. If nature had followed another mathematical law then another outcome would have been just as valid. The observer could then have framed his conundrum differently: Of the infinite possible mathematical laws why just that one? There is nothing in the inner logic of the situation that dictates that the first ball should produce exactly the prescribed trajectory in the second. Hume said this about the experimental set-up, that we may try an experiment ten times, and may arrive at the exact same result ten times. But this does not prove that the specific outcome is inevitable. Not even if we confirmed the outcome a million times, because we would still only have a statistical probability and not a proof. Hume’s conclusion is that there is no rational link between cause and effect. Yet we expect effect to follow cause, immediately and irrevocably. If this is so then, explains Hume, it is a feeling transmitted to us by custom. What exactly he means by custom is left vague. He could not have meant anything other than â€Å"observing over and over again†, even though this fails to take into account new experience. He himself supplies a famous counterexample in the Enquiry. Some one who has experienced all the shades of blue, except for a tiny strip of the spectrum, is expected to report a gap when looking at the full spectrum of blue. But the fact is that he does not observe a gap at all, and recognizes at once the full spectrum of blue, even though he is experiencing a particular shade on blue for the first time. The recognition was instantaneous, and the eye did require â€Å"accustoming† beforehand. This readily disposes the theory of â€Å"custom†. Hume, however, continues to insist that our convictions regarding cause and effect can have no other source than custom. That the inference to custom is a vague one is made clear when he comes to consider free will. The very act of consciousness, he says, testifies to the existence of free will. But coming to reflect on how it is possible that we are able to willingly set our limbs into motion, and to move and external object thereby, it appears nothing less than miraculous. The mystery in nothing less than how one immaterial body imparts momentum to another: For first: Is there any principle in all nature more mysterious than the union of soul with body; by which a supposed spiritual substance acquires such an influence over a material one, that the most refined thought is able to actuate the grossest matter? (Hume, 1993, p. 43) The upshot is that we cannot explain free will, just as surely as we cannot explain cause and effect. ‘Custom’ was hesitantly introduced to explain cause and effect, and the same comes to the rescue of free will. As constant observers of nature we come to expect an effect to always follow a cause, and the same analysis ought to be applied to the orbit of human will. In all times and in all places humans have shown a constancy in their day to day affairs, which points to a constancy in human nature. The speculation concerning the scope of free will is overdone by the philosophers, maintains Hume. The exercise of free will, when looked at through the vista of human history, does not display divergence as much as it displays constancy. Hume broaches on the distinction between freedom and necessity to make this point clear. Inanimate objects convey to us most clearly the quality of freedom. We may describe an inanimate object as indifferent to the rest of the material universe, and in that sense free. But this freedom also entails necessity. The object is subject to the necessary laws of causation, and indeed is bound entirely by them. This is the relationship that binds cause and effect to inanimate objects, and is a relationship that is composed of both freedom and necessity. Hume transposes the same analysis to the relationship between human beings and free will. The will is indeed free, but being so implies that it conforms to human nature. He proposes the following definition: By liberty, then, we can only mean a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will; this is, if we choose to remain at rest, we may; if we choose to move, we also may. (1993, p. 63) The notion of free will advanced here bears a crucial difference to the popular one, and begs to be spelt out. What Hume describes as free will is not a choice between course ‘A’ and ‘B’. Rather the choice is between ‘A’ and ‘not A’, the latter implying stagnation, not an alternative course. This is the entire extent of our free will. We choose either to move forward, or else to stand still. This is what Hume would describe as freedom to act. Free will, however, is in complete accordance with human nature, and therefore follows the laws of necessity, just as everything else in contingent reality. Free will urges us to act â€Å"freely†. With freedom to act we may respond to this urge, or we may desist. In the final analysis our understanding of free will hinges on custom, in the same way as does our understanding of cause and effect. The past is guide to the future in the probabilistic sense. Beyond probabilities we have no understanding of either, contends Hume. In order to enforce this skepticism he proceeds to dismantle the Cartesian theories that pretended to explain mind and matter interaction, especially the theory of occasionalism advanced by Father Nicholas Malebranche. In this theory God is made both motivator and executor of every act or incident that seems to be â€Å"cause†, while the circumstances which we call a cause are only occasions for God to act in such a manner. Hume complained that this not only made God a slave to his own creation, but it also eradicated free will, making everything â€Å"full of God† (1993, p. 47). By disposing summarily the Cartesian explanations of cause and effect Hume makes his skepticism complete. Kant overcomes this skepticism by revising the premise of Hume. The correction is made most forcefully in the opening to the Critique: Although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises entirely from experience.   For it is quite possible that our empirical knowledge is a compound of that which we receive through impressions and that which our own faculty of knowing (incited by impressions) supplies from itself†¦ (1999, p. 1) To be fair to Hume, he does consider this possibility, and ponders whether there is a blueprint in the mind where all ‘causes’ and all ‘effects’ can be referred back. (1993, p. 44). But he dismisses this idea when he realizes that a static blueprint can never account for the dynamic reality. However, the faculty that Kant is suggesting is not static, rather dynamic and creative, and here lies the crucial difference. In the technical terms of Kant it is the synthetic a priori faculty of the mind. This is distinguished from the analytic a priori faculty, such as logic. The rules of logic are extant in the mind (a priori), but form a self-consistent system (analytical), and therefore do not depend on sense experience. On the first instance it seems impossible that the mind can have a faculty that is synthetic a priori, where synthetic implies that it is creative. It entails that order is created out of the chaos of sense experience, and order that was not there before. But Kant also provides proof that the mind is capable of synthesis. Mathematical propositions are synthetic a priori, he contended. The proposition â€Å"3 + 5 = 8† may sound like self-consistent logic, but it is not really so. â€Å"8† is a completely new concept, and is not contained in either â€Å"3†, â€Å"5† or â€Å"+†. If we know that â€Å"3 + 5 = 8†, it is due to a synthetic a priori faculty in the mind. As Kant relates in the Prolegomena, when he realized that mathematical propositions are indeed synthetic a priori, it led him to ponder on what other such concepts the mind uses to facilitate understanding, and it appeared to him, in due course, that â€Å"cause and effect† was a concept of understanding that derives from the same faculty. He does not at all concern himself with material reality as a â€Å"thing in itself†, that which the materialist philosophers were after in order to provide a foundation to Newtonian science. Like Hume he maintains throughout that an absolute material reality is beyond knowledge, and to speculate on its existence was futile. We only need to consider what we perceive and what we do. He also shows that Hume falters at exactly those points where he cannot dismiss material existence in itself. The copy principle is slavish to a material object in itself. The object does not deliver copies to our mind; rather the mind provides the concepts of space in which we are able to conjure up material objects from sensory data. Both â€Å"space† and â€Å"time† are pure concepts of the mind, contends Kant, and like â€Å"cause and effect† are the tools by which we come to understand contingent reality (Prolegomena, 2005, p. 26). As soon as it is made out that we are the responsible architects of our own reality, and are not passive bystanders to an absolute material reality beyond our control, we suddenly discover ourselves as moral beings. Therefore the subsequent direction of Kant’s philosophy, after the metaphysics of understanding has been established, is towards a metaphysics of morals. And so emerges the crucial distinction that Kant makes between practical and transcendental freedom. To say that we have practical freedom implies we are able to understand the world, and by doing so we direct the will accordingly. We will do so of course for practical purposes – survival, utility, convenience, happiness etc. this would seem to cover the entire orbit of freedom. But Kant went on to demonstrate, in his Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), that such freedom is not actually freedom at all, and indeed is a binding. Thus far Kant is in concord with Hume. Now, the metaphysics of understanding, as spelt out in the Critique, is not the entire picture. The synthetic a priori faculty of the mind fashions understanding out of sensory experience. But such understanding does not lead to truth. As pure concepts of understanding space and time are both necessarily infinite. But because they emanate from the finite mind they are also finite. So in their very make-up space and time lead to contradictions. The same end must necessarily meet anything that takes place within space and time. So that matter is both infinitely divisible and also made up of concrete building blocks. As another example, we have free will, but at the same time everything is caused, so we don’t have free will. Such examples are put forward by Kant as pairs of â€Å"antinomies†. According to our understanding both consequences are valid, and yet they mutually contradict each other. All practical reasoning necessarily leads to pairs of antinomies. This must be so, because we reason by means of subject and predicate, where the subject is the cause of the predicate. But this subject is in turn predicate to another subject, and so on in an infinite chain of causation. If there was an ultimate subject at the beginning of this chain, we could have claimed to have discovered the final cause, and thereby have at hand a pronouncement of truth. But in contingent reality there is no such final cause. So whenever we try to make pronouncements of truth we must face contradiction. We cannot say that practical reason is false for this reason. Life is ruled by contingencies, and practical reason is to explain the contingent, or to facilitate such understanding. Absolute truth lies beyond all contingencies, and this is ruled by â€Å"pure† reason, explains Kant. It is not within the grasp of the human mind, yet it is the underpinning of the mind, and is the source of all innate faculties. The same analysis applies to practical freedom, which is but the corollary to practical reason. With practical freedom we choose our course according to practical reason, i.e. we are motivated by self-serving motives – happiness, honor, respectability, and so on. But in doing so we bind ourselves to those endless chains of contingencies, so that we are not really free. We chase material acquisition in order to be happy, and yet it always eludes us. The definition of freedom is to escape all contingencies, and yet by the application of practical reason we are mired more and more into contingent reality. Therefore we are not free. This is indeed a contradiction, one which Hume does not pay heed to. The very act of consciousness tells us that we are free, that out will is free. If practical reason does not embody this freedom, then surely pure reason must do so. By the same token, we are in possession of a transcendental freedom, which is a path that overcomes all contingencies, and is dictated by pure reason. Kant describes this path as the moral one. We recognize and follow this path from a sense of duty. To clarify what it is, duty is done for its own sake. There is no material motive whatsoever attached to it. Not for any particular good, it is done for the universal good. It is a categorical imperative, meaning that the very make-up of our being, or pure reason, dictates that we follow it. As an aid to identifying one’s duty Kant devised the following wording for the categorical imperative: â€Å"I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law† (Moral Law, 2005, p. 74). Kant is described as overcoming Hume’s skepticism. But it is questionable whether the latter is a skeptic at all. According to a contemporary, Hume’s philosophical paradoxes are delivered with a confidence that belies skepticism: â€Å"Never has there been a Pyrrhonian more dogmatic† (qtd. in Mossner, 1936, p. 129). A more recent reassessment of Hume is carried out by the German Neo-Kantian philosopher Ernst Cassirer, who opines, â€Å"Hume’s doctrine is not to be understood as an end, but as a new beginning† (1951, p. 59). The nature of this new beginning is well articulated by Hume himself. â€Å"Indulge your passion for science,† nature tells us, according to Hume, â€Å"but let your science be human, and such as may have a direct reference to action and society† (Hume, 1993, p. 3). If we listen carefully, the moral note that Hume is sounding is hardly different from that of the categorical imperative of Kant. Not for the person’s sake, but for humanity’s sake. Not for the particular good but for the universal good. This is the essence of Hume’s projected â€Å"science of man†, as it is also the heart of Kant’s metaphysics of morals. References Cassirer, E. (1951). The Philosophy of the Enlightenment. Trans. Fritz C. A. Koelln and James P. Pettegrove. Boston: Beacon Press. Hume, D. (1993). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. E. Steinberg (Ed.) Boston: Hackett Publishing. Kant, I. (1999). Critique of Pure Reason. W. S. Pluhar (Trans.), E. Watkins (Ed.) Boston: Hackett Publishing. Kant, I. (2005). Kant’s Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing. Kant, I. (2005). The Moral Law: Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals. Translated by H. J. Paton. New York: Routledge. Mossner, E. C. (1936). Bishop Butler and the Age of Reason: A Study in the History Of Thought. New York: Macmillan.