Reflection of the Oppressed - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 535 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/09/13 Category Advertising Essay Did you like this example? Reflection of the Pedagogy of the Oppressed So far throughout my school career, I have noticed that I have become a victim of memorizing information the teacher preaches but I never really analyze the importance. For example, the Healthcare debate that has been going on throughout the last couple of years. I know that Obama is establishing a new healthcare plan but if someone asked me a question about the importance of the healthcare plan, I could not tell you the answer. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Reflection of the Oppressed" essay for you Create order I have finally been able to start analyzing the importance of literature beginning with the Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire begins by talking about the relationship between the teacher and the student. â€Å"The relationship involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students). † In the case he describes the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing so therefore the teacher is to fill the minds of the students with his or her knowledge. Freire describes this situation as one in which the students are seen as containers into which knowledge can be deposited. The teacher is the depositor and the knowledge is that which is deposited on a daily basis much like bankers deposit money. This bank concept of education attempts to transform the minds of individuals so that they will adapt better to actual situations and be dominated by them with greater ease. Freire, however, rejects the banking approach, claiming it results in the dehumanization of both the students and the teachers. In addition, he argues the banking approach stimulates oppressive attitudes and practices in society. Instead, he advocates for a more world-mediated, mutual approach to education that considers people incomplete. According to Freire, this authentic approach to education must allow people to be aware of their incompleteness and strive to be more fully human. After reading this exert from the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, I have come to understand what Freire is trying to convey to the reader. In the beginning it talks about how a student knows nothing and it is the teachers job to deposit students with their knowledge (the banking concept). I believe knowledge is earned and is a privilege to have. It is a gift that is given by those who are knowledgeable to those who know nothing and work hard to receive it. Although knowledge is given, it is not always stored which is why I understand that Freire rejects the idea of the banking concept. Teachers can lecture to students all day long about information and tell them to take notes but not always is the information stored. As Albert Einstein once said, â€Å"information is not knowledge. I have grown to understand the concept of making notes not taking notes and it is now very important in every aspect of my learning. In conclusion, Freire develops many ideas in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The teacher is not always the subject and the students are not always the patient, listening objects. Teachers learn from students as do students learn from teachers but it is very important to remember that the teacher is the one who is more knowledgeable therefore filling the minds of the students with his or her own knowledge.

Statistical Applications - 1295 Words

Running Head: WATSON AND PALEY: COMPARISON AND CONTRAST Watson and Paley: Comparison and Contrast Penelope K. Gates RNBC HCS350 Jean Watson received her nursing diploma from â€Å"Lewis-Gale School of Nursing† in Roanoke, VA, in 1961. She went on to complete her undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Colorado. She obtained a â€Å"PhD† in educational psychology and counseling in 1973. Her primary work has been in the psychiatric field of nursing. Dr. Watson has taught many nursing courses through the years as well as did research and wrote numerous books and articles. Most of her work since 2000 has been on her theory and philosophy of caring. She has traveled and lectured across the world, studying and lecturing on her†¦show more content†¦Friedrich Nietzsche was a philosopher in the nineteenth century from Germany. Even today is philosophy is questioned and continues to be controversial. His views on morality and religion were the cause for much discussion in his time. Nietzsche â€Å"challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality† (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2010). His writings had a provocative style and to this day no agreement has been reached regarding the meaning. To compare the work of Jean Watson and John Paley is like comparing mud and water. Watson believes that caring is essential for the healing process. Paley finds that there is not enough fact based evidence. Paley believes that the idea related to â€Å"care ethics† (Paley, 2011, p. 242) has not been established or proven true by theorists. He speculates that there may be an authoritarian or paternalistic attitude involved when using the caring theory with patients. In contrast, Paley disagrees with not only Watson’s theories but also other theorists. Paley states that the theory’s only serve as a theoretical discourse. He has presented criticism on almost all of the nursing theories. Paley states in a book review of a book written by Martha Alligood and Ann Tomey that the theories are vague and not competitive with other theorists (Paley, 2006, p. 276). Watson’s theory and beliefs about nursing are considered to be philosophy ofShow MoreRelatedApplication Of Statistical Knowledge For Business1532 Words   |  7 PagesApplication of Statistics in Business Introduction In making important decisions for the business, the collection and accurate analysis of data is one of the most imperative processes. The analysis helps in determining the preferences of the consumers, the quality that the consumers want, the level of competition in the market and the financial ability of the business among others. 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The Philosophy Of Schizophrenia Essay Research Paper free essay sample

The Philosophy Of Schizophrenia Essay, Research Paper Phil-229 Trinity College In his book, The Paradoxes of Delusion, Louis Sass attempts to refute two of most prevailing beliefs of the schizophrenic individual. He argues that by sing the schizophrenic psychotic beliefs in visible radiation of solipsism, a doctrine of being, the schizophrenic may look far more apprehensible. Through his comparing of the schizophrenic and solipsist worlds, Sass explains that non merely is schizophrenia apprehensible, but that there exists within the construction of schizophrenic psychotic belief a apparently paradoxical province which in actuality approximates a kind of logic more than anything else. Therefore, harmonizing to Sass, schizophrenic disorder should non be deemed a province of unreason, but instead a ground which consequences from a double conceptualisation of the world. Sass first introduces the traditional apprehension of lunacy and psychotic belief. The most cardinal footing under which a individual is diagnosed as insane is when he displays a hapless of false apprehension of his environment, called? hapless world proving. ? ? # 8230 ; perturbation in or failure of? reality-testing? is considered to be the shaping standard for naming a so called psychotic condition. ? ( p.1 ) The inability to right comprehend world is considered to be the footing for psychotic belief, the basic feature of lunacy. But, as Sass explains, patients with schizophrenic disorder, ? the most terrible and paradigmatic sort of insanity, ? frequently do non expose existent hapless reality-testing. While schizophrenic patients tend to harmonize great importance to their psychotic beliefs, they do non manage said psychotic beliefs in the same manner that they handle what they understand to be nonsubjective world. ? # 8230 ; many schizophrenics who seem to be deeply preoccupied with their psychotic beliefs # 8230 ; handle these same beliefs with what seems a certain distance and irony. ? ( p.20-21 ) They seem to retain two apprehensions of world, so called? dual clerking, ? which allows them to be? in two analogues but separate universes: consensual world and the kingdom of their hallucinations # 8230 ; ? ( p.21 ) This construct helps to explicate why many schizophrenic patients do non move on their psychotic beliefs in a mode which is appropriate for the given delusional state of affairs. ? A patient who claims that the physicians and nurses are seeking to torment and poison her may nevertheless merrily consume the nutrient they give her. ? ( p.21 ) They believe that their psychotic beliefs are existent, but merely in the context of a universe known merely to them. ? Schreber insists # 8230 ; that such beliefs-he calls them? my alleged psychotic beliefs? -refers to a separate kingdom, one that does non actuate him to move and wherein the usual standard of worldly cogent evidence does non apply. ? ( p.31 ) While common apprehensions of hapless world proving include a patient? s belief in things which are objectively false or non-existent, Sass argues that many schizophrenics besides disbelieve those things which can be deemed objectively true or existent. ? # 8230 ; frequently schizophrenic psychotic beliefs involve non belief in the unreal but incredulity in something that most people take to be true. Schizophrenic patients may..speak incredulously of? my alleged kids and this alleged infirmary # 8230 ; ? ( p.24 ) Along with these? psychotic beliefs of incredulity, ? schizophrenic patients may comprehend other human existences as machines or apparitions which merely seem to be existent people. Sass besides explains how schizophrenic patients may believe that many of their experiences are merchandises of their ain head and consciousness, as if they have created the world which surrounds them by their ain idea. ? Schizophrenics may believe that they have invented everything they encounter-that # 8230 ; they themselves have merely invented the narrative they have merely read? ( p.22 ) Schreber believed that the insects he saw were created at the minute he looked at them, and disappeared every bit shortly as he looked off. These illustrations, along with the schizophrenic intuition refering the world of other human existences, are cardinal to Sass? likening of schizophrenic disorder to the philosophical impression of solipsism. A solipsist believes that his world is the merely true world, or as Wittgenstein puts it, ? The universe is my idea. ? ( p.34 ) Most fundamentally, solipsism refers to the belief that everything one perceives is a merchandise of his ain head. Like the schizophrenic, the solipsist positions other people as apparitions of a kind. ? For the solipsist, other people, other looking centres of consciousness, are but dream personages, figments of the solipsist? s ain witting activity and awareness. ? ( p.34 ) Because the most basic dogmas of solipsism are lived out in the schizophrenic psychotic beliefs, Sass believes that by sing the symptoms of schizophrenic disorder in visible radiation of the solipsist theoretical account of world, we can derive an apprehension of much of the schizophrenic status. Sass explains that Wittgenstein saw a strong connexion between solipsism and intense concentration or? staring. ? ? The phenomenon of staring is closely bound up with the whole mystifier of solipsism. ? ( p.35 ) Wittgenstein besides noted the importance of inaction to the solipsist experience. Sass explains that by interacting with and traveling about the universe, a individual has no pick but to accept the physical and nonsubjective quality of everything around him. This acknowledgment? precludes a sense of # 8230 ; subjectivization? ( p.35 ) therefore impeding the solipsist understanding that everything he sees is, in consequence, a merchandise of his ain head. By interacting with the world..one is obliged to acknowledge the universe? s distinctness # 8230 ; in a inactive province, the universe may expression instead different. The more one stares at things, the more they may look to hold a coefficient of subjectiveness ; the more they may come to look? things seen. ? When gazing fixedly in front, the field of consciousness as such can come into prominence ; so, it is as if the lens of consciousness were overcasting over and the universe beyond were taking on the aphanous quality of a dream. At this point, the individual can be said to see experience instead than the universe # 8230 ; ( pp.35-36 ) This is to state that the longer we stare at something, the more we think of a certain object in the sense of a ocular, instead than physical object. Viewed as the construct of an object instead than an object in and of itself, the thing takes on a extremely subjective quality. ? In this state of affairs, any object of consciousness tends to experience that it depends on me in some particular manner, belonging to my consciousness as a private and somehow inner possession. ? ( p.36 ) Sass points out that many of Schreber? s schizophrenic experiences were accompanied by merely such fortunes of intense concentration and about complete inaction. ? Apart from day-to-day forenoon and afternoon walks in the garden, I chiefly sat motionless the whole twenty-four hours on a chair at my tabular array # 8230 ; ? ( p.37 ) It appears that certain types of psychotic beliefs would non happen if Schreber were traveling about. ? The experience of ? miracled-up? insects # 8230 ; seems non to hold occurred unless Schreber was in a province of stationariness # 8230 ; if he sat down and waited he could really arouse this wasp miracle. ? ( p.38 ) Schreber? s experience of the? wasp-miracle? is possibly the really best illustration of the propinquity of the schizophrenic and solipsist kingdom. He believed that his regard provoked the self-generated coevals of the insects, an apprehension which gave Schreber the? sense of being the witting centre before whom and for whom events appear. ? ( p.38 ) Sass besides points out transitions of Schreber? s Memoirs which indicate his consciousness that other heads can non be, a cardinal impression of solipsism. ? The solipsist, who is so smitten with the undeniable actuality and centrality of his ain experience, evidently can non hold this same consciousness of the experience of others. In fact, the more he pays attending to his ain experience, the more improbable it seems that other people can hold anything like this-and the more others come to look # 8230 ; non truly witting existences at all. ? ( p.39 ) An apprehension of solipsism helps us to see why the schizophrenic patients fail to react to their psychotic beliefs or respond in what seems an inappropriate mode. As Sass explains, both schizophrenics and solipsists see world as a mental world of constructs or thoughts. Thus is would be mostly ineffectual to try to move out in any physical manner because touchable manoeuvres could hold no affect in a universe where nil is of substance. ? # 8230 ; in a solipsistic existence, to move might experience either unneeded or impossible: unneeded because external conditions are at the clemency of idea # 8230 ; impossible because existent action, action in a universe able to defy my attempts, can non happen in a strictly mental existence. ? ( p.42 ) In visible radiation of this? simply mental or representation? apprehension of the universe, it seems clear that a schizophrenic individual would of course talk in metaphor, something which Sass believes is frequently unknown or ignored. ? A failure to recognize that a patient may be depicting such a manner of experience can # 8230 ; lead to an overly actual reading by the healer, and therefore the misguided feeling that the patient? s world testing has broken down. ? ( p.44 ) Additionally, schizophrenic patients frequently perceive their ain physical organic structures as representational or conceptual. So when they have psychotic beliefs of their organic structures and other people? s organic structures undergoing extremist physical alterations, they are non bothered by it because it seems affectless and inconsequential, as if one were cutting up paper dolls. Sass explains that consideration of the solipsist world can exemplify a possible ground for the schizophrenic anxiousness, described by a physician of Schreber? s as a? tense? and ? cranky? province? caused by inner uneasiness. ? ( p.37 ) With the belief that the universe is a merchandise of one? s ain head comes, to a schizophrenic patient, an huge feeling of duty. They lack the luxury of holding the ability to? halt playing the game, ? if you will, and leave their beliefs behind. While the impression of single-handedly controlling being is accompanied by a sense of amazing power, it besides proceeds a fright of doing the death of the existence. ? One catatonic patient explained why she would keep herself immobile for hours in an uncomfortable place # 8230 ; it was, she said, for the intent of? halting the universe March to catastrophe? : ? If I win in staying in a perfect province of suspension, I will suspend the motion of the Earth and halt the March of the universe to destruction. ? ? ( p.50 ) Wittgenstein believes, and truly so, that solipsism is wrought with contradiction. Sass besides admits that schizophrenic patients are frequently plagued by their ain contradictions, most notably coincident feelings of omnipotence and powerlessness, and the desire to do others understand their experience while believing that they are the lone people capable of experience. Many of these contradictory impressions do non work within the context of the solipsist universe position, and therefore look at first to work against Sass? important comparing between schizophrenic disorder and solipsism. However, Sass proposes that the contradictory nature of the schizophrenic experience does non sabotage its close relation to solipsism, but instead demonstrates the propinquity of schizophrenic disorder to the inherently contradictory nature of solipsism itself. Schizophrenics typically oscillate persistently between a feeling of being a practical maestro of the existence and a belief that their very being is in some manner inconsequential. ? Schreber senses at times that his boundaries extend to the terminals of the existence: ? It appeared that nerves-probably taken from my body-were strung over the whole heavenly vault. ? But he besides feels that he is bantam, and about nonexistent being lost in the enormousness of space. ? ( p.65 ) While the latter may look to belie Sass? nexus between the schizophrenic delusional universe and the solipsist apprehension of world, Sass explains that if we merely follow Wittgenstein? s statement against the solipsistic point of view, we see that even in ego contradiction, the schizophrenic world may keep it? s near connexion with solipsism. A solipsist begins by believing in his cardinal, commanding function of the existence. Gazing and intense concentration give a individual the feeling that? merely me experience of the present minute is real. ? ( p.67 ) But, as Wittgenstein explains, if a individual follows the solipsist rules carefully, he will shortly recognize that he is does non see himself in his being, even though his experience is all that truly is. ? If he closely size up his experiences-which # 8230 ; are all that exists-he must acknowledge that he does non happen himself at that place. ? He goes farther to state that if a solipsist did see himself in his universe, it could merely be as an object of that universe, which is, in affect, a merchandise of ideas and thoughts. He can non, from this experience, confirm his omnipotence. ? # 8230 ; even if one did see oneself within one? s experience, that self, being within the phenomenal field, could be merely as an object, non in the function of the all powerful representing subjectiveness for which the solipsist yearns # 8230 ; ? ( p.68 ) Furthermore, since the solipsist believe the lone world is that which is perceived, and since he can non comprehend himself as anything but an object of his ain consciousness, it is necessary for the solipsist to believe there is another witting being which perceives him as an object, therefore corroborating his object world. But this grant besides undermines the primary dogma of his world being the lone world. With all of this in head, it seems clear that the schizophrenic patients could intelligibly experience both all and nil at the same clip. In Schreber? s instance, Sass points out, his? sense of being the solipsistic centre occurred at those minutes when he was besides sing the contradictory presence of another mind. ? ( p.73 ) The? one? whom Schreber speaks of so often is by and large a truster in the thought that Schreber creates the universe around him. This besides gives penetration into the typical schizophrenic? loss of ego, ? that is, the felling that one? s ideas are belong to some other consciousness or no 1 at all. This could besides be related to the feeling which schizophrenics have of some foreign power commanding the way of their regard. By showing that schizophrenic disorder mirrors a philosophic impression like solipsism, Sass successfully illustrates that it is non wholly accurate to believe in schizophrenic disorder as a province of irrationality. While one might right province that solipsism is in some manner unlogical and unreasonable in and of itself, it would be still be sensible to reason that there is some built-in logic or ground in the find of this built-in self-contradiction. If something is self-contradicting by nature, it is logical to reason that this is unlogical, and therefore we should non see schizophrenic disorder as irrationality because there is a kind of logic to its unlogical nature. Within the context of solipsism, it makes perfect, logical sense that a individual should experience Godheads and powerless at the same clip. It would look so, that schizophrenic disorder is, in a sense, the inconsequence of solipsism taken to it? s logical decision. Part of the ground Sass? decision makes so much sense is the simple fact that much of what the schizophrenics do does non look or sound like irrationality, but instead like a preoccupation or compulsion with ground itself. They invariably examine and size up every facet of themselves and their being. They do mental cheques and rechecks to do certain they are really take parting in the activity which they believe they are. They overanalyze every facet of normal human procedures and nature, and hunt for the ground and account behind every vellication and jitter, every sound their organic structure makes. Their manner of though is non unreason but over-reason, in which they frequently concentrate on one object for so long that it begins to take on a phantasmagoric quality within a individual? s ain head. As Sass points out, ? it is important that schizophrenic patients frequently do describe that executing some action or interaction with others makes their uneven perceptual experiences disappear-that when they comb their hair or shovel snow # 8230 ; the universe turns normal once more, at least for a time. ? ( p.113 ) This suggests that when a schizophrenic individual removes himself from the inactive universe, he has the ability to halt the delusions-the psychotic beliefs are at least partly a consequence of over analysis of the consensual universe. Schreber attempts to get away this universe of? compulsive thought, ? but can non. We must besides take into consideration another of import facet of schizophrenic disorder which Sass points out, viz. , ? eldritch particularity. ? Schizophrenics frequently view the universe with a ageless feeling that everything is go oning for a peculiar ground, that every action and happening points to something else. Unfortunately, they seldom know what such things point to, or why certain happenings are of import: they merely know that they are. ? A patient may see a Canis familiaris raising its left paw # 8230 ; or notices a ruddy pickup truck parked on a span under which he is about to go through. At the same clip, he feels perfectly sure that this is non an inadvertent occurrence # 8230 ; as if there were something merely excessively precise # 8230 ; ? ( p.100 ) This construct of world, in which a individual feels that everything he sees is slightly symbolic or declarative of something else, helps us to understand why schizophrenics have such jobs confronting the nonsubjective universe in a non-metaphorical sense. It besides sheds visible radiation on the desire of the schizophrenic to invariably analyse everything for meaning-while he has a cardinal belief that every event has significance or a intent, he does non cognize what that intent or significance is, and therefore hunts for it merely as any sane individual would make in such a state of affairs. Though their accounts for things do non ever jive with nonsubjective world, yet this surely does non intend that their whole idea procedure is unlogical. Their manner of ground works absolutely within their ain delusional world-we as sane people seem to miss the desire to come in this universe, though clearly accessible by basic use of a philosophic principle. More frequently than non a schizophrenic knows what he says doesn? T average anything to you-this shows non merely an apprehension of this world but a cardinal apprehension of their ain. 346

Strategic Theory Essay Example

Strategic Theory Essay Given the sea-change in warfare which has seemingly taken place since the publication of Clausewitz On War in the first half of the nineteenth century, it is logical to wonder whether or not the principles detailed in   On War comprise a suitable framework for discussion of modern warfare. Interestingly enough, Clausewitz himself divided the elements of war into distinctive categories: objective and subjective with which he hoped to describe those elements or qualities that every war has in common (such as friction and chance), as objective while subjective was used to infer those qualities that vary from war to war, such as the types of armed forces employed and their weapons and tactics. This distinction demonstrate that Clausewitz intended for hsi theories to bridge the gaps in time between his articulation of them and a later reading or study of his principles.   (Echevarria and Gray 2005) That said, it remains quite topical to ask: what role do Clausewitzs exhaustive theories on war play in modern considerations of warfare and, also, do Clausewitzs theories regarding war provide any useful paradigms or wisdom regarding the projection of warfare into humanitys future, beyond even our own contemporary times? To complicate matters, though Clausewitz did distinguish between objective and subjective elements in warfare, nowhere did he that the objective nature of war does not or cannot change; on the contrary: Clausewitz seems to suggest that warfare is more than a simple chameleon that only partially changes its nature from case to case with the implication that while there may be some definite underlying principles of warfare which extend unchanged to some degree throughout history, these aspects may also change color and not prove as reliably predicted or abstracted as one would hope. (Echevarria and Gray 2005) We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Theory specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Theory specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Theory specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Before probing the densities of Clausewitzs specific theories and principles of warfare as explicated in   On War for their   possible or probable relevance to present or future wars, it will prove useful to specifically determine just what aspects of modern warfare present the most challenging paradigm through which to view the theories presented in On War.   To begin, Kaldors the idea of old wars versus new wars is a relatively simple categorization:   with old standing   for a stereotyped version of war, drawn from the experience of the last two centuries in Europe, in which war consisted of a conflict between two symmetrical warring parties, generally states or proto-states with legitimate interests, and new wars standing for forms of war which adhere to asymmetrical models and produce more ambiguous forms of victory and defeat. Another distinction between old wars and new wars is that of potential destructiveness with the increase in the destructiveness and accuracy of all forms of military technology, as a consequence of the Clausewitzean logic of extremes, foisting an era which has made symmetrical war, war between similarly armed opponents, increasingly difficult. (Kaldor 2005, 210-211) While it seems obvious that modern asymmetrically based warfare has put a superficial strain on Clausewitzs overt definition of warfare as an act of force to compel our adversary to do our will; however, even when modern warfare is dissected for its potential variances from classical warfare, the net result may still be a potential fit for Clausewitzs aphoristic statement.     (Clausewitz 1950, 5) To some observers, modern warfare   can be defined in terms of identity politics, that is to say, the claim to control the state or bits of the state in the name of an exclusive group identified in terms of ethnicity, religion or tribe which yet comprises an attempt to compel an adversary by force to do our will although this type of exclusive politics, whether based on ethnicity, religion or clan, can be contrasted with universalistic ideologies like earlier liberal nationalism or socialism, which proposed a state-building project for the entire population and can, instead be regarded as expressions of will which originate outside of the nation-state. (Kaldor 2005, 212) However designated, acts of force in modern warfare adhere to Clausewitzs underlying and unifying principles of objective and subjective war.   At influence here also is the contrasts between strategic and tactical goals and practices. A superficial change in tactics, or even a radical shift in tactics, will not and should not be regarded as a change in the fundamental goals or elements of warfare. Since tactics teach the use of the armed forces in engagements, and strategy the use of engagements to attain the object of the war. (Clausewitz 1950, 62) The goal of war is to attain the strategic ends of the particular war: there is no single goal, no single purpose which can be said to encompass all wars; however victory and defeat can be defined as the measurement of whether or not a wars given strategic goals have been attained, regardless of the impetus, duration, or tactics involved in the overall prosecution of the war. In some instances, the goal of war will be the destruction of his [the enemys] military forces and the conquest of his provinces; in other wars, the strategic goal may be simply to cause the enemy to rethink his own position and strategy: If we attack the enemys forces, it is a very different thing whether we intend to follow up the first blow with a succession of others, until the whole force is destroyed, or whether we mean to content ourselves with one victory in order to shatter the enemys feeling of security, to give him a feeling of our superiority, and so to instil into him apprehensions about the future. (Clausewitz 1950, 21) These are two examples which span a good bit of the known strategic objectives of war or even the initiation of a single battle; they are not exhaustive examples and although they do represent divergent objectives, they also represent a simplification of historical evolution, along the lines of the old war new war paradigm and are meant simply to elucid ate the changeable nature of Clausewitzs over-reaching theories or at least the adaptability of these theories into a more modern setting. In modern wars, it may be more difficult to distinguish an offensive action from a defensive action. The American invasion of Iraq, for example, has applications as a defensive tactic in the larger strategic picture of the war on terror but the specific engagement on the ground in Iraq involves an exchange of offensive and defensive tactics depending on the specific engagement and circumstances of individual battles.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Seen from the side of Americas enemies, the war in Iraq finds a fitting expression by Clausewitz on dissipating what comprises the enemys strength: The enemys expenditure of strength lies in the wastage of his forces, consequently in the   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   destruction of them on our part, and in the loss of provinces, consequently the conquest of them by us. (Clausewitz 1950, 22) Strictly speaking, Clausewitz viewed defensive strategy as only a partial articulation of an overall war-strategy. His suggestion is that defense is really a tactical element: What is the conception of defense? The warding off of a blow. What then is its characteristic sign? The awaiting of this blow. This is the sign which makes any act a defensive one, and by this sign alone can defense be distinguished from attack in war however, Clausewitz is careful to point out that the use of defensive tactics alone completely contradicts the conception of war, because there would then be war carried on by one side only, it follows that defense in war can only be relative, and the above characteristic sign must therefore only be applied to the conception as a whole; it must not be extended to all parts of it. (Clausewitz 1950, 317) On the other hand, attacks in warfare provide the most direct extension of   Clausewitzs definition of warfare as   an act of force to compel our adversary to do our will and as such, the attack in Clausewitzs theories of war implies that the attacker either possesses the initiative in a given struggle or believes he does, or hopes to win initiative back through the use of an attack. Attacks, like defense, are a a prat of overall war strategy and seldom, if ever, comprise the pure totality of a given war strategy. In fact, as related above regarding the US invasion of Iraq single actions in a given campaign may be regarded as attacks in tactical connection, but defensive blows in relation to overall strategy. Both offense and defense must be regarded under Clausewitzs detailed analysis and definition of strategy: Strategy is the use of the engagement to attain the object of the war. It must therefore   Ã‚  Ã‚   give an aim to the whole military action, which aim must be in accordance with the   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   object of the war. In other words, strategy maps out the plan of the war, and to the   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   aforesaid aim it affixes the series of acts which are to lead to it; that is, it makes the plans   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   for the separate campaigns and arranges the engagements to be fought in each of them.                                   (Clausewitz 1950, 117) Implied in the above definition, which is also an implication of the goals of warfare, is the idea that prolonged struggle between opposing forces produces a series of engagements: some offensive, some defensive in nature and that the execution of tactical modes is a crucial aspect of whether or not success within the subjective ramifications of victory will be achieved by any side in a prolonged struggle. In this way, duration factors as one of the underlying elements of warfare in Clausewitzs theories. There can be no exact determination of the duration of any given war before its actual fighting: The duration of an engagement is necessarily bound up with its essential conditions. These conditions are: absolute amount of strength, relation in strength and arms between the two sides, and the nature of the country; however, extrapolation of probable duration from pre-engagement factors is only guesswork: a battle will dictate its own duration. (Clausewitz 1950, 187) That said, some expectations can be gleaned: A cavalry engagement is decided sooner than an infantry engagement; and an engagement entirely between infantry more quickly than if artillery is present; in mountains and forests we do not advance as quickly as on level ground. All this is clear enough if still shrouded in possible unknown contingencies.   However, knowing the probable duration of a given engagement can be of great help in determining tactical execution in battle, proper. (Clausewitz 1950, 187) In general, a long war is less desirable than a short war because a long war   represents the obstruction of a single victorious party in any given state of opposition, puts strain on the military forces, and dictates that many engagements, rather than few, will be resultant in the ensuing campaign. Since one hopes to achieve ones objectives in warfare as quickly as possible so as to prevent the possibility of some kind of unforeseen contingency or drastic change in conditions. Despite this generalization, Clausewitz is careful to point out that there is no question at all here of scientific formulas and problems. The relations of the material things are all very simple. The comprehension of the moral forces which come into play is more difficult. Still, even in respect to these, it is only in the highest branches of strategy that intellectual complications and a great diversity of quantities and relations are to be looked for suggesting that in prolonged struggles   as in those of short duration, the leadership roles and moral authority of the combatants in question plays a decisive role in the outcome of such engagements. (Clausewitz 1950, 118) This alter observation offers the modern reader an important insight into the fluidity of Clausewitzs paradigms which seem to partake of the objvctive only insomuch as they become insulated from the damaging influences of time and historical advancement in military theory. Clausewitzs observation that due to the aforementioned moral considerations, strategy borders on politics and statesmanship, or rather it becomes both itself, and, as we have observed before, these have more influence on how much or how little is to be done than on how it is to be executed and this observation, apart from Clausewitzs exhaustive and precise explication of the fundamentals of warfare at a tactical and strategic level, may stand as the most important of all for the modern student. Clausewitzs conclusion regarding the moral influences of war may seem, far and away beyond his notions of objective and subjective or his definitions of the means and ends of warfare, as the most antiquated notion of all.   However, his admonition that the execution of war lies somewhat beyond its moral or political causes is clear when he states that in the single acts of war both great and small, the mental and moral quantities are already reduced to a very small number. (Clausewitz 1950, 118) In conclusion, Clausewitzs On war offers the modern reader an uncannily prescient vision of modern war and its paradigms. The interested student will leave Clausewitzs writings with a much deeper understanding of the objective and subjective criteria which define and occasion armed conflict and it seems prudent to suggest that the definitions of warfare and the definitions of tactics and strategy forwarded by Clausewitz have increased rather than decreased in relevancy over the intervening centuries.