The Greatest Impact on Western Civilization Essay

The Greatest Impact on Western Civilization - Essay Example In short, without the ideas that came from the Intellectual Revolution, there would be not much change in Europe and America, and revolutions for independence and efforts for the development of commerce and industry would not have been possible. The Intellectual Revolution was actually brought about by a deluge of scientific ideas that created an impact â€Å"on the way people live and think† and thus changed their â€Å"view of the nature of reality† (â€Å"Chapter 23†). Because of the scientific ideas brought about by the scientists of the Enlightenment like Newton, Copernicus and Pascal, â€Å"it [was] no longer possible to maintain that the sun [revolved] about a motionless earth, or that there [were] four terrestrial elements: earth, air, fire, and water† (â€Å"Chapter 23†). This implies that with the advent of the Scientific Revolution, people started assessing the validity of their beliefs through reason and stopped believing in superstition s. Moreover, perhaps the most important change was that people began to think and perhaps sought out the reasons for their own existence. Discoveries in the field of science like astronomy somehow also paved the way for people to make â€Å"exact [observations and to refuse] to accept any conclusion that did not square with all the observed data† (â€Å"Chapter 23†). ... This must have eventually led groups of people to evaluate their existence and position vis-a-vis a power hungry monarchy like that of France during the 18th century. Such revolutionary change in the way people thought would have indirectly led to the recognition of their rights as human beings by virtue of reason and thus eventually brought the French Revolution. The Intellectual Revolution also brought with it a new philosophy that perhaps awakened man’s sense of self. The political philosophy of John Locke, which was adopted by the constitutional monarchy of England, spread around Europe around this time and made those governed by absolute monarchy to rethink their positions and to consider the idea of having not an absolute king but three separate branches of government – executive, legislative and judiciary (â€Å"The Philosophies†). Moreover, the philosophy of Voltaire taught the people that â€Å"man’s desire to pursue one’s happiness [is] i nborn† (â€Å"The Philosophies†). Another philosopher, Montesquieu emphasized the legal system of each nation, and a great philosopher in the name of Jean Jacques Rosseau theorized that â€Å"the society in the state of nature [is] the society with no class-distinctions† (â€Å"The Philosophies†). This paralleled the Intellectual Revolution in America with Thomas Paine proclaiming the rights of man and the first 13 states finally declaring independence from the British. All this philosophy perhaps awakened in man a recognition of his innate right to freedom and, naturally, a desire to attain it at any cost. The philosophical aspect of the Intellectual Revolution thus helped to trigger the occurrence not only of the French Revolution but

Industry analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Industry analysis - Essay Example The forces have profound impact on the industry and on the organization. The global economic recession will affect both the national economies and the organization. The consumers' disposable income will be reduced. The weak economy negatively affected software sales, increasing pressure on software firms' gross margins. This means that higher marketing and operational capabilities should be more important than R&D capabilities i.e. the ability to rapidly innovate. The technological environment consists of the skills and equipment used in design, production and distribution. R&D capabilities are thought to be particularly important in software industry. In this industry,being first to market is often essential to becoming the de facto standard. Given the rapid rate of change in the software industry, we would expect that firms having higher R&D capabilities would have a distinct advantage (Slaughter & Shanling & Shang, 2006). The demographic forces result from changes in the nature, composition and diversity of a population. More and more households use the Internet. The baby boomers age i.e. people that are over 54 are interested in using a computer.The education and entertainment software segment is growing very quickly (U.S. Department of Labor, 2006). On the business side, computer networks are pop... The trend in business customers is to have their data accessible, secure and private. On the other hand, the task environment includes immediate persons involved in producing, distributing and promoting the offering and therefore it includes internal and external factors that are influenced by the general environment. The task environment forces are suppliers, distributors, customers and competitors. The suppliers provide organization with inputs. The managers of the organization need to secure reliable input sources. The suppliers provide raw materials, components and even labor. In the case of the software industry the suppliers provide mainly components and service. It can be hard to work with suppliers' shortages and lack of substitutes. Suppliers who are in a good bargaining position are those that possess scarce items so they can raise the price. Managers' preference is to have many similar suppliers of each item. The distributors are organizations that help others to sell goods. Microsoft, which is a leader of the software industry, uses mainly wholesalers for selling its products to the SOHO market whereas Microsoft sells directly to the large customers. The distributors can threaten not to carry your product unless a strong brand name is established as it is in Microsoft's case whereas the actual power is in the hands of the producer. Customers are the people who buy the goods. For Microsoft, there are business, home and government buyers. The competitors are other organizations that produce similar goods. The most serious force facing managers is the rivalry between competitors. High levels of rivalry often means lower prices and profits become hard to find. Software industry is characterized by intense rivalry but due to the fact that the R&D