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Sociological view on human being

Human being: an objectivist and a subjectivist approach Social scientists are interested to understand what a human being is. Different theorists follow different stands to define human beings. The work of the philosopher Rene` Descartes is quite popular in this respect. He argued that a human is a thinking thing (a res cogitans ) but which has a body (a res extensa ) attached to it. He distinguished the ‘object’ which refers to the world of objects with height, width, depth, weight, etc and the ways those objects interact and the ‘subject’ which refers to conscious mind. These are according to Descartes two completely different orders of being. His subject-object dualism, gives us the first two potential starting points for sociological analysis, an objectivist and a subjectivist approach. According to objectivist approach we focus on the objective world ‘out there’ which is beyond the conscious mind. In this respect, the ‘conscious mind’ is put to one side not as a central issue...
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Cold war and the United States

Did the United States win the Cold War? The forty-five years from the dropping of the atom bombs to the end of the Soviet Union, can be seen as the era of the new conflict between two major states: United States of America (USA) and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). According to Hobsbawm , ‘cold war’ was the constant confrontation of the two super powers which emerged from the Second World War. At that time the entire generation was under constant fear of global nuclear battles. It was widely believed that it could break out at any moment. ( Hobsbawm , 1994) The consequences of the ‘power vacuum’ in central Europe, created by the defeat of Germany, gave rise to these two super powers ( Dunbabin , 1994). The world was divided into two parts. The USSR controlled the zone occupied by her Red Army or other communist armed forces. On the other hand, USA exercised control and dominance over the rest of the capitalist world as well as the western hemisphere and the oceans. ( Hobsbaw...
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‘Iron cage of rationality’ in modern society

Explain why and in what ways Weber believes that we increasingly live within an ‘iron cage of rationality’ in modern society. In this modern era, we are experiencing rapid progression than ever before. Though the speed of progression is overwhelmingly impressive, there have occurred a variety of serious downfalls. According to German sociologist Max Weber, in modern society we, the mankind, live within ‘an iron cage of rationality’ day by day. People are being increasingly trapped by this development of rationality. However, the most pessimistic reality is, there seems no way out of it. To explain the reason behind his argument, we need to investigate at first what Weber actually meant by ‘rationality’. In addition with that, the essay will try to explain the different types of rationality especially the formal rationality, the factors related to it such as bureaucracy, the process of rationalization, disenchantment and so forth. Moreover, it will try to explore the article written by ...
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Sex tourism and women’s rights in Thailand

Hi everyone! Today our presentation topic is sex tourism and women’s rights in Thailand. Generally people assume that as Thailand has got lots of beautiful beaches and mountains and best sceneries that’s why lot of tourist go there but its not the whole truth as behind the scene to a great extent something different is going on and that is sex tourism. It is one of the significant parts of tourism industry in Thailand. So we will be going to look at it in details. Although we will be focusing on sex tourism, forced prostitution, trafficking of women, poverty, illiteracy and the countries economic policies are all closely related subjects. What is sex tourism, it global and local scale will be looked at and the political views will be explored so that how this kind of tourism is violating women’s rights can be understood. Thailand will be our local cases study as it has undeniably an international reputation as a sex tourist destination. However, before we look into sex tourism, it sho...
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The nation-state as a terrorist actor

Terrorism is a phenomenon that is becoming pervasive day by day. It affects the manner in which governments conduct their foreign policy and the way corporations transact their business. Our newspapers, radio and televisions inundate our everyday lives with vivid details of the globe. The acts of terrorist groups are frequently displayed in the media where the terrorist acts of nation-states remain unnoticed to a large extent. It is the nation-states that define ‘terrorism’ and therefore, as a result, the real image of terrorism remains ambiguous. It also gives the states excuse to deny its atrocities in the name of ‘national security’. This article will begin with a brief definition of the phenomenon of terrorism and analyse whether a nation-sate can be regarded as a terrorist actor and if this in turn leads to more terrorism in an ever-increasing spiral. The foreign policies of United States will be used as a case study and the region it will study in details will be the Greater Mi...
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“Human rights are not women’s rights” Discuss.

Although most of the International conventions provide human rights section for both men and women, in the real world women’s human rights are constantly being violated. Women have the right to political and religious freedom of expression, freedom from torture or slavery, access to education, access to heath provision and the civil privileges of citizens. Though these are their inherent rights, they are being denied. As Kerr argued, so pervasive and systemic are the human rights abuses against women that they are regarded as part of the natural order. (Kerr, 1993, 3) At the start, the essay will try to examine the definition of human rights particularly civil and political rights according to different international conventions. In addition, the extent of violation of human rights against women globally as well as locally will be looked at. Pakistan and Kuwait – these two developing countries will be used as case study. The main arguments the essay will try to put forward is that curr...
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