Which Factors may Encourage an Individual to Assimilate to a New Essay

Which Factors may Encourage an Individual to Assimilate to a New Society - Essay Example Assimilation can be difficult and it can be successful yet detrimental to the individual at the same time. According to the dictionary "assimilation" is "The process whereby a minority group gradually adopts the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture." (American Heritage Dictionary). For many immigrants this is expected of them and they automatically attempt to do it, especially in the United States. There are man factors that go into assimilation that cannot be anticipated by the individual coming into the new culture. According to Le (2008) there are two basic theories that categorize how assimilation is going to happen. The primordial or essentialist theory says that people have a sense of ethnic identity that is fixed and it is a part of who they are and it cannot be changed. They say that most people have an instinct that tells them to take care of their kin and or co-kin and leave those who are not kin out of their assistance. (par. 3). Situational theory (also known as constructionist theory) suggests that people are always adapting to their environment and that ethnic identity is more fluid. Instead of being fixed they are more socially defined. They believe that ethnic identity is constantly changing and in their words "being renegotiated, revised, and redefined, depending on specific situations and set of circumstances that each individual or ethnic group encounters" (Le, par. 4). The situational theorists also suggest sub theories that work within the framework of ethnicity. Some sociolo gists suggest that people can ignore their ethnic identity depending on the circumstances they are in and after a specific event have a resurgence of that particular identity. This happened after World War II when many Japanese Americans tried to assimilate into the American culture and let go of their Japanese culture because of their imprisonment inside the internment camps. In 1980 many people protested this treatment and Japanese

Bertrand Russells criticism of direct realism Essay

Bertrand Russells criticism of direct realism - Essay Example To begin with, it may be important to highlight several important aspects of the view which was developed by Bertrand Russell. Thus, he questions whether there is some kind of knowledge that everyone would agree on. He concludes that the knowledge about the objects that exist in reality can be such knowledge as two people who walk into the same room would see in the similar manner. However, that is exactly the kind of approach that he wants to criticism, suggesting that the knowledge that he was of the ordinary objects (he particularly focuses on the example of the table) is, in fact, relative. Russell points out that the perception of a physical object is largely conditioned by the state of the observer; for example the color of the table will change based on the angle of view. The same can be said about texture shape and so on. Keeping in mind that all these states exist simultaneously, he argues that it is not logical to talk about the â€Å"real† color or shape of the tabl e.The philosopher in question then moves to the issue of norm in terms of determining properties of the object. Having established that the color can be bright (under direct sunlight), moderate (under artificial light) and invisible (if perceived in the darkness), Russell notes that most people would agree that the â€Å"real† color is the one found in the second case. However, in his view this leads to â€Å"favoritism† that can hardly be justified since it is grounded on such vague assumptions as â€Å"normal spectator †¦ an ordinary point of view †¦ usual conditions of light†.