Rene Descartes in Philosophy - the Distinction between Mind and Body Essay

Rene Descartes in Philosophy - the Distinction between Mind and Body - Essay Example The book contains six different meditations and opens with Descartes discarding away all information and knowledge he had ever known before. This laid ground for him to begin a new search for knowledge and wisdom. The distinction between mind and body and the existence of other material things is the last piece of meditation in the book (Rozemond, 2006). The sixth meditation deals with the existence of material things and the difference between mind and body. This meditation has two main arguments that Descartes uses to prove that the mind and the body are two distinct realities. The first argument states that since it is possible to conceive the mind and the body as two different things, God can cause them to exist independently. This argument fulfils the traditional criteria for metaphysical real distinctions. The second argument states that while the body is divisible, infinite and extended into space, the mind is unitary, indivisible and un-extended into space. These two distinct natures of mind and body distinguish the two elements as distinct and independent realities. In this meditation, Descartes attempts to find proof about whether material things can exist out of self and God. He then proceeds to prove that the mind is distinct from the body. With regard to the latter, Descartes begins his proof by asserting that God is capable of creating anything that Descartes himself can clearly and distinctly perceive. He follows this argument by stating that if God is capable of creating things that are independent of the other, then such things are distinct and different from each other.

Hazardous Waste Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Hazardous Waste - Essay Example The site initially belonged to Hooker Chemical who later sold it to Niagara Falls School Board for $ 1 in 1953. Hooker Chemicals were using the site for burying toxic waste. By the time of selling the site, Hooker Chemicals had buried 22,000 tons of toxic waste that they revealed in the sales agreement. However, construction projects and rainstorms on the site released the waste causing an environmental disaster. As a result, the inhabitants overflowed in to the waste. This characterized the infamous Love Canal case (Stoss and Fabian 1). The Ivory Coast case took place in 2006 at the capital city of Ivory coast, port of Abidjan. A tanker ship chattered by Trafigura oil and commodity shipping company disposed a 500 tone waste mixture of fuel, caustic soda, and hydrogen sulfide in the city. A local Ivorian contractor dumped the mixture around the city. Although Trafigura denied transportation and knowledge of improper disposal of any toxic waste, the gas emissions from the hazardous waste claimed 17 lives and injured many. As a result, the oil company paid $ 198 Million for cleanup to the Ivorian government in exchange of liability of prosecution (Amnesty International 1). In the Love Canal case, the government and Hooker Chemical were at fault. All these parties were aware of the eminent danger posed by the buried waste chemical yet they did nothing to avert the crisis. The US government had to relocate 800 affected families and indemnify them for their homes. The Occidental Petroleum paid fines worth $129 million for the Love Canal case. In the Ivory Coast case, the Trafigura Oil Shipping Company, the local Ivorian contractors were at fault for improper disposal of hazardous waste. Trafigura Oil Company paid $ 198 Million to the Ivorian government for clean up though it denied liability for dumping. The local Ivorian contractor got a 20 years jail sentence for improper disposal. The Comprehensive