Frankfurts notion of Second Order Volition Essay

Frankfurts notion of Second Order Volition - Essay Example Frankfurt’s essay opens with his views on the concept of â€Å"person†. When his contemporaries seek to define a person as merely a body with states of consciousness, Frankfurt begs to differ. He states that a person is not just the singular form of ‘people’. It does not merely refer to the members of certain biological species with a set of specific physical and mental characteristics that are supposed to be uniquely human. Humans are not the only creatures with desires, motives and choices. But it is the capacity of reflective self-evaluation and a desire to be different from what they are that makes the persons a class apart from the other living beings.The primary feature that differentiates a person from other creatures is his structure of will. To define â€Å"will†, one needs to first understand the concept of first order desire. A first order desire is simply a desire for something or a desire to do or not to do one thing or another. For exam ple, a desire to smoke a cigarette or to watch a movie or to read a book is a first order desire. ... Therefore, a desire which determines the behaviour of a person at a critical moment and leads him to action in the presence of other conflicting desires is termed as will. (Frankfurt, 1971, pp. 4-5) To define â€Å"free will†, Frankfurt introduces another type of desires- second order desires. A second order desire refers to a desire about a first order desire or a desire to have or not to have a first order desire. Or in other words, a second order desire is a manifestation of the uniquely human ability of reflection on one’s first order desires. For example, a habitual smoker may have a desire to smoke but a smoker who is trying to quit may want â€Å"not to have a desire to smoke†. The latter is a case of second order desire.It is these second order desires that are regarded as a mark of ‘personhood’. (Frankfurt, 1971, p. 3) Second order desires which refer to effective first order desires are termed as second order volitions. In simpler terms, wh en a person wants a second order desire to be his will, it becomes a second order volition. To illustrate the concept better, we may take the example of a psychologist dealing with a drug addict patient. To understand his patient better, he may want to have the desire for drugs (second order desire). But he does not want his desire to be effective (to actually take drugs). The doctor thus demonstrates a second order desire but no second order volition. It is not second order desire but second order volition that is essential to being a person and this leads us to the definition of free will and freedom of action.((Frankfurt, 1971, p. 5) Free will is a situation wherein a person’s second order volition determines his behaviour. The definition of â€Å"freedom of will†

Identified Limitations and Threats to Validity Essay

Identified Limitations and Threats to Validity - Essay Example Corporate associations determine the information the person holds about the company, which determines the responses given in a questionnaire. The participants were at least 18 years old, and lived in Lima. This selection predisposes the respondents to certain outcomes. Reliability is affected by the stability of collected data. The responses of the recipient are bound to change during different periods. External validity refers to the extent to which the findings can be extended to other areas. The respondents were selected randomly and came only from Lima. Their responses could therefore fail to cover the behavior of customers in other cities and countries (Marquina, 2007). Questionnaires are effective for collecting large amounts of data. In this case, over 600 customers participated and each answered 32 questions. In this way the researcher was able to collect large amounts of customer views. Correlation between the different sets of data could be used to determine its reliability. However, respondents might not be willing to give responses. The researcher used two interview phases to using the same subjects. This provided more accurate responses. Interviews can be used for qualitative research. A research for CSR utilization in Nigeria used interviews as the source of information. The research method affects the quality of results collected. In this case interviews were used and the interviewer cross-examined respondents for detailed answers. In this way, the researcher collects detailed information regarding the study question. The same interview questions were used, and the previous interviewees could discuss the questions with others. This influenced their view regarding CSR in the country. The environment of the interviewees determines the quality of answers they give. In this case the respondents came from different sectors and the answers given depend on their knowledge about CSR. Respondents were from