Philosophy - Boethius and Aquinas on the Problem of God's Prescience Essay

Philosophy - Boethius and Aquinas on the Problem of God's Prescience - Essay Example This only serves to pronounces the clash with freewill. The Problem of God’s Prescience The conflict hence forms the basic premise of the Problem. God as the master of all things tangible and intangible is assumed to know incomprehensible details about human life and the course it will take. As such, His knowledge about a particular event precedes the event itself, thereby exemplifying his unique ability of knowing the future. This belief in God’s ubiquitousness forms one of the core foundations of his Divinity across the board of religions, whether the one in question is Christianity, Judaism or Islam. The Bible, Torah, and the Quran all repeatedly assert His pervasiveness carefully contrasting it with His limitless power. The masses of religions preach the notion that God is to be found everywhere at all times and no thought or eventuality escapes His gaze. Superficially, this ideology is readily admissible but when theologians venture to expound their gifts of insigh t onto the subject, striving to explain the Divine Knowledge, the one immediate problem they tend to notice is the apparent conflict with freewill. This is because the concept of freewill indicates that every human is capable of altering the course of his life as he deems fit by exercising discretionary powers of judgment. If God is to possess all knowledge of all time, this discretion may not in actuality exist, since God would already know the direction a particular individual would be expected to take. If the individual’s future is already preconceived in God’s eternal knowledge, the individual’s course of action could simply be labeled predetermined, even though he in his own right may be employing the gift of freewill. This notion forms what has come to be known as the Problem of God’s Prescience. Boethius’s ideologies Boethius in his Consolation of Philosophy sought to answer the very questions that formed the crux of the Problem. Firstly, it must be elucidated that incidents are historically conceived by philosophers to be of two kinds, necessary and contingent. God’s omniscience pertains to all knowledge that exists in the world, including the murkiest of thoughts that originate in a person’s mind. Hence, any thought, if formulated by a conscious course of judgment in a person’s mind, should be deemed contingent. It is contingent because it is not necessary for a person to think a certain thought, as his freewill allows him to develop a unique mindset, but if God already knows what his mindset would be, that contingent thought could become a necessary course of action for the person to take, as not taking that course of action would render God’s knowledge flawed. If it is assumed that God already knows the thought that is about to transpire, its contingency is made redundant. This, in essence, negates freewill and converts seemingly contingent occurrences into necessary occurrences since Go d already knows of their presence. As such, Boethius’ twin-prong ideologies regarding the problem emerge. His first limb identifies that God’s omniscience and perfection go hand in hand and can never be rebutted,

The factors that led to change in Apple Inc Research Paper

The factors that led to change in Apple Inc - Research Paper Example A brand of innovations, â€Å"Apple†, was established in the year 1976 on April Fools’ Day (1st April), though it was incorporated only on January 3rd, 1977 with a brand name of Apple Computer. After 30 years, the word â€Å"Computer† was removed from its branding as it shifted its traditional focus from computers to consumer electronics. It was founded by three budding entrepreneurs, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, though the latter moved out of the company by selling his shares to the other two for US $800. The first inaugurated model was the Apple I which was hand made by Steve Wozniak. It was sold as a motherboard consisting of CPU, RAM and basic video chips.As times gradually passed and moving into the 20th century, a lot of products have been designed and created by the company. The products that the company possess at present are, Mac and accessories, iPad, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV and different software. Apple has spread its business over 10 cou ntries with over 300 retail stores and workforce of 60,400 permanent."Apple’s annual worldwide sales had grown to US$108 billion in 2011. They say that impressions are constant and that’s why first impression is the last impression. Apart from all the latest electronic gadgets, the logo has also made lots of designer think â€Å"why on earth would a bitten apple be a company’s logo†. The former President Michael M. Scott was once found to quote, â€Å"the most expensive bloody logo ever designed†.... Apple’s annual worldwide sales had grown to US$108 billion in 2011. They say that impressions are constant and that’s why first impression is the last impression. Apart from all the latest electronic gadgets, the logo has also made lots of designer think â€Å"why on earth would a bitten apple be a company’s logo†. The former President Michael M. Scott was once found to quote, â€Å"the most expensive bloody logo ever designed† (Linzmayer, 1999). Drivers to Change Since the resignation of Steve Jobs in the year 1985, the company tried to identify, the factors that could be the reasons for the ups and downs of their business. The factors were: Inadequate Financial Performance: Not meeting the demands according to the supply turned out to be a financial loss to the company. The delay made the investors furious that resulted in a lot of unsold products. The debt to the supplier of raw materials increased and the company was in the edge to file bankrupt cy (O’Grady, 2008). Change in Strategic Objectives: Apple started to focus more on the consumer electronics rather than computer electronics. They started to experiment more on the consumer oriented products like portable CD, audio players, digital cameras and video consoles. This sudden re-orientation resulted in huge finances in order to bring in the new resources required to manufacture the products (O’Grady, 2008). Competitors Market Invasion: The re-orientation of the company helped companies like IBM and Microsoft to substitute the shortages that Apple could not deliver. They brought in same products with much cheaper costs and attracted disappointed and confused customers (O’Grady, 2008). Later after the return of Steve Jobs