Category: Consciousness

Today, the neural mechanism of consciousness still remains a mystery. According to William James, an American philosopher and psychologist, consciousness is an awareness of oneself and the environment. A person is in the conscious state only 5% or less versus the rest of the time being in un-conscious activity. So how does consciousness work and what are the mechanisms involved? The brain is an incredible complex organ, consisting of billions of neurons that create a large number of synaptic connections with other neurons. Each neuron may be connected up to ten thousand to a million other neurons while using neurotransmitters to form as many as a trillion synaptic connections. Unlike many other systems in the body, consciousness is completely subjective. It integrates emotions, memories, attention, and perceptions of an individual’s surroundings and experiences to form one’s unique consciousness. Memories, which involve the amygdala, are crucial because the mind will trick an individual into believing that nothing has changed in an environment or situation. It does this by resurfacing the same images and recollections. It is noteworthy that a person’s consciousness does this automatically and smooth enough without an individual even realizing or actually having to think about doing it.

Apart of the reason that the mechanism of consciousness is such an enigma is due to the fact that there is not one particular area in the brain that applies to consciousness. Unlike the sensory and motor systems which go to defined areas in the brain through extensive reciprocating connectivity, consciousness is integrated with numerous diverse cells, pathways, and regions of the brain. It remains unclear what “specific” area produces consciousness; however, it can be said that there are many connections and parts involved, and a proper timing mechanism. This phenomenon is called functional connectivity and the areas/pathways involved include: the brainstem reticular formation (RF), thalamus, both the sensory and motor system, amygdala, and the prefrontal cortex (PFC).

The RF is a highly organized and complex structure that is imperative for controlling autonomic functions, as well as playing a crucial role in arousal, consciousness, and pain modulation. The RF communicates information to the thalamus and cerebral cortex which in turn controls sensory signals. These sensory signals will then exclusively be brought to an individual’s attention when necessary. For instance, according to Anthony Hudetz and his study regarding consciousness and the mechanism of general anesthesia, somatosensory signals may be blocked peripherally. It can be inferred that this is a result of the RF receiving information from the peripheries and not conveying the pain signals to the thalamus, therefore modulating the signals. The RF is also the location where neuromodulators are produced and sent throughout the CNS via the reticular activating system (RAS). These neuromodulators are vital for anesthesia because they can alter how GABA, glutamate, and other receptors work by enhancing their excitatory or inhibitory state. As a result, by altering this connectivity, one’s state of consciousness will be affected. Injury, such as lesions to the RF, can impair consciousness and may even lead to an irreversible coma.

One of the main attributes of the thalamus is that it receives and integrates different sensory inputs from the body. Once this information is received, it relays it to the appropriate area in the sensory system. The sensory system is located in the posterior portion of the brain and is composed of the occipital, temporal, and parietal lobe. This area is commonly referred to as the “hot zone” and is essential to forming one’s consciousness. Images, sounds, and all other sensations that are perceived by an individual is generated at these particular regions of the brain. It is evident that the thalamus is more than just a relay station for somatosensory information. The thalamus also regulates motor signals, levels of consciousness, sleep and alertness. Hudetz believes that when an individual receives anesthesia, the brain is partially still active, particularly at the sensory areas. Anesthesia does not fully block the transmission of somatosensory information to the primary sensory cortex, therefore auditory and visual material is still processed. Implicit memory is also not fully blocked because it does not require conscious thought.

The thalamocortical loop is another reciprocating system that plays a necessary role in levels of consciousness and sleep. The loop is not just a gate into the brain, but rather a reciprocating pathway to and from the rest of the cortex. The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) is a modulating system that contains only GABAergic neurons. As thalamocortical neurons project through to the cortex, the signals are modulated and become inhibitory. This is particularly important for sleep, alertness, and levels of consciousness. Hudetz questions whether or not the thalamus is the key to providing anesthesia. For instance, it is noted that when GABA is injected into the intralaminar thalamus, an induced sleep state will result. However, not all anesthetics work on reducing thalamic activity, nor on GABA receptors. Therefore, it becomes clear that even though the thalamus plays a significant role, there are other areas that are just as crucial.

Consciousness involves the prefrontal cortex (PFC), aka the “Executive” part of the brain. This particular area is essential for complex behaviors, emotions, planning, and linking together meaning. Since the PFC is highly interconnected with much of the brain, it requires all areas to continuously be interacting with each other. For example, it constantly requires the amygdala, particularly how you remember a certain experience and how that effects your current emotions and behaviors. Hudetz discusses and applies an “Integrative Theory of Unconsciousness” which involves the PFC and the posterior parietal association area (which was previously discussed earlier). The only way to effectively diminish consciousness is to disrupt the entire feedback connection. Recurrent processing is important for consciousness, therefore if there is even the slightest deviation in the timing mechanism (for example with anesthesia or due to a brain defect), the entire functional connectivity of the brain will be distorted. The connection between the PFC and the posterior parietal association area is the exact location where ESPSs and ISPSs must be altered to modify the timing. Anesthesia plays a key role in disconnecting the PFC and the posterior area which will result in the patient becoming unconscious and entering a sleep-like state.

When an individual is asleep, he or she will have a diminished conscious awareness, yet the brain will remain active. According to a research study completed at the University of Wisconsin entitled, “Breakdown of Cortical Effective Connectivity During Sleep,” it was found that consciousness fades due to lack of high frequency oscillations and effective connectivity between sensory inputs to the cortex. Again, this involves the thalamocortical feedback loop. The loop is comprised of a negative feedback mechanism that has two distinct modes: tonic and oscillatory. Oscillatory mode is in the delta frequency range and is seen in NREM sleep stages 3 and 4. Delta sleep has the greatest oscillation synchrony, which binds together all critical sensory information and creates a disconnection. It is important to note that as previously stated, the RF projects ACH to modulate other areas in the CNS; the loop is one of those areas. Once again this demonstrates that consciousness (and sleep) involve many areas of the brain. When a person is awake, the RF will project a large amount of ACH, which will in turn inhibit the thalamocortical relay neurons. On the other hand, when a person is in NREM sleep ACH is inhibited. This allows the relay neurons to provide long lasting inhibition and cause a disruption in sensory connectivity. This can be characterized by observing slow-waves on an EEG.

Anesthesia and sleep both depress an individual’s level of consciousness. Therefore, similar areas of the brain are affected, however precise mechanisms and outcomes differ. It has been proposed that certain anesthesia medications, like propofol, reduce brain waves similarly to slow-waves seen on an EEG during natural sleep. On the other hand, there are many differences between sleep and anesthesia. As previously stated, anesthesia does not fully block sensory connectivity, versus NREM sleep which does. However, in sleep there is also a heightened threshold to sensory input. A Certified Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) can administer a medication that can actually decrease the sensation of pain. Anesthesia also provides temporary amnesia by creating disconnections between reciprocating pathways and the amygdala. However, as previously stated implicit memory is not fully blocked because it does not require conscious thought. On the other hand, while a person is asleep, memories are consolidated. NREM sleep particularly plays a strong role in declarative memories versus REM sleep which involves more procedural memory. Lastly, when an individual is given anesthesia there is complete paralysis of skeletal muscles. When a person is asleep and is in the NREM state, he or she has occasional, involuntary movements. Instead, REM state causes muscle paralysis.

Neuroscientists have been trying to solve the riddle behind consciousness for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, it is not an easy task. The brain is a complex organ that involves millions of synaptic connections. Consciousness does not involve one particular area, but many reciprocating and overlapping areas in the brain. Hopefully as technology and medical research improves, we will be able to uncover the mysteries behind unconsciousness.

Self-consciousness can be interpreted as the core disposition of an individual to initiate a direction of bringing responsiveness and attention to oneself. This arises as a dispositional tendency dedicated to single-mindedness on private characteristics of not only the self, but also on public aspects of the individual concerned [1]. According to eminent researchers, when an individual has different tendencies of self-awareness, self-consciousness crops up [2]. While it is exemplified by some where the concept of self-consciousness, also known as self-awareness, is elaborated as a transient state of consumer who tends to dynamically examine himself before undertaking any transaction in order to satiate his desires [3]. There are two sub-categories of self-consciousness as analysed by many eminent researchers that is public self-consciousness and private self-consciousness. It is essential to critically examine these aspects of consumer psychology as they create impact on their attitude and buying choices.

Public self-consciousness is an aspect of temperaments in which an individual holds a perception that the self is a social object. Relatively, persons who have a high public self-consciousness tend to become apprehensive about their overall appearance in front of others [4]. Public self-consciousness can also be defined as a factor inducing consumption decisions of a shopper for social reasons [5]. When it comes to private self-consciousness, it can be stated that private self-consciousness comprises of those self-attentional traits of a person that dominate their nature [6]. Private self-consciousness is also interpreted as ‘the tendency to think about and attend to the more covert, hidden aspects of the self that might involve one’s privately held beliefs, aspirations, values, and feelings.’ [7].

As proposed in this paper, perceived usefulness can be understood as a subjective likelihood of an individual delivering that online purchasing might optimistically affect their performance. Further on, this relays to the concept of relative advantage as suggested by Roger’s Self Theory [8] stating that a technology is hastily adopted by customers on the condition that it is interpreted as a source of value [9]. Perceived ease of use is an eminent part of the Technology Acceptance Model, [10]. It is “the degree to which a person believes that using a technology will be free from effort.” [10]. So, it can be stated that perceived ease of use as well as perceived usefulness affect buyer attitude towards shopping on the web and so in-depth analysis of this might influence the buying patterns of self-conscious consumers by altering their attitudes.

Attitude of a consumer determines his level of interest in a commodity so that he is induced to purchase it which ultimately affects his willingness to become a patron. If the definition is analysed, shopper attitude refers to a physical predisposition that is voiced and articulated by evaluating a particular article coupled with an essence of favour or disfavour [10]. In accordance with some researchers, consumer attitudes towards online shopping as a factor deliberately explain his psychosomatic condition in terms of buying on the internet [11]. Attitude is found to have an undeviating effect on the intention of buyers to use technology [10], [12]. Consequently, a few analysts have entitled that perceived ease of use and usefulness have a direct linkage with punter attitudes toward usability that further constructs a framework of intention to use [13].

Online market is an ever-expanding arena demanding constant but edgy transformations and thus for proper interpretation of the emergence of new marketing opportunities, researches in shopping orientation are supremely vital [16]. The proposed model enlightens these aspects unambiguously thereby aiding present and future research enthusiasts in understanding a self-conscious online buyer’s perceptions towards shopping across variegated online platforms offering an assortment of goods and services. It should be noted that this study is restricted to 400 residents of the cities of Uttar Pradesh who are online buyers making the data biased in a limited geographical boundary. However, it should not be foregone how eminent this might prove for marketers so that they can formulate their marketingstrategies accordingly.

Background

Social consciousness is being aware of self and the environment and responding to social injustices in the lives of self and the others. Issues such as sexism, racism, heterosexism, inequalities, and discrimination are factors of social injustice that affect nurses in today’s world. Nurses are meant to be agents of social change, and those who can contribute meaningfully to social injustices within the healthcare area are subjected to internal discrimination. Nurses in society are meant to challenge the social injustices institutionalized that challenges the health sector. A study conducted by Giddings (2015) collected different data from twenty-six women from different races, cultures, and experiences across the United States and New Zealand. The study evaluated the involvement of fairness and difference in the lives of the nurses.

Findings revealed that nurses felt marginalized, felt unfairness, and experience discrimination. But they had strong intentions to work for social justice (Giddings, 2015). For nurses to be a vital tool in changing the structures and systems that keep the health sector in disparity, the social injustices systems must be challenged. There is a need for nurses to have skills that would fix organizational processes that would sustain social equalities within the healthcare system. Relationships are primary in the nursing profession. The need to build the capacity for care and social practice requires that nursing education is focused on the mutuality principle. Nursing must focus on promoting. Nursing is the profession for which relationships are primary. Nursing can rebuild the capacity for caring and social and relational practice through the transformation of nursing education and the principle of mutuality. Nursing can be involved in the promotion of primary care and involvement in policies to ensure increased access and equality in healthcare.

Literature Review

In the health sector over time, there is a widened gap in the status of health among those who enjoy certain privileges and the ones who feel marginalized because of social identities. Health was described to be a significant right that humans must have access to In the WHO (World Health Organization) Constitution in 1978 (Peled, 2018). In the health industry, marginalizing and discriminatory practices are on the rise. This primarily affects nursing personnel, although they are well-positioned to confront the socially institutionalized injustices Perceived in the health sector. With this bothersome situation, little has been done to tackle the increasing disparities affecting the health system and investigating the nursing culture by collecting the stories of fairness and difference of nursing personnel which aims at the historical study of cross-cultural life.

Cultural safety which has its origin in New Zealand specifically Aotearoa and United States Of America where trans-cultural nursing originates from (Sangiovanni, 2018), are the two essential movements with the most influence on nursing practices, policies and education concerning worldwide cultural care of clients. Promoting awareness about cross-cultural issues has been made possible because of nursing practices (Sangiovanni, 2018).

The principal aim of the transcultural nursing movement is to utilize research-based knowledge to aid nursing personnel discharge effective, responsible, and safe care to individuals from separate cultural backgrounds (Villamin, 2014). The works of Madeleine Leininger and social anthropology is where transcultural nursing derived its theoretical positions.

The client’s population of nurses constitute individuals with diverse backgrounds; hence, their needs are culturally specific. This is why the Nursing profession is perceived to be a homogeneous and politically neutral one.

The cultural safety movement started as a political movement in the late 1980s. There was a call to check the impact of discriminatory racial acts causing several health inequities and social disparities between two cultural groups: the dominant Pakeha (White) culture and Nurses who were Maori (indigenous people) (Villamin, 2014). The nurses who are Maori felt that their self-awareness culturally helps in the aiding the safety of culture and fixes at the center of its processes racism instead of having the assumption that nurses are a neural and homogenous group (Galambos, 2015).

Analysis

The experience of nursing personnel who reported that their acts were as a result of social injustice awareness is the focus of this participatory, cross-cultural life history research. Social injustice self-awareness was what forced the nurses to act. This research was carried out based on three assumptions (a) nurses’ experience is a microcosm of the society’s larger structures and systems. (b) All persons experience a complex interweaving of privilege and oppression, and (c) There are differences in many social groups that exist, some groups are oppressed, and others are more privileged. Social consciousness development and institutionalized structures are the basis of social injustice, and this allows the social and political disparities continuity as opined by the final assumption.

Methodology

The act of storytelling in life story forms was implored by an adaptation of oral history, life history methodology. Social theory and feminism informed this decision. By influencing usage of the participatory approach, the notion of the formation of critical consciousness (conscientization) by the process of questioning the nature of historical and social conditions was mainly the core purpose of Paulo Freire’s (1972) pedagogy of empowerment, individuals and groups social transformation are as a result of these processes. Therefore, the nurses’ reflection on their ways of living in relation to issues of power, social action, and oppression that could have resulted in changes in them socially and personally were the aims of structuring the interview (Giddings, 2015).

To capture the voices of the women and push the essence of their nursing profession, a feminist life story approach was implored and the narrative’s constructing and analyses were made possible by this. Giddings (2015) conducted a research by studying a group of women nurses. In the stories of the women, they were described to be active subjects in the narratives account. The work the women handled socially to position themselves higher in the world, the judgmental values that helped shape their vision and the social nature of their life experiences the work were given close insights (Giddings, 2015).

Based on how the social and cultural representations of the women identities intersected, there were differences in their narratives and the meaning the women gave them. Methodologically, This analysis not only showed how the women differed in their narratives and meaning, but it was also useful in exploring the differences in the women’s life experiences respectively in the Aotearoa New Zealand (n equals 13) and United States (n equals 13) respectively, twenty-six women in the nursing profession who are highly placed and hail from various cultural, racial, specialty backgrounds and sexual identity had 45 to 90 minutes of Participant Profiles and Life History Interviews (two to three each) conducted on them.

Ages ranged 25 to 58 years, and years as a registered nurse ranged 1 to 39 years. Obtaining written consent from each participant was ensured.in the United States and New Zealand, research processes were approved by the ethical review committees.

As described in the research design credibility, complexity, specifically dependability, flexibility, and consensus are the standards of rigor for qualitative research that was applied. (Murray, 2013). In other to give facts about the women’s experience of difference and fairness in their lives, The interviews were semistructured and duplicated in recorded tapes. To spur the nurses to tell the stories that mattered to them and follow their notions, broad, open-ended questions were initially asked (e.g., ‘What has it been like for you being a nurse?’). Conversations developed and became more focused as ideas evolved, reflecting the narrative process of making joint meaning (Odom-Forren, 2019).

Discussions

Solving healthcare disparities requires creating a resolute at the nursing leadership level. Some key factors to be used are role scope, access to data, use of values, creativity/innovation, relationships/partnerships, and types of support.

Use of Values

A PHN (Public Health Nurses) effective leadership is influenced by the value placed on health equity and social justice. The ability of a PHN to address child and poverty efficiently requires that value should be placed on equity and social justice; structural explanations of poverty should be supported. Consider political/social action as a genuine part of their role, and individuals living in poverty should be approached with a positive attitude (Griffin, 2013). To improve health equity, there is a need for structure-based initiative, distal and structural systems to develop long term social change and health (‘Social injustice and public health’, 2014). Structural tailored Public Health work needs to focus on individual behaviors that would help cater to the middle class and the mass (Griffin, 2013)

The Role Scope

The Role scope and clarity at the level of practice, impact effective leadership, i.e., clinical care and health education should be a focus of practice; their roles must be understandable, and the power to promote change must be valued by the PHNs (Giddings, 2014). Service delivery should be focused on, and it should foster the growth of partnerships with communities (Griffin, 2013). Standards and discipline must be structured to correspond with job descriptions and scope of practice.

Partnerships

Relationship and partnerships excite efficient leadership at all levels: the measure of performance needs to address the steps required to influence health inequity while understanding that trust-building in relationships and intersectoral partners require time to form. The importance of relations must be understood by Nursing leadership. Obtaining valuable information and enacting influence on clients requires a good relationship developed through practice (Giddings, 2014). There must make conscious effort to advocate for community work, develop relationships, balance priorities, and build trust. PHN roles and contributions require good understanding and definition for effective collaboration. For effective leadership development, there must be an organization to organization partnership and proper use of resources to develop best practices at all leadership levels. Guaranteeing adequate public health, social justice, and health promotion; community agency and academic relationships are important in the nursing curriculum.

Data

There is a need to foster effective leadership at all levels, and this requires access to and collection of data. Health indicators need population base data. Health disparities are the metric by which one measure progress towards health equity (Rhodes, 2015). Community-wide databases of health information, including social determinant, can be assembled through data within primary care practices. Physicians use this data to comprehend the needs in their practice and what intercessions are required. Equity assessments can be conducted with these data as well. Data collected on health outcome from various groups are used for innovative programs and to ensure equity for all patients (Giddings, 2014)

Health determinants and pathways to health outcomes need to be widely understood (Griffin, 2013) Developing effective strategies towards health equity needs to be understood on how health disparities are produced or mitigated (Pralle, 2017). Understanding how health disparities are produced is essential with the use of the life course perspective.

Innovation

Effective leadership is influenced by innovation and creativity at all levels: PHN needs adequate support and strengthened innovations (Discussion summary, 2009). An excellent way to stay ahead is by learning from others creativity and sharing knowledge (Griffin, 2013). The importance of professional autonomy is to help nurses find solutions inside their organizations to defeat some of the obstacles they face in approaching health and social inequities (Pralle, 2017)

Organizational Culture

Effective leadership is impacted by organizational culture. Leadership and culture shape each other; it is both performance-driven. An organization’s culture is influenced by a leader for long term effectiveness. Leaders are seen as role models and in turn, set the agenda, their actions are checked consistently to know if it is in line with organizational values.

The biomedical model relies on public health agencies; for public health nursing practice, it should be moved to critical care and advocacy model. Also, to prioritize health equity, a shift in organizational culture is needed to put the PHN to work with initiatives that are structure-based while reaching many populations in different settings (Pralle, 2017). More significant socio-environmental aspects must be attended to by Public Health intervention that creates inequities to address social justice (Pralle, 2017)

Structure

Providing clear or explicit expectations of public health accountability is vital. All bureaucratic elements acting within the front-line staff, senior management, and middle management should be dismissed (Pralle, 2017).

Conclusion

Social consciousness is a level of consciousness shared by people and groups within a society. It involves understanding and becoming aware of the problems the community presents. Such problems include social injustice, which is mostly experienced by nurses and affects the performances in the public health domain, which escalates to healthcare disparities affecting patients. In the United States, there are disparities in health and health care, which cause made some certain groups be at high risk of being uninsured. This group of individuals is subjected to limited access to care, inadequate health care, and experiencing worse health results. Health and health care disparities are not only based on ethnicity and race but extend across a wide range of dimensions; It reflects a complex group of people, environmental and social factors. Disparities, apart from its impact on specific groups of individuals, it also affects continuous improvement in overall quality of care and health condition of the general population leading to unnecessary costs. Disparities must be addressed continually because the population is becoming more diverse.

References

1. Galambos, C. (2015). Health Care Disparities among Rural Populations: A Neglected Frontier. Health & Social Work, 30(3), 179-181. doi: 10.1093/hsw/30.3.179
2. Giddings, L. (2014). Health Disparities, Social Injustice, and the Culture of Nursing. Nursing Research, 54(5), 304-312. doi: 10.1097/00006199-200509000-00004
3. Giddings, L. (2015). A Theoretical Model of Social Consciousness. Advances In Nursing Science, 28(3), 224-239. doi: 10.1097/00012272-200507000-00005
4. Griffin, C. (2013). The New Social Consciousness in Schools for Nurses. The American Journal Of Nursing, 113(8), 641. doi: 10.2307/3406826
5. Murray, R. (2013). Social Injustice and the Problem of Cross-Purposes. Journal Of Social Philosophy, 42(2), 153-172. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9833.2011.01528.x
6. Odom-Forren, J. (2019). Health Disparities Do Exist. Journal Of Perianesthesia Nursing, 34(4), 673-675. doi: 10.1016/j.jopan.2019.06.005
7. Peled, Y. (2018). Language barriers and epistemic injustice in healthcare settings. Bioethics, 32(6), 360-367. doi: 10.1111/bioe.12435
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10. Sangiovanni, A. (2018). Structural Injustice and Individual Responsibility. Journal Of Social Philosophy, 49(3), 461-483. doi: 10.1111/josp.12250
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Abstract

Investigations of legal consciousness have prospered in recent years, yet these examinations and the very idea of legal consciousnes have as of late gone under scrutiny. This article utilizes the instance of investigations of the legal consciousness of lesbian, gay, indiscriminate, and transgender (LGBT) individuals to show that legal consciousness has been a significant calculated tool for investigating encounters of sociologic minimization. Research on LGBT individuals progresses the investigation of legitimate awareness without relinquishing a basic position or perusing absence of plain obstruction as proof of law’s domineering force.

Future research ought to incorporate more investigation of the connection among underestimation and legitimate awareness, further hypothetical elaboration of the structures and states of protection from law, and more noteworthy consideration regarding how social communications and foundations produce legal consciousnesses paramount.

The law possesses a conspicuous spot in the regular day-to-day existences of LGBT community, and the proceeding with guideline and policing of sexuality and sex weighs vigorously on numerous individuals who distinguish as LGBT (Baumle, 2017). Regardless of exceptional progress in the subject of LGBT social liberties, LGBT community need formal uniformity and are prevented and they are prevented from securing the insurances that manages other verifiably impeded parties. These lawful inabilities speak to a continuous source of minority stretch and can deliver a correspondingly high level of ‘lawful awareness’ in LGBT group.

Given the significance of law in LGBT lives, it is not amazing that LGBT-related looks into regularly consolidate references to the lawful status of LGBT community. For instance, an examination investigating the danger of suicide among LGBT youth may incorporate a dialog of hostility to harassing laws and assurances, or a report on wellbeing inconsistencies in the LGBT community may refer to the accessibility of relationship acknowledgment as a source of medical coverage and different advantages.

The pace of progression in the area of LGBT social equality has been so quick and uneven that it has gotten progressively hard to stay aware of the latest improvements. This Exposition is intended to offer non-law masters and scientists have opened a system for understanding the present subject of LGBT social liberties in the US, with an extraordinary spotlight on the subject of relationship acknowledgment (Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, 2006). It clarifies the key ideas, gives some essential research rules and recommends various accommodating assets request to guarantee that the ‘lawful awareness’ of LGBT-related research mirrors the most recent improvements in the field.

The Job of Law in LGBT Lives

Even though LGBT community as of now appreciates an uncommon level of political and social acknowledgment, they stay subject to a wide scope of legitimate aberrations and imbalances. Throughout their everyday lives, numerous LGBT community experience legitimate hindrances and snags as for relationship arrangement, child-rearing issues, medicinal services, movement status, lodging, and qualification for government benefits, charges, business, instruction, and wellbeing (Erik Larson, 2014). Oppressed LGBT community stays lawful in most states, and by far most of the states effectively order segregation because of marriage. A few states confine government-funded schools from showing anything-sexual direction. Different states disallow gay men and lesbians from having kids.

Transgender community face covering and opposing critics that decide when an individual can change sexual orientation markers, making it hard to explore such ordinary occasions as flying on a plane or purchasing a travel pass. Throughout the previous fifteen years, the point of convergence of the LGBT social liberties development has been marriage balance. The push for same-sex marriage has met with some accomplishment on the state level; however, it stays a fervently challenged theme in both the political field and the courts.

LGBT lives and families are extraordinarily politicized. Presidential up-and-comers straightforwardly banter whether LGBT community ought to be qualified for equivalent treatment under the law. States routinely submit LGBT social liberties to larger part endorsement through enemy of marriage referenda and polling form activities that are intended to limit the privileges of same-sex couples and, at times, revoke gains recently made (Harding, Regulating Sexuality: Legal Consciousness in Lesbian and Gay Lives, 2010). In 2004, the American Mental Affiliation perceived that the vulnerability same-sex couples looked as for the lawful status of their connections was a noteworthy source of minority stress, and it received emphatic goals for same-sex marriage.

Contending Wards and Restricting Organizations

The narrative of Janice and Lisa shows not just the significance of law in LGBT lives; it likewise underscores the wide jurisdictional variations that have created over the U.S. since progressions in LGBT social equality have happened largely on the state and neighborhood levels (Hertogh, 2018). In spite of the fact, that Registration information affirms that equivalent sex couples live in 99 of the districts in the U.S., on balance, those couples who live in the purported ‘Red States’ appreciate far fewer rights and benefits.

Without governmentally ordered social liberties, the individual states are allowed to give whatever degree of protection they pick. Various states and districts have expanded assurances based on the sexual direction and sex character, however, a lot more states have decided to enact specifically against LGBT measures. In like manner, when the clinic social specialist reminded Janice that she was in ‘an enemy of gay city and state,’ he was discussing something other than general sentiment. Around then, Florida law had a dubious law that restricted gay men and lesbians from receiving kids, and it keeps on having a sacred change that precludes same-sex marriage, just as the award of any of the ‘occurrences of marriage.

Notwithstanding these jurisdictional worries, there are frequently contending institutional interests in question. LGBT social equality may start with any of the three parts of the government at the administrative, state, or close level, however the extension and the life span of a given right frequently relies upon the establishment that conceded it (Baumle, 2017). Courts can command social liberties securities dependent on government or state-protected arrangements or an extensive perusing of statutory power. They can likewise negate prohibitive or oppressive enactment.

Government and state councils can sanction social equality insurances; however, they can likewise take the power from courts to choose certain issues. This strategy successfully mooted the holding of the primary significant same-sex marriage case, Behr v. Lewin, where the Hawaii Court decided that forbidding same-sex marriage could comprise sex separation and abuse the state constitution. While the suit was progressing, the Hawaii governing body authorized a law that maintained whatever authority is needed to characterize union with the authoritative department, along these lines evacuating the capacity of the court to command same-sex marriage.

Notwithstanding these purview-stripping measures, adversaries of LGBT social equality now and again use types of the direct majority rules system, for example, a polling form activity or a residents’ submission, to cancel an administratively allowed right or nullify a court request. For instance, in 2008 California voters passed Suggestion that revoked judicially ordered same-sex marriage, and after a year voters in Maine canceled a law passed by the Maine lawmaking body endorsing same-sex marriage.

Albeit regularly disregarded, the official department can be a critical source of LGBT social liberties assurances; however, regulatory standards are commonly progressively restricted in scope and are dependent upon both court audit and administrative annulment. An ongoing model is President Obama’s 2010 Update to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Wellbeing and Human Administrations concerning the privileges of patients at emergency clinics that get Medicare and Medicaid to get guests based on their personal preference (Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, 2006). The Reminder was given because of the instance of Janice Langbehn and Lisa Lake and guided the Secretary to start rulemaking to guarantee that medical clinics regard the privileges of patients to assign guests, paying little heed to the sexual direction or sex personality. The last rule was declared in 2011.

Marriage Equity and Relationship Acknowledgment

The kinds of jurisdictional incongruities portrayed above are generally articulated in the area of relationship acknowledgment where awards of full marriage rights coincide with denials against any type of acknowledgment. On the government level, the Resistance of Marriage Act (DOMA) provides that marriage must be between one man and one lady, implying that, as an enduring same-sex accomplice, Janice Langbehn would not meet all requirements for Standardized savings survivor benefits or any of the evaluated 1,137 bureaucratic advantages that append to marriage, regardless of whether she and Lisa had been legitimately married under state law. On the state level, the greater part of states keep on forbidding same-sex marriage, and a noteworthy subset of those states, for example, Florida, forcefully boycott all types of relationship acknowledgment.

The territorial variation is additionally confused by the way the states allowing elective types of acknowledgment do not utilize a similar phrasing. For instance, California awards rights that are equal to those reached out to various sex wedded couples to ‘enlisted residential accomplices,’ acquiring a term that was instituted during the 1980s when organizations began to offer medical coverage and different advantages to same-sex accomplices. New Jersey additionally gives marriage equality, however, utilizes the expression ‘civil union.’ Adding to the disarray, both Vermont and Connecticut had initially offered same-sex couples marriage proportionality under the term civil union, yet they now recognize same-sex marriage (Erik Larson, 2014). These clashing principles can have genuine results since relationship acknowledgment is occasionally convenient, implying that couples who are lawfully married in their home state must travel at their risks.

A couple who is legitimately married in Massachusetts and chose to travel in Connecticut will be lawfully married while on an extended get-away. If they travel to New Jersey rather, they will be considered parties to a civil union, yet they will not be considered ‘married’ because New Jersey holds that term is for various sex couples.

In Florida, nonetheless, the couple will be viewed as minor legitimate outsiders, as they are for every government reason. What’s more, a huge number of same-sex couples who live in non-acknowledgment states have ventured out to different locales to get married. When these couples come back to their home states, their relationships are not substantial. If a couple later attempts to separate, they might be stuck because their home state will not disintegrate a marriage it does not perceive, and in contrast to marriage, states force residency confinements for divorce.

Staying aware of the Pace of Progress

The last confounding variable is the speed with which changes have occurred in the zone of LGBT social equality. Notwithstanding an expanded ability concerning lawmaking bodies to broaden both non-separation insurances and relationship acknowledgment, various significant court cases stay ready to carry critical changes as for relationship acknowledgment. Perry v. Darker can command across the nation marriage uniformity.

As of now pending before the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit, the offended parties contend that California Suggestion 8 violate the Due Process and Equivalent Security Conditions of the fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Two cases that explicitly challenge the lawfulness of DOMA are at present pending in the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Principal Circuit (Erik Larson, 2014). The U.S. Department of Equity has declined to guard DOMA because it is illegal, but the House of Delegates is seeking after the prosecution.

Given the fast pace of lawful change an unending lawful moving, it tends to be exceedingly hard to keep up -to-date with the latest changes. Scholarly articles or books that endeavor to condense the present condition of the law are frequently old when they are distributed. The list of Web resource provided below offers a few other options. For instance, it is conceivable to get prepublication adaptations of papers through the Sociology research System database.

SSRN keeps up a broad Legitimate Grant System where creators post both working papers furthermore, acknowledged papers. The most dependable approach to get a precise appraisal of the present count of marriage laws is to counsel the different sites kept up by the LGBT backing associations that normally screen additions and misfortunes around there. The Human Rights campaign shows this data in simple to-peruse maps of the U.S. that are composed by subject and refreshed normally. The Williams Organization at UCLA Graduate School is a brilliant hotspot for statistic data, counting experimental projections on the monetary effect of marriage equity.

Conclusion

LGBT-related research upgrades our comprehension of the lived understanding of LGBT community. It can give significant data fundamental to making policies suggestions intended to lessen incongruities and address the disparity. LGBT-related research essentially includes thinking about such confounding variables as a disgrace, underestimation, and self-imposed silence on some portion of the individuals from the LGBT community.

It additionally includes lawful ideas in light of the focal job the law plays in LGBT lives. The reference list given below can help guarantee that LGBT-related research mirrors the latest legitimate advancements, though the referenced books give a valuable review of LGBT lawful history, advise us that, only forty years ago, homosexuality was named a serious sociopathic sickness, and condemned in forty-six states.

Reference

1. Baumle, A. (2017). Legalizing LGBT Families: How the Law Shapes Parenthood. New York: NYU Press.
2. Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, L. B. (2006). The New Civil Rights Research: A Constitutive Approach. London: Ashgate Publishing.
3. Erik Larson, P. S. (2014). The Law and Society Reader II. New York: NYU Press.
4. Harding, R. (2010). Regulating Sexuality: Legal Consciousness in Lesbian and Gay Lives. New York: Routledge.
5. Harding, R. (2010). Regulating Sexuality: Legal Consciousness in Lesbian and Gay Lives. New York: Routledge.
6. Hertogh, M. (2018). Nobody’s Law: Legal Consciousness and Legal Alienation in Everyday Life. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Ever since the recording of history began, the concept of consciousness has baffled many great thinkers, from many different fields such as philosophy, psychology and neuroscience to name a few. Questions such as understanding of how our mind works, what is it, to where it is located has repeated itself over time. René Descartes (1596-1650) was the first to not only make a clear distinction between the physical abilities and mental processes, called dualism, he was also the first to acknowledge the brains role in sensory input and output.

Thus, becoming the first to attempt a systematic approach to the study of consciousness. Descartes believed that the source of our consciousness and all it entails to have a conscious experience was due to the involvement of the pineal gland. In his attempts to explain the importance of this he suggested that perception came from hollow tubes of thin nerve fibres which would stretch into valves in the ventricles connecting them to sensory organs. And a stimulation of the organs would set them in motion creating perception. He also believed that these hallowed tubes were filled with animal spirits (Lokhorst and Kaitaro, 2001).

Although he’s theories has been rejected today the distinction between physical properties and mental processes made by Descartes is still important. This due to the fact that the main aim in neuroscientific research today is to understand the relation between physical properties and mental processes and how it results in conscious experience (Brogaard and Gatzia, 2016). Few accept dualism as a solid theory of consciousness today, and after Descartes numerous theories has risen to attempt to explain the concept of consciousness, however, the majority is not accepted as valid theories today. Today, when studying the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) it is very much based on the idea put forward by Julien Offray de la Mettrie (1705-1751); that the concept of consciousness itself is far more complex than the result of simple involuntary and instinctive processes, and that “the mind somehow emerges from the physical properties of the brain” (Schneider and Velmans, 2017, p. 3). A conscious experience is our awareness of ourselves, what we do, how and when we do it, whether you are having a cup of coffee, watching the sunrise, smelling the flowers in your garden or dreaming, you are having a conscious experience. Defining consciousness itself is difficult as it is an ambiguous term and depends on the approach we choose to take.

The term consciousness is ambiguous due to not only being a broad term across different fields, such as it in some cases can be used interchangeably with mind, but also because it is dependent upon the amount to which we experience consciousness. Thus, the amount of consciousness we experience vary between being awake, sleeping, dreaming, the level of consciousness present in permanently vegetative patients (PVC), and the amount of mental processing occurring without conscious awareness (nonconscious) (Velmans, 2009). Therefore, it is easier to define the concept once there is a generalized agreement on its phenomenology and an approach to study can be taken. Consciousness can be studied either through subjective reports, objective measure, or a combination of the two, to which the latter is more common within academic fields (Schneider Velmans, 2017).

In 1964, Benjamin Libet made a significant discovery that resulted in him becoming a pioneer in the field of consciousness. Libet (1964) conducted a study on neurosurgical patients which had to remain awake during the procedure due to clinical reasons. After receiving local anaesthetic to the incision points on the skull, different trains of electrical pulses were administered to the patient’s postcentral gyrus (somatosensory cortex). The patients were asked to report if they felt any form of sensations and the limited threshold where they reported sensations were between 0.5 to 1 s. The amount of sensation the patients reported they felt were dependent upon the frequency of the stimulus pulses. So, if the frequency were turned up to 15 Hz for 0.1 to 0.5 s, the sensation the patients felt went from simple tingling to feeling the need to draw the hand away. Furthermore, if they increased the intensity up to two seconds, they observed muscle twitches without the patient’s awareness, other times they would report feeling muscle twitches. Libet reported that it took the patients up to 500ms after the electrical train of pulses had begun to consciously be aware of the sensation. These findings gave birth to the facilitation hypothesis, which states that a stimulus which is low in its intensity will take longer to create a conscious sensation than a stimulus high in its intensity. These findings indicate that upon feeling touch on our body, the brain has a large evoked potential followed by continues firing. Taking the delay of conscious awareness of the sensation into consideration, it raises the question if we are consciously experiencing the world in a form of delay (Libet, 1964).

During a study by Libet et al (1983) participants were asked to flex their wrist when they felt the urge to do so. At the same time they were watching a clock on an oscilloscope, rotating 1 revolution every 2.6 seconds. They were then asked to report the position of the clock upon which they felt the urge to flex their wrist. They then compared the readiness potential (measures of activity in the motor cortex and supplementary motor area leading up to voluntary muscle movement), which is thought to be generated in the SMA. They found that the brain began to prepare movements long before the participants became aware of their conscious urge to move. This suggests that although we feel like we consciously decide when to move, such a decision has already been initiated in the brain long before, because the RP comes before the conscious urge to move. The decision of when to move happens unconsciously in the brain.

Haggard and Eimer (1999) conducted an experiment similar to the original libet experiment, but here the participants could press with either their left or their right hand. This allowed them to calculate the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) which shows the degree to which they have activated one response over the other. They found that the LRP began around 700ms prior to movement, while the participants judged their urge to move at around 300ms prior to movement.

Soon et al (2008) conducted a study using fMRI imagining to record the brain activity leading up to a decision. They had their participants watch a sequence of letters on a screen and could freely choose to press a key with either their left or their right hand. They were then asked to report which letter was on the screen when deciding which button to press. They could decode from the activity in the participant’s frontopolar cortex which button they were going to press 10 seconds before they became consciously aware of this decision. In fact, activity in the SMA preceded the decision by 6 seconds, and from this activity they could 5 seconds prior to the decision decode which button the participants would press. This suggests that activity in the prefrontal regions are responsible for the initial decision regarding which button to press and this decision is then passed to the SMA and then to the primary motor cortex. Together with the results from Libet (1983) and Haggard and Eimer (1999) these results provide compelling evidence that both the what decision and when decision occurs unconsciously in the brain.

Filevich et al (2013) studied unconscious inhibition where in the instructed condition participants had to either press a button immediately or delay their response and press later (initially inhibiting responding to the stimulus). And in the free condition they could choose freely to press now or delay. Activity in the premotor cortex prior to the stimulus appearing was predictive of whether or not people decided to inhibit (delay) their button press. This suggests that even freely selected whether or not to execute intentional action are influenced by unconscious brain activity.

Our experiences tells us that we have conscious free will, meaning that “we” decide out actions. Wegner and Wheatley (1999) decided to test how easily this could be manipulated. They had two people, one participant and one confederate place their hands on a keyboard attached to a computer mouse. The participant were told to move around the screen and stop on whatever object they wanted. In reality it was always the confederate that chose when, and therefore where, to stop the mouse. The participants were played a sequence of words which they were told were irrelevant. When they heard the name of an item, immediately before stopping on that object, they (wrongly) judged that they had chosen to stop on that object. This shows that conscious thought (intention) prior to an action is enough to trick people into believing that they had conscious free will in their choice of action.

The issue of consciousness is a difficult topic to understand, especially when there are different views about it. The issue of consciousness is a difficult topic to comprehend, especially when there are many different views about what it should and should not entail. There are quite a few philosophers who give their judgment about the role of consciousness in everyday life. In this paper, I will focus on the positions of David Armstrong, David Chalmers, and Thomas Nagel. While Armstrong, Chalmers, and Nagel possessed some similarity with the idea of consciousness, they have different views when it comes to the discussion of philosophical zombies, conceivability, and subjectivity and objectivity. First, I will compare the views of Armstrong and Chalmers about consciousness and philosophical zombies. Then, I will clarify Chalmers’ take on conceivability. Finally, I will give insight on Nagel’s position on physicalism, subjectivity, and objectivity.

In philosophy, there is always the debate about whether “zombies” exist. A zombie, in philosophy, is typically a being, creature, or anything that looks and behaves just like a human but has no consciousness or awareness. David Chalmers says that even if we do not know if it is true, we can still make sense of the idea that a philosophical zombie exists. His argument is this:

(P1) P&~Q is primarily ideally positively conceivable.

(P2) Whatever is primarily ideally conceivable is primarily possible.

(C1) P&~Q is primarily possible.

(P3) The primary intensions of P and Q are identical to the secondary intensions of P and Q.

(C2) P&~Q is secondarily possible.

(P4) Materialism is true only if the entailment P>Q is secondarily necessary.

(C3) Materialism is false.

Materialism, or physicalism, is the principle that physical matter is the only actuality. Chalmers’ is trying to demonstrate that there is a possible zombie world that is exactly like our human world physically, but when it comes to consciousness, they are completely different. In the zombie world, consciousness is missing. So, why should we believe in Chalmers’ argument? We cannot support it with any stable evidence that there are these zombies that roam the earth. The fact that we cannot retain this evidence proves Chalmers’ claim that physicalism is false. The mere possibility of this is what helps give new light on the idea of consciousness. In contrast with Chalmers, David Armstrong proposes central-state materialism, which implies that the mind’s mental states are actual physical states of the brain. He believes that materialism is explained well by science. His argument is this: Mental states are the inner causes of behavior. The inner causes of behavior are brain states and processes. Therefore, mental states are identical with brain states and processes. Armstrong believes that consciousness is like our sense perception. Just as we can perceive colors, the same applies to consciousness (the inner state of our minds). Chalmers’ zombie suspicion spells out trouble for the idea that mental states could be identified with physiological/brain states. This is because it is uncertain if there are actually zombies, so we cannot physically say that they are explained in terms of science and matter. I do not favor Armstrong’s take on consciousness. This is because after hearing what Chalmers said about the different possibilities, it is hard to believe that the world is based solely on science and physical matter.

Next, I will talk about Chalmers’ standpoint on conceivability. Chalmers states that there is a primary and secondary sense of conceivability. Are primary and secondary conceivability identical? The primary sense of conceivability is directed towards mere possibility. Secondary conceivability refers to actuality, in a sense. It is difficult to distinguish between these two, but they are in fact different. One example in support of this would be the difference between pain and the stimulation of c-fibers. They are the same by definition, but by experience, they are completely different. Pain might be different from one person to the next. It is possible for a person to have a higher tolerance for pain than I do. This much is imaginable. However, it is not possible to stimulate someone’s c-fibers and they do not feel any pain at all. It is pain nonetheless; it just varies from person to person. Therefore, it is difficult to pinpoint the definition of pain. Stimulating c-fibers would be actuality, which makes this secondary. It is possible to imagine that there are different levels of pain when it comes human to beings, which makes this primary. My understanding from this would be that primary and secondary conceivability are not identical. This is because possibility and actuality do not equate when talking about the real world.

Finally, I will move on to discuss Nagel’s position on physicalism. Nagel uses a unique illustration when referring to the state of mind: the bat example. In this example, Nagel explains that we can understand the scientific properties of bats, but we cannot understand what it is like to be one. We know that bats come out during the night and use echolocation, but we don’t really have these abilities, therefore, we cannot really know what being a bat is like. Here, he is referring to subjectivity and objectivity, not physicalism. Subjectivity refers to first-hand experience, while objectivity refers to the observation of something. I agree with Nagel’s position because it explains that even if our mental state is imagining we are bats, our physiological brain states cannot equate to how a bat behaves and what they experience. Nagel’s point is that no amount of objective scientific knowledge will allow you to know the subjective mental states of the bat. He states that physicalism is not necessarily false, nor do we have any impression as to how it can be true. However, the claim that mental events are physical events becomes fallacious when the bat example is considered. I believe that this is a good argument and easy to believe because we are only aware of the things that we do as humans and can only process things through our own senses. Physically, we cannot turn ourselves into bats, but it is possible to imagine ourselves flying around as a bat would. I believe that Nagel has succeeded in demonstrating the difference between subjectivity and objectivity. His argument makes me think of this example: if there was a person who was born blind walking through the city, could he use echolocation to understand where he was? The answer to this question is no because he is not a bat. Could he know what it is like if he experienced the world as if he could see? The answer to this question is also no because he is not any other human being, and he has never experienced this before. He only has knowledge to what it is like to be blind.

The position that I agree the most with would be Chalmers’. He gives a clear example of what it is to imagine a world where there are no conscious beings, which supports his argument claiming that materialism is false. Materialism is a narrow theory. It only seems to work in aspects related to things that are actually present in the world, which sets a limit on what we, as conscious beings, perceive.

In conclusion, each of these philosophers’ positions on consciousness is understandable, and they tend to raise questions about what consciousness is and how we identify it. Armstrong makes a good argument about our mental states being our brain states. Chalmers uses many vivid examples, such as philosophical zombies and pain, to bring his point across about experience. Nagel explains subjectivity and objectivity in a way that is easy to follow. Consciousness is a complex subject to touch base on, but with these few explanations, it makes things a bit more understandable.

Karl Marx was born in 1818 in Germany, however, he lived most of his life in exile in London, England. Marx worked as a journalist and was a strong supporter of the communist ideology. At the center of Karl Marx’s writing were his critiques of capitalism. Marx believed that under the capitalist system modern work is alienated and a disconnect between the worker and the work is created. Within Marx’s diagnosis of the “species being”, workers, in order to be satisfied, need to feel and see their contributions to society, and the capitalist structure does not allow this. Upon further analysis of the “species being”, Marx would argue that all humans are materialists and all life and history is developed under this theory. Breaking down the principle of materialism further, Marx’s claim that “Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life” demonstrates that similar modes of production are necessary for obtaining peace throughout the global community, which in turn creates satisfaction for all individuals (Marx et al., 1972, p. 155).

One of Marx’s core principles was the notion that humans are different from other animals in that they are free from immediate dependency on nature and have free conscious productive activity. In fact, what humans produce is the basis of their whole existence. Marx was very much a materialist. Humans have material needs, and they satisfy those needs strictly off of materials produced by nature. In every case, material circumstances come before conscious thoughts or ideas in humans. His claim that “Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life” is reinforcing this idea (Marx et al., 1972, p. 155). Every thought or idea in humans is the byproduct of the means by which they satisfy their needs. All humans inherently know is the modes in which they produce, and their thoughts and ideas are born from those modes. In his German Ideology, Marx expresses that “The nature of individuals thus depends on the material conditions determining their production” (Marx et al., 1972, p. 150). Humans are the way they are and have the beliefs and values that they do because of their modes of production. The materials that humans are exposed to determines their production techniques, which in turn shapes their thoughts, beliefs and ideals.

Naturally, humans located in different geographical location throughout the world will have different means of production. Location determines what materials are readily available, and those materials regulate the type of production and the specific products and commodities being produced. People living in the jungles of South America will produce their food, shelter, and clothing in ways that people living in Northern Europe would have never considered. Under Marx’s theory of materialism, production, and consciousness, humans located in diverse areas will have different thoughts, beliefs, and ideas. Their specific means of production will not produce the same type of consciousness, and their thoughts and ideas will be tailored to the materials and modes of production that surround them. Predictably, every community of humans that are not geographically close are going to have different ways of thinking about government, politics, society, religion, educations and other constructs under which humans live. The structure of government of a community is going to be constructed to serve the mode of production that suits the area that that community is in. Similarly, the variety of religion and education is going to be based off of what makes sense for production and the service of basic human needs. Every community throughout the world is structured very differently in terms of government and other societal structures simply because the modes of production vary due to the materials available in a certain area.

History alone tells us that different countries, communities, and tribes have an extensive record of violent and nonviolent conflict. These conflicts often have to do with ideological differences. Countless wars have been fought over fundamental religious, governmental, and societal incongruities. When one state operates under principles that another state deems unproductive or often times dangerous, it is hard to respect them as a peer and not see them as a threat to their own ideals. Communities struggle to coexist peacefully when their thoughts and values differ. With all of this considered, it can be generally assumed that the unlike modes of production, due to varying materials used in the production processes and the different commodities produced, is a key cause of conflict in different nations and communities.

Knowing what Marx teaches us about the nature of human ideologies being born from the modes of production that that human is accustomed to, it is only logical to assume that if all humans used similar modes of production, they would all have similar values and beliefs. Later in his chapter on the German Ideology Marx says that “The multitude of productive forces accessible to men determines the nature of society” (Marx et al., 1972, p. 157). Marx clearly believes that the modes of production are the determining factor in how humans behave, the ideas and thoughts that they have, and what they believe in. This notion is significant because if all communities around the world all had the same or similar means of production, then they would all likely behave and think in the same way. Similar modes of production would encourage the same type of conscious thinking. These different communities would be likely to have compatible structures of government, politics, religion, education, and other societal ideas.

If all organized communities across the world used the same or similar modes of production then peace will be inevitable. Conflict and wars are caused by competing ideologies of government, politics, religion, education, and other societal ideas. Similar means of production would essentially eliminate any rivaling philosophies in these areas, thus creating peaceful coexistence. It is unrealistic to imagine a world where every community is able to use the exact same modes of production as the materials used and the commodities produced vary, however, if all modes of production operated under the same basic structure, then the same conscious ideas would be formed. For Marx, this structure of production would start with the elimination of the upper class. Marx believes that “as soon as class rule in general ceases to be the form in which society is organized, that is to say, as soon as it is no longer necessary to represent a particular interest as the general or the “general interest” as ruling” (Marx et al., 1972, p. 174). For Marx, the ruling class, which controls the modes of production and the structure of society in a capitalistic system, do not have the same interests as the working class. Upper-class rule harms the lower class, and this system is detrimental to society and human satisfaction overall. With all communities across the world would having the same general make-up of government, politics, education, and religion because of similar means of production, peace would be reached as the same conscious thinking removes any need for competition that causes inter-state conflicts.

Peaceful co-existence would be ideal for Marx. On Marx’s critique of capitalism, Thomas Wartenberg writes “Since the worker is forced by the capitalist to labor for an entire day in order to earn enough money to meet his/her basic animal needs, the human capacity for freedom becomes a slave to our basic animal natures” (Wartenberg, 1982, p. 87). Many modes of production across the world operate in a capitalist market, and for Marx this system will never produce satisfaction for all people. The lower class will always be a slave to the system. All communities across the world must operate under a mode of production that allows all humans to feel equal and important to the overall production system. If all communities adopted this system, then similar conscious thought would be formed, eliminating the competition that created conflict. If every human was satisfied with their existence, most importantly from being free from upper-class rule and estranged labor, then they could spend more time engaging in activities that give them joy. For Marx, humans make themselves free by virtue of conscious life activity, and conscious life activity is only possible when humans feel free from the means of production that they are surrounded by and free from global conflict that limits human satisfaction.

To conclude, Marx’s claim that “Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life” demonstrates that similar modes of production are necessary for obtaining peace throughout the global community, which in turn creates satisfaction for all individuals (Marx et al., 1972, p. 155). In humans, thoughts and ideas are the byproduct of the means by which they satisfy their needs. The mode of production that an individual or community is used to will determine the structure of government, politics, education, religion and other constructs that aid in the operation of society. These ideals are a significant cause of inter-state conflict and war. If every community throughout the world operated under similar modes of production that created similar thoughts, then peace would be inevitable as like conscious thinking would eliminate competition over ideologies. Peace is a necessity in Marx’s ideal world. If no human felt undermined or unimportant to the system in which they lived, then they could spend more time engaging in the virtues of free conscious life activity which is the optimal way of life for all individuals for Marx.

In the movie named “Sankofa” made by Haile Gerima, was technically about an African-American woman who traveled back in the time of slavery and experiences the life of enslavement. In the beginning, it shows a woman named Mona she is colonized and brainwashed which lead to her being separated from her origin. She was on a trip to Ghana, in that trip Mona went was in a old cave, that cave was one of the places in which Africans were captured brought, gathered, and tortured. As Mona goes in the cave she and travels in those time of slavery. This slave, named Shola, is believed to be her ancestor. Gradually throughout the movie, Mona understands that she is being brainwashed by the colonizers. It took her time to love her origin and her culture but what matters is that she was able to love her roots. The elements such as identity, time, and location played an important role as these elements helped Mona with her Black consciousness.

The term Black Consciousness can be defined as “Black consciousness is a broad category that encompasses things as varied as race consciousness, race relations, black pride, black power, and even rebellion and revolutionary consciousness as it relates to a historically oppressed community, nation, or group acting and reacting against its oppression.” (encyclopedia).Technically being aware of where you’re ancestor is from and knowing that your ancestor suffered a lot and is still suffering these days through racism and being able to love your origin. Back then the African American viewpoint regarding identity, time, and location was very dissimilar. There were some ways in which led to the African culture to be gone little by little as one of it was the time of imperialism occurring. Imperialism has an impact as the white made African American children dress and act like them and make them forget where they truly came from. But knowing you’re ancestor history and what they went through will help impact and get your black consciousness. Knowing you’re real identity and embracing your identity. Realizing you’re an ancestor and being more practical have to do with time. Ultimately, recognizing your location as to in where you want to be. Mona was completely unaware of her identity until she gained her Black consciousness.

At the beginning of the movie, Mona does not recognize her true identity. Mona was modeling for a fashion photoshoot as she was wearing a yellowish wig doing different poses to the photographer. The photographer was a white American that was supporting her to ‘to be sexy’ in the pictures. This shows that she wants to be shown as a white men dream. What’s worse is the fact that she was in the holy area of African American also a part of Ghana where the mass slaughter of African Americans occurred. There were times that without any hesitation she blurted out that she is American. Mona prejudice against herself have to do with Shola. Shola would always claim that she is a servant as she can never accept the fact that she is enslaved. In the Louisiana sugarcane plantation, the African American does not want to encounter themselves with any part of the white culture or religion and stick to their religion and practices as this shows they do not want to change and stick to their own identity. On the other hand, Shola practices Christianity but overtime Shola perception will change throughout the movie as she will finally attain senses.

Mona is ignorant as she has no clue about what happened with her ancestor. The way she acts seems like she has no clue whatsoever especially since it was in Ghana. There was a point at the beginning where Shango recommended that she poison her master, but she refused as she thinks that is immoral to murder. Shango tried to explain to her that what the master, in general, is doing is wrong as the master torture them and her. But toward the end finally, when she gained her black consciousness her rapist came toward her while she was cutting in the land. She stabbed him with the knife this show she was against Christianity and what the master put her and the others through. Throughout the movie, you can tell that now she is more aware of her surroundings most importantly with her black consciousness.

Location does not depend on your physical location it is where you’re subconscious is. The location is valuable since Mona was discerned toward the location in Ghana. She took no notice of the fact she was in ghana the place where her ancestor was mascaraed and tortured heavily. Usually, Shola is always in her comfort zone as she dislikes the idea of not being anywhere far from her home. When shola finally killed her master she ran away which shows she is finally free and for the first time she finally got out of her comfort zone and now have knowledge about her surroundings. In the end, she didn’t have any attire on which shows that she revival. But then after someone provided her with an appropriate outfit that was different than the outfit she wore in the beginning. She sat down with African Americans and cherish, admires, and respects her culture and the land.

Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-born American novelist. He has written four novels The Kite Runner(2003), A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007), And the Mountains Echoed (2013), and Sea Prayer (2018). These novels portray the real circumstance of Afghanistan to the world and stand as evidence for how morality and honesty are degraded by political conflicts and by social and economical conditions. His novels deal with the social, economic, religious, and political issues of Afghanistan and the plots are knitted with political, social, and historical events including ethnic differences and religious controversies. The background and the life events in the novels mirror the real history of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is a multiethnic society. The population of the country is divided into a wide variety of ethnolinguistic groups. This study tries to explicate the sufferings of suppressed Afghan people due to their gender, ethnic discrimination, and preoccupations in their religious lives. In Afghanistan, the suppression of the people is done in the name of religion. Hosseini vividly describes the atrocities which are done in the name of religion. It does not say that the religious faith of the people is immoral but it highlights the sufferings of the people who are seen as victims. The characters in the novel internalize their inferior or superior status in their minds and it is passed on to the next generations.

The term “Afghan” is synonymous with one of the ethnic names “Pashtun”. Pashtuns are the traditional rulers of Afghanistan. They practice the principles of Sunni Islam. Sunni Islam is the largest division of Islam. According to one of the Pashtun legends, Pashtuns are descended from Afghana, a grandson of the biblical King Saul. This descended history and the largest population make them be proud and dominate other ethnic groups in Afghanistan.

The Hazaras are the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. They are Persian-speaking and reside mainly in the Hazarajat region in central Afghanistan and most of the Hazaras practice Shia Islam. “The Hazaras, the main Shia Muslim group in the country” (Friedman 71). Throughout history, these ethnic discriminations have given birth to numerous domestic wars. “Afghanistan has been a battleground for centuries” (67).

The socio-economic conditions in Afghanistan demonstrate the inequality between the Sunni Muslims and the Shi’a Muslims and how people discriminate against each other based on their physical features and ethnic groups. Pashtuns are the largest and traditionally ruling ethnic group in Afghanistan; most Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims. As Miller in her essay quotes

Pashtun culture rests on Pushtunwali, a legal and moral code that determines social order and responsibilities. It contains sets of values pertaining to honor (namaz), solidarity (nang), hospitality, mutual support, shame, and revenge which determine social order and individual responsibility. The defense of namuz, even unto death, is obligatory for every Pushtun. Elements in this code of behavior are often in opposition to Shariah.

This study analyses the discrimination in society by emphasizing ethnic discrimination which is predominant in society; gender discrimination where women are dominated by patriarchal society and on the whole, the society is dominated and ruled by the Taliban regime. These discriminations are dissected and determine the individuals as superior or elite and inferior or ‘subaltern’. The dominant group considers the remaining people as other and is treated as subordinate with their power and control. Khaled Hosseini tries to describe these differences in society and the effect of Taliban terrorism in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the Taliban regime is considered as the dominant group and their interest, faith, and attachment towards the religion are generalized to the entire society. Hosseini combines political history and the life of the people to exhibit the speechless situation of the Afghan people. Afghan citizens, consciously imbibe their status in society because if they fight against their position, they will be rewarded with the penalty of death.

In The Kite Runner, Hosseini picturizes the life’s journey of the subaltern characters, who are suppressed and denied from their speech because of their internalized fear. This novel includes the autobiographical details of the author. Amir, the protagonist of the novel, was born in Kabul to a wealthy family and he was raised by his father, his mother having passed away during his birth; Amir lives a happy life with his friend Hassan, until the Soviet invasion into Afghanistan. Then he and his father flee to Pakistan as refugees and later settled up in America. In the United States, his father becomes a gas station manager and Amir meets Soraya, the daughter of a former Afghan general, and marries her. Then Amir receives a call from Rahim Khan, a friend, and former business partner of his father. Amir flies to Peshawar to meet with him. Rahim Khan reveals that Hassan, Amir’s childhood friend, is the presumed son of the family servant Ali. In reality, Hassan is Amir’s half-brother, his father’s illegitimate son with Ali’s wife. In the latter part of the novel, Hassan and his wife were killed by the Taliban. Rahim Khan wants Amir to go to Kabul and bring Hassan’s son to Peshawar. After much hesitation, Amir brings the child to America for adoption. “This novel gives a vivid picture of not only the Russian atrocities but also those of the Northern Alliances and the Taliban” (Noor 45).

The subaltern aspect in this novel is highlighted through the characters Hassan, his father Ali, Farid-Amir’s driver, and Shorab, Hassan’s son. They were dominated by the Taliban regime and by other ethnic groups. The voice of the subaltern characters is denied; due to ‘power’ and ‘domination’, the characters in the novel are fragmented and escape from the homeland and become refugees in other countries. The struggle for the rights of these characters in the novel leads to the violent, cruel, and public execution by political and Taliban rules.

The Kite Runner portrays multiple facets of oppression of an individual in Afghan society. It focuses on the domination over men and women through social, political, and religious rules. In this novel, Hosseini presents many men characters who are dominated by other men in the name of Islamic rules and by their ethnic differences.

The socio-political issues in Afghanistan affect the people and they are marginalized by their ethnic differences. “The Pashtuns had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras. It said the Hazaras had tried to rise against the Pashtuns in the nineteenth century, but the Pashtuns had “quelled them with unspeakable violence.” ” (Hosseini 8). These ethnic differences in the society, made the Pashtuns be proud because of their ethnic community and they dominate over other ethnic people.

Amir, the protagonist of the novel belongs to Pashtun ethnic group. Hassan, Amir’s friend “a face like a Chinese doll chiseled from hardwood: his flat, broad nose and slanting, narrow eyes like bamboo leaves, eyes that looked, depending on the light, gold, green, even sapphire” (Hosseini 3). He belongs to the Hazara community.

Most of the subaltern people were deprived of education, in the same way, Hassan was illiterate. Amir goes to school and Hassan used to prepare his bag and lunch box. Amir has the pride that he is educated and he belongs to the Pashtun community. The social issues in Afghanistan are due to the economical status of the lower rank people and their inborn ethnic identity. Even though Amir and Hassan are good friends, Amir fails to see Hassan as his friend and companion. Hassan is treated as Baba’s favorite so that Amir had jealous of him. Amir fails to understand Hassan’s affection towards him and his concern towards him was that Hassan is his childhood friend and he belongs to Hazara.

In the novel, Hosseini presents the domination of power in many incidents like the conversation between Hassan and the soldier and the fight between Assef and Hassan. The soldier insulted Hassan by criticizing his birth and his mother because the identity of Hassan is seen as Hazara who is dominated by power. He never spoke for himself and he never had the opportunity and education to speak for him. Ali and Hassan may seem to be minor characters but their silence speaks throughout the novel.

Assef is a dominant figure in the novel, who believed that Pashtuns are the real men of Afghanistan. Assef turns as the chief of the Taliban. The Islamic people who are educated from Pakistani religious schools are Taliban. Their strict religious rules made the entire society suffer. Assef says to Hassan, “Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood.” He made a sweeping, grandiose gesture with his hands. “Afghanistan for Pashtuns, I say. That’s my vision.” (38)

Assef had the pride of being a Taliban and he dominates the subjugated characters.

The victim of Assef’s power is Hassan and his son Sohrab. Both of them are raped by Assef. They did not have a voice among the Pashtun people. They accept their lower rank and continued to accept the ill-treatment of Assef. This shows the speechless condition of the Hazara people in Afghanistan. The inborn social and economical status of an individual leads to oppression. They are treated as the other and they cannot speak for their rights and for their identity.

In the later part of the novel, Amir remembers Hassan as a good friend and not as Hazara. Hassan’s silent affection and his faith in friendship made Amir realize his mistakes. When Assef rapes Hassan, Amir neither fights nor protest for his friend. He worried about his life by being selfish and escaping from the violent situation. Sometimes subaltern people are neglected and pushed into helpless conditions. Their true nature is not shown to the others and they live in silence. The subaltern cannot speak because they “have nothing, no access to mobility at all” (Spivak 73).

The ethnic differences in Afghanistan are not only seen as a social issue but also as a political subject. The politics in Afghanistan plays important role in Afghans life. The governing characters in the novel are also ruled and subjugated by other characters by the means of political power. The arrival of the Taliban is the additional feature for the discrimination of Afghan people through religion. In this novel, the ‘low-rank or ‘inferior’ changes from one system to another system.

The effect of Taliban terrorism is seen in the latter part of the novel which shows the life of the characters after Talibanisation. The rules of the Taliban are based on God and religion. The strict rules of the Taliban ended up as terrorist activities. “Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furthermore of political or social objectives” (Pachnanda 5). In the novel, one of the Taliban says, “God says that every sinner must be punished in a manner of befitting his sin. Those are not my words, nor the words of my brothers. Those are the words of the God” (248). The characters in the novel depict the atrocities committed by the Taliban riots and the changes in their lives.

The novel starts with the domination of ethnic differences at the social level and proceeded to political issues. The domination is continued by religious rules. The center and the margin, the hierarchal setups are relocated in the society in turn there is a constant power shift in Afghanistan. These shifts subjugate the characters and the marginalized cannot speak for their rights. Representing the margin is a step ahead to describe the lives of subaltern people.

In the play ‘No Exit’, Jean-Paul Sartre implements the ideas of the philosophy of ontology and consciousness. In exploration of these philosophical ideas, like ontology, which is the ‘study of what exists’, the author works to emphasize the importance of self-awareness. Ontology, itself, categorizes the nature of existence into three states of being. These states of being include: being-in-itself, being-for-itself, and being-for-others, which all hold connection to the characters. Likewise, consciousness, also explores the idea of being self-aware, and emphasizes the importance of being self-aware. Sartre’s main techniques in exploring these ideas are through the internal characterization of his characters and the use of irony.

Through the use of internal characterization of his characters, Sartre presents the ideas of ontology and the three states of being, as well as the importance of consciousness. The state of being-for-others is a reflective state, and it is when one’s experience is dependent on the context of others. This state of being is characterized well by Estelle’s character, as she is not conscious of her own self, and she needs other things to confirm her of her own existence. In the play, when Estelle cannot find her mirror to see herself in, she states, “When I can’t see myself, I begin to wonder if I really and truly exist” (Sartre, 11). This moment is vital in the internal characterization of her character, because not only does it affirm her state of being, but it also allows the audience to understand how she feels and views herself. In this moment, the audience understands she is not-conscious of her own self, and she has a necessity for other things to help confirm her of her existence. This scene shows how she exists in the state of being-for-others. Additionally, Estelle demonstrates being-for-others as she is dependent on the outlook and opinions of other people to confirm her existence. Even though Estelle automatically attracts Inez’s attention, she constantly seeks Garcin’s attention so that she may use his opinion about her to define who she is. Estelle says to Inez, “But I wish he’d notice me, too” (Sartre, 13), because she wants to express how she depends on both of them to determine her existence. Collectively, these philosophical ideas are developed because of how Estelle’s internal character lacks focus on her own existence and state of being. Furthermore, placing Estelle in the state of being-in-itself, where one exists but is not conscious of their own existence, as well. Moreover, one of Sartre’s main beliefs on consciousness is that human consciousness is more complex and different from that of an object. The main difference between the two is that humans have the capability of discovering their own meaning and purpose, while an object solely exists. Sartre expresses this belief of consciousness through Estelle’s character. In Estelle’s case, even as a human, she struggles to find her essence in existence. This objectifies her character, as she is not able to define her own meaning and purpose as a human being. Therefore, Sartre reflects on the setbacks to full consciousness and awareness, such as existing dependent on others, through Estelle’s internal characterization. Henceforth, Sartre seeks to show the audience the importance of being conscious.

The internal characterization of other characters, like Inez and Garcin, are also important in explaining ontology and consciousness. Unlike Estelle, Inez is always conscious of herself, as she says, “I am always conscious of myself-in my mind” (Sartre, 11). Similarly, Garcin is conscious of himself and he is “conscious of [his] position” (Sartre, 3). Both these statements demonstrate how both of these characters are in the state of being-for-itself. Being-for-itself means they are conscious in the moment and conscious of themselves. Sartre purposely characterizes these characters in this way to make a clear distinction between them and Estelle, who is not conscious. It is the use of juxtaposition by Sartre that illuminates their own internal character. By making Garcin and Inez conscious, it brings attention to Estelle’s character, and her inability to be conscious of her own self. The purpose of doing this is to continue emphasizing the importance of being conscious, because being conscious means being aware of oneself.

Another form in which Sartre explores the ideas of ontology and consciousness, is through the use of irony. Sartre uses situational irony by putting couches in the room, even though the characters are not able to sleep. The purpose of Sartre not allowing the characters to sleep is to emphasize the importance of being awake and conscious, which are important aspects of the philosophies. In the beginning, when Garcin first arrives, this idea is explored when he speaks with the valet about sleeping. Garcin states, “so one has to live with one’s eyes open all the time?” (Sartre, 4) and the valet responds, “to live, did you say?” (Sartre, 4). In this scene, Sartre purposely makes the response “to live…” (Sartre, 4) to emphasize that by having one’s eyes open all the time, they are constantly conscious and aware of their existence while living. Therefore, allowing for the message of the importance of being self-aware become more apparent. Additionally, Sartre uses situational irony by putting a character like Estelle, whose existence is dependent on other people and things, in a room with no mirrors and people who are conscious of their own self. With conscious beings and no mirrors in the room, Estelle’s state of being can be clearly revealed. Furthermore, Sartre’s purpose is unfolded even further with the use of irony. This purpose is to emphasize what it means to be self-aware and have “one’s eyes open” (Sartre, 4). Sartre truly exudes his purpose and message to the audience by implementing situational irony in relation to the philosophies.

Accordingly, the use of ontology and consciousness in ‘No Exit’, in further context of Sartre’s life, was important to display the real-world problems around him. During the time period in which he wrote this play, he lived in Paris under Nazi-occupied France. Many of the people in France were ignorant and ignored all the problems happening around them. Consequently, these people were no longer conscious, because they stopped paying attention to their surroundings. The environment that someone is in has a significant impact on their character and who they are. By choosing to ignore their surroundings, they begin to lose their self-awareness and consciousness. Sartre chooses to make commentary on this through ‘No Exit’, and uses Estelle’s character to convey a message to those who were ignorant about their surroundings, in order to help them understand that they were existing in a state of unconsciousness. Sartre believed it was necessary for them to become self-aware in order for them to become aware of everything else, like the injustices and inequalities that many of the Jews faced. Under the Nazis, many people suffered, especially the Jews who were persecuted because of anti-Semitism. Many of the people in France chose to ignore this problem that was happening, and they just accepted it. This ignorance and conformity of the people in France did not allow people to find their own essence of existing because they were accepting what other people told them they were. Estelle’s character was a great representation of the people that existed then. Estelle also states she is from Paris, which further connects Sartre’s purpose in the context of his writings to his real life.

Throughout the play ‘No Exit’, by Jean-Paul Sartre, the use of irony and characterization was to make people aware of how they were not conscious because they were allowing other people to define their meaning and purpose in life. In the play, Sartre also emphasizes the restrictions to self-awareness by making sure people understand that existing only dependent on the outlook of others does not allow them to be conscious or self-aware. Sartre’s belief is that “Hell is other people” (Sartre, 26), and they can restrict people from being fully conscious and self-aware. Therefore, the use of ontology and consciousness has a deeper purpose and provides meaning to the play, ‘No Exit’. Overall, Sartre uses ontology and consciousness to emphasize the importance of self-awareness, so people can also become aware of their freedom and responsibility.