Statistical techniques for cryptanalysis

Statistical techniques for cryptanalysis Introduction: Cryptography is the art of writing messages in code or cipher, to disguise, and thereby secure the content of a particular stream of text. When encrypted, a plain text message can be revealed only through the use of the key used to encode the cipher. Cryptography does not mask the existence of the message, but does disguise its content [1]. In contrary, cryptanalysis is the art of recovering the plaintext of a message without access to the key. Successful cryptanalysis may recover the plaintext or the key for a specific ciphertext [2]. There are five general types of cryptanalytic attacks:- 1. Ciphertext-only attack: In this type of attack, the cryptanalyst has a series of cipher texts encrypted using the same encryption algorithm. Then, the cryptanalyst deduces the plain text of each of the cipher texts or identifies the key used to encrypt the cipher text 2. Known-plaintext attack: In this type of attack, the cryptanalyst has a series of ciphertext and their corresponding plaintext values encrypted using a specific key. The cryptanalyst then tries to deduce the key by forming a relationship between the ciphertext and plaintext entries. 3. Chosen-plaintext attack: In this type of attack, the cryptanalyst not only has access to the ciphertext and associated plaintext for several messages, but he also chooses the plaintext that gets encrypted. His job is to deduce the key used to encrypt the messages or an algorithm to decrypt any new messages encrypted with the same key. 4. Frequency analysis: It is the study of thefrequency of lettersor groups of letters in aciphertext. The method is used as an aid to breakingclassical ciphers. Frequency analysis is based on the fact that, in any given stretch of written language, certain letters and combinations of letters occur with varying frequencies. 5. Rubber-hose cryptanalysis: The cryptanalyst threatens, tortures or blackmails the person who has the key until they give it up. Among the many cryptanalytic techniques, frequency analysis or frequency counting is the most basic technique applied to break substitution cipher based algorithms, among the varied list of attack techniques. The basic use of frequency analysis is to first count the frequency of ciphertext letters and then associate guessed plaintext letters with them. More complex use of statistics can be conceived, such as considering counts of pairs of letters digrams, trigrams, and so on. This is done to provide more information to the cryptanalyst. It exploits the weakness in the substitution cipher algorithm to encrypt similar plaintext letters to similar ciphertext letters. Frequency analysis based cryptanalysis techniques were used to break ciphers based on the traditional cryptographic algorithms, but they do not work well with the modern block cipher based cryptographic algorithms. Statistical properties of English: Frequency analysis based cryptanalysis uses the fact that natural language is not random in nature and single alphabetic based substitution does not hide the statistical properties of the natural language. In the case of encryption using monoalphabetic substitution, to start deciphering the encryption it is useful to get a frequency count of all the letters. The most frequent letter may represent the most common letter in English, E followed by T, A, O and I whereas the least frequent are Q, Z and X [7]. Statistical patterns in a language can be detected by tracing the redundancy of the text in the language. It has been realized that various universal regularities characterize text from different domains and languages. The best-known is Zipfs law on the distribution of word frequencies [5], according to which the frequency of terms in a collection decreases inversely to the rank of the terms. Zipfs law has been found to apply to collections of written documents in virtually all langu ages [5]. English language characters have a very high redundancy rate when used for cryptographic substitutions. If we have a message encrypted using the substitution cipher that needs to be cracked, we can use frequency analysis. In other words, if the sender has used an encryption scheme, that replaces one letter in the English to be another letter in English, we can still recognize the original plain text as, the frequency characteristics of the original plain text will be passed on the new cipher text characters [4]. To apply frequency analysis, we will need to know the frequency of every letter in the English alphabet, or the frequency characteristics of the language used by the sender to encrypt the text. Below is a list of average frequencies for letters in the English language. So, for example, the letter E accounts for 12.7% of all letters in English, whereas Z accounts for 0.1 %. All the frequencies are tabulated and plotted below:- For example, let us consider the following sentence: We study Cryptography as part of our course. Using a simple substitution cipher, let us consider the following: a->c , b-> d, c->e..w->y, x->z, y->a, z->b So, the cipher text becomes: yg uvwfa etarvqitcrja cu rctv qh qwt eqwtug. A simple frequency analysis of the cipher text can be carried out and the results are as given below: The above data can be used by a cryptanalyst to identify the key or the plaintext by using simple substitution to the cipher text till a suitable plaintext value is not identified. Apart from the use of mono alphabetic frequency analysis, cryptanalysts also identify frequency of paired letters better known as digram frequency and that of three letter words, called as Trigram frequencies. These help the cryptanalyst to exploit the redundant features of English language to break the cipher. The most common Digrams (in order): th, he, in, en, nt, re, er, an, ti, es, on, at, se, nd, or, ar, al, te, co, de, to, ra, et, ed, it, sa, em, ro. The most common Trigrams (in order): the, and, tha, ent, ing, ion, tio, for, nde, has, nce, edt, tis, oft, sth, men Table 1: Digram and Trigram Frequencies [6] These help in identifying the most commonly used terms in English to break a cipher. The digram frequencies are used to break two letter words such as an, to, of etc and the trigram frequencies are used to break three letter words such as the, are, for etc. After breaking a significant two letter and three letter words, it is practically east to identify the key from the cracked values of plaintext by matching the corresponding values in the ciphertext. This huge weakness in English language is used to break cipher texts encrypted using simple algorithms that make use of English alphabets. In practice the use of frequency analysis consists of first counting the frequency of ciphertext letters and then assigning guessed plaintext letters to them. Many letters will occur with roughly the same frequency, so a cipher with Xs may indeed map X onto R, but could also map X onto G or M. But some letters in every language using letters will occur more frequently; if there are more Xs in the c iphertext than anything else, its a good guess for English plaintext that X is a substitution for E. But T and A are also very common in English text, so X might be either of them also [4]. Thus the cryptanalyst may need to try several combinations of mappings between ciphertext and plaintext letters. Once the common single letter frequencies have been resolved, then paired patterns and other patterns are solved. Finally, when sufficient characters have been cracked, then the rest of the text can be cracked using simple substitution. Frequency analysis is extremely effective against the simpler substitution ciphers and will break astonishingly short cipher texts with ease. Attacks on Traditional algorithms Encrypting using traditional algorithms have been defenseless against cryptanalytic attacks as they use bit by bit encryption, which can be easily broken using frequency analysis based attacks. 1. Caesar Cipher: Considering the case of one of the oldest ciphers, the Caesar Cipher, this cipher replaces one letter of the plaintext with another to produce the ciphertext, and any particular letter in the plaintext will always, turn into the same letter in the cipher for all instance of the plaintext character. For instance, all Bs will turn into Fs. Frequency analysis is based on the fact that certain letters, and combinations of letters, appear with characteristic frequency in essentially all texts in a particular language [9]. For instance, in the English language, E is very common, while X is not. Likewise, ST, NG, TH, and QU are common combinations, while XT, NZ, and QJ are very uncommon, or even impossible to occur in English. This clearly shows how the Caesar cipher can be broken with ease by just identifying the frequency of each letter in the cipher text. A message encrypted using Caesar cipher is extremely insecure as an exhaustive cryptanalysis on the keys easily breaks the code. 2. Substitution Ciphers: The Caesar cipher forms a subset of the entire set of substitution ciphers. Here, the key of the encryption process is the permutation of all the twenty six characters of the English alphabets. Rather than choosing a particular key for all encryption process, we use a different key for successive encryption processes. This technique increases the number of possible key to 26!, which is about 4 X 1026, which eliminates the exhaustive cryptanalysis attack on the keyspace [7]. To decrypt the cipher the, statistical frequency distribution of single letter occurrence in English language is analyzed. Then, the digram and trigram frequencies of standard English words are compared with the frequencies of the trigrams in the cipher to finally reconstruct the key and in turn decipher the text. This is an efficient method to break the substitution cipher as, each plaintext letter is represented by the same ciphertext letter in the message. So, all properties of plaintext are carried on to the cipher text. 3. Vigenere Cipher: In a Vigenere cipher, there is greater security as, a given plaintext letter is not always represented by the same ciphertext letter. This is achieved by using a sequence of n different substitution ciphers to encrypt a message. This technique increases the possible number of keys from 26! to (26!)n. Although this was considered to be unbreakable, the Kasiskis method of attacking a Vigenere cipher yielded successful results of decrypting the message. According to this method, the first step is to find the key length (n). Find identical segments of plain text that get encrypted to the same ciphertext, when they are b positions apart, where b=0 mod n. According to Kasiski, the next step is to find all the identical segments of length greater than 3, and record the distance between them [7]. This can then be used to predict the length of the key (n). Once this is found the key is found by an exhaustive search of the keyspace for all possible combinations to identify the key. This is done by substituting all possible values for n to generate substrings. Once the substring is formed, the plaintext message can be automatically identified by using the back substitution of the key into the cipher [7]. This can be done for all possible values for n until finally arriving at the actual key, which reveals the plaintext that was encrypted. This method can take a long time to break the key to identify the plaintext incase the key length is very long, as the keyspace value would be large for larger keys. Defeating frequency based attacks: Frequency based attacks have been used for a long time to break traditional encryption algorithms. It uses the fact that, traditional encryption algorithms do not eliminate the statistical properties of the language upon encryption. The first way to defeat frequency based attacks is to encrypt blocks of characters at a time rather than single letters [7]. This would ensure that, the same text in the plaintext is not encrypted to the same text in the ciphertext upon encryption. For e.g., if we use the Caesar cipher encryption scheme, the word ADDITIONAL will be encrypted to CFFKVKQPCN, we can see that the alphabets A, D and I are repeated more than once and at each instance, the encryption scheme used always encrypts A to C, D to F and I to K. This can clearly be used during frequency analysis to analyze the redundancy of the characters and in turn map them back to get the original plaintext character. Using a block encryption scheme, one can be satisfied that, this phenomenon does not occur as, in a block encryption scheme, the whole plaintext is broken into chunks or blocks of data, that is fed in as input to the encryption algorithm. The algorithm then, reads the input block along with the key and encrypts th e complete block of plaintext, rather than individual characters, so there is a smaller chance that two blocks will produce the same chunk of ciphertext. The second way of defeating frequency analysis is to make use of synonyms of words [7], rather than repeating the same word over and over again in a sentence. There are a lot of words in English, which have more than one synonym, thus providing with a set of words to be used as convenient in the particular context. To help in the selection of a synonym, grammar checking would have to be used to ensure that, the meaning expressed in the sentence is not altered by changing the words. Attacks against this technique could include creating a list of the best synonyms, but this would not help the attacker as different word could be used at each instance the same meaning needs to be expressed, defeating the benefit of this technique. This technique of using alternate words to represent common words to defeat cryptanalysis attacks is called Homophones [7] in cryptography. A third technique that can effectively defeat cryptanalysis is Polyalphabetic substitution, that is, the use of several alphabets to encrypt the message [3], rather than using the same substitution technique again and again. The Vigenere Cipher is a form of Polyalphabetic cipher. This ensures that, no two characters are encrypted to the same ciphertext alphabet in the same message. This ensures that, direct frequency analysis of the cipher is not possible to successfully retrieve the original message. However, other techniques need to be used to identify the key length, if this is possible, then frequency analysis attack could be used to identify the original plaintext message successfully. Finally, a possible technique that could be used to defeat frequency analysis is to encrypt a single character of plaintext with two ciphertext characters [3]. Upon encountering the same character twice, then different characters should be used to encrypt the message. This can be achieved by using a key size double that of the plaintext message and then encrypting the same plaintext with two values in the key and save them together for the same plaintext character. This would ensure that no two plaintext characters will have the same ciphertext character, defeating the frequency analysis method of breaking the cipher. Modern encryption algorithms and cryptanalysis: Modern cryptographic algorithms take a better approach in defeating frequency analysis based attacks. The cryptographic algorithms nowadays use block encryption, rather than encrypting characters bit by bit, thus eliminating the redundancy of ciphertext alphabets for similar plaintext alphabets. Block ciphers are the central tool in the design of protocols for shared-key cryptography. A block cipher is a function E: {0, 1}k ÃÆ'- {0, 1}n à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   {0, 1}n. This notation means that E takes two inputs, one being a k-bit string and the other an n-bit string, and returns an n-bit string [2]. The first input is the key, which is used to encrypt the secret message. The second string is called the plaintext, and the output is called a ciphertext. The key-length k and the block-length n are parameters associated to a specific block cipher. They vary from block cipher to block cipher, and depend on the design of the algorithm itself. Some of the most trusted symmetric ciphers inclu de AES, Triple-DES, Blowfish, CAST and IDEA. In public-key cryptography, the most commonly used cryptosystems are RSA and the Diffie-Hellman systems, which have not been found to have any vulnerabilities till date. Preferably, the block cipher E is a public specified algorithm. In typical usage, a random key K is chosen and kept secret between a pair of users. The function EK is used by the sender to encrypt the message, for a given key, before sending it to the intended receiver, who decrypts the message using the same key [2]. Security relies on the secrecy of the key. So, at first, one might think of the cryptanalysts goal as recovering the key K given some ciphertext, intercepted during transmission. The block cipher should be designed to make this task computationally difficult. In order to achieve this, the algorithms that are used to encrypt the message must be designed with a high degree of mathematical complexity, which cannot be reversed to obtain the plaintext from a known ciphertext. The length of the key used during encryption of a message plays an important role in deciding the effectiveness of an algorithm. Key length is conventionally measured in bits, and most of the well known strong ciphers have key lengths between 128 and 256 bits. A cipher is considered strong if, after years of attempts to find a weakness in the algorithm, there is no known effective cryptanalytic attack against it. This indicates that, the most efficient way of breaking an encrypted message without knowing the key used to encrypt it is to brute force it, i.e. trying all possible keys. The effort required to break an encrypted message is determined by the number of possible keys, known as thekeyspace. Knowing the speed of the computer to break the key, it is easy to calculate how long it would take to search the keyspace to break a particular cipher [2]. For example, considering a cipher that uses 128-bit keys, each bit can either be 0 or 1, so, there are 2128 or 3ÃÆ'-1038 keys approximately. Suppose we imagine that about ten billion computers are assigned the task of breaking the code, each capable of testing ten billion keys per second, then, the task of running through the entire keyspace would take around 3ÃÆ'-1018seconds, which is about 100 billion years. But, in fact, it would be necessary to run through only half the keyspace to hit upon the correct key, which would take around 50 billion years. This is longer than the estimated age of the universe according to modern cosmology, which is about 15 billion years [2]. This shows that, it is practically infeasible to crack modern cryptographic algorithms using Brute Force attacks. So, one can imagine the effectiveness of the modern cryptographic algorithms and their resistance towards cryptanalytic attacks. Conclusions: Cryptography has progressed in recent years and modern cryptographic algorithms have proved to be successful in defending against most forms of cryptanalytic attacks. Frequency analysis based attacks have proved to exploit the weaknesses in traditional encryption algorithms into revealing the plaintext message that was encrypted using them. The natural language used to encrypt messages is not considered to be random in nature, which is exploited by frequency counting based attacks. Based upon the frequency of letters that occur in the ciphertext, one can guess the plaintext characters due to their redundancy rate and the specific combination of letters in a word. This weakness can be repelled by using stream ciphers, which do not carry the redundancy in the plaintext to the ciphertext. Modern block cipher, encrypt a chunk of plaintext into ciphertext and vice versa, eliminating the redundancy of language used in encryption. Although the algorithm plays an important part, it is the key length used in block ciphers that helps in repelling cryptanalysis. Modern ciphers use a key length starting from 128 bits, eliminating the possibility of a brute force attack to decrypt the message. The higher the key length, the more time it takes to break these ciphers. These advantages have made modern cryptographic algorithms more popular among the security community. No known weaknesses have been found in these algorithms yet, that may allow one to identify the plaintext message. Bibliography: [1] Stallings, W., Cryptography and Network Security, Chapter 1, Third Edition, Prentice Hall, 2003 [2] Schneier, B., Applied Cryptography, Chapter 1, Second Edition, John Wiley Sons, New York City, New York, USA, 1996 [3] Hart, G.W., To Decode Short Cryptograms, Communications of the ACM 37(9), 1994, pp. 102-108 [4] Lee, K.W., Teh, C.E., Tan, Y.L., Decrypting English Text Using Enhanced Frequency Analysis, National Seminar on Science, Technology and Social Sciences (STSS 2006), Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia [5] Zipf, GK., Human Behaviour and the Principle of Least Effort, 1949, Cambridge: Addison Wesley Publications. [6] Lewand, R.E., Cryptological Mathematics, The Mathematical Association of America, 2000, Pages 345-346 [7] Stamp, M and Low, R.M., Applied Cryptanalysis, 2007, Chapter 1 and 2, John Wiley Sons, New York City, New York, USA [8] http://www.simonsingh.net, Online internet frequency analysis tools [9] http://www.textalyser.net, online text analysis and frequency analysis information

Five of Frankenstein Essay

This line suggests that the creature was fairly friendly, rather than demonical: ‘†¦ while a grin wrinkled his cheeks’. The creature was very similar to a new born baby, with no experience in life and no knowledge of how to communicate and act: ‘His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds’. Despite the creature’s lack of knowledge and experience, Victor somehow manages to treat the creature in an appalling manner. These set of events portray Victor as somebody who is very cruel and selfish, furthermore, it makes the reader sympathise for the creature. The idea of bringing someone into the world by stitching together pieces of dead bodies and passing electricity through the corpse raises the question of immoralities; moreover the way Victor brought life into the world and then abandoned it is a terrible lot worse. In this story, Victor Frankenstein acted similarly to the Ancient Greek character ‘Prometheus’, as he played God. He felt that he had the right to create new life. He then realised how wrong it was, however by that time it was too late. In the 19th century, most people in England were very religious, so the way Victor plays God in the story would have been widely frowned upon. It was extremely uncommon for people to see boundaries and morals being questioned and stretched in this way. The creature that Victor created was far from a monster, it was but a helpless, needy being that he had abandoned, and it was not very different from abandoning a new born baby. Society cruelly rejected him due to his appearance, which goes to show how narrow minded society can be. This could have been part of the message that Mary Shelley wished to send out. The true monstrous figure in the story is Victor. This is all down to his cruel nature and the disgust he shows towards the creature he spent two years trying to bring to life. Victor even goes as far as describing the creature as a ‘half-distinguished light’, meaning he felt the creature was merely ‘half of a human being’. The author, Mary Shelley, in my opinion was trying to send out the messages: it is wrong to play God and that society can sometimes be very judgemental. The reasons are that Mary Shelley depicts the creature as helpless, confused and needy, so that the reader will sympathize towards him, whereas she depicts Victor as a cruel and selfish person, which supports the point of playing God being wrong. The reason I believe Mary Shelley tried to send out the message of society often being judgemental is so that people will realise that appearances are not everything, and that they can learn to avoid judging people by this before getting to know their past and present situation. 1,060 words Aran Atwal Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Mary Shelley section. Download this essay Print Save Here’s what a teacher thought of this essay 4 star(s).

Adjustment Disorder Diagnosis and Treatment - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 794 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/09/15 Category Advertising Essay Did you like this example? Adjustment Disorder Diagnosis and Treatment Adjustment disorder is a mental disorder that results from unhealthy responses to stressful or psychologically distressing events in life. This failure to adapt then leads to the development of emotional and behavioral symptoms. All age groups are affected by this disorder; and children have the same chance of developing the illness. While difficult to determine the causes of adjustment disorder, researchers suggest that genetics play a large part, as well as chemical changes in the brain, life experiences and mood. Some common stressor contributing to the disorder includes; the ending of a romantic relationship, loss of a job, career change, an accident, relocating to a new area or loss of a loved one. (Mayo Clinic, 2010) An adjustment disorder causes feelings of depression, anxiousness, crying spells, sadness, desperation, lack of enjoyment, and some have reported experiencing thoughts of suicide. Additionally, the illness causes one to be unable to go about their normal routine or work and visit with friends and family. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Adjustment Disorder Diagnosis and Treatment" essay for you Create order The lengths of symptoms vary from zero to six months (acute) and longer than six months (chronic). In the cases of acute adjustment disorder, symptoms can go away eventually; however, in chronic cases, symptoms begin to disrupt your life whereas, professional treatment is necessary to prevent the illness from worsening. Lastly, this disorder carries the possibility for abuse of alcohol and drugs, and eventually could result in violent behavior. According to a report issued by Tami Benton of WebMD, â€Å"the development of emotional or behavioral symptoms in response to an identifiable stressor(s) occurs within 3 months of the onset of the stressor(s). These symptoms or behaviors are clinically significant, as evidenced by marked distress in excess of what is expected from exposure to the stressor, or significant impairment in social or occupational (academic) functioning. The stress-related disturbance does not meet criteria for another specific axis I disorder and is not merely an exacerbation of a preexisting axis I or axis II disorder. The symptoms do not represent bereavement. Once the stressor (or its consequences) has terminated, the symptoms do not persist for more than an additional 6 months†. A determination is made as to whether the illness is acute or chronic. A differential diagnosis issued by Benton states that, â€Å"Adjustment Disorder’s (AD) are located on a continuum between normal stress reactions and specific psychiatric disorders. Symptoms are not likely a normal reaction if the symptoms are moderately severe or if daily social or occupational functioning is impaired. If a specific stressor is involved and/or the symptoms are not specific but are severe, alternate diagnoses (eg, posttraumatic stress disorder, conduct disorder, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, depression or anxiety due to a general medical condition) are unlikely†. (Benton, 2009) â€Å"Clinical treatment modalities are difficult due to lack of clinical trials; as these treatments remain a decision influenced by a consensus†, reports Benton. Because AD originates from a psychological reaction to a stressor, the stressor must be identified and communicated by the patient. The non-adaptive response to the stressor may be diminished if the stress can be eliminated, reduced or accommodated. Therefore, treatment of ADs entails psychotherapeutic counseling aimed at reducing the stressor, improving coping ability with stressors that cannot be reduced or removed, and formatting an emotional state and support systems to enhance adaptation and coping. Further, the goal of psychotherapy should include; an analysis of the stressors that are affecting the patient, and determine whether they can be eliminated or minimized, clarification and interpretation of the meaning of the stressor for the patient, reframe the meaning of the stressor, illuminate the concerns and conflicts the patient experiences, identification of a means to reduce the stressor, maximize the patients coping skills, assist patients to gain perspective on the stressor, establish relationships, attend support groups, and manage themselves and the stressor. Psychotherapy, crisis intervention, family and group therapies, cognitive behavioral therapy, and interpersonal psychotherapy are effective for eliciting the expressions of affects, anxiety, helplessness, and hopelessness in relation to the identified stressor(s)†. (Benton, 2009) For patients with minor or major depressive disorders, who have not responded to psychotherapy and other interventions; trials of antidepressants are recommended. It is suggested that psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy are recommended for patients suffering with a combination of adjustment disorder and anxious moods. A report further states that, â€Å"treatments that are effective with other stress-related disorders may be constructive interventions for AD; and that treatment relies on the specificity of the diagnosis, the construct of stressor-related disorders, and whether the stressors are involved as etiological precipitants, concomitants, or some other unrelated factors†. Benton, 2009) References Benton, T. D. (2009). Emedicine from WebMD. Medscapes continually updated clinical reference. Retrieved from https://emedicine. medscape. com/article/292759-overview Mayoclinic. (2010). Mayoclinic. com. Retrieved from https://www. mayoclinic. com/health/adjustment-disorders/DS00584/DSECTION=symptoms

Solutions to Electronic Waste Essay - 1179 Words

Electronic and electrical equipment is essential part of busy world.It substitute hard human work and make it faster.The majority of mankind has computer at home or at work. In recent years changing of electronic equipment become faster due to obsolescence and fashion(Deathe et al. 2008, 322 ).The problem of e-waste influence on the future environment hangs over the modern society. E-waste ^ also known as electronic waste.It means electrical and electronic equipment which is not suitable for use and fill the damps. Electronic equipment, such as mobile phones, computers, and televisions consist of hazardous materials, which pollute the environment and impact on human’s health. By the National Safety Council lead’s 1.6 billion pounds and†¦show more content†¦2008, 324). Kahhat et al.(2008, 957) report that many countries already have experience in recycling, such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and the United States. These countries have different approaches fo r this solution. In South Korea consumers need to pay fee via buying new substituting equipment or pay it to government. Comparatively, in Japan prices of electronic equipment include fees.Recycling is one of the popular solutions, which have some specific features. From the environmental point of view, recycling is important, because it eliminates hazardous material’s influence.Cui, and Forssberg (2003, 243-263) show that if metals recycle, the majority of energy will be saved. For aluminum, the number of saving energy is 95%. In respect of accessibility for consumers, there are some disadvantages because of the cost. If people bought their equipment before the â€Å"PC Recycling Mark† was enacted, they should pay fees of approximately US$40(PC3R, 2008; Terazono et al., 2006; Yoshida et al., 2007). If their equipment has installed â€Å"PC Recycling Mark†, they will not pay fee, because it is included within the price of equipment. 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A Critique Of Hedonism And Utilitarianism - 1418 Words

Ethics and Morality Ethics ties together philosophy and human morality, it explores the techniques and principles used to evaluate human actions on their goodness, badness, rightness, and wrongness. In this paper, I am going to give a critique of hedonism and utilitarianism. (and answer the question of what makes something good or bad) Humans cannot be truly objective when it comes to morality. In theory, morality is supposed to be unbiased, but when it is put into the hands of humans, there is always going to be errors. Naturally, people pursue their self-interest without thinking much about if it is morally right or wrong. However, I do believe that God has given us a set of laws as to what is right or wrong without being bias over it, but we can even interpret that in the wrong ways. Some points that may be argued for certain things that are always truly wrong include: rape, child abuse, or murder, but there are still times when murder may not be considered wrong. For instance, we have a whole army to go out and kill in order to support our country and keep us safe. Who would say that was wrong? Another example of humans altering the definition of morality is there are things about today that are considered right or wrong that were not that way in the past, such as slavery or woman’s rights. How can we call something wrong today and know it will still be that way tomorrow? In today’s society, people are constantly using their thoughts and feelings to justify morality,Show MoreRelatedRobert Nozicks Experiment, The Experience Machine and the Inclusion of Meta-Pleasure722 Words   |  3 Pagesdisprove the utilitarian notion of hedonism through a thought experiment that he has entitles â€Å"The Experience Machine† (Nozick 646). I will first explain the concept of utilitarianism and hedonism, then the experience machine before I give a reply about the inclusion of a third category of pleasure which I have called â€Å"meta-pleasure† . Finally, I will show how technology may be disproving the entire experience machine thought experiment altogether. Utilitarianism is a moral theory that seeks to defineRead MoreUtilitarianism : A Workable Moral Theory? Why Or Why Not?958 Words   |  4 PagesUtilitarianism: A Workable Moral Theory? Why or Why Not? Utilitarianism is one of the most commonly used ethical theories from the time it was formulated by Jeremy Bentham and John Stewart Mill in the nineteenth century. In his work, Utilitarianism, Bentham â€Å"sought to dispel misconceptions that morality has nothing to do with usefulness or utility or that morality is opposed to pleasure† (MacKinnon, 2012, p. 53). To simplify the utilitarian principle, which is one of utilityRead MorePerfectionism About Happiness And Higher Pleasures789 Words   |  4 Pages(Summary) In Chapter 3, â€Å"Perfectionism about happiness and higher pleasures,† Mill attempts to reassure readers that the utilitarian can and will defend the superiority of higher pleasures, such as poetry. He notes that hedonism can still defend higher pursuits as extrinsically and instrumentally. To see Mill’s point, Brink states that all other things have only, or at most, extrinsic value: they have value in relation to or for t he sake of something else that has intrinsic value. Mill claims thatRead MoreUtilitarianism, And The Moral Imperative1575 Words   |  7 Pages In this essay I intend on arguing the legitimacy of utilitarianism, and if its principles can be subjected effectively to society today. Utilitarianism, which is a common term in normative ethics, is a moral doctrine that coordinates and specifies evaluation and moral actions through three recommendations. These recommendations are the criterion of good and evil, a moral imperative, and a measured evaluation. A criterion of good and evil emphasizes on the happiness and stakeholdersRead MoreUtilitarianism And The Moral Imperative1575 Words   |  7 Pages In this essay I intend on arguing the legitimacy of utilitarianism, and if its principles can be subjected effectively to society today. Utilitarianism, which is a common term in normative ethics, is a moral doctrine that coordinates and specifies evaluation and moral actions through three recommendations. These recommendations are the criterion of good and evil, a moral imperative, and a measured evaluation. A criterion of good and evil emphasizes on the happiness and stakeholdersRead MoreUtilitarian Arguments1681 Words   |  7 Pagesbest arguments against Utilitarianism, and show in my own opinion, why I think they are wrong. The strongest counterargument against Utilitarianism would have to be Sterling Harwood’s eleven objections to the theory. Sterling Harwood states that even he does not accept all eleven of his objections, but he merely wants to survey a large number of objections and provoke further discussion. (p. 186) Harwood’s objections are applied to all twelve versions of Utilitarianism, which are motive, actRead More Immanuel Kants Ethics Of Pure Duty and John Stuart Mills Utilitarian Ethics Of Justice2753 Words   |  12 PagesMetaphysics of Morals and John Stuart Mills Utilitarianism Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill are philosophers who addressed the issues of morality in terms of how moral traditions are formed. Immanuel Kant has presented one viewpoint in The Grounding For The Metaphysics of Morals that is founded on his belief that the worth of man is inherent in his ability to reason. John Stuart Mill holds another opinion as presented in the book, Utilitarianism that is seemingly in contention with the thoughtsRead MoreMoral Philosophy Is An Area Shrouded By Debate Essay1934 Words   |  8 PagesThe prevalence given to pleasure in moral philosophy is an area shrouded by debate. Fundamentally the argument becomes one of utilitarianism opposed by deontological ethics. Other theories such as egoism and virtue ethics provide examples of how one should live a moral life which, depending on the defined notion of pleasure, could have the value prescribed to their theoretical guides for how to lead the moral life. Often when we consider what is pleasurable our th oughts delve towards the emotionsRead MoreMoral Judgements Are Morally Wrong?2025 Words   |  9 Pagesconsequentialism is the view that actions should be deemed morally right or wrong based on the outcomes an action has. A consequentialist would compare the end results of two different actions and their interest is in the conclusion of the action. Utilitarianism is a branch of consequentialism that believes that the best action is the one that promotes the most utility. This also means that actions need to present the most overall good for all and not just a single person. John Stuart Mill, a nineteenthRead MoreThe Principle Of Utility Explicit That Actions Or Behaviors Are Right1810 Words   |  8 Pagesin so far because they motivate contentment or pleasure, wrong as they tend to develop unhappiness or sadness. Therefore, usefulness is a teleological principle. This once again gives rise to some of the similar fundamental issues concerned with hedonism, as discussed in the earl ier section on Teleological Hypothesis. Recall a memory that a pleasure-seeker believes that the good life constitutes only in the pursuit and experience of pleasure or contentment. The feelings of contentment and sadness

Autism †General Overview of Autism Free Essays

General Overview of Autism What is Autism? Autism is defined as a disorder of early development that causes severe problems in thinking, communicating with others, and feeling a part of the outside world (Autism 2009). A person diagnosed with autism has a brain abnormality that affects normal brain function (Nordquist 2009). Most diagnoses of autism are usually never the same, even though, the symptoms are generally similar. We will write a custom essay sample on Autism – General Overview of Autism or any similar topic only for you Order Now Autism must not be confused with childhood schizophrenia or mental retardation, though the actions of children with these circumstances are sometimes related to that of autistic children (Autism 2009). Autism prevents children from developing normal social relationships, even with their parents (Autism 2009). Infants and Autism Autism is generally not diagnosed until two or three years old, but there is an extremely controversial argument on whether or not it could be diagnosed in infants. According to Canadian researchers, they could already see signs and symptoms of autism in infants at approximately six months old (Boyles 2005). The researchers believe that the infant is already predisposed with abnormal brain development inside their mother’s womb. The infants that Canadian researchers experimented were only limited to families that already had an older child born with autism (Boyles 2005). According to research conducted in an article of Developmental Psychology, it is not possible to diagnose and infant with autism (Charman et al. ,1997). The researchers conducted a study on thirty eight boys, separated into three different groups: Autism Risk Group, Developmental Delay Group, and Normal Group. The studies were based upon four different criteria: Empathy, Pretend Play, Joint Attention, and Imitation (Charman et al. 1997). Based on their results, it was not evident t to say whether or not a child could be diagnosed with Autism. This based upon the findings that children in the autism group and children in the developmental delay group were indistinguishable and the scorings were far too similar (Charman et al. , 1997) In another study conducted by Dalery et al. , they compared young children and infants who were clinically dia gnosed with autism or developmental delay (DD). The researchers were trying to differentiate whether the existence of symptoms of autism making it possible to be a different developmental disorder and whether or not the symptoms increase with age (Dalery et al. 2006). In the results from children under 26 months, the findings were insignificant and eerily similar to the experiment conducted by Chairman et al. They were unable to determine if the clear signs of developmental delay or autism were definite (Dalery et al. 2006). Symptoms of Autism Children diagnosed with Autism act differently from one another and no two autistic children have the same symptoms or act the same (CDC 2007). Children with Autism have severe impairments with social, emotional, and communication skills. Some have difficulty accomplishing everyday tasks and have to maintain a consistent day to day routine (CDC 2007). A symptom of autism that affects many autistic children is they have an intricate time holding a conversation. Thus, they tend to have a hard time making friends because of this impairment (CDC 2007). Another symptom of autism is repetitive behavior. This causes a stimulating effect on the child (CDC 2007). For example, a child may consistently rock back and forth, or flip the pages of a book over and over again. Autistic children have a difficult time managing in an everyday life. Once a child is diagnosed with autism, (usually between the ages of 2-4), it stays with them for the remainder of their lives (CDC 2007). With the various symptoms of autism, repetitive behavior seems to be the most consistent symptom that is distinguishable in almost all autistic patients (Gray et al. 1995). To determine whether or not this is true, research was conducted in Australia. The researchers wanted to determine if repetitive behavior was a distinguishable sign of autism in children less than 51 months. Since there are many different types of repetitive behavior, the different types were classified into two categories: higher and lower levels of repetitive behavior (Gray et al. 1995). According to Gray et al. , higher level repetitive behavior is highly consistent with autistic children under the age of 51 months. Low level repetitive behavior was not a direct diagnosis with autism. A significant number of children with other developmental delay disorders often demonstrated aspects of lower level repetitive behavior (Gray et al. 1995). Autism and Public Schooling When a parents makes the decision to enroll their autistic child into public school, it is often a difficult decision. Sometimes the decision is made because the parent does not have the means to send their child to a school specialized for autistic children. Other times it is because many autistic designed schools only accept unique or extreme cases and their child do not meet the requirements (Rudy 2009). Even though a public school is required to give adequate education to a child with a learning disability, how does the parent know what is adequate to the teacher (Rudy 2009)? A positive aspect of public schools is that children with autism can interact with normal developing peers. Researchers argue that this type of interaction may â€Å"provide opportunities for building relationships and developing social and communicative behaviors, in response both to the demands made by mainstream peers and the modeling their behavior provides (Whitaker 2004). † In a study conducted by Whitaker, the mainstream peers developed a routine with the autistic children. The mainstream peers seemed to understand and learn the routines of the autistic peer. Whether or not the autistic child received any awareness or pleasure from this type of interaction was harder to detect, even though they appeared to be enjoying themselves (Whitaker 2004). Parents of Children with Autism It is devastating for a parent to learn that their child has a severe health problem or developmental disability (Parenting a Child with Autism 2007). The first question that arises is, â€Å"How can we cure it? †, but autism is not â€Å"curable†. In the beginning, parents often find some kind of support to help them cope with the discovery or having an autistic child. They also need to educate themselves as much as possible and decide what is best for the child (Parenting a Child with Autism 2007). D. E. Gray conducts a study to see how parents of autistic children cope with their child’s illness over time. Between 1988 and 1990, he begins his study and the sample included 28 parents of autistic children. In the beginning, parents used 51 different methods to cope with the discovery of their child’s illness. D. E. Gray followed-up with these parents 8-12 years later and the methods parents used decreased dramatically to 27. Parents learned to cope with their child’s autism throughout time. Maybe this was due to the fact that the child had become less disruptive and was more orderly in their habits (D. E. Gray 2006). It also may have been due to the fact that their children were enrolled in special schools (only one was enrolled in public schools). In the beginning, parents still had to adapt to the changes in their environment and with their child. As their emotional distress decreased, so did their need for emotional support (D. E. Gray 2006). Conclusion While the causes of autism remain a great mystery, one fact is certain: Autism affects every area of learning throughout the child‘s life. Until research on autism provides more information about how autism affects the human brain, children and their parents who are affected will be unable to understand and fully deal with this disability. It is only with more information that we will learn the best approach to teach autistic children and tackle this disability head on. How to cite Autism – General Overview of Autism, Papers

Higgins Essay Example For Students

Higgins Essay Higgins is a strong-minded individual, a man who takes charge and givesorder. He is just like my principal at school. She is a doctor and knowswhat she is doing and how to do it. The both know how to minuplate somebodyelse into believing them. They also know how to get people to do what theywant to do because they are smart and strong. That was they both are likethe same because they want respect and one way to get that is to giverespect and after they get respect they get the power and encouragementfrom their peers to listen to what they have to say. One way Higgins is a strong minded individual is because he practicesand reads a lot. He also writes stuff down and make sure he has someunderstanding in what he is getting hisself into. Also he is demanding heknows what he wants and he likes to get right down to the point. He doesntlike to beat around the bush and that what makes him an strong mindedindividual. On the other hand my principal is some what they same. Shelikes to look at stuff and examine what is going on before she reacts onsomething. If she believe something is going on she doesnt go histaracalbut she actually wants to go look for her self before she judges anything. That what makes her an strong minded individual. They both are people who are good and knows what they wants out oflife. That is why I compared both of them together because Higgins is anold time figure and my principal is my modern figure of someone that takescharge and leads people into doing good. The both are well respected anddoesnt like a lot of problems going on and likes to deal with things in anhead to head manner.