Authors illustrate what is creativity

Authors illustrate what is creativity What is creativity? (not meant to provide an encyclopedic view of its primary object-matter Creativity has a rich and long history. Yet, the intriguing thing about it is that most people feel intuitively what creativity is, but find it hard to define it. The cause is the terms complexity and vagueness. There is, in fact, no single, authoritative perspective or definition of creativity. A few â€Å"personal definitions† by various famous authors may illustrate this disparity of views: Originality is the essence of true scholarship. Creativity is the soul of the true scholar. Nnamdi Azikiwe The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person. Frank Barron Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen. Robert Bresson A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something. Frank Capra I have great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift. Septima Poinsette Clark Our inventions mirror our secret wishes. Lawrence Durrell â€Å"The creative individual is a person who regularly solves problems, fashions products, or defines new questions in a domain that is initially considered novel but that ultimately becomes accepted in a particular cultural setting.† Howard Gardner (1993): From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality. That is why you write and for no other reason that you know of. But what about all the reasons that no one knows? Ernest Hemingway Everything vanishes around me, and works are born as if out of the void. Ripe, graphic fruits fall off. My hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will. Paul Klee An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. Edwin Land The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill. W. Somerset Maugham Creativity is not merely the innocent spontaneity of our youth and childhood; it must also be married to the passion of the adult human being, which is a passion to live beyond ones death. Rollo May When all is said and done, monotony may after all be the best condition for creation. Margaret Sackville Our current obsession with creativity is the result of our continued striving for immortality in an era when most people no longer believe in an after-life. Arianna Stassinopoulos â€Å"The ability to produce work that is both novel (original or unexpected) appropriate. The creative individual persists in the face of resistance.† Robert J. Sternberg (1992) In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love? Igor Stravinsky The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates. Oscar Wilde â€Å"Creativity is the ability to illustrate what is outside the box from within the box.† -The Ride It is almost as if you were frantically constructing another world while the world that you live in dissolves beneath your feet, and that your survival depends on completing this construction at least one second before the old habitation collapses. Tennessee Williams A line will take us hours maybe; Yet if it does not seem a moments thought, Our stitching and unstitching has been naught. W. B. Yeats What, then, is Creativity? Firstly, here is what it is not: Its not just a faculty reserved for artists (musicians, painters, actors), only for writers/authors, scientists, business leaders, or academic ‘stars Its not just for children. Throughout our lives it is a part of us and of our personality. Some people display and apply it more than others, and by doing so it defines their lives. Creativity is timeless. Verdi composed Falstaff at the age of 80. Titian painted many of his best works late in life, and lived to be 100. Tolstoy wrote Resurrection ten years before his death, 82 years old. Creativity has several meanings defined by the transitions Person?Process?Product The meaning of creativity is descriptive: Johnny is so creative! = Person The meaning of creativity is a happening: Children lose track of time when immersed in play = Process The meaning of creativity is the end result: What is produced or completed. = Product (www.sla.org/conf/conf_sar//Barrancotto%20-%20creativity.ppt ) A commonly accepted view of creativity is that it is a mental and social process resulting in the generation of new ideas, terms or concepts. In rare instances these new ideas, terms, or concepts may be original, i. e. unknown previously. Most often, however, they emerge as a result of new combinations of known (existing) ideas or concepts, improvements on them, and associations between them. The mental and social process called creativity must run in some real or virtual environment. This environment has been studied from many points of view and in many scientific disciplines, for instance in philosophy, behavioral and social psychology, psychometrics, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, economics, business, and management. The studies have focused on everyday creativity, exceptional creativity and even artificial (computer enhanced) creativity. The results of the studies show clearly and convincingly that whatever approach is creative in one field of human endeavor can hardly be applied directly in a different field and produce creative results. Thus, an approach that leads to some creative results in, say, mathematics or psychology, will not necessarily produce any creative results in art, business, or psychology. The studies, however, have not lead to any unique and generally applicable definition of creativity. In the absence of a generally valid and accepted definition of creativity, it is always possible to set up a pragmatic set of requirements creativity should satisfy. They might run as follows: Creativity must result in something â€Å"new† as perceived by the people involved. The term new can have a variety of meanings, possibly requiring litigations to prove the validity of this or that meaning. Creativity must result in something that in the eyes of the creators is â€Å"better†. Again what is better? It is a matter of individual or group choice and preference. At this point, we disregard ethical issues stemming from situations in which the creative effort of an individual or a group leads to something â€Å"better† is perceived as something (considerably) â€Å"worse† by another individual or group. Creativity must affect the human life in some way. This implies that the creative result can be or has been implemented, often by technical means. Creativity, as considered in this book, reflects the creativity of the typical segment of the human population, rather than the unique blend of ability, motivation and serendipity dramatically exceeding the social and psychological norm, and resulting in major breakthroughs. Such exceptional abilities were manifested in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Mozart, or Fuller, to name a few exceptionally creative people. Creativity is a property inseparable from the creative man. It does not exist suspended in the nowhere. For this reason, a number of psychologists studied the circumstances under which creativity in man manifests and what the peculiarities of that person are. Before we review the most significant research efforts, it is good to review briefly the fields of human activity in which creativity has played a major part. Creativity in various contexts There are many perspectives and contexts in which creativity and its importance can and must be studied. This plurality of of views of creativity makes it hard, if not impossible, to file creativity under a single heading. The simplest solution is to consider the various approaches as undisciplinary, rather than trying to form a coherent overall view. The following sections examine some of the areas in which creativity is seen as being important. Creativity in psychology and cognitive science Psychology and cognitive science are the primary arenas for the study of the mental and social process resulting in the generation of new ideas, terms or concepts and any other forms of creative thought. A large number of famous psychologists have contributed to the study of the mental and social processes. Their work is reviewed in a separate section. Examples of psychological thinking and research can, however, be found in most branches of human endeavor. (A psychodynamic approach to understanding creativity was proposed by Sigmund Freud, who suggested that creativity arises as a result of frustrated desires for fame, fortune, and love, with the energy that was previously tied up in frustration and emotional tension in the neurosis being sublimated into creative activity. Freud later retracted this view.[citation needed]) Creativity in science and mathematics Mathematics is a highly abstract discipline that, nevertheless, permeates more and more other disciplines. At the same time, mathematics scares most students. From the point of creative thinking it is therefore natural to ask: How does a mathematician think to produce something new, better, and affecting the human life? Several outstanding mathematicians have described their thinking and summarized their views of creative mathematical thinking. The French mathematician Jacques Hadamard described the process in his book Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field, using introspection. Hadamards thinking differs from that of authors for whom language and cognition are inseparable in that it is, in his own words, wordless and often accompanied by mental images. Hadamard asked 100 leading physicists in the beginning of the previous century how they arrived at their problem solutions. Among his test subjects were giants of science, like Gauss, Poincarà ©, Helmholtz. He found that many of the responses were the same as his own, i. e. They viewed the whole solution suddenly and spontaneously (Hadamard, 1954, pp. 13-16). Helmholtz and Poincarà © ere personalities of their own class. ***** Referring to Helmholtz, Hadamards process comprises four steps (i) preparation, (ii) incubation, (iv) illumination, and (v) verification. It thus differs from the five-step model proposed by Graham Wallas in that Step (iii) intimation, was left out (ibid. p. 56). Another outstanding mathematician interested (in his latter days) in the methodology of problem solving was George Polya, of the ETH, Zurich. He wrote four books on the methods that people use to solve problems, and to describe how problem solving should be taught and learned. The books (the publication year is that of the issue used) are: How to Solve It (2004), Mathematical Discovery:On Understanding, Learning, and Teaching Problem Solving (1981); Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning Volume I: Induction and Analogy in Mathematics (1990), and Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning Volume II: Patterns of Plausible Reasoning (1990). The most important among these books probably is How to Solve It, in which Polya provides general heuristics for solving problems of all kinds, including mathematical ones. The book offers advice for teaching students of mathematics and comprises a mini-encyclopedia of heuristic terms. It sold over one million copies and was translated into many languages. Other mathematicians who made statements on the topic of problem solving include G. H. Hardy and Marie-Louise von Franz. In his Mathematicians Apology (1941), Hardy states, among others: I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art. The mathematicians patterns, like the painters or the poets must be beautiful; the ideas, like the colours or the words must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in this world for ugly mathematics. A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas. I believe that mathematical reality lies outside us, that our function is to discover or observe it, and that the theorems which we prove, and which we describe grandiloquently as our â€Å"creations,† are simply the notes of our observations (Hardy, 1941). Marie-Louise von Franz collaborated with psychiatrist Carl Jung who worked on archetypes and patterns. According to Jung, archetypes organize images and ideas. This is an unconscious process that cannot be detected until afterwards. Marie-Louise von Franz discovered an important recurring factor: the simultaneity with which the complete solution is intuitively perceived and can be checked later by discursive reasoning (von Franz, 1992). Creativity in diverse cultures Creativity is a scientific concept that is mostly rooted within a Western creationist perspective. Franà §ois Jullien (1997, 1989) examines the concept from a Chinese cultural point of view. Julliens point of departure is the necessity to work on reducing the distance that separates the Chinese and the European modes of thinking, and restart philosophy. Fangqi Xu et al. (2005) reported on the availability of creativity courses in various countries. Lubart and Sternberg (1999) studied extensively the cultural aspects of creativity and innovation. The authors conclude that creativity, like intelligence, is something everybody possesses. Creativity can be developed. Creative people are able to generate/intuit new and possibly unpopular ideas. They can also work with determination to make these ideas accepted by others. Creative people have the willingness to take sensible risks to go against the crowd in effective ways. Creativity in art and literature Requirements on creativity in the arts and literature differ from the requirements in other fields. While in most fields of the human endeavor, both originality and appropriateness are necessary (Amabile, 1998), in the fields of art and literature creativity is reduced to originality only, as a sufficient condition. Yet, the fields of art and literature for most people represent the true domain of creativity. The different modes of artistic expression do not represent an entirely homogeneous environment. Yet, a continuum extending from â€Å"interpretation† to â€Å"innovation† can be postulated in all established artistic movements and genres. Here, practitioners gravitate to the interpretation end of the scale, whereas original thinkers strive towards the innovation pole. In spite of this coarse division, some â€Å"creative† people (dancers, actors, orchestral members, etc.) are expected to perform (interpret), while others (writers, painters, composers, etc.) get more freedom to express the new and the different. In judging theories of art, several alternatives can be considered. One alternative is the artistic inspiration, comparable to invention. It provides a taste of â€Å"the Divine† in the form of transmission of visions from â€Å"divine sources† such as the Muses. Another alternative is the artistic evolution, comparable to crafts. It focuses on obeying established rules and imitating or appropriating, which results in subtly different but conflict-free and understandable work. Finally, if the creative product is the language, there is the artistic conversation, as in any â€Å"-ism,† stressing the depth of communication. One of the basic questions in looking at artistic creativity, given the uniqueness of the artistic product, is the question of authorship. Many scholars have worked on it. Two rather similar views, even though a generation apart, are the views of the French philosopher Michel Foucault and the Serbian scholar Davor DÃ…Â ¾alto. Foucault claims that all authors are writers, but not all writers are authors. He exemplifies his thesis by the fact that a private letter may have a writer it does not have an author (Foucault, 1969). An author, according to Foucault, exists only as a function of a written work, as a part of its structure. However, the interpretive process is â€Å"the author function.† Thus, for a reader to assign the title of author to the writer of any written work is to confirm that certain standards of the text are working in conjunction with Foucaults idea of â€Å"the author function.† DÃ…Â ¾altos work (DÃ…Â ¾alto, 2003) is based on examination of the relations between personhood and authorship in the context of the post-modern society and the globalized world. His theory stipulates that art represents an expression of the personal identity of the human being, having an existential importance. Human creativity is a basic feature of both the personal existence of the human being and art production. Creativity is thus a basic cultural and anthropological category, since it enables human manifestation in the world as a â€Å"real presence† in contrast to the progressive â€Å"virtualization† of the world. In other words, approaching artistic creativity Foucault focuses on the author function, whereas DÃ…Â ¾alto talks about a real presence of human manifestation in the (possibly virtualized) world. Creative industries, professions and services Creativity is perceived as increasingly important in creative industries and related professions. Creative industries constitute a family of human activities that generate a non-tangible value expressible in monetary units, either by means of creating and exploiting intellectual property or by means of providing creative services. This heading covers such activities as art and antiques markets, architecture, advertising, design, fashion, film, music, performing arts, publishing, computer software services, radio, TV, and the like. Creative professions are any of those involved in the activities listed, including some aspects of scientific research and development, product development, marketing, strategy, curriculum design, some types of teaching, and similar activities. The creative professional workforce is becoming a more integral part of the economies of industrialized nations. It is estimated that in the USA alone, approximately 10 million people work as creative professionals, but there may be twice as many. Accurate estimates are difficult to make, since many creative professionals actors and writers in particular also have a secondary job. Creativity in engineering and sciences Fields such as science and engineering have experienced a less explicit (but arguably no less important) relation to creativity. Simonton is one of many authors who show how some of the major scientific advances in science and engineering can be attributed to the creativity of individuals (Simonton, 1999). Borderline cases exist, too. A good example is accounting. â€Å"Creative accounting† is a popular term denoting unethical practices. However, Amabile suggests that accounting, too, can benefit from creative approaches if these are kept within ethical borders (Amabile 1998). Excellent example of the â€Å"creative leap† can be found in the realm of sciences, be it mathematics, physics, chemistry, medicine, or any other branch of science. Isaac Newtons law of gravity is popularly attributed to a creative leap he experienced by Newton when observing a falling apple. Creativity in organizations According to Amabile, to enhance creativity in business, three components are necessary (Amabile, 1998): Expertise, i. e. technical, procedural, intellectual and tacit knowledge, creative thinking skills, i. e. the flexibility and imagination with which people approach problems, and motivation, particularly its intrinsic variety. The importance of the combination of knowledge and creativity is best exemplified by the unprecedented success of some far-eastern nations, notably Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea and Thailand, which have in recent years been joined by India and China. Economic views of creativity Almost a century ago, Joseph Schumpeter (1942) introduced the economic theory of creative destruction, to describe the creative way in which old ways of doing things are destroyed from within and replaced by new ways. Economists like Paul Romer see creativity as an important element in the recombination of elements to produce new technologies and products. Romer (articles published in 1986 and 1990 amounted to) constructed mathematical representations of economies in which technological change is the result of the intentional actions of people, such as research and development. This is how economic growth becomes a reality and leads to capital. Romer also saw the importance is conditions that demand change, as follows form his popular saying: â€Å"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste†. Creativity is also an important aspect to understanding entrepreneurship. The creative class is seen by some to be an important driver of modern economies. In his 2002 book, The Rise of the Creative Class, economist Richard Florida popularized the notion that regions with â€Å"3 Ts of economic development: Technology, Talent and Tolerance† also have high concentrations of creative professionals and tend to have a higher level of economic development. Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books. Romer, P. (1986). â€Å"Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth†, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 94, No. 5 (Oct. 1986), pp. 1002-1037. Romer, P. (1990). â€Å"Endogenous Technological Change†, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 98, No. 5, â€Å"Part 2: The Problem of Development: A Conference on the Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Systems.† pp. S71-102. Schumpeter, J. A. (1942). Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. New York: Harper and Brothers. 5th ed.

The Power of Shakespeares The Winters Tale :: Shakespeare Winters Tale Essays

The Power of The Winter's Tale      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many of Shakespeare's later plays broke with customs of genre. The Merchant of Venice has all the elements of a comedy, but deals with very grave matters and ends ambiguously. Pericles foreshadows the novel in its romantic plot and use of narration. Such plays challenged prevalent Renaissance literary theory which demanded fairly strict adherence to classical values of realism and unity. The Winter's Tale is a self-conscious violation of these expectations, and a jibe at the assumptions behind them. Shakespeare uses the play itself to present his argument against what may be termed, "the mimetic theory of art." It was the established opinion of Elizabethan literati that art ought to imitate life (Kiernan 8). Shakespeare not only rejects this "ought,"1[1] but shows the absurdity of what it entails.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The categories available to a dramatist are laid out by young Mamillius when he is asked to tell a tale, "Merry or sad shall't be?" (II.i.22). The dramatist is presented with the options of tragedy or comedy. This bifurcation is repeated throughout the play, which itself is cleft in two between a predominately tragic section and a predominantly comical pastoral section. For this act, tragedy is chosen, "A sad tale's best for winter," (24) and the story begins, "There was a man... dwelt by the churchyard" (28-29). Here is where the play's self-consciousness starts to appear. It is the play which is a sad tale about a man who dwells by the churchyard, namely Leontes, who mourns at the grave of the wife and son he damned. It is also at this moment that the tragedy of the play begins, when Mamillius' tale is interrupted by the arrival of Leontes to accuse Hermione of adultery.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The tragedy progresses to a climax by Act III, Scene iii, when Antigonus arrives on Bohemia's shore. This is the execution of Leontes' greatest sin, his rejection of his daughter. This is also the point at which the mood of the drama turns to comedy. The segue from the Sicilian tragedy to the Bohemian comedy comes in the form of a bear. Prior to his departure for Bohemia, Antigonus refers to bears in the context of folktales, "wolves and bears, they say, / Casting their savageness aside, have done / Like offices of pity" (II.

Federal Trade Comission

In the given case, the Federal Trade Commission claimed that Texas Surgeons Independent Practice Association(IPA) of 26 general surgeons in the Austin, Texas and six competing medical practice groups who are the members of this association (the respondents), Texas Surgeons P. A. (â€Å"Texas Surgeons†), Austin Surgeons, P. L. L. C. (â€Å"AS†), Austin Surgical Clinic Association, P. A. (â€Å"ASCA†), Bruce McDonald & Associates, P. L. L. C. (â€Å"BM&A†), Capital Surgeons Group, P. L. L. C. (â€Å"CSG†), Central Texas Surgical Associates, P. A. (â€Å"CTSA†), and Surgical Associates of Austin, P.A. (â€Å"SAA†), violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U. S. C.  § 45 by engaging in unlawful act of price fixing. FTC alleged complaint that the IPA organized collective refused to deal with two health plans, Blue cross Blue Shield and United Health Care of Texas, terminated the contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield and t hreatened to terminate contracts with the United Health Care of Texas if the payer refuse to agree with their demand of raising reimbursement rate. As per demand, both plans increased their rates.Blue Cross accepted a rate agreement with the respondents in early 1998 after facing problems getting an emergency room patient treated by a general surgeon. The respondents collectively secured rate agreement resulted nearly 30% above the April 1997 level. In this case, the practices of the respondents went against the welfare of the public, constitute unfair methods of competition and antitrust actions. This anti competitive action cost health plan, employers and patients, more than $1,000,000 for surgical services in 1998 and 1999 in the Austin, Texas area.In the mid-1970, the FTC formed a section within the Bureau of Competition to investigate potential anti trust violations involving healthcare. In the health care area, as in the case of any other field, the antitrust laws are enforced so check not only possible competitive harm but also the potential for pro competitive increase in efficiency, lower health care cost, provide better quality care to the consumers, enhance innovative strategy to provide improved quality care at low cost. Federal antitrust guidelines allow independent physicians to appoint a representative messenger to communicate with payers about fees and contract terms, but annot represent the competing physicians collectively. However, in this case, the Texas Surgeons IPA served as a vehicle for the six respondent medical practice groups to engage in actual refusals to deal, and to negotiate collectively, in order to receive higher prices from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas and United Healthcare of Texas. The six respondent medical practice groups furthered the unlawful act through their collective control of the Texas Surgeons IPA board of directors, and through their direct participation in collective fee negotiations between United and the T exas Surgeons IPA.The commission proposed a consent order as a remedy to prevent the respondent from getting indulge in future unlawful act that is alleged in the complaint while allowing respondents to engage in legitimate joint conduct. The proposed order prohibits the IPA from a) negotiating on behalf of any physician with health plans b) refusing to deal with health plan or threatening health plans to agree on their demand c) exchanging information among Austin area physicians regarding negotiations with any health plan regarding reimbursement terms d) determining the terms on which its members deal with health plans.The order contains three provisos that permit the respondents to 1. Negotiate for physicians limited to the same medical practice group; 2. Engage in conduct approved and supervised by the state of Texas; and 3. Engage in conduct that is reasonably necessary to operate ‘qualified risk- sharing joint arrangements- so long as they give adequate pre- notification . The commission’s proposal allows the IPA to avoid such claims of price- fixing and antitrust if it acts in one of two ways: ) Financial Risk Sharing: As a qualified managed care plan which allows competing providers to negotiate prices jointly without being charged with price fixing act by the Federal antitrust agencies if they share substantial financial risk on contracts . It means that participating providers share responsibility for staying within a defined budget. The antitrust agencies believe that the competing providers should work together to achieve common, procompetitive goals of reducing cost and improving quality. Share incentives could also focus on â€Å"quality† or Health outcome† factors.Both the way of risk sharing has potential of providing high quality care to the patient at low cost. 2) Messenger Model: The fifth provision (Section II. A. 5 of the proposed order) ensures that a neutral third party who is not a physician with an active pract ice in the Austin area, be the communicator between any respondent and any payer to deal with any terms. Under this arrangement, the network organization does not negotiate agreement with the payer about any term or price; it allows the individual providers to make an individual decision, based on proposal from payer.Physician individually, through third party, conveys and receives information, offers, and responses from the payers or providers. However, the individual providers can give â€Å"sign off† authority to network organization within specified range. In addition, the commission order ensures that any respondent who are intending to use messenger model arrangement should provide prior notification to the commission. Price- fixing agreements among the competitors are not accepted by law. It is considered serious act because the consumers, plans and employers pay heavy price for it such as, †¢ Consumers loss the benefits of competition Increases the health care co st; Blue Cross, United, their individual subscribers, and employers paid more than one million dollars were paid for the services of surgeons. Therefore, review of such cases is crucial to encourage the competitor to work together as a team to improve quality of services, while reducing cost. References http://www. crowell. com/documents/DOCASSOCFKTYPE_PRESENTATIONS_705. pdf http://www. accessmylibrary. com/article-1G1-77013366/texas-surgeons-settle-price. html http://www. ftc. gov/os/2000/05/texascmp. htm Federal Trade Comission In the given case, the Federal Trade Commission claimed that Texas Surgeons Independent Practice Association(IPA) of 26 general surgeons in the Austin, Texas and six competing medical practice groups who are the members of this association (the respondents), Texas Surgeons P. A. (â€Å"Texas Surgeons†), Austin Surgeons, P. L. L. C. (â€Å"AS†), Austin Surgical Clinic Association, P. A. (â€Å"ASCA†), Bruce McDonald & Associates, P. L. L. C. (â€Å"BM&A†), Capital Surgeons Group, P. L. L. C. (â€Å"CSG†), Central Texas Surgical Associates, P. A. (â€Å"CTSA†), and Surgical Associates of Austin, P.A. (â€Å"SAA†), violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U. S. C.  § 45 by engaging in unlawful act of price fixing. FTC alleged complaint that the IPA organized collective refused to deal with two health plans, Blue cross Blue Shield and United Health Care of Texas, terminated the contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield and t hreatened to terminate contracts with the United Health Care of Texas if the payer refuse to agree with their demand of raising reimbursement rate. As per demand, both plans increased their rates.Blue Cross accepted a rate agreement with the respondents in early 1998 after facing problems getting an emergency room patient treated by a general surgeon. The respondents collectively secured rate agreement resulted nearly 30% above the April 1997 level. In this case, the practices of the respondents went against the welfare of the public, constitute unfair methods of competition and antitrust actions. This anti competitive action cost health plan, employers and patients, more than $1,000,000 for surgical services in 1998 and 1999 in the Austin, Texas area.In the mid-1970, the FTC formed a section within the Bureau of Competition to investigate potential anti trust violations involving healthcare. In the health care area, as in the case of any other field, the antitrust laws are enforced so check not only possible competitive harm but also the potential for pro competitive increase in efficiency, lower health care cost, provide better quality care to the consumers, enhance innovative strategy to provide improved quality care at low cost. Federal antitrust guidelines allow independent physicians to appoint a representative messenger to communicate with payers about fees and contract terms, but annot represent the competing physicians collectively. However, in this case, the Texas Surgeons IPA served as a vehicle for the six respondent medical practice groups to engage in actual refusals to deal, and to negotiate collectively, in order to receive higher prices from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas and United Healthcare of Texas. The six respondent medical practice groups furthered the unlawful act through their collective control of the Texas Surgeons IPA board of directors, and through their direct participation in collective fee negotiations between United and the T exas Surgeons IPA.The commission proposed a consent order as a remedy to prevent the respondent from getting indulge in future unlawful act that is alleged in the complaint while allowing respondents to engage in legitimate joint conduct. The proposed order prohibits the IPA from a) negotiating on behalf of any physician with health plans b) refusing to deal with health plan or threatening health plans to agree on their demand c) exchanging information among Austin area physicians regarding negotiations with any health plan regarding reimbursement terms d) determining the terms on which its members deal with health plans.The order contains three provisos that permit the respondents to 1. Negotiate for physicians limited to the same medical practice group; 2. Engage in conduct approved and supervised by the state of Texas; and 3. Engage in conduct that is reasonably necessary to operate ‘qualified risk- sharing joint arrangements- so long as they give adequate pre- notification . The commission’s proposal allows the IPA to avoid such claims of price- fixing and antitrust if it acts in one of two ways: ) Financial Risk Sharing: As a qualified managed care plan which allows competing providers to negotiate prices jointly without being charged with price fixing act by the Federal antitrust agencies if they share substantial financial risk on contracts . It means that participating providers share responsibility for staying within a defined budget. The antitrust agencies believe that the competing providers should work together to achieve common, procompetitive goals of reducing cost and improving quality. Share incentives could also focus on â€Å"quality† or Health outcome† factors.Both the way of risk sharing has potential of providing high quality care to the patient at low cost. 2) Messenger Model: The fifth provision (Section II. A. 5 of the proposed order) ensures that a neutral third party who is not a physician with an active pract ice in the Austin area, be the communicator between any respondent and any payer to deal with any terms. Under this arrangement, the network organization does not negotiate agreement with the payer about any term or price; it allows the individual providers to make an individual decision, based on proposal from payer.Physician individually, through third party, conveys and receives information, offers, and responses from the payers or providers. However, the individual providers can give â€Å"sign off† authority to network organization within specified range. In addition, the commission order ensures that any respondent who are intending to use messenger model arrangement should provide prior notification to the commission. Price- fixing agreements among the competitors are not accepted by law. It is considered serious act because the consumers, plans and employers pay heavy price for it such as, †¢ Consumers loss the benefits of competition Increases the health care co st; Blue Cross, United, their individual subscribers, and employers paid more than one million dollars were paid for the services of surgeons. Therefore, review of such cases is crucial to encourage the competitor to work together as a team to improve quality of services, while reducing cost. References http://www. crowell. com/documents/DOCASSOCFKTYPE_PRESENTATIONS_705. pdf http://www. accessmylibrary. com/article-1G1-77013366/texas-surgeons-settle-price. html http://www. ftc. gov/os/2000/05/texascmp. htm

Writers on Writing The Power and Pleasure of Metaphor

The greatest thing by far, said Aristotle in the Poetics (330 BC), is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblance. Over the centuries, writers have not only been making good metaphors but also studying these powerful figurative expressions  Ã¢â‚¬â€ considering where metaphors come from, what purposes they serve, why we enjoy them, and how we comprehend them. Here — in a follow-up to the article What Is a Metaphor?  Ã¢â‚¬â€ are the thoughts of 15 writers, philosophers, and critics on the power and pleasure of metaphor. Aristotle on the Pleasure of MetaphorAll men take a natural pleasure in learning quickly words which denote something; and so those words are pleasantest which give us new knowledge. Strange words have no meaning for us; common terms we know already; it is metaphor which gives us most of this pleasure. Thus, when the poet calls old age a dried stalk, he gives us a new perception by means of the common genus; for both the things have lost their bloom. A simile, as has been said before, is a metaphor with a preface; for this reason it is less pleasing because it is more lengthy; nor does it affirm that this is that; and so the mind does not even inquire into the matter. It follows that a smart style, and a smart enthymeme, are those which give us a new and rapid perception.(Aristotle, Rhetoric, 4th century BC, translated by Richard Claverhouse Jebb)Quintilian on a Name for EverythingLet us begin, then, with the commonest and by far the most beautiful of tropes, namely, metaphor, the Gr eek term for our translatio. It is not merely so natural a turn of speech that it is often employed unconsciously or by uneducated persons, but it is in itself so attractive and elegant that however distinguished the language in which it is embedded it shines forth with a light that is all its own. For if it be correctly and appropriately applied, it is quite impossible for its effect to be commonplace, mean or unpleasing. It adds to the copiousness of language by the interchange of words and by borrowing, and finally succeeds in the supremely difficult task of providing a name for everything.(Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, 95 AD, translated by H.E. Butler)I.A. Richards on the Omnipresent Principle of LanguageThroughout the history of Rhetoric, metaphor has been treated as a sort of happy extra trick with words, an opportunity to exploit the accidents of their versatility, something in place occasionally but requiring unusual skill and caution. In brief, a grace or ornament or add ed power of language, not its constitutive form. . . .That metaphor is the omnipresent principle of language can be shown by mere observation. We cannot get through three sentences of ordinary fluid discourse without it.(I.A. Richards, The Philosophy of Language, 1936)Robert Frost on a Feat of AssociationIf you remember only one thing Ive said, remember that an idea is a feat of association, and the height of it is a good metaphor. If you have never made a good metaphor, then you dont know what its all about.(Robert Frost, interview in The Atlantic, 1962)Kenneth Burke on Fashioning PerspectivesIt is precisely through metaphor that our perspectives, or analogical extensions, are made--a world without metaphor would be a world without purpose.The heuristic value of scientific analogies is quite like the surprise of metaphor. The difference seems to be that the scientific analogy is more patiently pursued, being employed to inform an entire work or movement, where the poet uses his met aphor for a glimpse only.(Kenneth Burke, Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose, 3rd ed., University of California Press, 1984)Bernard Malalmud on Loaves and FishesI love metaphor. It provides two loaves where there seems to be one. Sometimes it throws in a load of fish. . . . Im not talented as a conceptual thinker but I am in the uses of metaphor.(Bernard Malamud, interviewed by Daniel Stern, The Art of Fiction 52, The Paris Review, Spring 1975)G.K. Chesterton on Metaphor and SlangAll slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry. If we paused for a moment to examine the cheapest cant phrases that pass our lips every day, we should find that they were as rich and suggestive as so many sonnets. To take a single instance: we speak of a man in English social relations breaking the ice. If this were expanded into a sonnet, we should have before us a dark and sublime picture of an ocean of everlasting ice, the sombre and baffling mirror of the Northern nature, over which men walk ed and danced and skated easily, but under which the living waters roared and toiled fathoms below. The world of slang is a kind of topsy-turveydom of poetry, full of blue moons and white elephants, of men losing their heads, and men whose tongues run away with them--a whole chaos of fairy tales.(G.K. Chesterton, A Defence of Slang, The Defendant, 1901)William Gass on a Sea of Metaphors- I love metaphor the way some people love junk food. I think metaphorically, feel metaphorically, see metaphorically. And if anything in writing comes easily, comes unbidded, often unwanted, it is metaphor. Like follows as as night the day. Now most of these metaphors are bad and have to be thrown away. Who saves used Kleenex? I never have to say: What shall I compare this to? a summers day? No. I have to beat the comparisons back into the holes they pour from. Some salt is savory. I live in a sea.(William Gass, interviewed by Thomas LeClair, The Art of Fiction 65, The Paris Review, Summer 1977)- If there is anything in writing that comes easy for me its making up metaphors. They just appear. I cant move two lines without all kinds of images. Then the problem is how to make the best of them. In its geological character, language is almost invariably metaphorical. Thats how meanings tend to change. Words become metaphors for other things, then slowly disappear into the new image. I have a hunch, too, that the core of creativity is located in metaphor, in model making, really. A novel is a large metaphor for the world.(William Gass, interviewed by Jan Garden Castro, Interview With William Gass, ADE Bulletin, No. 70, 1981)Ortega y Gasset on the Magic of MetaphorThe metaphor is perhaps one of mans most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when he made him.(Josà © Ortega y Gasset, The Dehumanization of Art and Ideas About the Novel, 1925)Joseph Addison on Illuminating MetaphorsAllegories   when well chosen, are like so many tracks of light in a  discourse, that make everything about them clear and beautiful. A noble metaphor, when it is placed to an advantage, casts a kind of glory round it, and darts a lustre through a whole sentence.(Joseph Addison, Appeal to the Imagination in Writing on Abstract Subjects by Allusion to the Natural World,  The Spectator, No. 421, July 3, 1712)Gerard Genette on the Recovery of the VisionThus metaphor is not an ornament, but the necessary instrument for a recovery, through  style, of the vision of essences, because it is the stylistic equivalent of the psychological experience of involuntary memory, which alone, by bringing together two sensations separated in time, is able to release their common essence through the miracle of an  analogy  Ã¢â‚¬â€ though metaphor has an added advantage over reminiscence, in that the latter is a fleeting contemplation of eternity, while the former enjoys the permanence of the work of a rt.(Gerard Genette,  Figures of Literary Discourse, Columbia University Press, 1981)Milan Kundera on Dangerous MetaphorsI have said before that metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor. Which is to say, love begins at the point when a woman enters her first word into our poetic memory.(Milan Kundera,  The Unbearable Lightness of Being, translated from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim, 1984)Dennis Potter on the World Behind the WorldI just sometimes very occasionally am conscious of what I would call grace but its corroded by intellectual reservation, by the sheer improbabilities of thinking in that mode. And yet it remains within me — I wouldnt call it yearning. Yearning? Yes, I suppose thats a lazy way of putting it, but somehow the sense continually threatening to be present and occasionally flickering into life of the world behind the world which, of course, is what all metaphors and in a sense, all art (again to use that word), all of that is about the worl d behind the world. By definition. It is nonutilitarian and has no meaning. Or  appears  to have no meaning and the strangest thing that human speech and human writing can do is create a metaphor. Not just a  simile: not just Rabbie Burns saying My love is  like  a red, red rose, but in a sense, it  is  a red rose. That is an amazing leap, is it not?(Dennis Potter, interviewed by John Cook, in  The Passion of Dennis Potter, edited by Vernon W. Gras and John R. Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000)John Locke on Illustrative MetaphorsFigured and metaphorical expressions do well to illustrate more abstruse and unfamiliar ideas which the mind is not yet thoroughly accustomed to; but then they must be made use of to illustrate ideas that we already have, not to paint to us those which we yet have not. Such borrowed and allusive ideas may follow real and solid truth, to set it off when found; but must by no means be set in its place, and taken for it. If all our search has yet r eached no farther than  simile  and metaphor, we may assure ourselves we rather fancy than know, and have not yet penetrated into the inside and reality of the thing, be it what it will, but content ourselves with what our imaginations, not things themselves, furnish us with.(John Locke,  Of the Conduct of the Understanding, 1796)Ralph Waldo Emerson on Natures MetaphorsIt is not words only that are emblematic; it is things which are emblematic. Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact. Every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of the mind, and that state of the mind can only be described by presenting that natural appearance as its picture. An enraged man is a lion, a cunning man is a fox, a firm man is a rock, a learned man is a torch. A lamb is innocence; a snake is subtle spite; flowers express to us the delicate affections. Light and darkness are our familiar expression for knowledge and ignorance; and heat for love. Visible distance behind and befo re us, is respectively our image of memory and hope. . . .The world is emblematic.  Parts of speech  are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind.(Ralph Waldo Emerson,  Nature, 1836)