NEGATIVE

CAPABILITY
What is Negative Capability?

Negative capability is a phrase first used by romantic poet john keats in 1817 to explain the capacity of
the greatest writers (particularly shakespeare) to pursue a vision of artistic beauty even when it leads
them into intellectual confusion and uncertainty, as opposed to a preference for philosophical certainty
over artistic beauty. This term has beeun used by poets and philosophers to describe the ability to
perceive and recognise truths beyond the reach of consecutive reasoning.

USE OF THE WORD NEGATIVE

• In the same way that chameleons are ‘negative’ for colour, keatsian poets are negative for self
and identity: they change their identity with each subject they inhabit. Negative capability can
be difficult to grasp because it is not a name for a thing but rather a way of feeling or of
knowing. This intuitive knowing of the inner life of, for example, a nightingale or a Grecaian urn,
cannot be grasped as a concept; as with Tao, it is known through actual living experience of
everyone’s changeable being. Negative capability is not the exclusive preserve of poets, but can
describe the pre-creative mood of any artist, scientist, or reigious person. Negative capability is
important as an explanation of how periods of indolence give rise to periods of creativity.

More on negative capability

• Negative capability is a writer’s ability, ‘‘which Shakespeare possessed so enormously,’’ to

accept ‘‘uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason,’’
according to English poet John Koets who first used the term in 1817 letter. An author
possessing negative capability is objective and emotionally detached, as opposed to one who
writes for didactic purposes.

• Another explanation of the word negative relies on hypothesizing that keats was influenced by
his studies of medicine and chemistry, and that it refers to the negative pole of an electric
current which is passive and receptive. In the same way that the negative pole, the poet receives
impulses from a world that is full of mystery and doubt, which cannot be explained but which
the poet can translate into art.

• There is one way in which negative capability is miraculous. Poets have long likened their verse
to great or sacred rivers, and philosophers such as Heraclitus, from before the time of Socrates,
have pointed out that ‘‘ you can’t step into the same river twice, because both you and the river
can change’’.
List and write on the different types of fallacies

• Species of Fallacious Arguments

• The common fallacies are usefully divided into three categories: Fallacies of Relevance, Fallacies
of Unacceptable Premises, and Formal Fallacies. Many of these fallacies have Latin names,
perhaps because medievalnphilosophers were interested in informal logic.

• Fallacies of Relevance

Fallacies of relevance offer reasons to believe a claim or conclusion that, on examination, turn out to not
in fact be reasons to do any such thing.

1)The ‘who are you to talk?, or ‘you too’,

or tu quoque fallacy
• Rejecting an argument because the person advancing it fails to practice what he or she preaches

• Example: doctor: you should quit smoking. It’s a serious health risk.

Patient: look who’s talking! I’ll quit when you quit.

Responses like that probably sound familiar. But the doctor’s failure to look after her own health
irrevelant to the argument, resting on a concern for the patient’s health, that the patient shoud quit
smoking.

2) The red herring fallacy

An arguer tries to sidetrack his or her audience by raising an irrevelant issue and claims that the original
issue has been settled by the irrevelant diversion.

EXAMPLE: There is a good deal of talk these days about the need to eliminate pesticides from our fruits
and vegetables. But many of these foods are essential to our health.

Plans to eliminate or reduce pesticides don’t entai stopping the production of common vegetables: the
suggestion that they do is an irrevelant red herring.

3) The Strawman Fallacy.

Someone distorts or caricatures an opponent’s arguments or views, and then attacks the
weakened version rather than the real argument.
EXAMPLE
Margaret: ‘’We have to do something about the greenhouse gases. The government should raise
vehicle fuel efficiency standards to cut down the amount CO2 we release over the next 20
years’’.
Roger: ‘‘Margaret’s solution would be a disaster. It would kill the economy. How will people get
to work without cars.
Roger claims that Margaret is proposing measures that would eliminate cars. Margaret has not
said any equivalent to that. It’s a strawman.

4) the fallacy of composition

Arguing that what is true of the parts must be true of the whole. (All of the parts of
the object O have the property P. Therefore, O has the property P.)
EXAMPLE
Rugby players Ma’a Nonu, Jerome Kaino and Charles Piatau are all great players.
In 2012, they all played for the Auckland Blues. Therefore, the 2012 Auckland
Blues were a great team.
Sadly, for Tim, a long-suffering Blues Fan, the conclusion of this argument was
false even though the premises were true.

5) THE FALLACY OF
DIVISION.
Arguing that what is true of the whole must be true of the parts. (The opposite of
the fallacy of composition: Object O has the property P. Therefore all the parts of
the object O have the property P.)
EXAMPLE
Men are, on Average, taler than women. Therefore, Tim is taller than Maria
Sharapova.
Tim would have to be taller than 188cm/6ft 2in to be taller than Sharapova: he’s
not.

GAME THEORY
Game Theory, branch of applied mathematics that provides tools for analyzing
situations in which parties, called players, make decisions that are independent.
This interdependence causes each player to consider the other player’s possible
decisions, or strategies, in formulating strategy.
ELEMENTS OF A GAME
Actions: Choices available to a player
Information: Knowledge that a player has when making a decision.
Strategies: Rules that tell a player which action to take at each point of the game.
Game Theory is used extensively in various forms of collective bargaining and
negotiation. For instance, during a strike or lockout, unions and management
negotiate to raise wages. It is possible to maximize the welfare of both workers and
control by using game theory to arrive at the optimal solution.
TYPES OF GAMES IN GAME THEORY
An equilibrium is a set of strategies such that neither player wishes to deviate.
STATIC GAME: A static game is one that is played just once at the same time.
DYNAMIC GAME: A dynamic game is one in which players move sequientially
or repeatedly.
PRISONER DILEMMA
The prisoner’s dilemma presents a situation where two parties, separated and
unable to communicate, must each choose between cooperating with the other or
not. The highest reward for each party occurs when both parties choose to co-
operate.
A prisoner’s dilemma according to game theory, where two players acting selfishly
will ultimately result in a suboptimal choice for both. The prisoner’s dilemma also
shows us that mere cooperation is not always on one’s best interest.
EXAMPLE
The U.S debt deadlock between the Democrats and Republicans that springs up
from time to time is a classic example of a prisoner’s dilemma. Let’s say the utility
or benefit of resolving the U.S debt issue would be electoral gains for the parties in
the next election.
PURPOSE OF THE PRISONER’S DILEMMA¨
The prisoner’s dilemma is a standard example of a game analyzed in game theory
that shows why two completely rational agents might not cooperate, even if it
appears that is in their best interests to do so. It was originally framed by Melvin
Flood and Melvin Dresher while working at RAND in 1950.

PORTER’S FIVE FORCES

Porter’s Five Forces Framework is a method of analysing the operating
environment of a competition of a business. It draws from industrial organization
economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and,
therefore, the attractiveness of an industry in terms of it’s profitability.

THE FIVE FORCES OF M PORTER’S MODEL

THEY ARE:
The number and power of a company’s competitive rivals
Potential new market entrants
Suppliers
Customers
Substitute products that influence a company’s profitability.
It is a method used to breakdown and understand the competitive nature of an
industry or business. It does so by looking at the five main factors listed above.

ADVANTAGES OF PORTER’S FIVE FORCES

1) Helps to Estimate the Competition in the Industry.
2) Showcase where the Stregnths and Threats exist.
3) Identify which Entities Holding the Power
4) Display Opportunities to Expand the Business
5) Assist to Understand the Corporate Risk.
IMPORTANCE
Porter’s Five Forces is to help to identify where power lies in a business situation.
This is useful both in understanding the strength of an Organisation’s current
competitive position, and the strength of a position that an organization may look
to move into.