History of Architecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

History of Architecture - Essay Example The organic theme in architecture refers to different individual parts of the building being related to the integrated whole structure. The part-to-whole association as a basic element of the architecture has been consciously endorsed by Lloyd Wright (Harris 93), as seen in his Wayfarers Chapel. Similarly, Casa Mila (Figure 1.) depicting Art Nouveau architecture is a free-form mass located around a street corner. The organic architecture includes the faà §ade which has a wavy cut-stone wall with a rough surface suggesting naturally worn rock. The undulating balconies appear like a series of oceanic waves. The faà §ade is also considered to look like a cliff-like rock with caves, and the building was named as the â€Å"quarry† or Pedrera, which emphasized its natural look. Moreover, â€Å"the entrance portals (Figure 2) look like eroded sea caves† (Kleiner 848). Further, the wrought iron entrance gates (Figure 2), balcony grills and interior window work (Figures 3a and 3b), besides woodwork and hydraulic mosaics (Gaudi et al 262) are based on organic botanical motifs with highly stylized, flowing forms. Distinctively, the rooftop is adorned with twisted chimney stacks and ventilators in unusual biomorphic forms (Figures 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d), with a surrealistic effect (Kleiner 848). The interiors are characterized by the curving lines of arches and room spaces with no right angles (Figure 5) From the plaster of the ceilings are created various organic designs such as the foam of waves, petals of flowers, or tentacles of the octopus (Figure 6). Like the Casa Mila, organic architecture is integral to The Wayfarers Chapel or the â€Å"Glass Church† (Figure 7) created by Lloyd Wright. However, in this case, the organic architecture is related to its location in a scenic setting in the middle of nature.

On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion Essay

On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion - Essay Example Methods of induction have ranged from utilizing sharpened tools, herbal medicines and physical trauma. Opinions, both culturally and legally differ worldwide, with public debate over legal ramifications and ethics of abortion being a very emotive issue. Abortion and the debate ranging around it have birthed activism, debates and controversy in equal measure. It is in fact a norm for people to refer to themselves as pro-life or pro-choice. Personal beliefs touching on responsibility, morality, government role in public policy and religion all affect ones view on abortion. Mary-Anne Warren, an American philosopher, put forward in her article â€Å"On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion†, the perspective that abortion is acceptable morally. This paper seeks to delve into her article, especially her arguments and form an objection to her work. Warren begins her argument by debating how permissibility of abortion morally is dependent on whether the subject fetus is indeed a pers on. She argues that while a satisfactory defense of the right of a woman has to an abortion without proof of a fetus not being a human being is not satisfactorily possible, this difficulty in conclusion of a fetus’s status should not make it impossibility in the production of a solution to the moral status of the abortion problem (Warren 2). Pro-abortionists, due to not coming to grips with issues surrounding abortion, have had most of their arguments fall flat, failing to weaken traditional arguments on antiabortion. Their arguments are of two sorts, they either state that denial of a woman’s right to abortion is a deprivation of her rights to have control over her own body, or that deaths induced by illegal abortions, especially by poor women, is as a consequence of this law. This is obviously flawed since the fact that access restriction to abortion has such tragic side effects is not a pointer to the unjustified restrictions, as murder is still wrong. She cites J. Noonan saying, â€Å"The fundamental question in the long history of abortion is; how you determine the humanity of a human being?† (Warren 1). She goes on to argue that once the assumption of a fetus’ moral rights is allowed in full, the question of whether abortion is justifiable becomes a difficult and complex question. Warren seeks to push her abortion agenda via discussion of the five characteristics she believes are central to being a person. Warren tends to view persons as entities who have consciousness, self motivation, reasoning, communication capacity and presence of self awareness and self concepts (Warren 2). The first issue she tackles is the Definition of a human. She argues that â€Å"human† has two meanings, distinct but not easily distinguishable. Since killing of innocent humans is wrong and fetuses are an example of humans that are innocent, killing them is wrong. She shoots down this argument by claiming that the usage of human in similar se nse in both conclusions, whichever use is meant of the two, one of them begs questions. If used in two senses that are different, then the conclusion is still wrong (Warren 5). She claims that the presence of the human genome in fetuses does not point to it being morally human. Her second characteristic deals with the definition of moral community. She asks if it is indeed possible to establish if moral humanity can be sufficiently defined by genetic humanity. She describes the moral community as all people and only people, rather than all human beings and only human beings. Her argument continues to debate what characteristics enable any entity qualify for consideration as a person. She puts these characteristics down as consciousness and capacity to detect pain, acting out of self motivation,