E-Commerce has brought revolutionary changes in tourism and hospitality industry. Tourism as one of the biggest industries is a natural partner of Internet. It is a major component of most economies and community-based tourism is steadily increasing popularity. Tourism also has potential to induce local development and increase the income. It is essential to keep in mind the local environmental sensibilities. Applying the concept of e-commerce for tourism and hospitality has become the most natural outcome in recent years.

Advantages are many. It facilitates local community access to tourism market and minimises the financial information leakage. It links local communities and hospitality industry directly with the tourists. It could help building up local finance along with the national foreign exchange. It increases small enterprises by directly marketing the local products and industries anywhere in the world. Local communities get a direct share in the income while traditional cultures, social structures of the hosts get appreciated and extraordinary skills make a come back. Tourism and hospitality mainly depend on the natural scenes and wildlife, for which locals or governments need not spend much other than maintaining them, along with effective hospitality facilities.

Tourism and hospitality industry are interlinked. The hospitality industry and leisure industries are widely regarded as being extremely competitive and fast moving. Given this situation, it is hardly surprising that there are so many examples of established organizations acting entrepreneurially, according to Morison et al (2001, p. 68). Hospitality is a booming industry all over the world today and through Internet, selling their hotels, facilities offered, picturesque backgrounds, food, comforts, cultural attractions, social functions, religious peculiarities are showcased without much expense or difficulty. Tourists have all information through search machines with the current data and rates. They could directly talk, write, book and pay for their stay much in advance, with all information about reaching, being welcomed, how and where, meeting points, weather, forecasts, dangers, attractions and day-today itineraries intact with them months in advance. Availability of souvenirs, food requirements, comforts, access to religious places, historical sites, internal travelling, places of attraction, are all managed by people at hospitality points. Trade opportunities, reservations, tickets, transport, instantaneous information about any place nearby are provided through hotels.

Travellers pay up front for travel services and in exchange for cash they receive all the facilities. Tourists and business travellers come from all over the world on visits and holidays. Once they have arrived they have to be able to pay for the goods and services which they require… This is done by creating a market in foreign currencies operated by the worlds’ banks who are prepared to buy and sell currencies on behalf of their customers, Messenger and Shaw, (1993, p.232). Internet can offer buyer-seller information, eliminate expenses, improve business, and can give clear location details, with other much needed competitive and quality information. Through Hospitality industry, it develops economies, improves trade competitiveness, expands scope and arena, and facilitates people to have direct access to the marketing destinations. The marketing process, as indicated earlier, begins with customers. Specifically, process starts with a particular group of customers, often called the target market, Hsu and Powers (2002, p. 4).

It monitors, evaluates, creates faster transactions, empowers the participating communities, makes information interchangeable through organised and flexible web services. It builds up visions, motivates people to venture into far off destinations, popularises hotels, inns, and serviced apartments. It romanticizes castles and palaces changed into hotels, privately owned villas, sells properties or lets them out for the season, familiarizes the tourists with other alternatives like accommodative farms for real and actual local life. Thinking clearly, using and analysing the best information available, synthesizing and evaluating it, explicating and articulating are what the real world is all about, says Lewis, 1999, p. xxviii).

Does that mean that there are no disadvantages at all in applying E-Commerce into Hospitality Industry? Yes, there are many. It gives unnecessary and complete personal information of the tourist, which might not be appreciated in an underdeveloped part of the world. A gay man going into a rural area with his partner could create unfortunate situations in that society where gays and lesbians could be a rarity. It gives information like home addresses, telephone numbers to all people, who might venture into misusing them in future in some way or other. It could give easy access to all information to terrorists. It could spread terrorism and violence by providing information about the possible targets and their travelling. Information gone into Internet becomes public property. Confidentiality is never maintained in such cases and this could result in potential danger for tourists. It can create suitable atmosphere for killing, vengeance, robbery, stealing, waylaying, kidnapping and other criminal activities. It is foolish to expect that the information given would be kept confidential. With a vast number of people working on the internet, having access to the same data, and data being transferred all the time, tourists become sitting ducks to violence. Hospitality industry itself could be a target like in Bali.
Hospitality industry has to be thoroughly aware of its own labour market and its problems. It should not happen that there would be an eruption of unhappiness when tourists arrive, because the data could be used against the industry itself. Labour markets run on information, but they are invariably less than perfect mechanisms. What both buyers and sellers are left with is their perceptions and assumptions of supply and demand, Riley, (1991, p.7).

More information leads to more influx of tourists that might result in environmental imbalance and deprivation of local livelihood, creating a long-term crisis for locals. Over usage of facilities and nature, historical and heritage spots could result in their perpetual degradation. The eco-sensitivity of the region is of paramount importance. It can also result in a false and temporary market for goods, which might plummet down as the tourism season vanishes. Over popularising the area could result in local difficulties, if it is unprepared for welcoming hoards of tourists. If the culture is a hostile one, it could neither be comfortable for the hosts nor the guests. Glorification of facts could result in disillusionment of tourists. Their content bears little relevance to either the realities of work experience in the industry or actual labour management practices, Wood (1992, p. 2).

Sociology is concerned with society, with individuals in society, with institutions and with its norms and values. As Bilton et al state, ‘social life is a puzzle and sociologists spend their professional lives trying to make sense of it.’ (2002 p4) Within sociology, there are several different influences which affect how theorists explain or attempt to explain social phenomena. These include functionalism, conflict theory and Marxism among others. Functionalism views the various parts of society as interrelated parts of a complete system. It sees behaviour as being structured and social relationships as being patterned and recurrent. It also emphasizes the role of value consensus within society. For example from a functionalist perspective, the family structure as a recurring social unit plays an important role in society. The family is the main socialising agency for young people and acts as a stabilising influence in society by propagating the shared norms and values of society (Haralambos and Holborn 1995, p8-9).

In direct contrast, conflict theory is concerned with social structure as a cause and reflection of social inequality. Wallace and Wolf outline three basic assumptions of conflict theory. Firstly it assumes all people have basic common interests. Secondly that power is central to all relationships and thirdly it assumes that values and ideas are seen as weapons used by groups in their own interests rather than a way of defining society as a whole (1999, p68). It is similar to the Marxist perspective of society as operating through ‘the fundamental conflicts of interests between the social groups involved in the production process’ (1995, p12).

Another sociological perspective is structuralism, which was strongly influenced by the work of Sauserre in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Sauserre developed the study of linguistics by looking at language as it is structured. According to Sauserre, analysing the structures of language means looking for the rules which underlie our speech. He argued that the meaning of words is derived from the structures of language, not the objects to which they refer. In this way, meaning is created by the differences between related concepts which the rules of a language recognise (Giddens 1989, p698-699). The field of semiotics is largely derived from Sauserre’s work on linguistics. The semiotic approach that meaning is located in the sign, has important consequences for how we view culture and language and through these, power.

Sauserre described semiotics as ‘a science that studies the life of signs within a society’. It is concerned with meaning as something which is socially produced and proposes that the decoding process of communication is as important as the encoding process. In semiotics, meaning is derived from signs through their structural organisation. Sauserre conceived of signs as being made up of the sound image, termed the signifier and the mental concept, termed the signified. In this way signs can differ between individuals. For example when one person in a group refers to a car, everyone would conceptualise a car but each person’s car would be very different.

According to Mulholland (1991, p17), ‘language is the instrument by which meaning is realised and by which effective social interaction can be created and sustained’. She adds, ‘language is not a neutral toolwhenever one encodes something of the world into language one is fitting it into a systematic code which works to produce meaning both paradigmatically (by choice of one item from a similar set of items) and syntygmatically (by arranging choices into sentence patterns).This can influence how it works to represent both propositional content (the happenings of the world when they become the subject matter of speech) and interpersonal content (the attitudes, role, tone and so on of relationships) (Mulholland 1991, p18).

Therefore language is much more than a set of words and phrases which we use to communicate. And aside from spoken or written language, communication is also achieved through body language, a look or a gesture can say all that needs to be said. Much of our communication is based on shared codes and cultures. Day to day conversations are based on a knowledge of ourselves and the people we are communicating with. However, there are many factors which influence how we communicate. For example, our audience, the context, the desired outcomes of the communication and shared terms of reference. For example teenagers may be comfortable talking together about the latest rap artists and may even adopt some of their lingo whilst their parents may have no idea what they are talking about. This is because the parents are not familiar with the context (rap) of the conversation.

Another factor which affects communication is the power and relative status of the speakers. Consider for example being told to step aside on a pavement by a police officer. Most people would comply with the request since the police (generally speaking) have an authority bestowed on them by their uniform. Similarly, we are inclined to give credibility to news broadcasts because we believe that the newsreader has authority and therefore what he or she is telling us must be true. Although Eldridge (1993) and others have argued that news is just a social construction anyway and as such cannot be considered unique or impartial, ‘it is not reality which is constructed but a semblance of it’. (1993 p33)
However many argue that the media and the language it uses is manipulated by those who are in power in order to reinforce and legitimate that power. According to Adorno and Horkheimer (1979) the media is a technological system which is grounded in economic power. They argue that through the media, power and social systems are reproduced which in turn reproduce forms of social inequality ‘in which political and economic spheres are inextricably mixed’ (cited Eldridge 1993, p34). They argue that ‘news’ as such is just the result of what is considered important or proper between a select and unrepresentative group of business people, reporters and officials.

In contrast to this a pluralist conception of mass communication is that there is such an enormous flow of messages and images that we can choose among them which to believe and which to discard. The Marxist response to this is that whilst it is true that the media occupies a contested space which has economic, cultural and political constraints as well as commercial pressures, these merely lead to different patterns of domination and agenda setting. (Eldridge, p36) For example, Williams has stated
‘the commercial character of television has then to be seen at several levels: as the making of programmes for profit in a known market; as a channel for advertising; and as a cultural and political form directly shaped by and dependent on the norms of a capitalist society, selling both consumer goods and a way of life based on them in an ethos that is at once locally generated, by domestic capital interests and authorities and internationally organised by the dominant capitalist power.’ (cited in Fairclough 1995, p43)

Mass communication is frequently discussed in terms of its effect on listeners/ viewers/ readers. In this way, it can be said to be a powerful force in our everyday lives. Therefore the language it employs also has a certain power. The formal language of the newsreader for example implies knowledge and authority and we are inclined to trust this voice. Likewise, the more commercial an image becomes, the less we are likely to trust it.

Conclusion
Sociological theories such as structuralism are very useful in enhancing our understanding of language and power in society. By comparing differing theories of language and of power we may not come up with definitive answers but we are certainly more knowledgeable about the processes. Power is exerted through many different means and language is just one of these. However it is potentially a very influential source of power and one which is exploited wherever possible. This can be seen in many facets of social life from politics, economics even religion and popular culture.

This is perhaps most obvious in the case of approaches to social policy that are based upon utilitarian principles. For the utilitarian belief in distributing goods and services upon the premise of catering for the greatest good/happiness of the greatest number may fail to differentiate social needs or it may privilege the needs of the majority ethnic population. Another example, argueably, is the Marxian approach to social policy. The Marxian conception of equality tends to reduce inequality to its economic conditions and therefore fails to properly recognise that cultural marginalisation can continue even when there is greater ’economic’ equality.

To be sure these two approaches are rarely employed to guide social policy in contemporary societies. However, more recent ideologies or theories can be said to be similarly preclusive of race equality. These argueably include the new right approach and even, as I shall explain later, the so called Third Way approach.

During the period of the post-war consensus, from 1945 to the late 1970’s social policy in Britain was guided by ‘welfarism’. The original motivation for the development of the welfare state in Britain, after the second world war, was to reward the working classes and returning soldiers for their contribution to the war and to compensate for the devastation brought about by the war. It was principally designed therefore for the benefit of the white British working classes (Alcock, 2003: 291). This is evidenced by the observation that the redistributive principles of the welfare state were predominately economic - that the simple provision of free education, health care, public housing and social security could alleviate inequality.

However the welfare framework for social policy during this period did not just preclude racial inequality it exaccerbated it. This was to some extent because its principles were developed prior to a period of significant immigration into Britain. Thus, for example, the immigrant communities would very often not have paid enough national insurance to claim pension benefits (Alcock: 291).

Giddens (1989) maintains that in the west there is less respect for the elderly than there is in more traditional societies. In spite of this lack of respect crime statistics tend to suggest that older people are the least likely to be the victims of crime (Ward et al, 1986). The marketisation of care, and the growth of private care homes means that there is some evidence to suggest that the elderly may be more at risk of abuse of their rights and criminal assault in residential settings than they are in their own home. This paper therefore, will investigate the notion that fear of crime among and against the elderly is dependent on locale.

Crime and the Elderly

The elderly are concerned about crime and about their ability to cope with the trauma, this is particularly the case for women. A Welsh study of older burglary victims in sheltered accommodation found that older people had more difficulty recovering from the event than did younger ones (Donaldson, 2003). However, figures from the British Crime Survey 2001, tend to suggest that the likelihood of being a victim of crime decreases with age. Burglary figures for 2001 show that in 1000 households of people aged between 16 and 24 17.6% had been burgled whereas in 1000 households with residents of 75 and over only 2% were burgled (Kershaw et al, 2001). In spite of this much of the recent crime initiatives have been targeted at the safety of the elderly. Some writers maintain that although crimes against older people are low they tend to worry more about crime and will say that they feel unsafe walking the streets. Chivite-Matthews and Maggs (2002) contend that both older and younger people are particularly concerned about the crime of mugging. Donaldson (2003) is of the opinion that this targeting may be a factor in attempting to persuade older people to remain in their own homes.

One of the reasons that crime reduction strategies are aimed at protecting older people is because most of us have a particular aversion to crimes against the elderly. Government have launched successive initiatives such as Safer Cities Programmes and Burglary Prevention strategies to combat the fear of crime amongst the old. Abbott and Sapsford (2005) maintain that in middle class neighbourhoods such initiatives are well co-ordinated and older people feel safer, in less well off localities it was found that they were not so well catered for and remained afraid of crime. Their research in Middlesborough found that one in three had been burgled in the last five years, a figure which is significantly higher than that given by the British Crime Survey. Clearly the fear of crime among the elderly is not entirely unfounded and may depend on where they live.

Donaldson (2003) argues that in some cases the fear of victimisation is so great that it prompts some older people to move from their own homes into sheltered, or residential accommodation. Given increasing concerns over abuse of the elderly the question has to be raised as to whether older people who enter residential care (particularly when concerned about crime) are going from the frying pan into the fire. While most crime prevention strategies are neighbourhood based there is increasing evidence to suggest that perhaps there needs to be more investigation of what goes on in ‘care’. Are older people safer in residential accommodation or is ‘care’ a euphemism for garaging the old, taking their money and subjecting them to physical neglect and assault.

Residential ‘Care’

Older people are a marginalised group. Society sees them as no longer useful and yet greater consumers of health and other services (Moore, 2002). Those people who feel they can no longer cope alone, or whose relatives feel that they cannot go on caring for them at home, go into residential or nursing homes. The introduction of market forces into the care sector has meant that many of these institutions are privately owned and run for a profit. Even in council run homes people are expected to at least contribute to the cost of their care. The people who staff such places are usually overworked and underpaid and so some older people are at risk of neglect and abuse in a place that purports to offer care and safety.

Ford and Stepney () maintain that care provision is overshadowed by the desire to reduce costs and this has the effect of reducing choice for older people and thus disempowering them. The Community Care Act of 1990 shifted responsibility of care from central government to local authorities, ostensibly it was envisaged that this Act would increase consumer choice. What has happened is that some older frail people become socially disenfranchised and are placed in accommodation that is not the best and can put them at risk of neglect and abuse. Moore (2002) points out that some commentators have argued that a mixed economy of care and the move away from public provision to one that was based on profit making: would actually lower the standards of care, as profit rather than public service becomes the overriding motive(this) will lead to a narrowing of choiceclients being seen as receiving charity(and) the extent and the quality of services will differ from place to place (Moore, 2002:259).

Terminally sick older people are often discharged from hospital too early and put straight into nursing homes because under the terms of the Act they did not have the right to occupy a (free) NHS bed indefinitely (Ford and Stepney, ibid). As the number of NHS beds has declined so there has been a rise in the number of transfers of older people to nursing and residential care (and a corresponding growth in that sector) that carries with it a cost implication (South, 1999). Moving older people from hospital into nursing and residential homes has resulted in many of them dying soon after being moved (Neil and Williams, 1994). The death rate increased to such a level that by 1997 there were official enquiries as to the reason. Smart (1997) found that it was not often recognised that caring for dying people required special skills and conditions. Some of this is down to a lack of acknowledgement of older people’s human rights and to a lack of inter-agency co-operation and mismanagement.

Jordan (2000) cites a case of a recently retired man who had a stroke and was discharged into a nursing home. He was unhappy and was transferred elsewhere his condition deteriorated and he had a further stroke staff made no effort to ensure that he was properly nourished (even though his brother had pointed this out and complained). The man died of starvation. Where patients are denied their rights to sufficient treatment and then transferred and often have their condition re-classified their rights are ignored. Concerns over cost and the failure to communicate effectively often results in the (albeit unintended) neglect and abuse of older people. This is the hidden face of abuse. In some care homes concerns for profit and staff working conditions mean that older people are at risk of intended neglect and physical abuse and assault. As a response to poor standards in care homes in 2000 the Government introduced the Care Standards Act. However, more recent stories of the abuse of older people in care who are force fed, suffer from unattended bed sores, and are brutally treated (Observer, 18th February, 2001) tend to raise questions of how the Government intends to enforce the levels of care referred to in the Act.

Conclusion
This paper has investigated older people’s fear of crime and has assessed where that crime is most likely to take place. The marketisation of care has brought with it a host of problems, with no central control it is difficult to enforce a code of behaviour and standards yet clearly some older people in residential care are in need of protection. They are more likely to be a victim of crime in residential care than they are in their own homes. Slater (2002) has argued that policies surrounding care and the protection of older people in the care system are still evolving. It might then be argued that some kind of initiative designed to seek out and target areas of abuse should have the same kind of attention as do crime initiatives in the public arena as it is clearly the case that some older people in ‘care’ are at risk of criminal neglect and abuse.

The Nature of the Hadith

But, what is the Hadith, exactly? According to Norman Geisler and Abdul Saleeb, in their recent work on Muslim and Christian agreements and differences, they give the following definition: Hadith: Literally, a story; an oral tradition later written down of what the prophet supposedly said (sunna), did, or approved ofsomething said or done in his presence, (Answering Islam, 338). This seems to be attested-to by other scholars. The Sunnis themselves get their name from its relation to sunna and their being followers of the sunna, (R.C. Zaehner, Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions, 170). It is interesting to note that the Hadith, although it has a pragmatic end in that it further clarifies vast aspects of Islamic life, shows a particularly strong devotion to the Prophet Muhammed. Akbar S. Ahmed notes this too when he writes, So great is the respect and affection the Prophet commands that his very sayings, hadith, are the source of wisdom and social practice in the Muslim world, (Islam Today, 18). In many ways, this links Islam with other major religions of the world wherein the sayings and doings of the founder of a religion are often the most revered content of the religion.

The Hadith as a Source of Great Reverence for the Prophet

The second part of the five-part creed of Islam indicated the orthodox view of Muhammed. That is, he was merely the Prophet of God. He was, to be sure, the greatest prophet who superseded all prior prophets, but he was still a mere man. It used to be common practice even up to the mid-twentieth century for Westerners who were not themselves Muslims to refer to Muslims as Mohammedans. This came to be seen as a very offensive reference, according to Muslims because it tended to draw too strong a parallel to Christians being the followers of Christ, as Mohammedans were the followers of Muhammad. For the Christian, Christ is the God-Man. That is, the early Church long ago defined that the one person of Jesus Christ has two natures: one human and one divine. He is both God and man in one hypostasis (i.e., one person). This is, however, not at all the view held toward Muhammad, who is a mere, though extremely blessed, mortal man.

The Metaphysical Distinction Between God’s Word and the Hadith

However, one must remain clear that the reverence given to the Scriptures (i.e., the Qur’an) must be distinguished from that given to the Hadith. The difference lies in a distinction between the very words of God (which is what sacred scriptures would be, according to all theistic religions) and those writings or oral traditions that, while perhaps protected from error, are nevertheless not the very words of God breathed-out, as it were, upon the pages of the scriptures. For Reform Jews, the Talmud (a collection of writings dealing with moral and legal matters) is to be revered in much the same way as the Hadith is for Muslims (R.C. Zaehner, Encyclopedia, 37). Likewise, the Catholic Church has a Magisterium, which produces official writings from its Church councils and, at times, from its popes. These writings of the Magisterium are to be faithfully held by all Catholics everywhere (R.C. Zaehner, 140-1). They are not tantamount to the divine revelation of Scripture and Tradition together, but they are given a reverence not unlike the Islamic reverence given to the Hadith. As the Muslim scholar Badru D. Kateregga explains the distinction,

The Hadith is not a Holy Book (revelation) as the Qur’an and the previous Scriptures. However, to the Muslims the importance of Hadith ranks only second to the Holy Qur’an. The Hadith is complementary to the Qur’an. It helps to explain and clarify the Holy Qur’an and to present the Qur’an in a more practical form. As Muslims, our knowledge of Islam would be incomplete and shaky if we did not study and follow the Hadith. Similarly an outsider cannot understand Islam if he ignores the Hadith.

This last statement by Kateregga particularly notes the strong similarity to the other major theistic religions of the world. It could equally be said that with having only the Jewish scriptures and without the Talmud one could not properly understand Reform (and perhaps Conservative) Judaism. So too, having only the Bible, without learning any of the teachings that have come out of the major councils of the Catholic Church, one could hardly arrive at, or understand, Catholicism.

Early History of the Hadith: Relation to Shariah Law

Early on in Islamic history, there was a desire to have the law of the lands of Muslims be a law based explicitly on the writings of the Qur’an. However, there were soon found to be many instances wherein the laws contained in the Qur’an did not forthrightly apply to all relevant instances. So, the various Islamic societies had to extend the sources past the Qur’an alone. One of the sources to which Shariah Law extended for a source of itself was to the Hadith. It is difficult to describe exactly what comprises the foundation of the Shariah Law. Geisler and Saleeb delineate four bases of it: the Qur’an, the hadith, ijma’ (consensus of the community), and qiyas, the application of analogical reasoning to the other three sources for the deduction of new rules, (Answering Islam, 84). What this seems to amount to in practice, according to the entry on Law and Society in the Oxford History of Islam is that it is only when the ijma’ supports the independent thinking or juridical opinions of a particular instance does this instance obtain the luxury of being a binding force of a ruling (hukm) of Shariah, (110). This is a clear instance of the importance of the Hadith in shaping Muslim identity, as all Muslim societies, to some extent or another, adopt Shariah Law as either a guiding or binding force upon all those within a given Islamic nation.

The Early Search for Authentic Hadith

Additionally, by the second century after the founding of Islam, there were found in the various Islamic legal schools so much variation between them, as to the Islamic law itself and/or its application, that a search for the authentic Traditions became necessary (Zaehner, Encyclopedia, 171). Soon they were divided into three categories (definitely reliable, questionable, and likely unreliable) and eventually collected into six great collections, which are still in use today. Therefore, a search soon began for all the authentic Traditions of the prophet recorded by his contemporaries, also known as the Companions of the Prophet. These Companions were thought to be eye-witnesses and recorded that which they knew the Prophet Muhammed to have done or said on legal or moral issues not definitively laid out by the Qur’an. Where such Traditions were found to exist, it was held, the rulings they contained, explicitly or implicitly, were decisive and mandatory for all Muslims. The sunna (practice) of the Prophet obviously superseded all other sunnas, and still more any speculative reasoning, (Zaehner, 171).

Some (Perhaps) Uncomfortable Applications of the Hadith in the Modern World

With the rise of the Taliban regime in modern Afghanistan, there was an attempt at a strict application of various passages of the Qur’an and the Hadith. There were many indirect applications based loosely upon the Hadith (e.g., no television-watching, the closing of girl’s schools), but there were also a number of applications based directly on the hudud criminal punishments derived from the Qur’an and Hadith (e.g., amputation for theft, death for murder, stoning for adultery, Oxford History, 660). Another application of clearly affirmed traditions within the Hadith is that of martyrdom - especially within a context of jihad (Esposito, What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam, 133-4). In the Hadith, there are many descriptions of rewards given to those who die for the struggle of Islam.

Reforming the Hadith?

Upon some of these considerations of the application of the Hadith, some have called for a large-scale reform of the Hadith to suit modern ways and understandings. One of the first of these was Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-98). He even questioned the historicity and authenticity of many portions of the Hadith. Some more current legal reformers have called for various subtle distinctions as means of arriving at a middle-ground, which would preserve much ancient understanding of Islam, but would also simultaneously make certain applications of the Hadith (and even the Qur’an) as necessarily time-bound and culture-derived. For example, some who have been called revivalists and neomodernists have made a distinction between what might be called the eternal portions of the Qur’an and the Hadith and those that are the result of fallible human understanding of the eternal laws and their subsequent application, known as fiqh (Oxford History, 685). A further distinction along these lines could be broken down according to one’s vertical responsibilities (i.e., with respect to God) being unchanging, yet one’s horizontal responsibilities (i.e., socially with respect to one’s fellow man) being open to change and further refinement. There are even those who call for more extreme reforms in the Muslim faith. A recent example would be found in the journalist Irshad Manji in her recent book The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith. In the book, Manji seems to advocate that it is possible for portions of the Qur’an and Hadith to even be in error, particularly those portions that are often used to advocate violence against non-Muslims (or non-perfect Muslims).

Concluding Thoughts
Of course, this type of recent line of thinking along reforms (however large or small) has led some traditionalist Muslims into an even more entrenched position in their, what we might call, fundamentalism their strict adherence to all things ancient in Islam, even the application of the Qur’an and Hadith in Shariah law (a la the Taliban). However, such a reaction from traditionalist is not at all unexpected by anyone, least of all the reformers themselves. However it might end up being resolved and the conflict towards reform, which seems to some extent inevitable, are brought to a close, it is likely that the role of the Hadith in this and future generations will be a moderated one. Of course, just what exactly will moderate it remains to be seen. Will it be reason alone that triumphs? Will it be a rush toward even more modernity in Islam? The world eagerly waits to see.

Classic psychology sought to establish firm evidence to discredit the involvement of one or the other of these influences. Modern psychologists however recognise that the origins of human behaviour cannot be referred to in such black and white terms. More recent research focuses on how both biology and environment interact to create the different psychological phenomena that we see and experience.
Social development encompasses a number of areas with temperament, personality, gender development and aggression used in this piece. In the past psychologists have attempted to isolate environmental or biological aspects of a topic. The studies of feral children, adoption and twins have become important due to the apparent ability to separate the perceived influences in natural setting.
Reports of feral children focus on children who have been separated from their parents and ‘adopted’ as part of a family of mammals such as wolves or monkeys. The reliability of such information has been doubted but Ward (2002) argues that documented behaviour of children strongly supports the idea that upbringing is entirely responsible for a vast number of traits found to be common in the human population. Observed social behaviour in these children has highlighted issues such as a complete unawareness of the feelings of others, no emotional control, lack of attachment patterns, and no moral or value led beliefs. Although there is strong evidence for the environmental argument the feral children research does not allow us to discount genetic and biological traits in this instance. It is suggested that everyone has different inborn characteristics and the extent to which they display themselves is highly dependent on the environment in which a child is raised. (Nazli 1995)

Researchers have used the study of twins and adoption to assess the extent to which genetic factors play a part in areas of social development. By using identical twins who have been raised apart by adoptive families biologically identical individuals can be observed in different environments. A number of studies have shown that despite separated twins being subject to distinct environmental experiences there is still a strong concordance between twins and traits such as temperament (Gross et al 2000).

Additionally comparing identical and fraternal (dizygotic) twins allows examination of similarities in behaviour dependent on genetic closeness. Identical twins tend to show a higher level of correlation for temperament factors such as emotionality, activity and sociability in comparison to fraternal twins (Bee 2000)

Despite the strong evidence for biology in twin studies the rates of correlation between monozygotic twins are far from one hundred percent. If nature solely determined social development one would expect identical twins, being genetic replicas of one another, to show the exact same traits as one another. Although environment does undoubtedly play a significant part in social development the ways in which it interacts with inborn qualities has not yet been distinguished.

Feldman (2001) also argues that due to twin studies being natural experiments there are many control issues that affect the validity of research. For example Feldman suggests that where twins are placed in adoptive families the mother’s wishes and the interests of the children are took in to account. This can result in the twins growing up apart but in very similar environments.

Thomas and Chess (1982) produced early work on temperament that cites influences from both nature and nurture. They looked at a number of key dimensions of temperament including activity levels, inhibition, anxiety, persistence, control and emotionality. From this they developed three temperament types into which babies can be categorised. As these could be identified in new born babies Thomas and Chess suggested that temperament types were as a result of biological factors. Temperament in the long term however was seen as dependant on the nature and demands of the environment in which the child finds themselves in.

As with temperament, there is evidence to suggest that personality can be determined by inherent characteristics. Ebstein et al (1996) for example claims that there is a novelty seeking gene that exhibits some control on the amount of the chemical dopamine produced in the brain. The existence of a gene, such as for risk taking behaviour, would support biological arguments that seemingly social constructed traits have their roots in behaviour genetics.

In contrast to the biological viewpoint some of the oldest and most unethical experiments known in psychology are still used in evidence of just how much power the environment can exert on human behaviour. Watson and Rayner (1920) demonstrated how classical conditioning can cause enduring dispositions on the basis of learned behaviour. Behaviourists were typically of the belief that manipulation of learning patterns determined social development.

Schaffer (1996) argues however that biological and genetic factors at the time still provided a respected insight into the dimensions of personality. Modern behaviourism has taken the work from classic studies to propose that innate qualities can be reinforced by their learning within their environment.

Looking further at personality Eley, Stevenson and Lichenstein (1999) provide input into aggressive and anti-social behaviour. Their findings from 1,500 pairs of twins advocate that aggressive behaviour can be inherited genetically but that the social environment also plays a significant role in how this develops. It was found that non aggressive behaviour is reinforced in many environments and that this can in turn impact on someone who has a biologically high tendency to exhibit aggression. Schaffer (1996) noted that hormones and other biological aspects have been implicated in the occurrence of aggression however no definite conclusion has been reached in terms of what extent they interact with the social environment.

Gender development and self concept are another aspect of social development that has been subject to the nature nurture debate. Money and Ehrhardt (1972) emphasised the social in their study of gender reassignment. The most prominent case looked at a set of male twins, one who suffered from deformed genitalia as a result of an unsuccessful surgical circumcision. The child was consequently raised as a girl. The child began to exhibit traits that were distinctly feminine and a significant difference was observed in behaviour compared to the child’s brother. Money and Erdhardt claimed that these differences were due to parental treatment and regarded the situation as a demonstration of how gender is socially generated. Bee (2000) however argues that many similar studies have resulted in psychological difficulties for those whose gender was reassigned contrary to their actual sex and that environment cannot solely shape a child’s gender concept. The premise here is that both biological gender and social gender exist.

Social development and developmental psychology foster many areas of possible research. What is apparent from relevant literature is that both biological and environmental approaches are supported by abundance of empirical research. Behaviour genetics are at an early stage but the traditional sciences are becoming increasingly more important in psychology. In turn social and environmental research is being used progressively more the investigation of deprivation and development in modern society. On the basis of this psychologists have tended to lean towards an interactionist position. Quite simply where all theories are taken into account and seen to operate individually and interact with one another (Baltes, Reese and Lipsett 1980)

Theorists have searched of ways to separate nature and nurture, but this very difficulty tells us that they cannot be separated so precisely. Rutter (1989) dismisses the idea of nature and nurture being separate as a myth. Although there is much to discover in relation to how nature and nurture interact modern psychology recognises that progression cannot be made without realisation of all factors that contribute to social development. Social development is a life process built upon a paradox.. at the same time we are both social and individual beings.

While well intentioned and valid in some ways, Marxists critiques generally fail on intellectual, practical, and empirical levels. The first intellectual failure is manifest in Marx’s own quote, above, which presumes that wage-labor is effectively the same means of oppression as slave labor. This is only true if the proletariat serving as the labor have no means or hope of achieving ownership stake in the work that they do or the organizations for whom they do the work. Though it may have been true in 1859 when he wrote it, liberal capitalism has evolved, particularly in the United States, to the state of an individual-ownership society, where opportunities abound for individuals to assume a stake in the work that they do, not merely collect a paycheck for their labor.In Marx’s mind, the only way for workers to free themselves from this slavery was to collectively own the means of production. The efficacy of this intellectual model has thus far been an abject failure in terms of the results when it has been attempted.

On an empirical level, the simple truth is that the vast majority of governments that have been formed using Marxist or Communist theory have themselves tended to be exploitative disasters in comparison to the capitalist societies over which they were intended to demonstrate moral and economic superiority. The Soviet Union, which launched its Marxist revolution in 1917 under Vladimir Lenin, became a great economic and military power, but ironically did so only by exploiting its proletariat under the corrupt, oligarchic rule of totalitarian and in the case of Stalin, genocidal — dictators who ruled with a combination of an iron fist and a vast, ossified bureaucracy.

The Soviet Union collapsed under its own weight, a complete ideological failure, and its member states turned to capitalist economies and democratic forms of government. (To be fair, some Soviets, at the time of Lenin’s ascendancy, believed it was too soon to implement Marxist philosophies, since Marx’s own requirement had not been met — that the country’s capitalist economy had reached its evolutionary endpoint.) China, though still a viable nation-state which wields considerable economic power, has managed to avoid the Soviet Union’s fate by introducing a considerable number of free-market elements into its state-controlled economy. Unfortunately, China shares the former Soviet Union’s penchant for ruthless suppression of individual rights. The only other currently remaining bona fide Marxist/Communist state is North Korea, whose atrocious economic conditions, cultish culture of worship for its dictators, and lack of regard for individual rights, speak for themselves. That in 2005 Marxism would have been so absent from the global political map would have been a heartbreaking blow to Marx, as would the fact that the only attempts at implementing his philosophies in their purest forms have led to brutal, totalitarian regimes which have arguably disrespected the proletariat as acutely as any unregulated capitalist economy.

On a political level, Marx may have also underestimated the power of the marriage of democratic forms of government to liberal capitalist systems. In theory, at least, representative democracies are inherently structured to empower the proletariat by giving them participatory voice in the decision-making that goes into governing the economic systems of their nation. Democracy, as we know it today and as the pre-eminent form of government on the planet, was arguably still a relatively young paradigm as Marx was developing his theories. The primacy of the concepts of the worth and choice of the individual individual rights, individual freedoms is an inherently democratic notion which both contradicts the passive collectivism suggested by Marxism and also provides a built-in safeguard against capitalist excesses when they begin to favor oligarchies over individual rights.

Democracy is unique in its ability to lessen ameliorate the harsher effects of unregulated market capitalism. When competitive markets are allowed to flourish unchecked, certainly great wealth is created, but Marx’s critiques of exploitation become valid as monopolies and oligarchies spring up to choke off competition and create an environment in which the proletariat fail to benefit from the work they have put in on behalf of, for example, corporations. However, representative democracy has suffered the horrors of untempered market cycles and reacted accordingly. One of the best examples is the American Great Depression, in which a precipitous stock market crash in October 1929 set off an economic chain reaction that left tens of millions of Americans unemployed and in starvation. The collective clamor and cries of the proletariat prompted the elected government to take serious corrective measures over the next few decades to provide for means to temper the inherent boom and bust cycles of free market capitalism, and to create a social safety net for the poor and the elderly (e.g. Social Security, guaranteeing retirement income to senior citizens). Similarly, in Europe, countries where the scourges of free market industrialism once ravaged the countryside, such as England, democratic systems of government have gradually eased their economies into socialist hybrids, market economies with considerable elements of state control and welfare systems to ensure the proletariat are well-cared for.

Unfortunately, Marx either was unable to see the potential value of these future hybrid systems, such as market socialism, with their ability to compensate for inequities, or simply refused to believe in their viability because they failed to match his strident demand for idealistic purity within human interrelations: Even if such unjust inequalities were eliminated, Marx would still object to the quality of market social relations because they would continue to be predicated on a kind of self-seeking egoism contrary to the requirement of a true community. (Warren, 1998)

On a psychological level, Marxist critiques of liberal capitalism also fail because they lack practical insight into how the human psyche operates and instead rely too heavily on utopian ideals of human beings operating idealistically on a collective level. Marx’s theory of human nature is a biological fantasy, and we have the corpses to prove it. Which may drive us to wonder: if communism is deadly because it is contrary to human nature, does that imply that capitalism, which is contrary to communism, is distinctively compatible with human nature? (Wilkinson, 2005) The truth of the matter is that human beings are a hierarchically inclined species that thrive on power and competition. Left unchecked, these impulses can result in ghastly, fratricidal behavior, but when harnessed and properly channeled, these impulses form the heart of the free market economy, which thrives on individual initiative, healthy competition, and the quest for self-improvement and leadership.

The psychological backbone of Marxist critique is the assumption of a perpetual state of victimhood on the part of the oppressed, which fails to take into account the inherent human tendency to resist oppression and reform existing systems into more egalitarian structures. In other words, Marxist-style revolutions may well be unnecessary, as the proletariat seems to frequently find ways within capitalist systems to assert their rights. People will always have their hunter-gatherer impulses, but this does not mean they are predestined to be deleterious:

There is no way to stop dominance-seeking behavior. We may hope only to channel it to non-harmful uses. A free society therefore requires that positions of dominance and status be widely available in a multitude of productive hierarchies, and that opportunities for greater status and dominance through predation are limited by the constant vigilance of “the people”the ultimate reverse dominance hierarchy. A flourishing civil society permits almost everyone to be the leader of something, whether the local Star Trek fan club or the city council, thereby somewhat satisfying the human taste for hierarchical status, but to no one’s serious detriment. (Wilkinson, 2005)

In the end, Marxism is a fundamentally pessimistic and pedantic philosophy, as are its critiques of liberal capitalism, which is a fundamentally optimistic and individualistic philosophy which endows each person with both the responsibility and the power to assume control of his or her own destiny and personal fulfillment. As sociologist Ellen Huang notes, under the lens of critical Marxist theories, inequality determines all human relations, and subsequently overemphasizes the oppressed nature of the colonized. Further abstractions of the dynamic of capitalism may overlook real forms of resistance, leaving utopian dreams as the only option for the oppressed. (Huang, 2003) Humanity is always in dire need of practical options rooted in dreams, not merely the dreams themselves, no matter how well intended they may be.

This account will outline the basic structure of the building blocks of all organisms and show how important the constituent chemicals are.

Proteins as chemicals of life

Proteins are uniquely responsible for many of the functions of life (Seeley, Stephens & Tate 2003). Their structural basis comes from amino acids, which are a series of 20 molecules comprising an amino group (NH2), carboxyl group (COOH) a single hydrogen atom, and a further group of atoms of varying size and complexity (R group) attached to a carbon atom (Stryer 1988). More important than the individual structures of amino acids is the way that they can join together to form an almost infinite variety of ways. The individual amino acids form long chains that then twist and fold creating a tertiary and quaternary structure. The bonds that can then form between and within chains confer further unique properties upon the structure.

Proteins are able to act as enzymes, which are structures that affect the speed of chemical reactions within organisms. This enables processes to occur at a speed that ensures that all the reaction products such as water, oxygen or energy are available when needed. Many of these reactions take place because the enzyme provides a special surface or area where the chemicals can react. This surface or area is an appropriate shape and size due to the overall protein structure and particularly due to the temporary bonds that can form between the enzyme and reacting chemicals.

Fats as chemicals of life

Fats, or lipids as they are more correctly known, have a rather different structure to the other molecules, as they have a smaller proportion of oxygen (Goodwin 2000). This causes the overall lipid molecules to become hydrophobic (water hating); a property that is crucial in the use of lipids as the main constituent of cell membranes. The majority of cell membranes consist of a phospholipid bilayer, which is formed due to the different interactions between the lipid and the surrounding milieu, particularly in terms of water interactions.

In addition to forming cell membranes lipids, as triacylglycerols, are also used as energy stores as well as being involved in the regulation of body metabolism. Many regulatory hormones are lipid based including the steroid sex hormones as well as the prostaglandins governing the body’s response to pathogens (Seeley, Stephens & Tate 2003).

Carbohydrates as chemicals of life

One of the characteristics of living things metabolism (Seeley, Stephens & Tate 2003), invariably utilises carbohydrates as the substrate. Carbohydrates include the simple monosaccharide sugars, all with the formula (C6H12O6) and the larger but no less simple structurally, polysaccharides including starch and glycogen. These molecules all provide a significant energy store to different organisms. The simple sugars glucose, lactose and fructose traditionally form a significant part of the human diet, but the polysaccharide starch is also an important contributor to the human diet due to the fact that it is the energy store in plants (Goodwin 2000). Carbohydrates differ from proteins, lipid and nucleic acids in that their main life giving function is as energy, whether immediate or as a store.

Nucleic acids as chemicals of life

For many people deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is held to be the essence of life. DNA is a nucleic acid, which consists of many amino acids paired according to a common system. The structure of DNA is derived from the order and arrangement of the amino acids that make it up. The structure of DNA is known as a double helix, with the amino acids forming the rungs of the twisting ladder, and the sugar phosphate groups forming the connecting rungs.

It is this specific arrangement of the double helix that gives rise to both the similarities and unique aspects of humans. All of the information about how to make up a human and how it should work is contained within the DNA in the cell. When sexual reproduction takes place the information from the mother and father is combined to govern how the offspring will appear, with some features coming from the mother and some the father.

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) shares many similarities to DNA but has the function of conveying the information contained within DNA in order to construct new cells. In fact RNA is essentially half of a DNA strand and has several forms, which each perform a different function related to copying the appropriate section of DNA for use in new cells or cellular maintenance.

Conclusion
Whilst it is not possible to explain what makes up the spark of life, it is possible to show the biological matter that forms the physical embodiment of life. Whilst all made up from the same small atoms proteins, fats, carbohydrates and nucleic acids all contribute in a unique way to the structures of life. Thus the chemical basis of these molecules can also be deemed to be the chemical basis of life itself as, without any of these molecules, life would not be able to continue.

Now, given the fact that the brick is very thick and has a low thermal conductivity a very intense heating source must be used to heat the brick up to 800 degrees as required. A closed oven can be used to achieve this aim by heating the brick up to more than 800 degrees. Since the oven is closed, it is obvious that no connection wires will be attached to the brick. All resistivity measurements can only thus take place once the brick is out of the oven and as it cools down. The rate at which the brick cools down will be initially quite high hence the relative measurements must be carried out swiftly. As the temperature though approaches the ambient temperature, this rate will of course become smaller and smaller.

The temperature of the brick can be measured using an instrument commonly found in labs called thermocouple. The thermocouple is essentially a two tipped probe; each tip is made of different metals and the temperature difference sensed by the two tips results in current flow which is translated to the material’s actual temperature value.

When the brick comes out of the oven it must be CAREFULLY clamped to a holder and two tungsten leads (tungsten’s melting point is well above 850 degrees) attached to each of the end faces of the brick. Through these leads a high voltage is applied across the brick (given its insulating nature a high voltage is required to source a traceable current intensity through it). An ammeter is also connected to the brick by another couple of tungsten leads to measure the current’s intensity. With the aid of Ohm’s Law R = V/I, the resistivity R of the brick across the required temperature range.

An important aspect of an experiment involving handling materials in high temperature as well as high voltages is safety. Common hazards include electrical shocks or skin burns. To avoid such issues, all connecting wires must be shielded and all leads must be firmly attached to the brick. Moreover, special attention must also be given to the handling of the brick following the heat up phase as well as to the operation of the oven. The presence of specialised personnel for the operation of the oven is highly desirable and recommended to avoid any personal injuries.

In order to perform the calibration of the Hall probe, Helmholtz coils are initially used so that a uniform magnetic field is produced when current flows through them. These circular coils are connected in series and the distance separating them is equal to their radius Also, if the voltage of the current flowing through the coils is varied, then the value of the corresponding magnetic flux density can be measured and recorded.

The Helmholtz coils are subsequently replaced by magnets so that the voltage reading output of the Hall probe can be recorded as the magnets are spaced apart known distances. An immediate comparison can thus be made to the previous set of measurements (the ones using the Helmholtz coils) by looking up the corresponding magnetic flux recorded previously for any particular output voltage value. In the above calibration procedure, apart from the Hall probe and the Helmholtz coils other pieces of equipment required are: a variable power supply, a voltmeter to measure the Hall probe’s output voltage and finally shielded leads to connect the supply to the coils and the Hall sensor to the voltmeter.

An important consideration throughout the calibration process is the relationship between the accuracy of the obtained results and the temperature of the environment surrounding the experimental apparatus. More specifically, any variation in the temperature has an immediate effect on the probe’s output readings since it may affect the mobility of the free electron carriers inside the probe; hence, it is obvious that the all calibration measurements must be carried out under exactly the same temperature. Also, in order to avoid the interference from the Earth’s own magnetic field, the whole setup and especially the Hall probe must be placed in parallel to the ground so as to annul this interference.

Now, using the calibrated Hall probe the magnetic flux density variation (mid-way between the opposite poles of two permanent magnets) is to be investigated. It is known that all magnets have two poles called North and South by convention. In this case, the North pole of the first magnet will have to face the South pole of the second magnet (both magnets will have to be aligned throughout this experimental procedure). When thus the opposing poles of two such permanent magnets come within a certain distance (depending on the size of the magnets), a magnetic field is setup between the two poles. The resulting flux density can be measured using the calibrated Hall probe since the values of the probe’s output voltage for various distances is known. A ruler must be placed below the two permanent magnets since the gap between them is going to be varied. This is very important, since the values of the spacing between the two magnets must be identical to the spacings recorded during the calibration process; only then can the Hall probe’s output voltage readings be related to the value of the magnetic flux density for that particular spacing. Again, apart from the two magnets and the Hall probe, a voltmeter and shielded connecting leads are required.

In efforts to define- or perhaps contain it, the practice of photography has been laboriously distinguished from other visual forms and practices, particularly painting and film. Adams is interesting because he refuses the forces of classification, not static enough for photography, too theatrical and contrived for regular representational convention. In the article “Looking at Photographs,” Victor Burgin writes:

The signifying system of photography, like that of classical painting, at once depicted a scene and the gaze of the spectator, an object and a viewing subject…. Whatever the object depicted, the manner of its depiction accords with laws of geometric projection which imply a unique “point of view”. It is the position of point-of-view, occupied in fact by the camera, which is bestowed upon the spectator….
Even more emphatically than painting, photography maps an animated, infinitely subjective and ever changing world into a two dimensional, static image of a finite moment. Classical and highly stylised black and white images, such as those that have made Adams most famous, take the abstraction one step further by removing all colour from our inescapably multicoloured world.

The use of colour in photography has been shunned repeatedly by many purists working to a realist agenda. Compared to black and white it is considered more superficial, crassly realistic, mundane, less abstract, ultimately less artistic. Altering light and shade in the darkroom enables a degree of artistic dishonesty. The camera may not lie, but the photographer very frequently does, especially the photographer with an artistic agenda. Whenever he dodges shadow detail and fires up highlights, increasing contrast or altering tone, Adams exercises and demonstrates a contrivance that amounts to a sort of visual poetry. Adams is on record confessing to severe manipulation of Moonrise over Hernandez, (below) but more significant still is probably his interest in subjects which lend themselves so well to monochrome representation.

The night scene is extraordinarily affecting, partly because, as a genre, it is most famous for high contrast monochrome. It is the only time in our world really does seem black and white, so the image is almost an accurate representation, but not quite. It is the slightly alienating quality of this image, the slight lack of fit between representation and mental expectation, which makes it so beautiful. Many of Adams’s images are arresting because they are tuned to the timing of our mental calculations: they are ready to predict and confound our expectations by subtle acts of artifice and they play constantly, and good-naturedly, on the moment of our realisation. The monochrome of Adams is not a symptom of self-aggrandising pride in his iconic artist status, but a device to play with emphasis and expectation, a way of forcing us to look at the world in different ways.

As both teacher and technician, Adams is probably most well known for testing Edwin Land’s Polaroid film technology and assisting aspirant artists with the workings of his own Zone System of photography, something he developed while teaching at the Art Centre School in Los Angeles in 1941. The Zone System was designed to assist photographers with manipulating the range of grey-scale tones in their negatives, through the use of a light meter. The system accounts for Adams’ enchanting range of distinct shades of grey, and use of black and white in his 1958 photograph, Aspens (below).
As an artist, Adams encouraged photographers to manipulate the tones of their work during the developing and printing stages. Very significantly, he often compared printmaking to a musical performance, noting similarities between the tonal values of a negative and the notes on a musical score. As with musical scores, prints were opened up the interpretation and change once they had been produced. Adams’ vision seems to have been a democratic one; he promoted an open attitude in the arts- not jealously guarding his techniques but teaching and sharing them- and his openness and humility is surely reflected in his unusual preference of natural subject matter.

Nevertheless Adams’s technical accomplishments often distract from his original intentions- he hoped that many of his photographs would be expressive of his radical aesthetic and political ideals. Aesthetically, Adams was profoundly influenced by Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz promoted a photographic philosophy of the “pure”, asserting that his photographic prints represented “equivalents” of his feelings. Similarly, Adams claimed that art photographers created “a statement that goes beyond the subject” and captured “an inspired moment on film.” Art photographers were compared favourably to regular photographers. If a photographer from each party came out with an identical image of a scene, the art photographer would be preferable, in Adams’ eyes, by virtue of his philosophy- his attitude- simply more authentic. To Adams, ordinary photographs were mere “visual diaries” or “reminders of experience,”

While the landscapes that I have photographed in Yosemite are recognized by most people and, of course the subject is an important part of the pictures, they are not “realistic.” All my pictures are optically very accurate - I use pretty good lenses -150; but they are quite unrealistic in terms of [tonal] values. A more realistic, simple snapshot captures the image but misses everything else. I want a picture to reflect not only the forms, but [also] what I had seen and felt at the moment of exposure.