ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction During the 16 th and 17 th centuries, new ideas were invented in the fields of biology, astronomy, chemistry and physics. These inventions transformed ancient and medieval perception of nature into modern science in the period that was called the scientific revolution. Scientific revolution began in Europe towards the end of the renaissance period. According to Sivin (10), it was during this period that human beings began explaining natural happenings without consultation of the Christian doctrine. Discussion The history of science and technology in China contributed much to the advancement of the global knowledge in science and technology. Philosophers in China made advancements in various disciplines including astronomy, mathematics, science and technology. Herbal and traditional Chinese medicine played an important role in the society. One of the ideas invented by the Chinese includes the shadow clock. Kites and Kongming lanterns are among other flying machines that were invented in China. The use of the compass, papermaking and printing as well as gunpowder spread to Europe and other countries in the world from China (Sivin 13). There are many reasons put forward to explain the reason behind the failure of scientific revolution in China. One of the reasons is geographical position of the country. The climate of Britain favors agriculture because of its fertile soils and animal keeping especially in the western parts of the country. Incidences of drought and diseases were rare in Britain. Apart from providing meat, animals served industrial purposes in Britain such as pulling ploughs and transportation of goods, a factor that contributed to its development (Sivin 15). Ecological benefits of Britain contributed much towards its industrialization unlike China. For instance, mines that were near markets made it easy for transportation of minerals. The northern part of China had coalmines that made the place unsafe as people feared attacks that forced them to migrate to the southern parts hence preventing extraction of coal. The steam power discovered from coal in Britain provided transport facilities using powerful machinery contributing to industrial revolution. Coal was obtained from Britain at cheaper prices motivating the country to continue with innovations (Sivin 20). This was not the case for China. The population of China plays a significant role in explaining why scientific revolution did not take place in the country. During this period, the population of China was higher than that of Europe. Laborers were paid low wages in China than in Europe because so many people were in need of jobs. Due to this reason, China did not see the need of developing devices to replace human labor. Furthermore, labor was not a problem. On the contrary, Europe had a small population and a large piece of arable land. In addition to th
Introduction Homosexuality is a widely discussed issue in modern days. Acceptance of homosexuality not only raises moral concern but has also attracted numerous researches on the topic. Two of the most asked questions with regard to homosexuality are whether it is really evil and how the habit develops. Although various people provide different explanations on homosexuality, a deep understanding can be obtained from homosexuals themselves or individuals that have had experience on the habit. As revealed by Melissa Fryreal’s story, homo sexuality is a learnt habit that results from encounters with our environment. The title “The seed that grew” demonstrate the reality that the seed of homosexuality is planted in an individual and grows as the individual grows. Discussion Mellissa’s background played a significant role to her becoming a lesbian. Melissa was an adopted child whose relationship with her new parents and environment that she was brought up in resulted into development of the habit. The “Christian” family that she was brought up in did not abide by Christian principles. As she testifies, her mother was unloving and uncaring. On the other hand, her father abused her sexually. This environment affected her sexual development leading into lesbianism. Sexual abuse from her father during her adolescent stage could have set a foundation for her homosexual behavior (Harrison, 2004). Various studies show that sexual abuse at early stages of development can contribute towards homosexuality. Thus, sexual abuse could have affected Mellissa’s perception of relationship and determine the direction that she took in finding friends. As young and looking for a relationship, the injury implanted by his father prevented her from finding fulfillment in relationship with male counterparts. Instead, she found fulfilling friendly relationship with girls. At thirteen years, Mellissa could not have been attracted to a boy. In attempt to understand herself, she could have tried to research thus coming across terms such as homosexual and lesbianism. As she puts it, the seed of lesbianism continued to grow as she developed. Through her tendency to find fulfillment in friendship with her girlfriend rather than boys, Mellissa could have developed a thought that she was attracted to girls. By searching information about homosexuality as she did by finding the meaning of the word in a dictionary, Mellissa was to find reasons to justify her feeling (Harrison, 2004). This helped to water the seed which later developed to lesbianism. At the age of 16, the seed that had been more than ten years before had developed to maturity. At this age, Mellissa concluded her search for identity accepting that she was attracted to women rather than men. When she joined University at the age of eighteen, she strengthened her new identity by joining and becoming actively involved with the gays. Despite of later getting a gay partner, Mellissa is not settled. This shows that lesbianism was natural to her.
Introduction Today, the promotion of high-level academic performance is one of the common goals in many American colleges and universities. A number of personal factors, as well as the social environment, determine student success and cooperation (Kassarnig et al., 2018). However, despite the intention to provide students with the best options in their studies and the choice of future careers, certain challenges and concerns exist. Mental health problems are frequently diagnosed among college students, and about 1/4 of current students have depression or anxiety (Posselt & Lipson, 2016). Among a variety of causes, prejudicial treatment and discrimination play a critical role because these behavioral attitudes lead to academic distress and interpersonal conflicts (Cheng, McDermott, Wong, & McCullough, 2019). To predict academic complications, the main research question “Is there the association between discrimination/prejudice and depression/anxiety among US college students?” should be answered. The hypothesis is that there is a certain association between social behaviors and mental health problems among the chosen group of people. The goal of this study is to investigate the peculiarities of prejudicial and discriminatory treatment among students and explain their correlation with anxiety and depression. Literature Review Modern researchers frequently discuss the concepts of discrimination and prejudice among college students and develop their own theories and policies to clarify the situation. In addition to new circumstances, responsibilities, and tasks, students have to meet unknown people and use their qualities and skills in different areas without necessary support and cooperation (Ruz, Al-Akash, & Jarrah, 2018). Due to such external and internal factors, many students, either experienced or fresh, have high depression and anxiety rates (Jochman et al., 2019). Certain attention is paid to depression and anxiety caused by uncontrolled or poorly organized relationships between young people. In their study, Cheng et al. (2019) underlined that perceived discrimination is related to academic distress and used the experiences of Latinx college students for analysis. As a result, young people demonstrate poor academic achievement, lack of collaboration, and dissatisfaction with college activities. Social Behaviors in Colleges The establishment of trustful relationships plays a crucial role in education. When students visit their classroom, they expect to gain new knowledge and demonstrate what they have already learned or what they need to improve at the moment (Jochman et al., 2019). The development of social class stereotypes cannot be ignored because it promotes inequalities among students, their achievements, desire to participate in classroom discussions, and the quality of content chosen by teachers (Durante & Fiske, 2017). When young people start comparing their financial or social opportunities, identify their roots, and compare ethnic differences, they provoke new reasons for discussions and conflicts. On the one hand, negative outcomes of social
Ideology is a key aspect of literal writings and cultures. In the present day, the term ideology is comprehended and deeply rooted in the works of Karl Marx and his fellow socialist Friedrich Engels. Marx and Engels state that the notion of the ruling class is present in every era. The two indicate that the class that has the techniques of substance production at its exposure also has the power over the techniques of psychological production. The ideas of the ruling class, therefore, are the ideology of the given society. The purpose of ideology would therefore be the constant means of production applied with a view of ensuring the continued supremacy of the ruling class. In this case, ideology attains this by distorting the truth, while the difference and rise of social classes are manmade and serve only the wants of a financial system whereby the notion of ideology makes it seem normal. This makes the lower classes accept alienation which they would easily fight or revolt. The production of notion is initially interwoven with material activities and man’s interaction with it and the conceiving of the mental association of men appears during this stage as the direct result of their material activities. This pertains to mental production as uttered in the language of religion, politics, and many more. Men are makers of their ideas as they are trained by the development of their creative forces and the relation corresponding to them. In all ideology, men and their circumstances emerge inverted like in a camera that is obscured. This occurrence comes about from their past life processes as the inversion of objects does from their physical life processes (Kellner & Durham, 2006). In their writing, Marx and Engels distinguish two different classes, which is the class that is the material force of the society and is at the same time the class that has the earnings of substantial production at its disposal. The other class is the one that does not have the means of production and is subject to those who have. They add that the ruling ideas come about with major material relationships called ideas that portray previous thoughts. They insist human beings are naturally produced and always have to produce their means of survival to satisfy their needs. The fulfillment of wants brings about the rise of other new wants of both social and material kinds. This in turn gives rise to societies that correspond to the state of growth of human industrious forces. Material needs determine the kind of social life one leads. This brings the explanation of societies from material creation to social forms and lastly to forms of self-realization. As ways of material creation develop, economic structures grow and fall and therefore socialism becomes a reality once the workers’ plight and awareness of a substitute motivate them to revolt. The reality is therefore that distinct persons who are productively active in a detailed way enter into specific social and political relations. Social structures and states are prog
Virtue ethics theory This theory is guided by the question of whether a course of action respects human rights or not. Every human being is endowed with certain inalienable rights and entitlements. The rights and entitlements underscore the importance of treating all human beings with dignity, fairness and equality irrespective of their cultural backgrounds. The rights criterion is valid in qualifying actions as right or wrong, ethical or unethical. Rights have to do with doing justice to every one irrespective of his or her physical characteristics. The criterion is based on the intrinsic value of life and social justice. Every human being is entitled to all good things and all deeds which are just. According to virtue ethics, there is no human being who qualifies for more entitlements than others because all human beings are equal. According to the theory therefore, morality and ethics are based on the perceived nature of an action. If an action has an outcome which is perceived to violate natural rights and justice, then it is considered both as immoral and unethical. Utilitarianism theory This theory belongs to a branch of ethics known as normative ethics. According to utilitarianism, the principles of human interactions are based on the overall good. In this sense therefore, ‘good’ is looked from an objective sense in that what is good is seen as what produces good outcomes for the maximum number of people (Scarre, 1996). Utilitarianism can be explained using the principle of ‘the end justifies the means’, meaning if the end of a process or action is good, then the means of arriving at that end are also good and justifiable (Schofield, 2006). According to the theory therefore, for an action to be considered as ethically or morally correct, it should have an outcome which benefits the maximum number of people. What this means is that people should focus on the end of a process but not the means of arriving at that end (Ruggiero, 2011). Deontological ethics Just like utilitarianism, deontological ethics belong to the branch of normative ethics. In deontological ethics, employees are required to perform their duties according to the laid down procedures. They are supposed to discharge their duties as instructed because doing otherwise amounts to unethical practice (Ruggiero, 2011). In other words, morality and ethics are based on a person’s duty, meaning that for one to be considered as morally and ethically correct, he or she must do his or her duties as instructed. The reasoning is that God is the one who knows what is right for us and what we are supposed to do in any particular place and time and therefore doing otherwise is going against God’s wish which amounts to unethical and immoral behavior. My personal experience pertaining how virtue ethics relate to utilitarianism is that virtue is linked to maximum good. If an action produces good outcomes for maximum number of people, then it is virtuous. Utilitarianism relates to the concept of value in that the quality of something which is good is measured by the value attached to it. If something is of a higher value than an
Introduction The influence of popular culture on the wide masses of population in different periods of time of every society’s development has always been evident. Television and radio as the main mass media sources have created a new, distorted reality to which some people became sensitive and others ignored. It is widely known that the means of advertising, promotion, and distribution have always managed to represent innovative, non-existent images and to make them desirable, wanted, and longed to by the common public, even when people understood that artificial life differed from the everyday routine life and could never be like that. The same situation of blind following the popular culture idols that were hand-made by the promoters and PR managers who created an ideal white culture in the USA and managed to persuade the nation in white superiority, beauty, and aesthetic propriety to the profile of the country, while black people were simply neglected and reduced in their social roles, were considered freaks who did not deserve an equal role in the American society. But what is more terrible is that the nature of that popular culture was so devilishly natural and systematic, so well-designed and over-grasping that it created such a distorted, stereotyped and discriminative vision of black and white people not only in white residents of the US but managed to convince vast groups of African Americans in their ugliness and uselessness. People lived in the desperate wish to be like the Hollywood white stars, the girls hated themselves and knew nobody would feel pity with them, no one would hear them and they would never achieve any significant goals in their lives because they were ugly. The popular culture that propagated the beauty of light skin made even light-skinned African Americans avoid communication with dark-skinned ones, thus creating hostility and segregation even within their group. What was the most horrifying and destructive was that the people believed the idols created by the community and raised their kids with the feeling of being useless freaks who were unhappy initially to have been born with the black skin color. Popular Culture Influence on the Minds of Heroes of The Bluest Eye The work of Tony Morrison titled The Bluest Eye also investigates the roots of such problems that existed in the 1940s in the USA and which they witnessed when they were young girls. Their participation in the story is limited because the main character is Pecola Breedlove, the young black girl who got insane at the end of the story due to the set of events that will be described further. The girls who tell the story, Claudia and Frieda, are already adults when they recollect the events of their childhood, and finally, when many years passed, they understand the true causes of the tragedy that happened to Pecola. They analyze the whole story in great detail, following their own life and the life of the Breedlove family who crippled the poor daughter mentally and physically, making her unprotected and persecuted by the c
In this essay, William Du Bois shows that at the beginning of the twentieth century, the American society did not fully recover from the legacies of slavery. Moreover, the author notes that the legal emancipation of black people did not bring true liberation to them. Furthermore, at that time, they had two major concerns, the need to find their cultural identity and the need to integrate into the society without facing discrimination or prejudice. This is the main argument that can be identified. The author of this text is William Du Bois who was a prominent historian, sociologists, and journalist. This essay was written in 1903 at the time when many African-American people could simply be dehumanized only because of their race. To a great extent, the author tried to raise people’s awareness about the experiences of many black people. The readers of this text should also note that this essay was written during the so-called Progressive Era. During this period, the political leaders of the United Stated strived to change various aspects of the American society; for instance, one can speak about economics and the political representation of different groups such as women. In turn, many black people did not feel the impact of these changes. These trends could be observed in European countries as well. In turn, Du Bois was keenly aware of the fact that policy-makers failed to bring improvements into the lives of African-American people. This text can throw light on the issues that have been familiar to me. Much attention should be paid to the restoration of the American society after the Civil War. Additionally, one should speak about the experiences of black people who were treated as outcasts, even though officially they were given civic rights. In order to understand this text, one should also examine the rhetoric of African-American intellectuals who lived at the beginning of the twentieth century. These people attempted to find ways in which black people could assert their status in the American society. Overall, the author refers to faith as one of the values that can appeal to the intended readers of the text. This is why the author makes references to the Bible since the allusions to this book could be understood by the audience. For instance, he speaks about Canaan which was a part of the Promised Land given to the Israelites by God. In turn, the author notes that black people also strived to find their Canaan. In this way, the author tries to show that African-American passed through the period of severe hardships. Unfortunately, at the time, they did not achieve the true liberation. This source is i
Brian Banks’ juvenile case is significant for investigation practice and court procedures. The false accusation of Brian’s friend, a teenager, has put him into prison and thwarted his dreams of becoming a professional footballer (Speak For Yourself, 2019). The case of Brian Banks may have added to eliminating prejudices in the court and awakened authorities about issues in the treatment of juveniles while interrogations. The case is not a minor example of sentencing an innocent person to years of imprisonment and custody. According to new research from Haney-Caron et al. (2018), “younger juveniles reported significantly greater false confession propensity than did adults” (p. 1955). The measure that police and court officers should foster is adopting a verifying model for victims’ claims, based not only on a one-sided report but also on the defenders’ evidence. Brian Banks’s situation received ample attention from the media, thus making the problem of false convictions public and disputed. Therefore, the case has attracted the workers of juridical institutions and may cause eventual changes in the interrogation process. Apart from this point, racial inequalities in the US court have added to the mishap. Namely, the existing stereotype of a black man inclined to rape women, primarily white, may have beguiled the jury into such an unfair sentence (Perry, 2021). As a result, the case has been one of the multiple similar injustices towards the Black that accumulated and produced the powerful Black Lives Matter movement. Finally, Brian Banks’ misfortune indirectly led to a campaign against disparities that can alter the current court practice. To conclude, the fate of the falsely tried man may be the ground for future improvements in the court system. Juvenile cases often result in wrong convictions because of minors lying during the interrogation. Additionally, race issues cause misjudgment in the matters related to rape among both the young and adults. Brian Banks’ example affected the police and court indirectly by appending to numerous comparable cases and making it a public concern.