ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Both Mencius and Confucius were renowned Chinese thinkers whose theories played a significant role in the general Chinese history. Confucius was no doubt the most acclaimed philosopher Chinese has ever had. He was best known to be the founding father of the Confucian School of Thought, which would greatly influence social and political life in China (Tu 33). The philosophical approach of Confucius, well-defined as ‘Confucianism’ emphasized on core aspects such government as well as personal morality, justice and sincerity, and social relationships’ correctness. Mencius on the other hand, was the other authoritative thinker China has ever seen after Confucius. Just like his predecessor, Mencius was an itinerant Chinese sage and philosopher who was popular for his outstanding interpretations on Confucianism. As the most outstanding thinker in the history of Confucianism, Mencius would formulate a detailed view of human nature, a significant subject which Confucius had failed to observe in his vast observations. This paper examines some of the ways by which Mencius philosophical theory would be different from that one of Confucius. In real sense, both Mencius and Confucius didn’t have same feelings or perceptions for the Chinese society. Confucius played a significant role of setting a thinking platform for other philosophers, such as Mencius who’d come after him and who would use most of his theories to interpret their own theories and perceptions. As it would be observed, Confucianism would end up becoming the ideology of the state in the course of the time when Han Wudi ruled the Chinese Empire. Confucianism was mainly based on humanism and it’s observation were clear that humans can be improvable and teachable in all manners through communal and also personal endeavor that would include self-creation and self-cultivation (Tu 18). Mencius’s theoretical approach, on the other hand, expressed views totally different from those of Confucius. For instance, about human nature, humans do share a common innate perfectness or goodness and either can easily be cultivated through self discipline or education or get squandered through negatives influences, but not to be lost altogether. According to Mencius, people would come first while Nations and Empires would follow in the line. To crown it all, the Emperor would be the least important according to the views of Mencius. This argument was actually not one of the friendly observations that would be certain to receive great acclaim from the Emperors and would definitely have to tolerate strong rebellions on tyrannical leaders of the Ancient Chinese society. Whereby Con
Introduction The Song Dynasty was an empire that ruled China for more than three centuries. The dynasty that ruled between 960 and 1279 was characterized by a period of economic prosperity for the whole of China. The dynasty came into authority immediately after the reign of the Five Dynasties. Once the Song Dynasty fell from power, the Yuan Dynasty took over the reins of power. The Song Dynasty is famed to be the first world government to use paper money as a medium of trade. This was also the first government in the history of the world to form a fully pledged army based in the sea. The Song Dynasty is also famed to be the first kingdom to invent the use of gunpowder during the war. This invention made the dynasty produce one of the most formidable armies that have ever existed in the history of the world. This was also the first dynasty to use a compass that could show real directions. (Brook 15) The reign of the Song Dynasty was divided into two periods. These were the Northern and Southern Song dynasties. The capital city of the Northern Song dynasty was based in Bianjing. This was a northern city, which had a lot of influence on the community. During the reign of the Northern Song, the dynasty wielded a lot of influence in the whole of China. The Northern Song Dynasty lasted between 970-1127. This was almost half the period that the Song Dynasty was in reign. For all those who were living in the kingdom during this time, it was a period characterized by economic prosperity. On the other hand, the Southern Song Dynasty refers to the reign of the Song Dynasty after they had lost control of the Northern side of their territory to their foes. This happened after the Jin Dynasty attacked and chased the Song from their inhabitance in the Northern side of China. On its part, the Northern Song lasted from 1127-1279. This period marked the last half of the Song Dynasty’s reign. During this period, the Song council of elders shifted their operations from Bianjing to the Southern city of Lin’an. This, later on, became modern-day Hangzhou. (Brook 16) Although the Song Dynasty had lost control of one part of its territory, it remained a force to reckon with in China. The Southern part that they had been forced to retreat to carried the largest part of the Chinese population. In total, this area carried almost 60 percent of the country’s population. Most of the Southern land was also aberrantly fertile and therefore the dynasty was able to carry on with agriculture. Since the Southern side was bordered by the sea, the dynasty was able to strengthen its naval base. This enabled the dynasty to defend itself from outside attacks. (Kruger 236) To defend itself from further attacks from the Jin Dynasty, the Song Dynasty that was by now based on the southern side formed a strong military army to defend its borders. By 1234, the Mongol Empire had managed to rout Jin from the Northern side that they had earlier on managed to wrestle from the Song Dynasty. Relation between the Song and Mongol Empires remained sour with each seeking to displace the other. This came true in 1279 when the Mongol Empire under Kublai Khan managed to defe
Introduction Profound changes in human conduct have been witnessed in the world especially in medieval Europe. The changes which were mainly brought about by rights movement and discontent with established practices culminated into the organization society with orderly and systematic way of doing things. This paper seeks to describe the sequence of things that led to Reformation, the rise of nationalism and finally the development of universal laws. Reformation Reformation is a term that is used to refer to the “Christian reform movement that led to the establishment of Protestantism as a constituent branch of contemporary Christianity” ( Revesz 45). The advent of this reform movement can be traced to 1517 after the publication of the “Ninety-Five Theses” by Martin Luther (Malhotra, pars. 3). The reformation was facilitated by Catholics from western European Catholics who had tried to transform the Roman Catholic Church (Revesz 26). This faction was opposed to the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. They were especially discontented with the habit of “buying and selling of clerical offices which they regarded as evidence of the systematic corruption of the Church’s Roman hierarchy” (Social Origins of Democracy, pars. 34). The “ninety-Five Theses on the power and Efficacy of indulgences” written by Martin Luther mainly argued and criticized both the Pope and the church (Revesz, pars. 3-5). The movement was joined by various reformers who later disintegrated due to lack of doctrinal consensus. As a consequence, various protestant denominations were established. This later led to a 30 year ware between the rulers who had adopted Protestantism and those who defended the Roman Catholic. In the end a treaty was signed to ensure that: all the states be aware of the “peace deal which allowed the prince of a given state to determine the religion of his own state; Christians living in states where their denominations were not the established church would be guaranteed the right to practice their faith”. Origins of nationalism and equal rights The roots of nationalism can be traced to the reformation period. The interdenominational wars resulted into insecurity. In the “absence of strong Government’s the people surrendered their lands and labor to local war loads in return for shelter and support” (Malhotra, pars. 2). This systematically gave rise to aristocracy which would later form the basis for revolutionaries towards nationalism. “The first expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789” (Malhotra, pars. 3). The country was then an already operational state was being ru
To begin with, community psychology is mainly focused on enhancing people’s quality of life by tackling various social issues. As a result, being engaged in an activity of a social change agent is highly crucial for a member of organizations strongly related to community psychology. Furthermore, agents’ responsibilities are based on providing a positive enhancement around the world, and “the impact they make depends on how many people they can influence to think and act in ways similar to them” (Walden University, 2021). Therefore, I aspire to become an agent of social change to provide people with the help they indeed require. I have an asset of skills that seems beneficial and useful in my desired activity. For instance, I believe myself to be a person with highly developed communication skills that will assist me in creating effective social interaction. I will be able to easily find an approach to self-aware adults from the community, willing to be allies in my goal to enhance the neighborhood’s residents’ quality of life. In other words, my strong connection with the community will ensure respect and support from its members. However, social change agents tend to face challenges related to political and social aspects of human life. To be more exact, when a member of community psychology aims to improve a specific area, one might have a problem with political restrictions imposed by a local or domestic government. Furthermore, sometimes a social factor might serve as a severe problem of an agent’s activity as some people might be opposed to accepting enhancement or believe it to be unnecessary or simply not efficient. Consequently, workers are forced to find approaches to such community members to prove to them that their main aim is to improve their quality of life and make their lives better in general. Nevertheless, sometimes agents might actually be wrong regarding their methods of work, and precisely from such individuals, they can learn their mistakes and opt for seeking a more effective solution. Still, it seems highly crucial for me to be engaged in reflective practice and learn from one’s mistakes, and I, personally, intend to do so by cooperating with community members. This way, I might acquire valuable insights and work on advancing my strategy according to helpful feedback from people. It is highly crucial to consider the thoughts and ideas of every community member regarding social changes to reach fruitful outcomes further. To ensure practical cooperation with the group of people, social change agents opt for employing participatory action research, which according to Organizing Engagement (2021), is “a community-driven approach to research, evaluation, and social change.” Consequently, I believe it seems incredibly productive to apply such a method to any social issue since I can understand the desires and needs of members and further cater to them. In addition, to ensure the maximum efficiency of the mentioned approach, I would include surveys and questionnaires for community members to quickly estimate the urgency of tackling social issues in an area or a neighborhood. Having concluded my research, I will be abl
The problem of the relationship between races, the interaction of different nations in a complicated multicultural and multiracial society has always attracted the attention of scientists and ordinary people. The issue is so important to understand because it not only concerns relations in the international community but touches every human being in particular. I mean that everyone can be involved in a racially-based conflict if he or she does not know the basic principles of human ethics and respect towards others. Lots of armed conflicts around the world are consequences of the lack of such knowledge and reluctance to go into details of the issue. Especially vividly this is illustrated by the conflicts in the countries where, historically or because of other reasons, several nations happen to live together. For instance, today’s Pakistan-Indian conflicts, clashes inside of Iraq community between Sunnis and Shiahs, and war between Israel and Palestine. Ethnic minorities, their status in this or that society, the issue of their relationships with the dominant parts of certain communities – these are all burning problems of today’s world that have no less important for the peaceful coexistence of various nations on Earth. The countries of Latin America seemed to be exceptions from this rule when they fought together against the Spanish rule in the 19th century and nothing predicted the situation to change so drastically with the flow of time. Nowadays ethnic problems and various kinds of discrimination based upon race, for instance, problematic access to jobs, education, conveniences, and scornful social attitude towards ethnic minorities, became one of the most important factors undermining the stability in this region. This essay aims at seeing and analyzing the ethnic and racially-based issues in the countries of Latin America in order to understand the problems mentioned above and an attempt to suggest a way out for the nations and ethnic groups confronting each other. To achieve the setup goals we are going to exemplify our statements and thoughts with the excerpts from scientific (“Americas: the changing face of Latin America and the Caribbean” by Peter Winn) and literary (“I, Rigoberta Menchu, an Indian woman in Guatemala” by Rigoberta Menchu) works which constitute the best creations giving information about the state of things in Latin America. To start the essay, we should provide some background on the topic of Latin American countries, so that to realize the cultural, historical, and political reasons for race and ethnicity problems existing in the region nowadays. Latin America is quite a peculiar region in concern of ethnicity as its history has always been a mix of cultures. It includes indigenous people of Latin American countries (
The rainbow is one of God’s most adored creations, perhaps due to its multiple colors and unique shape. In most traditional societies the rainbow is used to convey information about the changes in weather. For instance, some African communities believe that if a rainbow appears in cloudy weather, chances of rainfall are narrow. Therefore, this paper will shed light on the logic behind the formation of rainbows, and also where the colors come from and the shape of the rainbow. How the Rainbow is Formed According to Lee and Fraser (2001), the earth, just like the other planets, relies on the sun for lighting purposes. The rays of the sun that are emitted towards the earth are comprised of multiple colors, such as green, red, and yellow, among many others. When the rays of sun land on the surface of the earth, they cause the temperatures of the earth to increase, leading to evaporation of water in the water bodies such as rivers and lakes. When the water is evaporating, and by any chance it comes into contact with the rays of the sun, that is when the rainbow is formed. When the sun rays land on any given water particle, the multiple colors are dispersed. Since water is opaque, it allows the sun rays to penetrate and exit on the rear end of the water particles. However, there are some rays that are bent by the water particles and the light that is bent is what is seen as the rainbow. The sun releases the rays in wavelengths: the sun rays are emitted in varied wavelengths, meaning that they travel at different strengths. Therefore, the strength of the wavelength is what dictates the color to be assigned to any given ray. The Colors of the Rainbow The sun is a million miles away from the earth, but amazingly the rays that are emitted are parallel to one another and the space between them can never be overlapped until they land on an object. Topdemir (2007) explains that the rays that have short wavelength are blue, and alternatively the rays that have long wavelength are red in color. Moreover, the bending of sun rays is influenced by their wavelength. In fact the colors that we see in a rainbow are not all because the ones that are not strong enough are not bent, and thus they are not displayed in the rainbow. Usually, the rainbow has seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Rainbows are usually visible during the day towards the evenings, and maybe if the clash between the sun rays and water particles took place before afternoon, say like at around lunch time, it would not be possible for us to see the rainbow. The timing of a rainbow is very crucial because towards the evening the sun is usually headed to the east, thus its rays do not cover the entire surface of the earth. The position of the earth causes the rays
Introduction Religious services in a mosque require strict observation of worship ethics and etiquette. Worship in a mosque entails subtle religious practices that are hard for a non-Muslim to practice. The unique and hard religious practices in the Mosque limit effective interaction of Muslims and non-Muslims causing more interreligious suspicion and doubt. The interreligious suspicion and doubt emanate from the preconceptions and misconceptions, which negatively affects interreligious interaction. There are some preconceptions and misconceptions about Muslim religious practices during their worship services that lead non-Muslims to perceive Islamic religion as hostile and inhospitable. The multicultural and religious interactions have psychological implications to both the Muslims and the non-Muslims. This essay will explore the religious services in a mosque, preconceptions and psychological interaction of Muslims and non-Muslims. Religious Service at a Mosque As aforementioned, the religious services at the mosque are unique and strange to a non-Muslim. Muslims do not allow anybody to enter their Mosque unless one is a Muslim or identified and given permission because the mosque is the most holy place and strangers who do not profess Islamic faith should not defile it by entering into it. The Quran prescribes standard etiquette and worship practices for the Muslims worldwide; therefore, there is no ambiguity in their worship due to the geographical location. The standard etiquette prescribes dressing code and worship practices, which must be followed strictly. The non-Muslims are required to learn the etiquette because if they do not follow them in the mosque, they are deemed to profane the mosque intentionally and this creates many fears to non-Muslims. If a non-Muslim has to enter a mosque, he/she has to make formal request and upon approval, he/she can only enter when prayers are not session to be guided through the process of worship. Muslims have religious services at specific times of the day. Before entering into the mosque, Muslims are required to be in their dress code and to remove their shoes at the entrance. After removing their shoes, they proceed to the washing place where they wash their feet, hands and feet prior to praying. Inside the mosque there are no seats, instead a soft carpet is spread on the floor unlike in churches where the congregation use seats. The prayers of Muslims are recited while kneeling and bowing down facing Mecca followed by the Quran reading of the day then other routine prayer recitations follow. Conventionally, a male leads the worship service because women are strictly forbidden to enter mosque during their menstruation period, as they are unclean and unfit to worship. Smoking, eating, drinking and switch-on phones are forbidden in the mosque for they interfere with the worship service. Preconceptions of Non-Muslims The non-Muslims have many of preconceptions and misconceptions about Islamic religion and Muslims. There is misconception t
Performance indicators The general definition of auditing is the organized, independent and documented procedure for gathering audit evidence and appraising it objectively to resolve the level of the organizations compliance with the international safety regulations. The audit procedure, in an organization dealing with nuclear reactors, involves doing a number of actions. Such an audit would be incomplete without investigating the security procedures, checking out the emergency exits and fire alarms, ensuring that there are regulations regarding the areas of the organization where it is safe to have the phone on and whether there are sufficient facilities such as washrooms, emergency handling department and a safe place for taking meals. Such thorough scrutiny ensures that the people in that organization are safe from the danger posed by the hazards, which might include inhaling the dangerous substances, food poisoning as well as the danger of fire outbreaks. A good example of a case, which could have been prevented by carrying out an audit, includes the Texas City refinery fire outbreak. The fire was fatal as it led to a considerable loss in property and people’s lives. Suppose an effectual audit and investigation had been performed, the problem that caused the accident could have been identified prior to the loss and necessary measures could have been taken to prevent it. This is the main reason why the world association of nuclear operators insists on having in place an audit and monitoring system. There are specific procedures to be followed when doing an audit. Agius (2010, p 35) notes, “These procedures identify unsafe acts and conditions before the occurrence of the accidents”. The importance of this system was brought about by the increased intolerance to risk in the society, the increase in the compensation tendency, public demand for transparency in the operations and the tendency for the media to cause retribution on the people who cause harm to human life and property. Organizations handling dangerous chemicals are therefore expected to uphold serious audit and monitoring standards which are in accordance with the international auditing standards and which ensure that the people working in the organization are safe. Performance indicators in the audit environment are used as reference points to check on the effectiveness of the safety management system in the organization. Generally, performance indicators are classified into three broad categories, which include the safety indicators, operational performance indicators and management performance indicators. According to Bozidar (2009, p 12), “These indicators represent the most important factors in the linkage