Rosario Ayala Olmos
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Lucas Lutthmann
Hsün Tzu believes that human nature is bad, reflecting on this, humans are unlikely to naturally feel sympathy toward a child falling in a well as proposed by Mencius. Not everyone will feel sympathy towards others put in a dangerous situations because humans are born evil and with a profitable mindset. They are likely to follow their natural way, ending up in crime and corruption. Opposed to naturally being good, Hsün Tzu believes that we are able to do good due to our conscious activity. In other words, our experiences shape us into the people that we later become. Hsün Tzu’s metaphor indicates that all men are like warped boards, that require straightening. That straightening will happen over time, same with our conscious it needs time to be built up with customs and rituals.
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Our natural impulses are not always naturally acted upon. Hsün gives the example of those who wait until his elder eats and those who eat before them. (Hsün Tzu p.159) As he mentions, just because we get these natural impulses to save the child or in this case to eat doesn’t mean we will act upon them. For example, the child falling in the well, even if they don't save the child, they will still get a natural impulse and nonreflective gut feeling that something bad is going to happen. According to Mencius, men are born good and are always practicing good. So in this case, in Mencius’ view, everyone will feel sympathy toward the child. This is because they will think and reflect toward the situation. As Mencius quotes, “Everyone has a heart-mind which feels for others.” (Mencius 2A6) We are not humans if we don't feel sympathy towards others, because that is what make us humans, having the ability to reflect toward our
Shi Huangdi now able to unite the warring states, explored ways to establish a stable, and long lasting dynasty. The improvements he made to a now unified China, changed they way the world looked upon the country.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” (BAM, 2010, p.20) These words were first written down over 2,400 years ago by a Chinese general named Sun Tzu in his famous military strategy treatise known today as The Art of War. These words, in fact the entire book, are just as valid today as they were during Sun Tzu’s lifetime. He was one of the first truly visionary and ethical military leaders in the world. Despite the fact that there is not much known about Sun Tzu today other than his writings, in this essay, I intend to extract his essence from his treatise to prove he was a visionary leader. I will then continue to prove he was also an ethical leader. Finally, I will finish by detailing how his seminal work has inspired me to self-reflect on how I can be a better visionary and ethical leader in the 21st Century Air Force. So, what exactly is a ‘visionary’ leader?
Many people have different views on the moral subject of good and evil or human nature. It is the contention of this paper that humans are born neutral, and if we are raised to be good, we will mature into good human beings. Once the element of evil is introduced into our minds, through socialization and the media, we then have the potential to do bad things. As a person grows up, they are ideally taught to be good and to do good things, but it is possible that the concept of evil can be presented to us. When this happens, we subconsciously choose whether or not to accept this evil. This where the theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke become interesting as both men differed in the way they believed human nature to be. Hobbes and Locke both picture a different scene when they express human nature.
The Art of War is a treatise written in Ancient China that discusses the most and least effective military strategies for successful warfare according to Sun Tzu, a military general whose existence is still debated to this day. While not every military commander in the history of warfare has read it, the strategies provided can be used as a way to assess said commanders and the effectiveness of their campaigns. In Sun Tzu 's own words, “The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer: let such a one be retained in command! The general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat:--let such a one be dismissed!”1 This paper will discuss various iconic battles throughout history and how closely the leading commanders of each army followed the advice of Sun Tzu. Despite the fact that Sun Tzu lived hundreds of years before many of these battles took place, the
Confucius has influenced my social justice point of view because I believe that if people practiced their own virtues, then the world will coexist in harmony. Humanity will considerate of other’s well-being, uniting countries, disposing of evil. Society must recognize people’s virtues instead of penalizing humanity for their flaws. Confucius highlights the virtues of humanity, believing that they possess the characteristics to live in a society free of harm or judgement. Human nature consists in instinct virtues of survival, but Confucius also believes that they are not all bad, just poorly dominated by political authority figures. The Chinese philosopher aspired that his teachings liberated his country, whereas society restraints natural state. Individual’s rebel against laws that interfere with happiness, therefore humans are less likely to experience happiness, and if dared to challenge policy makers then one are punished. Confucius focuses on the qualities of a human being naturally virtuous, whereas society sees it as chaotic herd waiting to
...ut more importantly Mencius' core conception that human nature is also aware of its actions, and considers the well-being of others and that people are morally obligated to do so is also key to attaining our full potential. This conception of human nature and proper order together is what has shaped East Asian political and social thought for centuries. It is credited with creating an East Asia that is economically robust, and socially coherent and once again will be the center of human society in the decades to come. And contrary to popular Western belief, East Asian political thought does appreciate the necessity of the individual in defining society. In fact the only way to attain our human nature is to healthily self-cultivate ourselves morally and materially so we can reach our highest potential and in that way be a valued and contributing member to society.
In a Man 's Nature is Evil, men are depicted as evil since birth. Hsün Tzu declares that "Man 's nature is evil; goodness is the result of conscious activity" (Tzu 84). He speaks about how men are born with fondness for certain aspects of life such as profit, envy and beauty. Consequently, obtaining these aspects would lead to a life of violence, crime and recklessness. According to Tzu, men are born with a pleasure for profit. However, this need for riches will cause a man to have conflicts and altercations in his life. This is due to the fact that man will have such a great urge to obtain profit in life that he will go to all means necessary, including violence. Man is also born with envy and hate; it is not something he is taught. The internal struggle these two attributes have to offer will once
Hsun Tzu, a follower of Confucius, believed that human nature was to be fundamentally evil. Tzu, in “Encouraging Learning, wrote to Confucians questioning why should they be educated and what human nature really was. Since Confucius never stated his thought on human nature, some people suspect that humans needed to be educated not because they were evil, but because it was moral, and that way they could become into the person Confucius taught them to be. Tzu disagrees with this because of his belief, that humans, in fact, were born with wrong ideals. Tzu considers human nature to take its course on people, and that is why some people are inferior to others. But, with proper training and education, Tzu agrees Confucians can become a better person, and not just that they are becoming into the people that they are meant to be. It could be that Tzu wrote this to straighten out the mystery of what human nature was and how to fix humans evil nature.
Hsün Tzu believed that the human nature of man is evil. At the end of almost every paragraph of Tzu’s essay style writing ends in "It is obvious from this, then, that the nature of man is evil” (Tzu 86). This
Human nature is one of the most core concerns of every Chinese philosopher we have studied this semester. Each one holds a particular stance when they address human’s natural state, and this very much contributes to their philosophy overall. For example, Confucius, Mencius and Han Fei Tzu all differ in their ideas of human nature, and this shaped each one’s particular philosophy.
In Han Kang’s, Human Acts there are several highly graphic and shocking descriptions of the human body that beg the readers to problematize and question what it means to be humanized. Throughout her novel there are several instances where humans are being referred to as bloodied, convulsing, animal like sacks being thrown around without purpose and such descriptions may be interpreted by some readers as clearly dehumanizing. However, even though such wording may elicit such a response, the text is in fact humanizing the characters being killed and tossed by so accurately describing the human condition and all of the things the body does strictly because following trauma, living as ghosts because humans feel and react.
It will define that Zhang used traditional Chinese charcoal drawing aesthetic to show the subtext of his artworks in contemporary Chinese art. By tracing the traditional Chinese charcoal drawing aesthetic in Chinese Painter Zhang Xiaogang artistic development in the past two decades, his art as a whole can be interpreted in presenting his concerns of the foregone society and showing his own feelings towards the public history with a unique form of expression.
Confucius is known for stressing that human nature is intrinsically good. He stresses that human beings are born with the ability for differentiating between wrong and right. A person may not be aware from infancy which acts are tolerable and which acts are not, but all offspring feel shame, and once the children learn which deeds are bad or good, they have a normal tendency to consent of the former and criticize of the latter (Van and Bryan 27).
...ing, it is safe to say that humans are not by nature evil but instead, they are good but easily influenced by the environment and society to act in evil way and do such evil things. You choose the road you want to take; either it’s the bad road or the good road. We are all born to live a life where we will be faced with good and evil things. We were not born to be an evil or bad person, but as you get older you make that choice. What do you want to be remembered as: the good or the bad person? Choose to be good over being bad because the rewards to your family, your friend, and yourself will always outweigh the bad.
Zhou Enlai was the first prime minister of The People’s Republic of China. He is categorized with the likes of people such as Mao Zedong and Deng Xioping, otherwise known as powerful and influential leaders in modern Chinese history. Enlai, for years was one of the most prominent and respected leaders of the communist party. Zhou played a leading role in the Chinese communist party from its beginnings in 1921 and was definitely instrumental in the subsequent construction and reformation of Chinese society (Newworldencycopedia.com). He is also famously known for arranging and implementing the historic meeting between Mao Zedong and United States President Richard Nixon.