Mencius And Hsun-tzu About Heaven Essays - Confucianism,

Mencius And Hsun-tzu About Heaven Mencius believes that it is our nature and mind that determine what we are. It is our fate that governs our fortunes and determines our lease on life. Fate was originally a patent to a fief-holder, given by the Son of Heaven as Heaven's deputy to a feudatory. In extended usage it became our lot in life - the fate ordained by heaven. While people guard their minds and determine their conduct, they cannot determine their fate, which is in Heaven's hands. So, Mencius believed that though all humans are innately good, the realization of that good comes with self-cultivation and self-knowledge. Hsun-tzu could not accept Mencius idealistic view of human nature, nor did he believe that Heaven was the sole arbiter of human behavior. He believed that the importance of humankind in the universe is equal to but different from the importance of Heaven and Earth: "Heaven has its seasons, Earth has its riches and man has his culture. This is what is meant by the Trinity." Humanity's function is to utilize the resources of Heaven and Earth to create its own culture. This can be done through the strength acquired from social organization. However, because the social organization needs to be regulated, lest it break down, and because "desires are many, but things are few", Hsun-tzu taught that people need to be restricted and guided by rules and morality. In my view of these two philosophers, I feel that Mencius' views are much more common in most religious traditions today. Mencius beliefs are a lot like Christianity, which is the religion that I am most familiar with. He believes that Heaven is a moral force whose mandate is to be respected and followed by human beings. We follow Heaven's mandate by knowing and nourishing our human nature. Our human nature is good. When you look at the Doctrine of four beginnings, Jen, Yi, Li, and Chih, when these are fully developed, you have a very wise and harmonious person. If you have nature you have Heaven. If no nature, no Heaven. This is self-cultivation. In my religious tradition if you do the will of God, you will receive eternal life (Heaven).

Chlorine essays

Chlorine essays When you think of chlorine, the first thing that comes to your mind is the stuff you put in pools. Well that is one of the uses, but there is many, many more. Chlorine protects organisms ranging from the Ecuadorian tree frog, to wood rotting fungi. Chlorine is also surprisingly more plentiful than carbon. Believe it or not chlorine was the first substance used as a poisonous gas in World War I. Chlorine, symbol Cl, is a greenish-yellow gaseous element. In the group 17 of the periodic table, chlorine is one of the halogens. The atomic number of chlorine is 17. Elementary chlorine was first isolated in 1774 by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who thought that gas was a compound of oxygen. It was not until 1810 that the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy proved that chlorine was an element and gave it its present name. At ordinary temperatures, chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas that can readily be liquefied under pressure of 6.8 atmospheres, at 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees pharenhit). The gas has an irritating odor and can sometimes be dangerous. Chlorine does not occur in nature, but its compounds are common minerals, and it is the 20th most abundant element in the earth's crust. Cl has a specific gravity of 1.41 at -35 degrees Celsius (-31 degrees pharnehit). The atomic weight of the element is 35.453. Chlorine is an active element, reacting with water, organic compounds, and many metals. Chlorine will not burn in air, but will support the combustion of many substances. An ordinary paraffin candle, for example, will burn chlorine with a smoky flame. Chlorine and hydrogen can be kept together in the dark, but react explosively in the presence of light. Chlorine solutions in water are familiar in the home as bleaching agents. Most chlorine is produced by the electrolysis of ordinary salt solution, with sodium hydroxide as a by-product. Because the demand for chlorine exceeds that for sodium hydro...

US foreign policy towards Saddam Husseins Essay

US foreign policy towards Saddam Husseins - Essay Example One of the most controversial subjects in the world politics is the invasion of Iraq by United States. The invasion has resulted in considerable losses to both the countries and in fact has resulted in almost complete destruction of Iraq. This is necessary to understand the genuineness of the policies of United States. The present essay is intended to analyze the policies of US for Iraq, which finally resulted in the Invasion. The consequences of the war also would be analyzed based on these policies for interpreting the invasion based on these policies.Under these circumstances it would be ideal to analyze the relations United States had with Iraq before the invasion throughout the history of Iraq.The policy of United States over Persian Gulf is centered on the oil reserves. They also wanted to protect Israel and never had any close relations with Iraq (History of Iraq: Part III US-Iraq Relations, 2003). They always viewed Iraq with a hostile eye. During the Iran-Iraq war US sided I raq not because they had any interest in Iraq, but they were afraid of the Iranian revolution. Thus it could be seen that relation of US with Iraq was never a smooth one.As the economy of US progressed in great pace after the World War II, oil became their priority and wanted to strengthen relations with Middle East so as to protect the oil reserves. For this purpose they maintained a good relation with Iraq and even declared that the interest of Iraq is the same as that of US (Battle, 2003). But during 1950's as Iraq became friendly with Soviets, US turned against Iraq. US had good relations with other countries in Middle East like Saudi Arabia and Iran until the Iranian revolution also called Islamic revolution. This revolution by Muslims frightened US and therefore in the war that followed between Iran and Iraq, US stood with Iraq purely because they felt that Islamic revolution could pose a big danger for them. Although there were against the brutal tactics of Saddam Hussein, they did not have a choice (Background and history on Iraq, 2009). From the above facts it could be assumed that the relation that US has with Iraq was just an opportunistic one intended to get the provision of oil and they never had any common interest. Iraq started production and use of chemical weapons from early 1980's. United States was quite aware of this situation and they had even supplied raw materials for the production of the same secretly. Although almost all of the equipments, which Iraq used against Iran, were US made and were secretly shipped to Iraq by US, this fact is still regarded as a secret. Thus US played a game with Iraq by supporting it to make chemical weapons and then suddenly changed strategies against Iraq blaming them in front of the world, for production of the same weapons (Battle, 2003). This might be the reason why they were quite sure that there were chemical weapons in Iraq even when the inspectors from UN denied this fact (Background and history on Iraq, 2009). September 11 attack fuelled rivalry of US to Iraq. With this event US wanted to destruct all the forces that might poise danger for them, especially the strongest among the Muslim countries, Iraq. Several reasons had been proposed by US for its Iraq Invasion. The most important one is that US believed that Saddam, the arrogant President of Iraq, had great storage of Weapons for Mass Destruction (WMD). On their request United Nations appointed chemical weapon inspectors and Iraq co-operated with them resulting in destruction of all the weapons they had. The continued inspection by UN was denied by Iraq. But UN inspectors had already destroyed those weapons to almost nil (Background and history on Iraq, 2009). US could have believed the results of the inspection by US. But they denied believing because they wanted to destroy that country. Another reason proposed by US was that Iraq was hosting suicide bombers of Al Queida and was encouraging terrorism. But they did not have