Confucian Vs. Confucian Classics - 1139 Words

In thinking about the Confucian Analects, one can come to a great many conclusions or interpretations regarding the meaning of each passage within his â€Å"Confucian Classics†. Given the historical context and background in which Confucian ideals were created during, there is one particular set of notions in which the authors hoped that a society would derive from this literary masterpiece. Within this essay, my attempt is to provide a detailed evaluation of one of the passages of the Analects, from within the framework of a Confucian society. In doing so, one must associate three key terms with Confucian ideology: that of â€Å"Ren†, which speaks to the goodness of an individual as well as at the societal level; †Li† which is represented by†¦show more content†¦It can be said that this sort of self-analysis speaks to the high degree of practical foresight and self-observation that one is required to attain in a Confucian sense of being. For Master Zeng and Confucians, the concept of â€Å"Ren† relates to the goodness within oneself and how that goodness is shared among society as a whole. Therefore, for Master Zeng, his internal observations and cognitive awareness leads him to a higher level of consciousness that enables him to be good to himself, as well as extending that kindness to the rest of society. Humanitarianism is a key element in Confucian thought. To best explain the concept â€Å"Ren†, in practice, one would need to focus on conveying compassion and understanding to all living things. Under Confucianism, doing any harm to oneself or their environment goes against what is termed as being â€Å"The Way†, or put in other words, if one were to inflict harm on anything they would not be following the path of righteousness. Master Zeng is urging his students to pay attention to their inner desires and to keep them under control. Moving to the next sentence, it is stated that, â€Å"When dealing on the behalf of others have I been trustworthy?† This question relates to the highest esteemed level of integrity and honor that a perfect gentleman has, displays, and is remembered by from the viewpoint of those which he interacts with.

Personal Ethical View Point Free Essays

Even though I do not always speak up when I know something is wrong, I have a strong code of personal ethics because I believe loyalty, honesty, and above all, respect for others will guide me to make me the proper ethical decisions throughout my life. I feel that I am a very loyal person. I believe that I am easy to get along with and can make friends without effort. We will write a custom essay sample on Personal Ethical View Point or any similar topic only for you Order Now Once I make friends, I have them for life. I have always prided myself on supporting decisions that my friends and family make, even if I know they are a mistake. Who am I to correct anyone’s actions? I understand the importance of making mistakes, so we can learn from them. Along with loyalty, I pride myself on having great fortitude. I am not easily swayed in my beliefs. I will listen to other view points and understand the importance of different beliefs, but I stand strong with the facts that I have discovered in which I developed my beliefs. Although I say that I respect other people’s opinion, I will fight for a cause I believe in, and I will back it up with every bit of energy I have if I feel something needs to be done to correct an action. I have noticed that I will tell people the truth, even if it may hurt them, but I will only do so when asked for an opinion. I know that telling a lie will only hurt me in the long run, so I am thankful that I am an extremely honest person. Lies will always come back to haunt me, and I am aware of that fact. I prefer to go through life without the stress of being caught in a lie. Honesty always pays off in the long run, even if it may cause feelings to be hurt. Working hard is a trait I value in my life. Not just physical labor, but mental work as well. I am tenacious in working through a problem until it is solved. I generally work hard on everything I set out to accomplish. I also believe that it takes a great sense of critical thinking to achieve successful hard work. I recognize that working hard comes with a set of rewards unattainable any other way. Along with all the great qualities I have, I would not be human if I said I did not have some negative qualities as well. To me, having some negative qualities does not necessarily mean it is a shame, but instead, I believe having negative points only helps balance out the positive. For instance, I have been known to be overly quiet when I should have spoken up on someone’s behalf. In other words, I do not always stick up for others when they are being treated poorly. I do get an overwhelming feeling that I should be strong and say something, but the quiet person inside me feels more comfortable and I weigh the options of making a situation worse, rather than better. When I notice something is wrong, I have a tendency to ignore the situation unless it involves me. I believe this goes back to deciding if my opinion will make a situation worse. I know this is a quality that I must work on in order to continue to become a better person. If more people spoke up, maybe this world could become better? This is what I consider to be my biggest character flaw. Additionally, I also have been known to give into peer pressure. Not when it comes to drugs or other unhealthy activities, but I will often follow others actions when participating in activities that make me feel uncomfortable. Also, I often take advice from people, even if I know it is not the best advice. Perhaps this is a way of showing respect to others. As I have stated, I pride myself on being a strong person, but sometimes this conflicts with the desire to make others feel valued around me. When I speak of value, there is only one thing that I value the most, and that is my family that I have created. The best gift I was given was my children and my loving husband in which I would do anything for. They are the reason I try to be successful. I have worked very hard at teaching them a great sense of personal ethics of their own, and I support my family’s decisions whether I feel them to be right or wrong. If a member of my family does make a decision that could have had a better outcome, I let them figure out the issue, and I always suggest new ideas in order to still give a structured solution, while that individual still learns from their mistakes. Again, even though I do not always speak up when I know something is wrong, I have a strong code of personal ethics because I believe loyalty, honesty, and above all, respect for others will guide me to make me the proper ethical decisions throughout my life. How might you use your personal ethics to determine a course of action? I have an example in which my personal ethics were greatly tested. When I was still working as an Assistant Security Director, the head Security Director was a very harsh, uncaring, pushy type of a person. He often treated all of his employees very poorly. He called everyone awful names. Once an employee had made a mistake within their job duties, my boss would forever hold that over their heads and often referred to those employees as â€Å"his retards. † He would even introduce them to other people that were hired into our department as retard # 1, 2, 3. On a daily basis, I would watch our most manly men come into the security office with their head held high, only to watch them leave feeling less of a man, and their heads hung low. My boss would also make sexual remarks to all the female security officers and I know it made them feel very uncomfortable. The Security Director knew that what he was doing was terribly wrong, because he threatened everyone’s jobs if they went to his boss. Most of the employees felt helpless. I believe this is where the quiet part of me stood in the way, because I did not say anything to him or anyone else even though I was just under his rank. I would often go home and reflect what the Security Director had done for the day and watched how people’s feelings were affected, including mine. After much embarrassment, hurt feelings and lack of pride, I finally let my personal ethics shine through. After a lot of intense reflection, as well as begging from the rest of the staff, I decided it was time to do what I could to stop my boss’s behavior. I stood up for all my employees knowing I could lose my job. I was tired of knowing in my heart that what he was doing was wrong on so many levels. I went above his head and secured a meeting with his boss. I spoke up and evealed all of my boss’s behaviors. I was completely uncomfortable doing so, but I knew it was the right decision that I had made. In the end, the Security Director was given a choice to leave or be publicly dismissed of his duties. I believe the result of me adhering to my strong code of personal ethics was the catalyst for this situation. All the employees who were harassed and bullied by my boss were so thankful and appreciative. My company had hired an investigator and every single employee was interviewed on the topic. Almost everyone stood behind me and showed their support. I guess they just needed someone stand up and be heard. How to cite Personal Ethical View Point, Essay examples

Robert Allen Essays - Gilded Age, Andrew Carnegie,

Robert Allen 92845 Robber Barons Then and Now Robber Barons, a term used in the late 1800s and early 1900s to describe a businessman who made an enormous amount of money, today we would call them billionaires. It was not really the fact they made an extreme amount of wealth, it was more the way they made it. In all the cases the acquiring of wealth was done in what was considered a ruthless manor and unscrupulous ways. A robber baron was more interested in acquiring wealth than the safety of his employees, the amount of work hours performed in a week, or the amount of wage being paid for a days work. For example Andrew Carnegie(the robber baron of the steel industry), he was instrumental in starting the 72 hour work week, paying out less than fair wages and having dangerous working conditions. The robber barons were known for their business tactics that would enable them to amass a wealth by monopolies. They would corner the market on a product or service and make it almost impossible to get, accept through them. One such person was James B. Duke (robber baron of the tobacco market).James Duke started marketing tobacco from his fathers tobacco farm at an early age. He developed a market for tobacco though advertising. When the market he developed, started growing he started buying up other tobacco companies in order to be the only supplier of the product. James Duke eventually formed The Great American Tobacco Co. which became the biggest supplier of cigarettes in the world. One thing the Robber Barons of today and yesterday have in common is monopolies. If it at all possible, the Robber Baron or billionaires as we call them today, would try to corner the entire market on their product or service, making it difficult for competition in their particular industry. James Duke did it by making a market for cigarettes and cigars and buying up his competition so he was the biggest company to supply the product. Andrew Carnegie cornered the market on the steel industry and made the first high rise building. He was the only business in his field therefore he could set his prices and up his profits. Other Robber Barons in various markets were William Vanderbilt, he monopolized the railroad business allowing him to set his own prices for freight and passage. John D. Rockefeller monopolized the oil industry with Standard Oil company. Today AT&T, the phone company, before deregulation controlled the vast majority of the phone services, thereby monopolizing the phone services. American Airlines, there unscrupulous business tactics would drive out competitors from areas they wished to control by having price wars until the opposition could no longer compete and would have to close their doors for business. But the biggest and wealthiest of them all, Bill Gates owner of Microsoft Corporation created an operating system for computers to work with and the market to sell that system. Before Bill Gates came along computers were only an informational source. What ever was programed into them was retrievable but you could not add information to them. Basically they were just a big file cabinet. Bill Gates made it to where you can talk to the computer and add information to them. This made them more user friendly and a very usable tool for personal and business use. But just like the Robber Barons of yesterday Gates cornered the market for his software by orchestrating a marketing plan that would require computer companies to pay him X amount of dollars for every computer they sold, whether or not the computer had his software on it or not. Now if you think about it, the computer companies had no choice but to put his software on the computers they sold. Kind of sounds like a monopoly to me. Philanthropy The other side to the Robber Baron coin. For some unknown reason the Robber Barons felt it necessary to give back enormous amounts of their wealth to the society they took if from, or maybe a better way to put it is earned it from? It was done in a manner that for the most part immortalized the giver. For instance James Duke or the Duke Endowment gave money to several Universities. This in turn eventually

Few vs. Several

Few vs. Several Few vs. Several Few vs. Several By Maeve Maddox Reader Norma H. Flaskerud wonders about few and several. She thinks a few refers to maybe 2-3 items while several refers to maybe 3-6. Her husband says a few is 4-7 items. Few is the opposite of many. It derives from words having the meaning of small and little. It is related to Latin paucus (little, few) and even puer (child/boy). Old English feawe/fea derives from a Germanic root meaning little. The number implied in the word few is more than two, Beyond that, trying to specify how many more is fruitless. I expect the New Testament writer was anticipating more than 2-7 converts when writing: Many are called, but few are chosen. In 1940 Winston Churchill was referring to the pilots of the Royal Air Force when he wrote: Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. The Few became a name for this group of fliers: 2,353 British subjects and 574 volunteers from overseas. Several comes from a word meaning existing apart. Before it came to mean more than one (about 1530), it was used with the meanings separate, various, diverse, different. In legal use several preserves the meaning of separate. In the following example it is used to show that liability is enforceable separately against each party the contractual liability of each company to insured is several and not joint In keeping with its original meaning, several may be used to separate one group from another: A large crowd of soldiers gathered to protest the law. Several were women. The word several, usually an adjective or pronoun, has also been used as a verb. A farmer or community would several a large expanse of land into smaller parcels. It would seem that few and several can imply any number you want them to. By the way, in checking the Churchill quotation, I re-read the speech in which it appears. Its worth the time of any writer who is looking for models of beautifully-written English prose. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Computer Terms You Should KnowHow to spell "in lieu of"Word Count and Book Length

First Steps in Plotting a Novel

First Steps in Plotting a Novel First Steps in Plotting a Novel First Steps in Plotting a Novel By Maeve Maddox Sterlin writes: My girlfriend says plots are a dime a dozen, but I feel different. I am trying to write my story and I am loaded with themes, but no plot, nothing to drive the themes or story. Can you offer any tips or techniques for devising a plot? In one sense the girlfriend is correct. The writing section of any library houses dozens of books offering ready-made plots. One plot seems to be enough for many action stories: The hero is attempting to stop an assassination or foil plans to destroy the world. Reversals and disasters occur at predictable intervals before the action-packed climax and spectacular successful outcome. Theres nothing wrong with stories like that. We all enjoy them, especially as movies, but theyre not especially memorable. If your ambition is to write a novel that will linger in the readers mind after the last page, plotting requires a less mechanical approach. Many writing teachers describe plot as the skeleton of the novel, but I dont think thats quite the right metaphor. Picturing plot as skeleton suggests that the other elements of the novel can be hung on it or peeled off. I think that creating the right plot involves combining character and story in such a way that the result is a fused whole. Plot, character, story, theme and setting should bond with one another like the molecules in vulcanized rubber. What tips or techniques have I to offer? Only what Im doing myself as I begin my newest fiction project: 1. Read one of the many books about plot, for example 20 Master Plots and how to build them by Ronald B. Tobias. 2. Describe the story you plan to write in one sentence. If you cant say what your book is about in one sentence, you dont have a clear enough idea of what youre trying to do. 3. Decide what the main character wants more than anything else in life. The plot will grow out of this desire. 3. Write a character description of the protagonist that includes appearance, likes, dislikes, fears, childhood trauma, occupation, etc. Plot is behavior. The kind of experiences your character has had in the past will determine how he behaves in the future. What he fears will affect his actions. Plot grows from character. 4. Make a timeline for the events of the novel. This will give your plot anchor points. 5. Make a map that shows where all the action will take place. This will help you gauge distances and figure the length of time necessary to move your characters from one place to another. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Dialogue Dos and Don'tsThe Difference Between "will" and "shall"Is "Number" Singular or Plural?

The Role of the Internal Change Agent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Role of the Internal Change Agent - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that  Internal Change Agents are of three different types. The People-Change-Technology type focus on the individual employee, their morale and motivation. They deal with absenteeism, turnover, and the quality of work performed. These change agents use the techniques of job enrichment, goal setting, and behaviour modification. They work on the assumption that â€Å"if individuals change their behaviour, the organisation will also change†.This study outlines that  the Organisation-Development type are change agents who are involved in internal processes such as intergroup relations, communication, and decision making. Their intervention technique is referred to as the cultural change approach, because they analyse the culture of the targeted organisation. This approach was developed from the domains of sensitivity training, team building, and survey feedback. While implementing organisational change processes, managers often assume the roles of t he different types of internal change agents outlined above. The internal change agent as Researcher is closely related to the previous role of trainer. The role includes the training of organisation members in the skills required for valid evaluation of the efficacy of action plans that have been carried out. Lunenburg states that as part of the overall intervention strategy, the change agent designs an evaluation component, useful for solving both the current as well as future problems.

The Birthright and the Human Storm (example of a title) Essay - 1

The Birthright and the Human Storm (example of a title) - Essay Example According to which a true woman must hold four cardinal virtues that are: domesticity, submissiveness, piety and purity. Women were not allowed to have sex with any other men except their husband, however, this restriction does not imply on men. It was considered as a sin if a woman gets involved with any other men. The sexual rights of women were also negligible in the 19th century. They can only have sex when their husbands wanted to have and were not allowed to show up their temptation. Followed by the Victorian age the gilded age was the era of growth and prosperity. In this era the women were not content with the cult of domesticity. Most women went to colleges to earn higher education and started to serve the society. Bobinot and his son Bibi were present at Friedheimers store when they sensed the emergence of a violent storm. Bobinot decided to stay at the store till the storm is gone. Calixta the wife of Bobinot, did not even notice the arrival of storm and thunder. When it turned much darker, Calixta went to close the door, there she found her ex-boyfriend Alcee and invited him in her home due to worsening weather condition. While staying at Calixta’s house Alcee made her recall all the sweet memories of their love and the passion they used to share. Flowing into the memories Calixta and Alcee forget about everything and get sexually involved reviving the old love and passion they had. In the meantime the author asserts that the storm gets also over. Bobinot and Bibi returned from the store after the weather gets settled. After coming back from Calixta’s place Alcee writes a letter to his wife suggesting her to stay in Biloxi as long as she wants. Clarisse felt good and free afte r receiving the letter. The author ends the story with a punch line, "So the storm passed and everyone was happy (Chopin 110)." The