Nature and Environment
Project description
1.“The Trees of the Niu Mountain” by Mang tzu from humanistictexts.org:

“Mang tzu (370-286 BCE) [a founding Confucian scholar] known to the West as Mencius, was born in the principality of Tsau, located in what is now the province of Shantung.”

Mencius said:

“The trees of the Niu mountain were once beautiful. Being situated, however, in the borders of a large State, they were hewn down with axes . . . Could they still retain their beauty? And yet, through the regenerative powers of the vegetative life, day and night, and the nourishing influence of the rain and dew, the plants were not without buds and sprouts springing forth. But then came cattle and goats, and browsed upon them. To these things is owing the bare and stripped appearance of the mountain which, when people see it, they think it was never finely wooded. But is what they see the nature of the mountain?”

“And so also of what properly belongs to man: shall it be said that the mind of any man was without benevolence and righteousness? The way in which a man loses his proper goodness of mind is like the way in which the trees are denuded by axes . . . Hewn down day after day, can the mind retain its beauty? But there is a development of its life day and night, and in the calm air of the morning, just between night and day, the mind feels in a degree those desires and aver­sions which are proper to humanity; but the feeling is not strong, and it is shackled and destroyed by what takes place during the day. This destruction taking place again and again, the restorative influence of the night is not sufficient to preserve the proper goodness of the mind. And when this proves insufficient for that purpose, man’s nature becomes not much different from that of the irrational animals. When they see this, people think that the mind never had those powers which I assert. But does this condition represent the feelings proper to humanity?”

“The Trees of the Niu Mountain” by Mang tzu and answer these questions:

[a] Explain what the metaphor of the mountain means.

[b] Does the author think human nature is basically “good” (cooperative and constructive) or “bad” (uncooperative and irrationally destructive)? Do you agree?

[c] In ethical terms, what are some of the forces that can destroy a beautiful soul or character?

[d] Given the date and source of this reading, what can we conclude about the possibility that some core values are broadly shared among people in diverse cultures? How could such “core values” arise?

ALL the idea should from the article, i give to you, don’t use other source (half page, 125words)

2.Please review the assigned excerpts from An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps by Terrence Des Pres. Kindly respond to this question:

“Does Terrence Des Pres think the human moral sense is an idealistic illusion or an evolutionary survival strategy?”