Manny’s Reviews > The Frames of Reality > Status Update

As Russell tells us, the natural attitude of the Greeks toward the Romans was one of contempt mingled with fear. The Greek felt himself more civilized, but less powerful. This can be paralleled by the attitude of the French towards the Prussians in 1814-15, and that of the Japanese and the Americans towards the Chinese today.

Uncertainty about life, together with certainty about death, generate the anxiety, fear and disquiet that Germans call Angst. In Spanish, there is a difference between the word ansiedad and the word angustia, which relates better to uncertainty.

In Chinese, the countries of France and Germany are called 法国 (faguo) and 德国 (deguo) respectively. The first character of the word for France means "law", and the first character of the word for Germany means "morality".

For the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Temple of Heaven in Beijing was considered to be the center, not only of the Earth, but of the universe.

According to Mengzi (372 BC - 298 BC), one of the main interpreters of Confucianism, man is born naturally good, and it is society's influence that causes a bad moral character. Opposing this opinion, the philosopher Xunzi proposed that man is born selfish and bad, and that only through education can we become better.