Discussion Question Response: Each reply to a classmate should be 100 words or more. Response stating that “I agree” with a post is inadequate without adding more information. A student will not receive full credit for responses to classmates that are not substantive responses.

100 Words #1

1) Phoenicians were Semitic people inhabiting ancient Phoenicia and its colonies. The reason of what innovation allowed the Phoenicians, a small population to change the history of the world, is because they had more ready access to valuable resources and trade routes, and the Phoenicians originally established the colonies as trading posts. These trading posts blossomed into full on colonies, and they were established in good harbors to further their duty not only to trade but also to providing rest for Phoenician traders. These posts were closer to the rich Mediterranean and all of its resources. This made it so that they were able to accumulate many resources and have easier trade with the rich trade centers of the west. While the Phoenician homeland was amalgamated into the Assyrian empire and its successor empires, the colonies continued on.

2) The reasons why Daoism and Confucianism reflect the diverse attitudes of the time is because, Confucianism is rites, righteousness, relationships and benevolence towards others. Also very important is keeping order in relationships and in the state. This is more of what you are controlling in you life. Daoism is the most mystical of the major schools. As the name suggests, the focus on the Dao, or the Way. Now, what is the Dao? There are several complicated answers to this, but most simply, the Dao is the natural flow of the cosmos. Nature follows the Dao, humans with their conscious wills go against the Dao. The goal of the Daoist is to harmonize with the Dao and thereby become one with the cosmos, with nature, with all things, which is for letting everything naturally flow.

100 words response #2

The Phoenicians, who were described as a small group of unwarlike Semitic people, had several accomplishments such as becoming the greatest maritime traders and colonizers from their ports of Tyre and Sidon. They also specialized in trades of copper and dyes that took them as far as the coast of Britain where they were able to form bronze which was the main metallic resource before 1000 B.C.E. However, their most notable contribution of their time was inventing a phonetic alphabet consisting of 22 letters. They used their alphabet while operating their trade network and it spread throughout the Mediterranean. Once it spread to Greece, the Greeks added letters for the vowels and thereby created the same alphabet that we use today.

The Warring States Period was an era in China’s history that was filled with turmoil and led to many political and social changes. During the Warring States period, many innocent people were being killed due to the battles taking place and there seemed to be no real value for human life. Confucianism and Daoism both came at a time when the people of China needed something to believe in, something to help guide them in their life choices and something to help them feel connected to others. Confucianism was a more practical philosophy and focused on family and relations to other people in their life. It has a lot of the same ideals of older-day, Leave-It-To-Beaver style American families in the sense that the father is head of household, the wife never talks back and the children and grandchildren show absolute obedience. His philosophy offered a very harmonious family style.  Daoism was described as a more skeptical philosophy focused on nature and meditation. It teaches it’s followers to live in the moment and not to fight anyone or force an outcome of any kind.