Humility class 12 exercise | Yuval Noah Harari | question and answer

 Humility

by Yuval Noah Harari

Exercises

Understanding the text

a. Describe the claim of the Chinese nationalists about the human society.

Answer: Chinese nationalists claim that history really began with the Yellow Emperor and the Xia and Shang dynasties, and that whatever Westerners, Muslims or Indians achieved is but a pale copy of original Chinese breakthroughs. 

b. What do pious Muslims believe about the human society?

Answer: Pious Muslims believe that all history prior to the Prophet Muhammad as largely irrelevant, and they consider all history after the revelation of the Quran to revolve around the Muslim ummah.

c. What did the Aztecs firmly believe about the universe?

Answer: The Aztecs firmly believed that without the sacrifices they performed each year, the sun would not rise and the entire universe would disintegrate.

d. What, according to the essay are the universal human abilities?

Answer: According to the essay, morality, art, spirituality, and creativity are universal human abilities. 

e. How are the basic yoga postures derived from the shape of letters of Hebrew alphabet?

Answer: All the basic postures of Yoga derived from the shape of letters of Hebrew alphabet. The Trikonasanna posture imitates the shape of Hebrew letter ‘aleph’, Tuladandasana imitates the letter ‘daled’ etc. 

Reference to the context

a. How do Hindu nationalists refute the Chinese claim that human history really began with the Yellow Emperor and the Xia Dynasties? Who do you agree with and why?

Answer: Hindu nationalists refute the Chinese claim by saying that airplanes and nuclear bombs were invented by ancient sages in the Indian sub-continent long before Confucius, Plato, Einstein and Wright brothers. I agree with the Hindu nationalists because Hinduism is the oldest religion of the world.

b. The author has dealt with a controversial debate on history. Why do you think history has been a major contested issue in the present world?

Answer: Due to egoism, most of the people think they are the centre of the world and their culture is superior to all other cultures. They think their history is the oldest one and everything derived/originated from their culture. History has been a major contested issue in the present world due to egoism. The author wants to debunk humanity's illusion of superiority and mastery.