Adding character, that's right. I mean, it is character animation. And it's one of the easiest things for me to say in class and such a hard thing to do for the students. So today's topic is going to be how to add character. All right, so in your journey as an animator, your title is character animators. So ultimately, after you've gone through all the principles, you want to go from technically looking awesome to we're not going to concentrate on performance and adding a personality, adding a character to my character. So yes, super easy for me to say. I look at an assignment, I go, yeah, that's pretty cool. Your animation is good, but now you just need to add character. Again, very easy to say, super hard to do. And as you go through movies, there are some massively iconic characters on screen. You have different versions of the Joker. Very memorable, very funny, very iconic, sometimes not so successful. I mean, it's always subjective, right? But, you know, every actor has their own stamp that go through their own process to create their own unique character. So I'm going to go through a list that can hopefully help as a springboard and kind of a checklist of did I do this, did I do that? Again, it's not that easy, but hopefully this is of help. So let's get to it. First, you need to decide what's it going to be? Is it going to be a human? Is it going to be an animal or an object or whatever it is? Obviously, you got to decide on what is the rig I'm going to use and what is the type of character. Because if it's a human, it's going to behave one way. If it's an animal, you can start using animal traits and human traits, you can make certain things. And if it's an object, it's going to be a whole different story. Once you've decided on the rig, let's go, let's say with humans, you should probably start changing the outfit. So those are more external features, but you don't want to use your default rig, the default colors, the default outfit. Start thinking about wigs and hats and moustaches and long hair and skirts and just whatever clothing you can find, something that will help define your character. But again, that is just external, so you have to look at the internal type of character. Is your character happy throughout the whole scene? Is the character scared or maybe nervous or arrogant or confident or kind of a coward? Those are all the things that will change your acting choices and will give us an idea of who that character is. And you could use both of these, the internal and external as a contrast. Maybe the character has crazy outfits, huge wigs and a cape and all kinds of things and you think, wow, that's a loud appearance, that person must be really, really confident. But then the way you animate it is that it's more of a timid, not very confident and maybe that character tries to maybe overcompensate, maybe to hide insecurities through an outfit. The next point that's really important is your default pose. One of the classic things that students do is that they have their rig and their T-pose, whatever the pose they have, and then they keep it. They keep it like that. So it's a straight character standing, whatever, you might bring your arms down and then the acting choices come in and they kind of look around and blah, blah, blah. Fine, right? But you've got to think about, okay, what is the default pose of the character? What is the pose that can go through the whole scene? It's kind of the thing of, let's look at Big Lebowski, always has kind of that relaxed, easygoing pose and that's kind of the thing that goes through the whole movie. Same thing with the actor that's in Walking Dead or in Rampage, as I just saw. There's always a certain lean to it. There's always kind of a, I'm looking like this and it's a drop throughout the whole movie. There's always kind of the specific lean. Again, that's not a massively huge character trait in terms of decision-making, is that empathetic character or is it kind of a villainous type of thing, but it's still something that can give it a certain flavor. Foxcatcher is also really cool. Right away, it establishes characters in just how they walk and how they sit, how they stand, how is their back curved, how are their arms, how are they slow moving or is the head always kind of higher. It's just something that you should go beyond your default rig pose and look at your character and say, okay, well, throughout this whole thing, my character's always nervous or confident or scared, like I said, but so there's always a certain character trait. It's almost like the pose that is the through line through your shot. You can always go, oh yeah, if you see this pose, that's this character, but there's a difference between the body and the face.  It's kind of like the pretend thing. Like people look at faces first before they look at the bodies. So let's say you are super nervous, you can still have the face going, yeah. I think this is all super cool. I'm very confident in this environment. I got no problems. While the body is more what you actually feel. So throughout the whole thing, you could have kind of a nervous thing with the fingers or just an overall more not so comfortable pose body-wise. So the face is what you want people to see, but the body is more what you really feel. So after you've established that, you got the outfit, you got kind of the pose, you got kind of like your inner feelings of your character, the character has to have something to do in the shot. So what is the objective? What is the goal of the character? It can be just something where that character needs to go from A to B. Very like a simple travel type of thing. Or that character needs to go through this door because something is crashing behind them and it's kind of a life or death situation. Or they wanna do really well in a test and they gotta be able to do this and pass this test. Could be a driving test, which actually could be really fun to animate. There's a driving test and it's like, yeah, I'm okay driving. Every time they look away from the tester, they're kind of like, so there's a lot of stuff you can do, for instance, with that. But it doesn't matter if it's simple or more complex. So you have to have your character with an objective. So I wanna lift something heavy or I wanna give this person a present or the baby is crying, I need to get up and I wanna make sure that the person is fed or not crying or not scared after a nightmare. And so on and so on, you have to have something and that way your character has an objective, they have something to do and it's not just movement where a character just does like a walk cycle or something. But once your character has an objective, has a goal or a want or whatever you wanna call it, it is also interesting to actually put a conflict between the thing that the character wants. So whatever conflict or problem or obstacle, whatever you wanna call it, is going to force the character to do something about it. And if we're staying with the whole car thing, what if your character is in a car and gets cut off? Someone just drives in front of them. That's a sudden obstacle, the character wants to get there and now this person comes in and takes a spot and maybe slows the character down. How is that going to affect the character? Some obstacles and problems are going to reveal choices and that is going to reveal character. So are you gonna go, we'll just go drive in, it's fine.  So you're gonna reveal if the character is happy about it or not happy. It will expose the character traits and those don't have to be positive, they can be flaws. Your character can be a villain. There's this gift that a student showed me a while back which is so awesome where that woman, she wins something, I don't know what she was winning, but I love how she celebrates and then taps the back of the guy. Now that could be something where it's, oh, I'm so happy and that's just something that she did, that maybe she was just super happy. But you can also do this in a more mean way. We're like, yeah, I won, yeah.  You know what I mean? Like there's so many things you can do where you show that the character attains, maybe it's even afterward. So you had an obstacle, the character made it through, you saw some choices there and then they reached the goal. And now you can also show, well, what happened now that they have reached the goal and their prize or whatever it is, are they grateful? Are they arrogant about it? Are they mean about it? And so on and so on. So goals and obstacles and how you combine them, all of that gives you so much opportunity to show character, character flaws, character traits, character choices, all those moments where you can bring your acting ideas and your skill set as an actor to the table. And the obstacle or conflict, whatever it is, it doesn't have to be physical, right? Like I talked about guy cutting it off, but it can also be psychological. So what if your character is afraid of heights? Maybe it's a kid at a pool. I remember first time I had to jump off, I could 10 meter thing into a pool. It was really high and it took me a while to take that step out. So maybe that's your character. Your character is afraid of heights or afraid of whatever. And it's that moment of what should I do? How can I overcome this? And then you can show how the character does it and then the effects of it. Maybe they're super happy or they're even more scared about it. Like who knows? Maybe someone is afraid of flying and you can show that, like, yeah, yeah, I'm okay. I have a drink, that's fine. And then the moment the plane starts to shake, they go, and then it's just how do they overcome the fear of flying? There's so many things you can do and it's such a good opportunity for you to just present awesome animation. The tricky thing, of course, and I constantly fall into the trap is then to keep the animation short. So there's a very tricky line between the both. I wanna show all this. I wanna show the goals and obstacles and characters, but now my shot is a minute long. I totally understand that's a very, very hard thing to juggle, so you gotta pick some things, keep it short and just present specific character traits. But again, I say this and then my shots are always super long. But all those things are going to be of help and it's something that you should think about as you start prepping for your scene, right? As you do your camera placement or maybe the character sitting at a table. So whatever you set up for your reference, as you shoot reference, or as you draw a thumbnail. So whatever you do in terms of preparation for your shot, don't just think about, well, the character is outside in the garden or they're in an office. Well, think about how does this office feel to them? Is that something they don't like? They're nervous doing interviews. Maybe the objective is I need to have an interview, I need to pass this because I want this job, but I'm just so, so afraid of talking to other people and having people ask me things. Some people are really afraid of calling someone, even like calling a pizza. Maybe that's something where they're just really, really nervous picking up the phone and talking to someone, maybe they wanna make any mistakes. Whatever it is, but explore these and explore these in your acting choices.  And again, by default, I mean the default rigged pose, the default outfit, the default colors. Change the outfits, change the colors, give them something. Then think about their overall state of mind. Again, are they arrogant or just confident or very nervous? So that's gonna be a change in your overall pose of the character. Then give the character something to do, give them a goal, they wanna get there, they want something and again, this can be physical, this can be psychological, the same thing with the obstacle. Could be something that's physically in the person's way or just mentally in their way and a barrier to achieving whatever goal they wanna achieve. And as I explained in previous clips, the environment can help you with this. It doesn't have to be a character in an empty room. So what can you do? Again, it could be in an office, could be for an interview, could be in a classroom. Maybe, I hate it going to the front on the blackboard during my Latin classes and trying to figure out what my teacher was telling me and asking me to do because I had no idea because that was a horrible student.  So think about how would your character move through all this? They're always kinda slob, maybe they don't wanna be seen by the teacher. That was certainly my thing. So I tried to be in a corner and it was more like this. I wouldn't really sit like that in a classroom. I don't wanna get the teacher's attention. So I'd be really quiet, I'd be really curled over. So maybe that's my overall pose. Maybe another obstacle would be that I am recording this and someone comes into my room. I thought it was the dog, but it was someone else. Yes. Although that was totally my fault. I have this thing where I have this remote with all my lights, right? I can turn this on, I can turn this on. I can turn all kinds of things on. I can turn everything off. And I have the top one that's a red light outside of the office that tells people that I am recording just because sometimes my kid comes in here like, hey. And then sometimes it's not the best, but sometimes it's also really funny how those interruptions happen anyway. But again, that could be a conflict. Maybe your character is filming something, filming a lecture, filming something. And then something happens in the back. Actually like the journalist where the family entered behind him and did all the crazy shenanigans. So to recap, having character be different in terms of appearances, right? So that's your external stuff. But think about the internal character traits and then have something that the character wants. So it's not just movement. So there's something where there's an objective and we can follow the character and it's interesting as an audience to see what the character wants to do and to add more interest at a problem, add an obstacle. Then you go as an audience, how is this character going to get there because there's this problem in their way? And then you can show how the character reacts if they reach the goal or if they don't reach the goal. So all those things will bring out character traits. And again, they can be flawed. They don't have to be all positive. It's okay to animate villains. And that was just all for humans. So you can take all of this and think about in terms of creatures. You can take all of this and then add creature elements, creature traits, creature behavior.  Maybe when they're really stressed or at the end when they're happy, there's something where the animal in them comes out. But that's it. So adding character as always super easy for me to say and one of the hardest things to do for students and for anybody, it's really hard for me to come up with something that's original, that's a brand new character. That's not just something that people have seen before. And of course, there are many other ways to add character to think about this. So if you know of anything, let me know in the comments. What is your process? How do you create interesting characters? Or if you have examples of awesome characters which there are a ton, movies and TV shows and whatnot in games. There's just a lot of cool characters that you can use for reference. And hopefully this was helpful. And if you like this, give this a like. My usual spiel at the end. If you want to get notifications about all my uploads, like acting analysis and FNAs, subscribe and hit that bell button so you get all notifications. And if you watched the whole thing till the very end, as I always say, I appreciate it. I really do appreciate it. You have other things to do. So if you stuck with this till the very end, thank you so much. And I will see you next week.


Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar A.S academy, displayed are the list of news articles selected for today's analysis and their page numbers in different editions of the newspaper. The link for the handwritten notes and the time stamping of the displayed articles are provided in the description box and the time stamping is also provided in the comment section for the benefit of mobile phone viewers. Now let us move on to the analysis of first news article. This news article talks about special protection group. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference. The news article mentions that the government has decided to withdraw the special protection group cover for the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her family members, you know member of parliament Mr. Raghul Gandhi and another family member Priyanka Gandhi. And it is saying that the SPG cover will be replaced with EZ plus security cover which is given by the Central Reserve police force. Now the CRPF is one of the seven central armed police forces. See generally security is provided on the basis of threat assessment of individuals. So based on the nature of threat and based on the intensity or the gravity of the threat, the category of security is decided and these threat assessments are done by security agencies. Now the category of security, now some of the categories of security are EZ plus security cover, EZ security cover, Y plus then Y and X security cover. So recently we have been hearing about the special protection group cover. Even some months ago the central government has replaced the SPG cover for former prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh with the security cover of Central Reserve police force. So it is in this context, it is important for us to know some facts with respect to special protection group from our prelims perspective. See the year of establishment of SPG or the special protection group was 1985. The intention is to provide proximate security cover or the closest security cover to the prime minister of India and to his or her immediate family members and then to provide proximate security cover to the former Indian prime ministers and their immediate family members. As one of the special feature of this special protection group, it is said that the officers of SPG, they have high leadership qualities, professionalism, particularly the knowledge of proximate security and they have the culture of leading from the front. They have all these special features by adopting innovative methods in its own working and also they adopt some innovative methods in their security arrangements in collaboration with intelligence bureau and state or union territory police forces and it is this special protection group that ensures fail proof and zero error security for its protectees or the persons who are protected by this group. Where do they provide the security cover to its protectees? See it is providing security at the office and residence during local functions, during internal tours as well as external tours that is tours within the country and outside the country and see this forces an all-round force or a versatile force and this is because it provides protection 24 bar 7 that is simply all the time throughout the year. The motto of special protection group is Shauryam, Shamarpanam, Surakshanam which refers to bravery, devotion and protection. So now let us see whether this group is backed by any legislation or not. According to some of the authentic sources they are saying that the group was established in 1985 particularly after the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Ms Indra Gandhi by her bodyguards in October 1984. So at that time there was no legislation however later an act was enacted by the parliament and this act is called as the special protection group act of 1988. Now the purpose of this act is to provide for the constitution and regulation of an armed force of the union for providing proximate security to the prime minister of India and the former prime ministers of India and members of their immediate families and this act has been amended from time to time. We have been seeing in our analysis the term proximate security or the closest to security. See this legislation defines what do we mean by it. It means protection provided from close quarters whether during a journey by road or a journey by rail or aircraft or watercraft or on food or journey by any other means of transport. The protection is given in the places of functions, engagements, residence or wherever the dignitaries stop or halt or wherever the protectees halt or stop. The security cover shall comprise ring round teams and then isolation cordons. See cordon means a line or circle of polos or soldiers or guards who are preventing access from an area or building. So by this we can say that the special protection group has layer of defenses and lines of defense to protect the protectees and their family members. And then the security cover comprises a sterile zone around the place. See in this sterile specifically means an area that is officially under control and this area has no threads or this area is clear of threads and the security cover also includes a rostrum. A rostrum means raised platform on which a person stands to make a public speech. It is something like a podium or mantabam as all these have raised platforms. And one of the most important things of this cover by special protection group is that it is this protection group that provides access control to the protectees or his or her immediate family members. Now here when we say access control say for example this means if someone wants to meet the Indian prime minister the access is controlled by the special protection group. Therefore they provide access control to the protectees or their family members. Now with respect to special protection group there is one of the most important statement that was earlier made by the supreme court. It has stated that the special protection group protective cover cannot be lifted from the protective. It goes with the person of the protective as the shadow of a man. So does this mean the protectees enjoy protection for infinite time or forever? No it is not so. The statement made by supreme court here means that there has to be necessary arrangements for reviewing the framework of protection as and when required with a certain level of periodicity. Simply as SPG protective cover cannot be lifted from the protective. That is what the statement made by supreme court means. So we saw that the former prime minister or the members of his or her immediate family members enjoy this proximate security. If you take section 412 of the special protection group act of 1988 it states that the protection is given for a period of one year from the date on which the prime minister seized to hold the office of the prime minister. This time period can be extended for any period beyond one year provided there is a case where the level of threat faced by the former prime minister or by any member of his immediate family and the level of threat justifies the provision of proximate security. So based on the level of threat the time period can be extended for any period beyond one year. Some of the factors that are taken into account when the central government assesses the levels of threat you know they are any threats that emanates from any militant or terrorist organization or any other threat that is of grave and continuing nature. So who assesses the levels of threat periodically see it is the central government in such a manner that not more than 12 months shall elapse between two consecutive assessments that is once a threat assessment is carried out within a time period of 12 months the next threat assessment should begin and should have completed. So it is based on this threat assessment the special protection group cover has been withdrawn from the congress president and Mr Rahul Gandhi and also from Ms Priyanka Gandhi and there is one another important provision that we have to know from this legislation with respect to special protection cover. Now this section answers to the question who can decline security see any former prime minister or any member of immediate family of the incumbent prime minister or any member of immediate family of former prime minister may decline security this is according to section 4 one capital A of this act but the section does not mentions that the incumbent prime minister can decline security only the immediate family members of an incumbent prime minister or a former prime minister may decline security so from this we can infer that the present prime minister or the current prime minister or the ruling prime minister cannot decline security cover now let us see who controls this SPG and who give directions to this SPG again it is the central government see the general superintendents direction and control of this group is carried out by central government the command and supervision of the group lies with the director of this group and the director of this group is appointed by the central government so these are some of the information with respect to the analysis of this news article now let us move on to the analysis of next article this news article talks about the various reasons why India has decided not to join the regional comprehensive economic partnership the syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for a reference in the recent days we have been discussing about the proposed R sub deal and today we will discuss few technical reasons why India has decided not to sign the deal in its present draft format the news article mentions the issues such as rules of origin auto trigger safeguard mechanism then base year for tariffs and also issues with reference to most favored nation status now these issues are long-standing issues that were available in the public domain and these issues were also been part of our sub negotiations since the beginning of negotiations of this proposed deal now let's see with reference to rules of origin see India on its side has been demanding a standard or clear cut details about rules of origin here when we say rules of origin we are referring to a set of rules through which the origin of the goods can be tagged and relevant tariffs could be imposed based on the origin of goods when there is tagging of goods the importing country will be at ease to fix tariffs to be imposed on certain countries now when there is no clear cut details about rules of origin in a trade deal say for example R sub this is not in the interest of our country know that with respect to R sub around 13 countries including Australia Japan and New Zealand they are against India's demand to have strict rules of origin now what is the problem if we don't have a strict rules of origin criteria in the deal say for example imagine for a time being that we have signed this R sub deal and under this deal we are having 20% import duty for a particular product from China and for the same product we are having 10% import duty from Myanmar and for the same product there is zero import duty to be imported from China to Myanmar now if there is no tagging of goods under rules of origin China to evade the 20% import duty could route the goods through Myanmar to India and this will impact Indian revenues because now India can charge only 10% import duty to Myanmar rather if we have rules of origin we can eliminate these disadvantages and thereby we can receive our legitimate revenues and also avoid increasing trade deficit with respect to certain nations now let us see with reference to auto trigger safeguard mechanism India has proposed this mechanism to safeguard itself against any sudden increase in the imports and India has been demanding this also to protect its domestic market against the flooding of cheap imports if you see India's experiments with free trade agreements with some countries and because of the free trade agreements it has led to huge import surges and that has affected domestic industry because of dumping so India has proposed to have auto trigger mechanism to be invoked practically within 15 days of imports exceeding a particular limit that is prescribed by India so once this auto trigger mechanism is invoked there will be safeguard measures against the import of a particular product or some products from a particular country and this can remain in force for 200 days in one instance as per the proposal of India but RSAP nations expressed no consensus for India's proposal with respect to auto trigger safeguard mechanism and this is one of the reasons why India did not sign the RSAP deal in the present draft format now let us look at the base year for tariff reduction which is one another reason the RSAP countries proposed to use 2014 as a base year for tariff reduction whereas India wanted 2019 to be the base year for tariff reduction because it is expected that RSAP deal will be effective from 2022 and by the year 2022 the year 2014 as base year will be outdated and India has been demanding 2019 to be a rational reason to consider it as a base year for tariff reduction and this demand of India has not been accepted by RSAP countries and it is one of the reasons why India did not agree to the deal now another key issue for India is the lack of availability of most favored nation classes in the RSAP deal now when we say most favored nation it is the status granted to trading partners as per world trade organization with or without reciprocal basis if you take the case with respect to India and Pakistan while India has given most favored nation status to Pakistan Pakistan has not accorded the status to India and India has revoked the most favored nation status after the Pulwama terrorist attack extending MFN status means extending any advantage or privilege or favor that is given to one country to all other contracting parties of WTO this measure is adopted so that a WTO member country to treat other trading nation in a non-discriminatory manner so here we can say that the nation that receives MFN status would be enjoying certain tariff benefits from the nation which has granted MFN status to it see India is demanding the MFN clause in the RSAP agreement so that to provide certain benefits to those countries who would like to invest in India that is by granting MFN status to some of the investing nations these countries would get tariff and some other benefits however these concerns and proposals of India were not considered not satisfactorily addressed by the participating countries in the proposed RSAP agreement and recently Prime Minister in Thailand has stated clearly that it is against his consigns and also against the talisman of Gandhiji and as a result India will not sign the RSAP agreement in its present draft format so these are some of the information with reference to the analysis of this news article now let us move on to next news article this news article is about the release of latest sample registration system which is titled as special bulletin on maternal mortality rate in India for the time period 2015-2017 the syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference so in this context we'll be discussing the overall maternal mortality rate in India and also some of the data pertaining to various states or category of states so first let us see who is giving estimates on fertility and mortality using the sample registration system see it is office of the registrar general under the ministry of home affairs see this office is already tasked with two main things one is conducting population census to monitoring the implementation of registration of births and deaths act in our country and when we say SRS sample registration system it is the largest demographic sample survey in our country that provide direct estimates of say for example various indicators such as maternal mortality infant mortality birth rate death rate and other indicators both at national and sub national levels when we say sub national levels we refer to data pertaining to state level see this SRS project or SRS survey was initiated in 1964-65 on a pilot basis by the office of registrar general under ministry of home affairs as a pilot basis it was started in few selected states at that period of time it became fully operational during 1969-70 now the today's article provides MMR data for 2015-2017 so what is maternal mortality rate this definition is important from our prelims perspective it is defined as number of maternal deaths during a given time period for 1 lakh live births during the same time period so here the term maternal death it refers to number of female deaths because of any cause related to pregnancy or any cause aggravated by pregnancy or any cause because of management during pregnancy and childbirth or deaths within 42 days of termination of pregnancy for a specific time period expressed per 1 lakh live births now in the recently released data of office of register general India the states have been categorized into three groups so this is to understand the maternal mortality situation in the country in a better way and also to map the changes that have taken place particularly at the regional levels one of the category of states is empowered action group states see it comprises of eight states these are Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Mathya Pradesh, Odisha then Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand you can easily memorize these states because the states such as Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Mathya Pradesh and Rajasthan these are all contiguous in nature you can observe this in a Indian map you can observe this in a political map of our country now they are saying that about the empowered action group states these states were identified after the conduct of 2001 census as these states were lagging in containing population and few other demographic parameters for example socioeconomic backwardness having very high fertility levels and very high mortality rates so to deal with these indicators an empowered action group was constituted in ministry of health and family welfare for these states so therefore these eight states are together called as empowered action group states now the next category of states are southern states it included Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and all the remaining states and unit territories are categorized into other states now let's come into the news article it states that maternity mortality rate in India has seen a decline the decline is from 130 per 1 lakh live births in 2014-16 to 122 per 1 lakh live births in 2015-2017 period and because of this reduction India has saved nearly 2000 women from dying due to maternal fatality and if you see India has progressed significantly since 2011-2013 at that time the level was 167 and then 130 in 2014-16 and now 122 in 2015-17 so if you take since 2013 there is a remarkable 26.9% reduction now let us have a look at some of the information at the regional level among the empowered action group states and Assam the reduction is from 188 to 175 and among the southern states the decline has been from 77 to 72 and in other states the decline is from 93 to 90 of all the states Kerala if you see it has very good numbers from 46 in 2014-16 to 42 in 2015-17 Maharashtra presently has 55 Tamil Nadu presently 63 and if you see Assam it is higher to the tune of around 229 new P it is 216 Madhya Pradesh 188 now all these numbers we are mentioning just to understand that there is huge variation in terms of this many levels between various states on one end we have a state where the mmr is just 42 per 1 lakh live birth on the other hand in Assam there is 229 maternal deaths per 1 lakh live births though overall on an average we can you know say that in India it is 122 in the time frame of 2015-17 we have to actually look at this aggregated data with respect to states and even within states there could be regional variation among several districts so the present improvement maternal mortality rate is in line with both global target and national target when we say global target in this context we are referring to United Nations sustainable development goal target under 3.1 it aims to bring down maternal mortality rate to less than 70 per 1 lakh live births by the year 2030 three Indian states Kerala Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have already achieved this but these states should focus now within their districts to address variations rather than saying proudly as an average they should say each district achieves this target now the national health policy 2017 if you see this target this is what we are saying as national target according to this NHP it states that mmr should come down to the level of 100 or below by the year 2020 and more than 10 states including all southern states have achieved this target already so this shows that the government efforts to bring down mmr is showing positive results now let's see some of the important governmental efforts the article mentions that government has focused on providing quality health services and improving coverage through various programs such as laxia that is labor room quality improvement initiative then poshaan abhyan to improve nutritional status among pregnant women then Pradhan Mantri shurakshit matriva abhyan that is to provide quality anti natal care see when we say natal it means birth and anti means before so anti natal care refers to the care given to the pregnant woman before childbirth and it also includes the health care received during the course of the pregnancy of the woman when we say post natal care it refers to the care given to the mother to the tune of around six to eight weeks after the birth of the baby so the pradhan mantri shurakshit matriva abhyan is to provide quality anti natal care then janani shushu shuraksha karyakram this is to provide better health facilities to pregnant women and the newborn baby and then janani shuraksha yojana to reduce maternal and infant mortality by promoting institutional delivery then pradhan mantri matru vandana yojana in which cash incentives are provided in installments to the pregnant women and lactating mothers for first living child of the family and one another initiative shurakshit matriva ashwasan initiative shortly called as suman now this initiative aims at providing dignified respectful and quality health care at no cost for every woman and newborn visiting public health facility and there should be zero tolerance for denial of services the objective is to end all preventable maternal and newborn deaths it also aims to provide a positive birth experience to both mother and infant this initiative was launched in october so these are some of the government efforts which overall contribute to the reduction of maternal mortality rate in the country now when we receive news articles with respect to individual schemes we will discuss these schemes and initiatives in detail now today with this we come to the end of the analysis of this news article now let's move on to the analysis of next news article this news article talks about the acceptance of the finance secretary and the chief economic advisor of india and the chief economic advisor that the indian nation is going through economic slowdown the syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article has been highlighted here for your reference so till yesterday there was no official acceptance from these two parties that the nation is witnessing an economic slowdown and the news article mentions that according to the chief economic advisor indian economy is growing at the rate of five percent presently the news article also mentions that the cea and the finance secretary also acknowledged the impact of demonetization on the economy and also the negative or lag effect of the gst and then in the end the news article mentions about the growth rates in indian agriculture it states that indian agriculture is expected to grow at four percentage this expectation is based on the target set by the national agricultural policy 2000 but if you see practically indian agriculture is stagnant with the growth of just one percentage so today we limit our discussion with respect to national agricultural policy of 2000 see this is the first national agricultural policy that was announced in july 2000 launched by ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare it actually seeks to tap the untapped vast growth potential of indian agriculture and to strengthen rural infrastructure the purpose is to support faster agricultural development and then to promote value addition in agriculture production and other parameters and then to accelerate the growth of agro business and then to create employment in rural areas to secure a fair standard of living for farmers agricultural workers and their families and also to discourage migration to urban areas and it also seeks to face challenges that comes because of economic liberalization and globalization over the next two decades that is till 2020 now let us see some important saline features one is that it targets a growth of over four percentage annually in the agriculture sector then it also aims to have greater private sector participation through contract forming then it also aims to dismantle restrictions on movement of agricultural commodities throughout the country then it also aims for rational utilization of countries water resources for optimum use of irrigation potential then it also aims to minimize fluctuations in commodity prices and to provide adequate and timely supply of quality inputs to farmers then it also aims to set up agro processing units and to create off-form employment in rural areas that is for example a farmer involved in raising crops may also get involved in poultry fishery or silk culture or honey culture etc and still though the agriculture policy was announced in 2000 even after 19 years still there are so many challenges in achieving these targets we have not yet consistently achieved the growth rate of agriculture above four percentage now the in some years it has went to the tune of below one percentage so agriculture sector still suffer from a low and fluctuating growth rate and one another challenge is there is still irrational use of water as a result there is depletion of underground water resource and there is still variation in commodity prices acting as a disadvantage for farmers however there have been some very important government measures with respect to farmer welfare one national program we can say is prime minister kisan initiative p.m. kisan that is and then even several states for example raitu bandhu and talangana or kaalia scheme and odisha these are a aim to provide investment and input support for the farmers and there is also a national target as announced by the prime minister to double the farmers income by the 75th year of indian independence that is by 2022 have in mind the salient features of national agriculture policy with this we come to the end of the analysis of this news article this is with reference to special protection group they have given two statements and are asking which of the other statements are correct first statement it provides proximate security cover exclusively to the prime minister of india and to hera his immediate family here the word exclusively takes the meaning of the word only if you read the statement it provides proximate security cover only to the prime minister of india and to hera his immediate family this statement is incorrect because special protection group provides proximate security cover not only to the incumbent prime minister of india and to hera his immediate family but also to former prime ministers of india and to their immediate family members depending on the threat assessment or depending on the level of threat as known through various threat assessments carried out by security agencies so the first statement is incorrect though the proximate security cover is given to the incumbent prime minister of india and to his or her immediate family now the second statement proximate security cover can be declined by the prime minister of india and his or her immediate family if you take section 4 one capital A of special protection group act 1988 you can find that any members or any protectees other than the incumbent or the present prime minister of india may decline the security cover that means even the immediate family members of present prime minister can also decline but it cannot be declined by the prime minister of india so the second statement is also incorrect correct answer for this question is option d neither one nor two is correct now this question is with reference to maternal mortality rate they're asking which of the following statements is correct first point mmr is the number of maternal deaths during a given time period per one lakh pregnant women during the same time period the statement appears to be correct but it is wrong because mmr is number of maternal deaths during a given time period per one lakh live births not per one lakh pregnant women so option a is incorrect now the second statement mmr covers female deaths from causes related to pregnancy or its management during pregnancy and childbirth or within six months of termination of pregnancy here everything is correct except six months of termination of pregnancy it is within 42 days of termination of pregnancy so the second statement is also incorrect now the third statement the sustainable development goals targets to bring down mmr below 70 by 2030 now this statement is correct so the correct answer for this question is option c now see the fourth statement or the last option in India states such as Assam Kerala and Maharashtra have the least maternal mortality rate see this is wrong because this statement has two extremes of mmr in our country for example if you see Kerala Kerala has mmr of just 42 during the time period 2015-17 whereas Assam it was 229 one of the highest mmr in India so the statement is wrong if at all the statement has to be correct it would have been like Kerala Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are the states that have least mmr in India because according to the sample registration system published by the office of registrar general of India in its special bulletin in November 2019 Kerala's mmr is 42 in 2015-17 Maharashtra it's 55 in 2015-17 in Tamil Nadu it is 63 so the correct answer for this question is option c now if you see the national target under national health policy it is targeting an mmr of 100 per 1 lakh live births that is to be achieved by the year 2020 now let's move on to next question which is regarding the national agricultural policy 2000 they have given three statements and are asking which of the above statements are correct first statement the policy explicitly mentions about increasing the private sector participation in agriculture through contract farming now this statement is correct it is one of the explicit objectives mentioned in the national agriculture policy 2000 which is the first ever national agriculture policy of our country launched by the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare therefore the third statement is also correct now come to the second statement they are saying one of its objectives is to achieve an annual growth rate of six percent in agriculture now this is wrong because we are aiming to achieve annual growth rate of four percent in agriculture sector so if you see the option c all except two are correct so the correct answer for this question is option c now see this mains question coming under general studies paper two regional comprehensive economic partnership is a proposed free trade agreement between 10 asian countries and six other nations including india examine the various concerns raised by india for not signing the deal you may post the answers by taking photograph of the handwritten answers and uploading it into your drive wherein in the sharing settings you can give anyone with the link can view and you can copy that link and paste it in our comment section and we will give the necessary feedback at least within next five to seven days and for this question you can utilize various points that we have discussed so far say with respect to trade deficits or with respect to upover convention with respect to reusing the seeds after cultivation by farmers and or it can be with respect to auto trigger safeguard mechanism proposed by india or it can be with respect to most favored nation status classes demanded by india it could also be with respect to base year to fix tariffs and you can utilize points with respect to rules of origin then data localization and the threats to domestic manufacturing and farmers and daring sector these are some of the points you can mention here as various concerns raised by india and examine those concerns in this mains question with this we come to the end of the practice questions discussion session if you like the video click the like button comment share and subscribe to Shankar Ayes academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil service exam preparation


Hi, my name is Monty Johnson and I teach philosophy at the University of California, San Diego And this is the second of six lectures on Lucretius this one on the variety motion and recombination of atoms and void According to Lucretius in De Rerum Natura book 2 and I'm using the translation of Cyril Bailey Which is available in the public domain through the internet archive Now to remind you of where we are in the overall structure of the poem Lucretius in book one had established the existence of atoms and void space in an infinite Cosmos and infinite plurality of Worlds or Cosmoi within the universe in this book He discusses how those atoms move around in the void and move in such ways as to Combine and form complexes of compounds that create the visible insensible Bodies that we see all around us So we are still operating at the microscopic level of discussing atoms and void Not just their existence now, but how they move and These microscopic principles Lucretius continues to infer from Macroscopic phenomena and he makes other sorts of arguments to convince you about how they move and What the variety of their? Causes of their motion are and so he continues to discuss the physical assumptions of the atomistic Theory and in this chapter we move from the stage of Birth and the basic conditions of things on to their growth and nurturing how they first Grow into what they are Now given outline of the Elements of book two the pro-em here is especially important and famous Lucretius points out how Observing the less fortunate from a safe position causes us Psychological tranquility and he also mentions the ease of providing for the needs of the body and even pleasure and avoiding pain and distress and he discusses the relative difficulty and Vanity of pursuing riches and power and he gives an exhortation to the study of philosophy as the only reliable means to tranquility of Of course the bulk of the book consists of the arguments about the motion speed and direction of the atoms in the void But he also discusses the variety of atomic shapes the infinitude of atoms of each shape how the recombination of atoms and Alternating processes of generation and destruction Correspond and he also argues that the atoms themselves are devoid of any Sensory qualities although their various shapes gives give rise to the variety of sensations that we experience and Then in the finale he discusses the infinite plurality of worlds which corresponds to the finale in book one Which proved the infinite quantity of atoms in the infinite void space of the cosmos but here instead of focusing on the Birth and origin of everything we end up discussing the inevitable destruction and decay of our world But we do discuss not just the Infinite plurality of atoms, but their combination into an infinite Set of worlds Including worlds Habited by other that is extraterrestrial life forms and even extraterrestrial intelligences now again the Prom or introduction to book two is Probably the most famous of the whole book and Lucretius discusses the calming effect of essentially looking down on or Thinking about people who are more Misfortunate than you and the poetic examples are very literal sitting on a cliff and looking at Ships in a storm struggling on turbulent seas or overlooking a land battle or Looking down from a skyscraper at people rushing about doing business appointments It is Creates a calm tranquil effect when one doesn't have to be concerned with that business or one isn't fighting in that battle Or one isn't at risk of sinking in that Sea and this isn't because we enjoy he's very careful to point out This isn't because we take pleasure or joy in other people's distress but because it is sweet to perceive when you are free of misfortune and This is essentially the end and purpose of life according to Epicureans is to be able to have a calm tranquil disposition Relative to everything because you're not suffering from it. So you can concentrate on the suffering That other people are experiencing hopefully Then taking steps to alleviate it Now the basic Psychological insight here is actually attributable to a much earlier philosopher Democritus who earlier recommended turning your focus Specifically away from those who are more fortunate than you because when you focus on people that are richer or more Beautiful or more successful than you then that causes painful emotions like envy Jealousy and generally feelings of relative deprivation But when you turn away from concentrating on those people and think about people who are poor and uglier and more unhealthy and Unfortunate than you then you replace those other kinds of feelings with feelings of pity and mercy and ultimately Democritus argues feelings of solidarity towards them and Lucretius Takes this idea and asserts that riches and nobility and power and glory You know conventional goods pursued by people all around him Don't afford the body or the mind any pleasure or tranquility or relief from pain and He contrasts how difficult the pursuit of such things is with how easy it is to free the mind from care and fear and to provide pleasure for the body and He here invokes again the overall slogan of the work Which we already saw in book one this terror then this darkness of the mind Must needs be scattered not by the rays of the Sun and the gleaming shafts of day but by the outer view and the inner law of nature and this the earlier context in which this was raised had to do with the fear of death and the fear of death must be dispelled by these Epicurean insights and here it's Getting rid of the negative emotions that are due to excessive desires that he's focusing on but the same the same Emotional Distress that disturbs and robs us of the happiness and tranquility that we're seeking in life The solution is the same and that is Comprehending the Epicurean philosophy Now this book also contains an excellent Model and way of thinking about Have a mystic physics and the unforgettable image of dust motes in Sunlight or sunbeams It's a familiar phenomenon as Lucretia says look closely whenever rays are let in and pour the sun's light through the dark places And houses for you will see many tiny bodies Mingle in many ways all through the empty space right in the red light of the rays Now first of all this phenomenon provides direct evidence that there are minute invisible bodies something that we demonstrated Already in book one, but here further evidence is Invoked to support that proposition and Lucretia says that if There are minute invisible bodies moving in all directions in this sunbeam then they they the visible ones must be colliding with invisible ones we don't See what is moving them so they must be smaller than we can see thus minute Invisible bodies again exist But this image of dust motes and sunlight is also just a model for the incessant motion and collision and recombination of material bodies in void space and Essentially, this is the deep view of the entire universe according to this philosophy that It's all these kind of material bodies moving chaotically through an infinite void space whose collisions ultimately give rise to and collide with and affect the motions of The bodies that are visible to us Now I just point out Lucretia doesn't say this but each mode of dust is actually very large relative to the atoms He would certainly agree with that But the bewildering amount of atoms something like 500 quadrillion atoms in a single dust mote shows us how tiny and Of course invisible Those atoms in fact are Now thus they in order for such minute entities to build up to Entities that are visible to us that are perceptible to us that connect with our Senses at a level that we can become aware of they must be built up over several levels And in fact these are levels of complexity. So the atoms have to recombine to form larger bodies We might say now something like molecules combinations of atoms to form molecules and then of course molecules Combining to form larger and larger bodies until we ultimately get to tissues and then we get to whole Organs and recombinant recombining organs till we get to the level of the organism these Recombinations to form larger Bodies happen at the micro level of the atoms themselves until they form molecules and enough molecules as it were Come together until they've compounded to reach visible bodies that we can see As Lucretia says from the first beginnings of things for the first beginnings of things move of themselves Then those bodies which are formed of a tiny union and are as it were nearest to the powers of the first beginnings are Smitten and stirred by their unseen blows and they in their turn rouse up bodies a little larger And so the movement passes upwards from the first beginnings and little by little comes forth to our senses So that those bodies move to which we can describe in the Sun's light yet It is not clearly seen by what blows they do it. So these Bodies that are visible to us even the ones that are as small as a moat of dust can be analyzed Into their constituent atoms and void and in fact into quadrillions of atoms and void now Lucretia's discusses the internal and external Causes of the fact that the atoms are in motion so far We've only proven that There are atoms and that there are void on the basis of there being larger scale structures that we can see But what are the causes of the atoms moving in the void because all atoms? He says are always in motion. They wander through the void He poetically puts it and this is due to one of the following necessary causes It could be due to their own weight or Gravity their heaviness as he calls it this causes them to move straight downwards in Parallel lines through the void So if something's heavy as we can see it move straight downwards So the atoms since they must be heavy of their own accord move Straight downwards. They also move however due to strong blows from other atoms Collision with other atoms and these collisions cause them to bounce Around and redound either at great distances when there is nothing Impeding them but void and so this accounts for phenomena like air light or heat moving at great distances for example think of the light and heat coming from the Sun or They redound at smaller distances because they've become entangled with other bodies And this is what happens with solid objects like wood, rock, metal, or diamond very hard Objects must have very small interstitial distances and voids in which these redounding Quadrillions of redounding atoms move Now Since it has already been shown that the universe is not limited in extent There can't actually be a bottom floor of the universe So all of the atoms must ever fall through the void Due to their own weight, they're constantly following falling through the void and Constantly colliding sending them in every possible direction much of course like dust motes in a Sunbeam Next Lucretius discusses the velocity or the speed at which this atomic motion is occurring all atoms He says basically move through the void At the same exact velocity and this must be as quickly as possible In fact the velocity says must be faster than the speed of light like the light coming from the Sun Because those light particles since they're visible must be larger than the atoms in Lucretius's view and Furthermore, they're moving through fields like the atmosphere the air or the water that contain other bodies with which they must collide occasionally and Thus be slowed down Now it's interesting here that Lucretius observes that light must travel at a finite speed It remains to be seen whether Anything can travel faster than light in some modern physical theories it Nothing can travel faster than light But if you had the smallest possible Objects so small for example that they had no mass and they were essentially moving through a void and were so small that through Voids and were so small they couldn't collide with anything then perhaps they could move faster now the Atoms however in the theory are the smallest possible objects and so when moving through the void They encounter no resistance whatsoever so they must all travel at an equal and constant speed in this circumstance nothing to slow them down and they're small so they move as fast as possible now after that argument we next have a digressive Attack on anthropocentrism an attack on the theory that the purpose of all of Nature and the universe is to benefit human beings Now this seems to follow an actual gap in the text which suggests that either our text has been mutilated in the form We've received it since Since it was put into the form that Lucretius wrote it or that Lucretius did not complete the poem and this section was Left imperfect But anyway, we suddenly are in a discussion of the fact that Those people are wrong who argue that the gods have designed the world and Designed its seasons and the motions and changes that happen in it all for the benefit of human beings now We can label such a view Anthropocentric does in such a view human beings are the center of the cosmos and the purpose of all creation as they are in for example Plato's timeeus and This is typically a feature of intelligent design creationist accounts of nature some God or Demiurge or craftsmen designs the whole world for the purpose of Human beings and Lucretius attributes such a view to an ignorance of matter and how materialist theories can better explain how the cosmos comes to be without depending on these super natural Entities and also can explain Not only why some things do appear suitable for human beings But why so many things don't and the universe seems to so Badly be set up for human beings now The main argument here then is that the nature of the world is by no means made by divine grace for us. There are too many flaws But Lucretius essentially puts off the discussion of what those flaws are of course they come Much sooner than the end of book six in these descriptions of the destructibility decay and inevitable destruction of our entire world and The vivid descriptions in book six which end with the plague and its horrible effects upon the Athenians So the point is there must not be a god in this Cosmos because it's not sustaining it or at least not sustaining it for the sake of human beings because Look at what actually Happens in it and how inconvenient it is for human beings Now returning to the discussion of the causes of atomic motions Recall that the atoms or first bodies are carried downward straight through the void by their own weight Now Lucretius asserts that at certain times Undetermined times and undetermined places. They actually push a little off this path Yet only so much as you could call a trend or just a slight Deviation that is we say atoms occasionally swerve At undetermined times and places atoms swerve from their straight downward path For if they always traveled at the exact same speed through the void in straight parallel Lines as they do as a result of their weight as we argued earlier Then none of them would ever collide with each other But if they never Collided because they could never catch up with each other since they're all moving exactly the same speed and exactly in parallel lines Then none of them would ever become entangled and then no compound bodies could have been Generated but it is apparent that compound bodies have been generated because there are Visible and sensible objects in our environment Thus atoms must occasionally swerve from their straight downward direction Now once an atom is off chorus It's free to collide and redound with other atoms and in fact cause a chain reaction of further Collisions and redounding which eventually cause Entanglements large enough to form compounds that are visible to us and the same process is ramified Upwards on the scales of complexity until we reach entire planets and entire solar systems and entire galaxies and entire clusters of galaxies and superclusters and the entire Universe now It turns out then that there are in fact three causes of atomic motion Two of them necessary Internal necessity of weight or gravity which causes them to move straight downwards the external necessity when there are blows or collisions Those are those are both kinds of necessary movement and then this unnecessary Movement and so it's it's hard to even consider it a cause But there is this indeterminacy in the overall system That we call swerves Now one nice feature of this theory of swerves is it allows Lucretius to avoid a problem about the Determinism of all events within his cosmos so in addition to Using the swerve to explain the existence of visible bodies and worlds a phenomenon phenomenon that certainly do need explanation This swerve also allows Lucretius to address a threat to voluntary motion Because if all motions in this universe were linked to previous motions in a continuous Chain-like succession then there would seem to be no possibility of free motion And so in contemporary parlance we'd say something like everything would be determined or predetermined by antecedent causes by a chain of causes But if the motion of atomic matter is not in fact predetermined by its antecedent causes That is its weight and blows But there is occasionally an unnecessary cause Swerves as we've just argued then it would not be the case that everything is determined or predetermined Sometimes there's just an atomic swerve So therefore determinism The idea that there's a universal unavoidable chain of necessary causes is not actually a threat to voluntary motion whether of animals like horses Lucretius's main example in the passage or of human action, which is clearly his main concern Now we can ask a lot of questions about this theory One Pressing one is how often do the swerves happen? So in theory perhaps there was only just one swerve ever in that case There would have been a sufficient condition met for there being Collisions and further entanglements and assuming there is a large enough chain reaction there would be a Overall cause of the formation of all worlds would be that single swerve but Lucretius seems to refer to several swerves So perhaps there's just one swerve every time a different world is formed and swerves begin the process of world formation But how often how often does that happen and do they happen within worlds and If so, are they rare or occasional within the same world? Perhaps they actually happen quite frequently like every time a free or voluntary Action is taken or every time there's a voluntary motion There must be a swerve of atoms happening in the mind happening in the soul atoms But I don't Not going to venture in answer to this question here. How often do swerves happen? But I will raise another troubling question for the theory, which is how a random swerve of atoms could possibly Allow for or explain free voluntary motion After all we want to need voluntary motions of Horses for example not to mention humans not to be random motions So I don't think that I'm only free when I just happened to not do something Because you know, I was going to smoke a cigarette and then I just happened to decide not to because there was a swerve of an atom in my mind I want to think that it's actually me doing it that I'm responsible for it, but Swerves seem to be completely random again. They happen at no determinant time and no determinant place And so the real Importance of the theory I think is that it undermines the assumptions of a determinism that would be a threat to freedom and voluntary motion now Even though there is all of this motion and swerving and colliding going on on the level of the atoms and void and their compounds According to Lucretius the universe as a whole is in a kind of steady state Despite appearing very chaotic when we Move out and look at the larger picture of the cosmos as a whole It's fairly uniform and it's pretty much always been like it is And that's because no matter ever gets added to it or subtracted from it Recalled the laws of conservation of matter the first two propositions in book one and So the distribution of matter in space is essentially Uniform although there is local variation and there is constant change going on and This is more and more evident at a smaller scale that you look at Dust motes in the Sunbeam, but then there are quadrillions of atoms moving within each dust mode But when we zoom out to the Global universe view it all essentially seems Almost static and there are abundant physical Analogies to things that appear to be at rest from a great distance But when viewed much more closely and definitely when viewed with things like microscopes look to consist of things that are greatly in motion and moving around now the next topic that Lucretius discusses at great length actually is the variety of atomic shapes So how many different shapes are there are there just a few like most of them are spheres or cubes Or are there all kinds of different shapes not just tetrahedrons dodecahedrons icosahedrons, but lots of other configurations of shapes and with features like Mountains and valleys and even hooks and eyelids Now Lucretius says the variety of atomic shapes is in fact very great For if the variety were small there wouldn't be such a great variety of things But as it is if you look at any two things in nature and examine them closely enough the same or Members of the same species including animals plants shells and so forth Will appear different and will show important differences and he makes a kind of Fractal like point that Again things from a distance appear to be very similar, but the closer and closer you view Then they Greater their variety seems to be so there must be a great variety of atomic shapes to account for these difference differences even between members of the same species and Several other considerations lead to the same conclusion There wouldn't be such a great variety of sensations for each sensory modality But there are a great variety of course of taste sounds odors colors hot and smooth smooth and rough Heart and hard and soft sensations Pleasures and pains all of those are so varied there must be a basis for them in a great variety of atomic shapes and Keep in mind that according to the theory all of these forms of sensation are ultimately forms of touch due to contact and collision of Sensible objects with sensory organs all of which completely consist of atoms and Void so there must be a great variety of shapes to account for this Great variety of the different modes of senses and then within each mode the great variety of Possible objects of sensation so the variety of atomic shapes is Responsible for all kinds of further differences. He points out like hardness liquidity Pungency evanescence and so on and then he has to work out a couple of cases Where there are apparent contradictions like things that seem liquid so that they ought to have one kind of atomic shape so that they can move freely but that are bitter and so must To some extent be sharp and tear up the sense organs These things he argues are due to the complexity of the Recombinations of such a variety of atomic shapes recall the proposition that nothing is made up of just a single Kind of atomic shape. Everything is made up of a great variety of atomic shapes Nevertheless the total variety of atomic shapes must be limited. He's careful to argue That's because if the total number of shapes was unlimited or infinite ever large is larger sizes of atoms would apparently be Necessary in order to accommodate the variations in shape and in that case There would actually become visible atoms at some point and even gigantic atoms atoms the size of whole worlds because an infinite variety of shapes would require infinitely large atoms, but of course no such large atoms are seen So the number of atomic shapes must be limited and thus the number of atomic sizes must be limited Again if the total number of shapes was infinite, there would be no limit to variation He says no boundaries of experience We would see ever greater extremes of the qualities like hot and cold pleasure and pain But the boundaries of experience of hot and cold and pleasure and pain are strictly limited on both sides So there must be a limited although admittedly great variety of atomic shapes That being said the number of atoms of any one shape must of course be infinite We've already proven that there are an infinite number of atoms moving through an infinite void space and given proves for that here he argues that the number of atoms of anyone shape or infinite for if the number were not infinite then either the shapes themselves would have to be Infinite or the total sum of matter would have to be finite but again a was just disproven that the shapes couldn't be infinite or else you would have infinitely large atoms and B was disproven earlier in book one when it was shown that there must be an infinite number of total atoms Now even a single natural kind He said if there even if there was a singular unique individual thing You would still need an infinite fund of atoms in order for it to subsist otherwise the finite number of Its component atomic shapes would have become scattered in the infinite void and never reassembled in the fullness of time but since natural kinds cohere and furthermore reproduce things of their own kind there again Must be an infinite store or fund of them to continue to do so and And in his view generation and destruction are always balanced, so there's always new things being born and Old things passing away and the old things passing away provide the material for the new things to be born And as he poetically puts it the whales of the newborn baby forever mingle with the Lamentations heard at Funerals now no compound Can consist of a single kind of element Even the ones that we commonly speak as if they do earth air water and fire So earth isn't a single element, but actually contains in itself fire water air and atoms of a great variety of shapes You know many of them cubicle, but many of them other shapes as well and After saying this Lucretius gives a digression into a kind of prayer to mother earth and how she's celebrated for giving birth and nurturing all but then as in book one and the Praise of Venus He immediately asserts all of this is false the earth itself is inanimate and The gods live far apart from all nature in perfect tranquility, so he states the Epicurean view of the gods and So these are very interesting passages to show how you know what little Concession he was making even poetically to these mythological figures Here he teases a little bit of that again, but then takes it away in the context of Demolishing the idea that there is some single element of things now all things contain atoms that have various shapes and That is why Different creatures can be nourished by the same food a single creature Consists of many different constituents a single thing can affect various senses and so on because they do have many of the same and thus compatible atoms to sort of recognize each other Everything is not so unique that each individual thing consists of its own kinds of atoms and Atomic recombination into compound bodies can be Compaired he says To the process of recombining the same limited variety of letters in order to form an infinity of different words and Sentences which he says is what he's doing as a poet. He is creating and bringing these verses into being but they fall into various natural kinds and so forth because he's got a Limited variety of letters to start with he can form an infinite number of combinations out of them but the Kinds will tend to recur because the initial letters starting out with are Limited in form and that's interesting and again Harkins back to a Fragment where Democritus points out that Tragedy and comedy are composed out of the very same letters So the most opposite seeming things and the most things having completely opposite effects on our own Emotional states and so forth Are caused by the same letters being rearranged in different ways and similarly all of the opposite sensible And perceptible phenomena hot and cold and so forth that we see are all caused by various Recombinations of the same limited number of atomic shapes and So not every combination is possible if every combination were possible We would see many more things that don't fall into natural kinds. We would more commonly see monstrosities and Chimeras coming to be But these of course are rare and not common and so Not every combination is possible You have to take into account the intervals spaces passages fastening weights blows meetings and movements how they differ not only in animate things But also in inanimate things and so there are just limitations as to how they can interlock and inter combine Now the atoms themselves lack all sensible qualities You can't directly perceive or image an atom atoms are colorless They also lack heat sound taste smell and so forth. They can't Emit anything from themselves because they're perfectly hard and solid and indivisible It's their recombination With other atoms that cause all of these sensible phenomena That is the atoms are the causes not the effects of the various sensible qualities Now need to point out that the atoms themselves are not capable of sensation They're not living things. So they're not capable of sensation living things originate from inanimate materials and Lucretius gives various kinds of evidence for this spontaneous generation the fact that inanimate food contributes to the sustenance of living things all this shows that inanimate materials can generate living things sensation depends on specific juxtapositions of specific recombinations of atoms just chance juxtapositions happening in the background don't produce any sensation and if atoms were capable of sensation then they would have to be soft and They would have to consist of parts and they would have to consist of Void then and in that case they would be destructible and in that case everything would be destructible But it's already been shown that they're indestructible and so That can't be in the atoms themselves must be incapable of sense The theory of a sensation presented by Lucretius is based on again contact or Collision and recombination of atomic compounds the changing juxtapositions and the ways that the atoms touch each other and are compounded together cause variations of sense so They themselves can't be subjects of those variations because they are the Objective basis of the variations the causes of the variations of Sensor again compared with the recombination of letters to produce different words sentences and so on and we can convey sense and emotion through words and sentences But we don't think that the Letters and punctuation marks and so forth experience emotions or sensations now the We build up to a finale to talk about the infinite Plurality of worlds not just infinite swirl of atoms in a big space, but an infinite Recombination of atoms into world structures Lucretius begs Memius to have an open mind towards this idea which he presents as new in a controversial Although it does go back to at least Democrates It's already been shown of course that void or empty space must be Infinite or indefinite that was shown in book one and that there is an infinite number of atoms ever moving through the void Showed in book one and then just repeated in book two and since there's no limit in any direction There's no reason to assume that this is the only world that could have come to be so we can only see our own Solar system actually there's one Object outside of our solar system. We can see which is which is another galaxy but There's no reason to assume that these are the only other Stars sun and moon or even other galaxies. There's an infinite amount of space out there So in an infinite number of voids Recon Atoms recombining in void space there. So why shouldn't they form worlds Since this world as he says was also made by nature as the seeds of things of their own accord Jostling from time to time were driven together in many ways Rashley idly and in vain and at last those united which suddenly cast together Might become ever and on at the beginnings of great things of earth and Sky and sea and the race of living things Wherefore again and again you must need to confess that there are here and there other gatherings of matter such as this So other worlds that form by exactly the same physical processes as ours other planets that are capable not just of having their own Land masses and atmospheres, but also other living things Alien Earths other solar systems alien living things other inhabited worlds other extraterrestrial intelligences other even extraterrestrial civilizations now that's a wonderful and interesting phenomenon to contemplate and He ends however by pointing out an implication of that if our world has come into being just like every other world Then just like every other thing that has come into being our world. We can presume will be destroyed as will every other world and other Later worlds will come to be out of the materials that were destroyed as the atoms ever clash and collide and swerve and recombine in the void But since our world we have to accept that our world came to be because of these natural causes and not the Gods we have to accept that our world is subject to Decay and destruction by those same natural causes and we might add by artificial causes of our own design but all of the temporary phenomena that the Combinations of atoms and void that we see will all Just as surely as they came into being go out of being and this includes our entire world Doesn't affect the entire universe as we already pointed out that remains a steady state As it were because no atom can know atoms or void or anything can be added to it or subtracted from it because of the laws of conservation of matter and So he ends by saying that our present-day earth already shows signs of this decay and destruction For example in the phenomenon of soil erosion and the book ends with the ancient plowman's Reflections on his land's gradual but inevitable decline now Recall that in book one we had these 12 propositions of atomism the laws of conservation of matter the proof that atoms and void exist and that there's nothing besides atoms and void the Proves that the atoms themselves are solid indestructible immutable and Indivisible that the universe is infinite that there are an infinite supply of bodies in it and that there are Recombinations which give rise to the compound natural bodies that we see We have added 12 new propositions in this book Which I've here grouped and color-coded the first three having to do with how the atoms move in void space The first being that they're in constant motion due to their weight and collisions and Redounding with other atoms That they move through the void at the same speed all as quickly as possible and That they must occasionally swerve from their straight paths at undetermined times and places But the universe as a whole is immovable Then we have the arguments about the atomic shapes that there are a great but limited variety of them There are an infinite supply for each kind of shape But no visible body consist of only a single element everything has a lot but a finite amount of variety and The atoms lack sensible qualities themselves, so they can't be apprehended directly, but they Are inanimate and are incapable of any kind of sensation sensation requires complex entities and collisions Finally, there are a plurality of other worlds including Inhabited worlds with living things that are similar to us and Our world having come to be through natural causes is subject to decay and destruction by those natural causes so those 24 propositions amount to the basic propositions of atomism and in the subsequent books we will Encounter a few more propositions, but then begin to make ethical inferences and ramifications from this physical theory of atomism