Cultural relativism is the idea that the moral principles someone has are solely determined by the culture one lives in. These ideas seem to make sense because we as a culture understand that the judgments people make in a different culture will differ from ours whether we choose to support it or not. Our culture has different moral judgments as well and does not look at something like killing someone for stealing as morally right since our culture values human life above theft. Cultural relativism does not exist because some principles are universal and not relative only to culture. People also have the ability to think morally for themselves so morality is relative to someone’s point of view.
Mill believed it was extremely important that an indivduals free will should not be crushed by society. Mill believed indivduality is what it is to be human and anything that takes away your indivuduality is wrong. Mill state in his book On Liberty “Whatever crushes indivduality is despotism.” Despostism is the idea of dictatorship so Mill is saying that anything that stops our indivduality for example religion is controlling us and not allowing us to be free, which is wrong. Althought we are free we must consider others, this means that we can use our freedom however we must make sure we are not spoiling the freedom of others. This is supported by Paul Kurtz who states humans have the right “to satisfy their tastes” but however they shold not “impose their values on others.” For example you may want to murder someone with your free will however if you go ahead and commit the crime you are negatively effecting others in society and this is wrong.
He means that if the venture needs you to be anyone else but yourself, it will lead to no good. This reveals to me that Thoreau believes strongly in the individual, being yourself, and seeking your own path. This quote is also applicable to modern life because many ventures nowadays require you to conform for some purpose. The second aphorism I remembered is “Our life is frittered away by detail...Simplicity, simplicity.” Thoreau means that our focus and attention to detail now in society and culture do nothing but to waste our lives away needlessly. He believes simplicity is the better choice.
He found this to be a necessity, order for him to speak universal truths and express his own genius and be believable to others. Emerson felt that nothing in this world can bring one peace but one’s self and that only the triumph of principles can bring one peace. These last two lines from “Self Reliance” essay represent Emerson’s individualistic concepts (Ralph 4). Emerson values the equal individual that is in touch with their universal genius. Fredrick Douglass is evidence of discovering his own brilliance and universal truths.
Behaviorist also focus more on how we act rather than our brain and nervous systems, they don’t take mental processes into consideration. Cognitivist, however, study mental processes in an individual by focusing on specific behavior and interpreting those behaviors into mental processes so we can fully understand what we do. Finally, behaviorism deals with the way we behave in different environments. They also believe people pick up their traits from their own experiences. On the other hand, cognitivists believe that by reflecting on our own experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world.
On the political side, everyone is free to reject, to revolute and simply to say no. Another aspect of freedom which the American Dream stresses is the freedom of religion as the early founders of the American society have suffered a lot from religious abuse. Freedom of religious beliefs is a basic right for everyone, and any difference in religion cannot be a reason for difference in the gained rights in society. As the American Dream has given great value to the individual, the freedom of expressing person’s opinion and thoughts has imposed itself. Individualism that the American Dream has believed in has made people believe that as they are free individuals everyone should have an opinion and it must at least be heard and respected.
What is more amazing is that Laozi and Plato had almost the same idea about the ideal society. In Laozi's theory, the right way to rule a country is to strengthen people's bodies so that they could do more work and simplify their minds so that they would content with their positions. In his mind the ideal citizens of a society is the humblest, the most unwise and ignorant ones, while the most intelligent ones should see to that. He believed if ordinary people always stay ignorant, there would be no riot and the rulers need not do anything to keep their authority. The whole world would be a better place.
Unfortunately, since the ideal of a utopia doesn’t exist, there are the citizens of a nation, and then there are the citizens of that nation who are “more equal,” or have better rights and more freedoms such as suffrage and equality that the rest of the populace can only dream of. Separated by millennia of human experience, Socrates and Marin Luther King Jr. were each men who realized that their respective nations were tantalizingly close to reaching the ideal of a truly great society, but were hindered by but a few glaring disparities. These were men who accepted their government with its strengths and its flaws and were proactive enough to instigate powerful and meaningful change. They each attempted to correct the system in which they lived, wishing not to completely redirect its path but to alter its direction towards the narrow lane of righteousness and just action. As is evident in the Apology, Socrates believes that for a government to properly function and provide for the basic freedoms of
Existence of a powerful leader is really important in fascism mainly because of its understanding of human reason. According to fascist ideology, truth cannot be known by unreliable human reason; we can only reach the truth through intuition and only special people, who are leaders, have intuition. Leaders know the best for the ordinary people by the help of his intuition. People believe that when they follow their leader without any hesitation, they will become powerful. Therefore, Mr. Wenger is elected as a leader since students believe his intuition, power and authority.
They also believe that a person's subjective view of the world is more important than objective reality. The humanistic perspective on personality deals exclusively with human behavior. Humanistic psychologists believe that human nature includes a natural drive towards personal growth, that we as humans have the ability to choose what they do regardless of environment, and that humans are pretty much conscious beings that are not controlled by unconscious needs and conflicts. Two major theorists associated with this theory of personal development that impacted humanism are Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. Humanism places an emphasis on the assumption that all humans are inherently good in nature and possess free will.