what behavior and life style accepted in society today will be regarded tomorrow by the next generation as illogical and unreasonable?

Peer Replies “What an insidious thing is this culture amidst which we live. It permeates our environment, and we think we are being reasonable and logical when, all too often, we have been molded by the ethos, what the Germans call the zeitgeist, or the culture of our place and time. Because my wife and I have had the opportunity to live in 10 different countries, we have seen the effect of the ethos on behavior. Customs which are perfectly acceptable in one culture are viewed as unacceptable in another; language which is polite in some places is viewed as abhorrent in others. People in every culture move within a cocoon of self-satisfied self-deception, fully convinced that the way they see things is the way things really are. Our culture tends to determine what foods we like, how we dress, what constitutes polite behavior, what sports we should follow, what our taste in music should be, the importance of education, and our attitudes toward honesty. It also influences men as to the importance of recreation or religion, influences women about the priority of career or childbearing, and has a powerful effect on how we approach procreation and moral issues. All too often, we are like puppets on a string, as our culture determines what is ‘cool’. David R. Stone Koffi Fiti Discussion Question # 1 When David R. Stone stated that: we have been molded by the ethos or the culture of our place and time He is referring to how time and space are one of the main factor that control who we are as a society and where our norms and values comes from. Reason and logic are different depending on what part of the globe a person are born and raise. While it is perfectly reasonable and logical to establish eye contact with your parents when they are talking to you in the western society, this behavior is unacceptable in some African society. This is an example of how place (Location) affect culture, which in return affect our logic and reason. An African children born of African parents that lived in the western society will abide by the culture of his location and establish an eye contact with his parents when talking to them. Even if the parents try to raise him based on African tradition, they will succumb to the western culture sooner or later due to the location pressure. In addition, reason and logic are heavily affected by time. As generations passes humanity in whole tend to change behavior and adapt. In the past not too long ago, segregation based off of race was reasonable and logical. Some races thought they were superior to other. Today that reason and logic is obsolete. All human race are considered equal under the law. This may not be true in some individual mindset, but as a society we lawfully agreed on it. The generation that never experienced segregation will find it totally illogical and unreasonable that such a belief was reasonable at one point in our society. These shows us how significant time and place can drive a culture definition, reason and logic. This brings me to a question: what behavior and life style accepted in society today will be regarded tomorrow by the next generation as illogical and unreasonable? Peer Replies – you must respond/reply individually. Add value to the discussion. Avoid using words such as, “I agree” or “I like what you wrote” type of comments. Each reply must be a minimum of 6 – 8 sentences. Refrain from using short, choppy, fragmented sentences.) Peer Replies Antonio Maidonado My fellow Classmates, David Stones quote concerning the ethos of each unique culture and its concurrent traditions affect in shaping the minds of individuals, is an analyzation and criticism that is just, but in my belief one that is alluding to a much bigger critical issue philosophically rather than culturally. The necessity of customs and traditions, good and bad, that have served to shapes society and civilizations across the centuries of our known history are absolutely necessary and their importance cannot be understated. Hence, why I think that this quote alludes to a greater issue, one of the philosophical relativism that has plagued the minds of empirical and rationale humans since the beginning of time. Relativism is the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist only in relation to culture and society as a whole, related only to historical context, that there are no absolutes. The question then, of how best should we live? and by what authority? Have forced us to question and continually reassert our answers into the perspectives and beliefs of the zeitgeist, ever-evolving it. This question of Mr.Stone’s is a synthesis of a much greater perspective involving epistemology (theory of knowledge, what distinguishes justified belief from opinion) and human evolutionary psychology. I would mostly ardently agree with Stone’s last line though, about us being puppets on strings. How each of us is influenced, controlled and becomes a byproduct of our environment and circumstance is a line of inquiry that no matter the larger questions at hand, we all could be better off with identifying and questioning just where the puppeteer’s strings connect and where do they lead? and just who are the puppeteers, for that matter? Peer Replies – you must respond/reply individually. Add value to the discussion. Avoid using words such as, “I agree” or “I like what you wrote” type of comments. Each reply must be a minimum of 6 – 8 sentences. Refrain from using short, choppy, fragmented sentences.)