Oct
2014
The Society shaped our values
By finished reading this week’s article, I started thinking of how I became who I am today. Is my gene making me? The society? The people who around me? Or the past experiences shaped me? I look back and realize is the way I lived and the place s where I have been to and the people who I met taught me how to see things today, and the values I chose has changed during times.
The one point from the article “A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices That Shape Our Lives ” I found most interested me is “The proposition that individual human beings are programmed into their values, either by the influence of genes on personality or by social pressures, can neither be proven nor refuted.” (6) I agree with this point, but I truly believe that the influences of social pressures are more important and superior compares to genes in the terms of shaping one’s values, because different people has different evaluations system that might be formed by the society or one’s past experiences. So the way people see the world is different.
For example, culture background is part of the society pressure. Because people who come from different countries have variety standards to define “beauty”, some girls want to be pale while some want to be tan. This is not about genes but the way you desire how you look like and how the others look at you. Moreover, the environment surrounds people are another essential part and it will shape our interests on a large scale. Some guys are super fans of Lakers, while some are fans of Indiana Pacers. Your genes might be decided that you are addicted to basketball, but it doesn’t lead you to choose which team. Your family, your friends and even the city you were born could be the reason. So the society shaped our evaluation of things and our beliefs. Just like the article says, “personal evaluations and beliefs that propel us to action, to a particular kind of behavior and life.”(6)
mburman
October 10, 2014 at 9:00 pm (10 years ago)I agree with you, when you stated that every human is fully competent to set their own value system- with the help of personal influences (sense experience, deductive logic, emotion, intuition, authority, and science), without the influence of societal pressure. However aren’t those exact things, the experience, the authority and the science part of the societal pressure? If those those pressures took a sudden shift towards a different perspective, would your set of values shift with it?
The article states, “In medieval and even modern Japan, among other cultures, personal beliefs about correct behavior commonly lead to ritual suicide.” While this result is somewhat extreme in the eyes of western cultures, I wonder if the idea can be translated to western values. The idea that comes to mind is the western diet vs. eastern. In some asian countries it is acceptable to eat dog. While this practice is not encouraged, and in most cases illegal. This view is based in our value for dogs as domestic pets rather than sustenance. Do you think if the western view toward dogs shifted, would be able to accept the new societal pressure to eat dogs?
I think that societal pressure has a huge effect on how we chose our own set of values.
xx
October 12, 2014 at 8:05 pm (10 years ago)Hi, First I want to say I completely agree with your idea of how “the societal pressure has a huge effect on how we chose our own set of values.” Just like what I stated in my post, “I truly believe that the influences of social pressures are more important and superior compares to genes in the terms of shaping one’s values.” (2nd paragraph) And in my opinion, if those pressures such as authority and science had changed, the way that human beings view the world will change no matter what.
When talk about the difference between Western and Eastern diet, as you said, “In some Asian countries it is acceptable to eat dog. While this practice is not encouraged, and in most cases illegal. This view is based in our value for dogs as domestic pets rather than sustenance.” I think it is the same thing as horsemeat is very, very popular in many western countries especially in France. And eating gorillas, the endangered animal is an old tradition in Africa. I believe these eating habits connect to the long history of different culture backgrounds. I must to say I do not eat any kind of meat listed above, but if one day the western view towards dogs shifted due to many reasons, people will accept the new societal pressure. For example, if the end of world coming and there are only people and dogs alive, will you prefer to eat people or dogs? (no offense) I think the social pressure is really playing a big part on how we choose our values.
Because you stated that in some cases eating dogs is illegal, so I am thinking about as one essential part of society pressures, do you think the way people create law system is to enhance human beings values or to stop the potential dangers of human instincts? Since the law system created by human, so who can really define what is right and what is legal?
Singasong
October 10, 2014 at 10:18 pm (10 years ago)I quite agree with your idea about the importance how environment and society around influence humans’ values. Like you said, different people has different evaluation system that formed by the society or their past experience. The examples that you gave support more upon the idea that how society and personal experience can build one person’s preferences. Moreover, what I concern, is how our culture and the environment push us to try to become one expected perfect person. While when we are young, our parents, teachers are always teach us about what are good values and what are bad; during this period, they were gradually building our values and try to build a “good” person in general. And different culture have different standard of what values they regard most. For example, in China, the tradition and the history make people regard filial piety as the most important values. Thus I agree with you about the outside world build a person more than their gene.
xx
October 12, 2014 at 8:07 pm (10 years ago)Hi
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