Benedict pg. 124-130 PDF

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Benedict pg. 124-130...

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Benedict pg. 124-130 Sunday, January 27, 2019

4:27 PM

Benedict - The Case for Moral Relativism Definitions • Anthropology - the study of human societies and cultures and their development • Trance - a half-conscious state, depart • Catalepsy - a medical condition characterized by a trance or seizure with a loss of sensation and consciousness accompanied by rigidity of the body • Exogamic - the custom of marrying outside a community, clan, or tribe • Megalomaniac - a person who is obsessed with their own power • Uncongenial - not friendly or pleasant to be with • Aberrant - departing from an accepted standard Notes • Ruth Benedict ○ Sets forth a theory of moral relativism in which moral principles are based on the common beliefs and practices of social systems § Since these systems and beliefs can very, so can morality ○ Idea-practice pattern of the culture ○ We have to look to isolated civilizations to find localizes social norms ○ In a modern civilization, the mannerisms of anger, joy, grief, etc are more variable than any one culture would suggest ○ What is an abnormal??? ○ Culturally discarded traits - homosexuality ○ Tribe of Melanesia § Slaves to fear § Scared they will be poisoned § No sharing, no working together out of fear § There was one guy who was crazy and ran around stabbing people

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There was one person who liked to be helpful despite the opposite tendencies of his culture □ This guy was seen as crazy Kwakiutl § Hunted and killed people and felt no remorse? □ "my prince has died today, and you go with him"

Benedict uses illustrations to show that normality is culturally defined ○ Tribe of Melanesia - weird fears so it was every man for himself ○ Kwakiutl - if someone died you kill another person? Normality is culturally defined ○ The selection that different cultures have made in the course of history within the great circumference of potential behavior is of great significance ○ Normality is a term for the socially elaborated segment of human behavior in any culture ○ Abnormality is the segment that that particular civilization does not use ○ The very eyes with which we see the problem are conditioned by the long traditional habits of our own society ○ We don't associate morality with human nature ○ We recognize that morality differs in every society and is a convenient term for socially approved habits ○ It is morally good = it is habitual ○ Good is what society has approved ○ We have an independent standard of right and wrong by which they may be judged...