1 Comment for each discussion boards (total of 3)
1) Do you identify more with the position of Aminata or Ezra? If some cultures are endangered by globalization, do we have a moral obligation to resist exporting our products or ideas? Explain your response, drawing upon both the Eastern and African ethical models we explored in this module.
End with a proverb or koan that best reflects your own global philosophy.
I identify a little with both positions of Aminata and Ezra because they both have different views that I agree with.
I feel like Aminata’s is more towards the African type. “African ethics often promote a deep sense of connectedness among all sentient beings. Everything and everyone is viewed as interdependent and naturally must care for one another”, Aminata is more for the community as whole and feels bad for those individuals, specially those less fortunate. When one is viewed as a group it is easier to see when an area is more in need then individually. On the other hand Ezra also makes strong points that you agree with. I feel like Ezra’s view is more towards Eastern Philosophy. “In addition, Eastern philosophy focuses more on how we live, and less on abstract, metaphysical concerns.” I agree with many great reasons that Ezra provides for globalization, and how one interacts with the world. In order to do so one must know the difference between you and that world in order to understand it. If people want to change the world then it needs to come from each person in particular. The quote “Globalizing a bad thing makes it worse. But globalizing a good thing is usually good” by Richard Stallman. If profit and business is handled correctly than I support the globalization of companies. I support this less than I would support less fortunate areas of the world for both profit and business.
2) Good evening all,
I might be making things a bit easy on myself for this answer, but I have to say that I agree in part with both Aminata and Ezra. What Aminata says of starvation and slave labor is accurate, and those problems need to be stopped and are exceedingly harmful. I do think Ezra makes a good point by stating that we need to understand the world before we can truly be able to fix it. Cross-cultural understanding is a key factor, I think, to harmonious living. But I think Ezra’s statement about Westernization being beneficial to cultural understanding is naive at best. Westernization does not seek to make one out of many, it seeks to override others and create the same as it already is. I have not spent much time outside of the US as I have only traveled to a few countries for a short period of time each, but I do not think everyone would like the idea of assimilating into our culture, and I feel that that is a lot of what Westernization seeks to do. I think in order to truly find a cross-cultural understanding, we instead need to follow a bit more of the Buddhist and Taoist ideals of this module, to live interrelated and interconnected in order to truly understand, and to think of others before ourselves.
For my personal proverb or koan, I found one online that reads “Out of nowhere, the mind comes forth.” I’m sure this specific one is used in reference to meditation, but I also think it is just appropriate in general. I love to hike and trail run, and I am often out in the middle of nowhere by myself for extended periods of time. I always find myself thinking more in depth about life and my experiences and the things I need to figure out, so this proverb speaks to me in that way as well. I think if we all spent a little more time doing nothing (or “being nowhere”) we might find out a little bit more about ourselves than we expected. We have all learned how to fill our time with social media and cell phones, but sometimes it can be really useful and even enjoyable to just be bored. I try (and don’t always succeed) to do one run/trail walk per week where I don’t bring my headphones and just experience things around me, and even though I am bored for the first 20 minutes, I’m always grateful for the experience afterwards. To be nowhere can be literal, or it can just be a figurative sense of your mind having nothing to do and nowhere to go, and that’s why I picked this proverb.
Thanks!
Taylor
Reference
The Warriors Way. 2009. The Mind Comes Forth | The Warriors Way. [online] Available at: <https://warriorsway.com/the-mind-comes-forth/> [Accessed 2 August 2021].
3) I identify more with the position of Ezra. I agree with Ezra that globalization produces many benefits including an increase in cross-cultural understanding, the transference of concerns for human rights and democracy, and the possibility for economic development. Although there are instances in which some cultures can be endangered by globalization such as child or slave labor, the transference for the concerns for human rights would hopefully effect the culture in a positive way in the long run. Additionally, the process of exporting ideas can import new positive ethical views and ideas from other cultures such as African ethics which, “maintains that the quality of the individual’s character is most fundamental in our moral life”(Gyekye, 2011) Or the Six Perfections of the Mahāyāna path.(Goodman, 2021) This can lead to a more diverse understanding of many ethical issues in a society. With regard to Ezra’s last point about the Koan, I believe that it is important to both be mindful about ones actions and to try and help others.
“To see the view, you have to climb the mountain.” (Doyle et al,.2012)
Although there is many different iterations of this proverb I chose this one because I grew up around mountains. I am of the mindset that you have to put in work in order to achieve your goals.
Reference:
Doyle, C. C., Shapiro, F. R., & Mieder, W. (2012). The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. Yale University Press.
Goodman, Charles, “Ethics in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/ethics-indian-buddhism/>.
Gyekye, Kwame, “African Ethics”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2011/entries/african-ethics/>.
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