Philosophy Benedicts Views
Submitted by mr626guy on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
- Category: Religion
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Philosophy Benedicts Views
Ruth Benedict's views on cultural relativism states that all cultures are to a large extent different from each other in conditions of morals and practices. What one society sees as normal is what that society considers to be moral. Benedict also states that the values of one culture are determined by its usefulness of that culture. One culture may have different sets of values compared to another group of people. Benedict states that all cultures values are equal to eachother and there are no culture values are morally superior to another.
When taking Benedict's Views on cultural relativism and assessing the work of Father Gabriel (played by Jeremy Irons) and the other Jesuit priests inside the missionary I would have to say that he would not agree on the missionary work. He would say that the movie had a paradox in it because missionary work does change some of your views. Benedict would say that cultural relativism involves not interfering with another cultures values or practices, and that missionary work in general changes you values, practices and beliefs regarding what is that society's norm.
The activities that took place inside the mission would lead me to believe that Father Gabriel and the other Jesuit priests lived in a society where they had the love and care they needed. They had the things they needed in life to be happy inside there
community. An example is when the Cardinal was visiting the missionary, even the
Cardinal was surprised that the natives were learning and helping eachother so that one community could survive.
I feel that Benedict would say that the activities of the Mendoza, the slave trader (played by Robert DeNiro) was true cultural relativism because he was doing what he was raised to do. It would seem that the slave trader lived a life of hate. He was brought up in which most societies would believe to be unmoral. An example of this is in the...
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