In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald depicts the conflicts and contradictions between men and women about society, family, love, and money, literally mirroring the patriarchal society constantly challenged by feminism in t...In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald depicts the conflicts and contradictions between men and women about society, family, love, and money, literally mirroring the patriarchal society constantly challenged by feminism in the 1920s of America. This paper intends to compare the features of masculinism and feminism in three aspects: gender, society, and morality. Different identifications of gender role between men and women lead to female protests against male superiority and pursuits of individual liberation. Meanwhile, male unshaken egotism and gradually expanded individualism of women enable them both in lack of sound moral standards. But compared with the female, male moral pride drives them with much more proper moral judge, which reflects Fitzgerald's support of the masculine society. Probing into the confrontation between masculinism and feminism, it is beneficial for further study on how to achieve equal coexistence and harmony between men and women.展开更多
Personal ethics are strongly influenced by emotions, particularly secondary emotions, because these emotions expand ethical reasoning and development as the child matures. A well-developed consciousness profoundly inf...Personal ethics are strongly influenced by emotions, particularly secondary emotions, because these emotions expand ethical reasoning and development as the child matures. A well-developed consciousness profoundly influences a person's actions and conduct when solving problems of what is thought, or taught to be, right or wrong Compelling neurological evidence supports the claim that children begin to develop enduring ethical standards at an early age and that these standards are largely based on the experiences of early childhood. Essentially, the innate sense of ethics requires nurturing during infancy before it can be cognitively understood and practiced in maturity. In biological terms, the development of neural networks that regulate emotional growth, and subsequently, the capacity for ethical discrimination, depends on the infant's early social environment. Thus, the toddler's early epigenetic experiences enhance, or impede, its innate still dormant genetic potential. Importantly, personal character development and ethical discrimination begins long before the child's formal educational years. As a consequence, early learning has to discover ways of conserving adaptive thinking which can be applied to the choices that may confront future generations. Early ethics education, including accurate access to scientific, medical, and technological knowledge, is thus critical. Future generations will increasingly require education from a global perspective when making major ethical decisions in areas, such as nuclear technology, disposal of wastes, preservation of biodiversity, global warming, and unregulated human population growth. As long as our culture continues to reflect advances in science and technology, there is an obligation to make science education overlap with crucial periods in the advancement of ethical consciousness. Significantly, when considering the human capacity for excess at times of conflict, it is incumbent on the scientific community to integrate research-based knowledge with wide-ranging learning and problem-solving skills. Bioscience ethics, the established interface bridging applied science and applied bioethics, can assist in this process of integration. To become fully responsible adults, we must share our extraordinary cognitive talents and respect life on earth in all its rich diversity. In biological terms, human uniqueness resides primarily in our brains with its products being co-operation in family and ancestral units, long education, sophisticated language and culture, and importantly, ethical consciousness-all attributes held in trust by knowledge and wisdom for future generations.展开更多
One of cinematic science fiction's most popular plot lines is to imagine an invasion of earth by an advanced alien species. James Cameron's Avatar turns the tables on that premise. Humans attack a peaceful, less tec...One of cinematic science fiction's most popular plot lines is to imagine an invasion of earth by an advanced alien species. James Cameron's Avatar turns the tables on that premise. Humans attack a peaceful, less technologically sophisticated race in order to exploit their natural resources. Driving the assault is a mining company hell-bent on improving its bottom line. The villain of Avatar is not a person, but those people who seek profit. To put it starkly, business is evil. But why has the entertainment business cast business as a heavy? Hollywood has now made Immanuel Kant as the director of moral sentiment. Not, of course, directly, but rather the ghostwriter of Hollywood's ideas about morality. The works of Kant are not discussed or debated in the public arena, but their principles have influenced the way people think about what is just and good. The ideas of Kant have filtered into the contemporary discourse and are one of the key ingredients in the national dialogue over what it means to be moral. The categorical imperative holds that an action is moral only if it is free from calculation of reward or gain. To be truly, moral people must abandon all practical considerations of need or desire; they must be directed by pure good will alone. Business people can never measure up to Kant's standard. They always make choices based on cost and benefit. Their businesses would quickly go bankrupt, if they made decisions on good will rather than interest. Kant's principles have raised the moral standard so high that even the common inclination to seek one's own benefit is looked on with some mistrust. In Kantian-influenced movies, business people have come to play the evil antagonist; they seek gain instead of the good. How would Adam Smith, the father of economic rationality, respond to popularized Kantian morality?展开更多
文摘In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald depicts the conflicts and contradictions between men and women about society, family, love, and money, literally mirroring the patriarchal society constantly challenged by feminism in the 1920s of America. This paper intends to compare the features of masculinism and feminism in three aspects: gender, society, and morality. Different identifications of gender role between men and women lead to female protests against male superiority and pursuits of individual liberation. Meanwhile, male unshaken egotism and gradually expanded individualism of women enable them both in lack of sound moral standards. But compared with the female, male moral pride drives them with much more proper moral judge, which reflects Fitzgerald's support of the masculine society. Probing into the confrontation between masculinism and feminism, it is beneficial for further study on how to achieve equal coexistence and harmony between men and women.
文摘Personal ethics are strongly influenced by emotions, particularly secondary emotions, because these emotions expand ethical reasoning and development as the child matures. A well-developed consciousness profoundly influences a person's actions and conduct when solving problems of what is thought, or taught to be, right or wrong Compelling neurological evidence supports the claim that children begin to develop enduring ethical standards at an early age and that these standards are largely based on the experiences of early childhood. Essentially, the innate sense of ethics requires nurturing during infancy before it can be cognitively understood and practiced in maturity. In biological terms, the development of neural networks that regulate emotional growth, and subsequently, the capacity for ethical discrimination, depends on the infant's early social environment. Thus, the toddler's early epigenetic experiences enhance, or impede, its innate still dormant genetic potential. Importantly, personal character development and ethical discrimination begins long before the child's formal educational years. As a consequence, early learning has to discover ways of conserving adaptive thinking which can be applied to the choices that may confront future generations. Early ethics education, including accurate access to scientific, medical, and technological knowledge, is thus critical. Future generations will increasingly require education from a global perspective when making major ethical decisions in areas, such as nuclear technology, disposal of wastes, preservation of biodiversity, global warming, and unregulated human population growth. As long as our culture continues to reflect advances in science and technology, there is an obligation to make science education overlap with crucial periods in the advancement of ethical consciousness. Significantly, when considering the human capacity for excess at times of conflict, it is incumbent on the scientific community to integrate research-based knowledge with wide-ranging learning and problem-solving skills. Bioscience ethics, the established interface bridging applied science and applied bioethics, can assist in this process of integration. To become fully responsible adults, we must share our extraordinary cognitive talents and respect life on earth in all its rich diversity. In biological terms, human uniqueness resides primarily in our brains with its products being co-operation in family and ancestral units, long education, sophisticated language and culture, and importantly, ethical consciousness-all attributes held in trust by knowledge and wisdom for future generations.
文摘One of cinematic science fiction's most popular plot lines is to imagine an invasion of earth by an advanced alien species. James Cameron's Avatar turns the tables on that premise. Humans attack a peaceful, less technologically sophisticated race in order to exploit their natural resources. Driving the assault is a mining company hell-bent on improving its bottom line. The villain of Avatar is not a person, but those people who seek profit. To put it starkly, business is evil. But why has the entertainment business cast business as a heavy? Hollywood has now made Immanuel Kant as the director of moral sentiment. Not, of course, directly, but rather the ghostwriter of Hollywood's ideas about morality. The works of Kant are not discussed or debated in the public arena, but their principles have influenced the way people think about what is just and good. The ideas of Kant have filtered into the contemporary discourse and are one of the key ingredients in the national dialogue over what it means to be moral. The categorical imperative holds that an action is moral only if it is free from calculation of reward or gain. To be truly, moral people must abandon all practical considerations of need or desire; they must be directed by pure good will alone. Business people can never measure up to Kant's standard. They always make choices based on cost and benefit. Their businesses would quickly go bankrupt, if they made decisions on good will rather than interest. Kant's principles have raised the moral standard so high that even the common inclination to seek one's own benefit is looked on with some mistrust. In Kantian-influenced movies, business people have come to play the evil antagonist; they seek gain instead of the good. How would Adam Smith, the father of economic rationality, respond to popularized Kantian morality?