请教Issue 88 的问题：social customs and ethics的决定因素是什么？

albertzlhUID: 168106

请教Issue 88 的问题：social customs and ethics的决定因素是什么？
BTW，简单的题目似乎更难写，希望给点建议。顺便帮忙看看习作：
88. "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."

The speaker asserts that technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics. On the one hand, I admit/concede that technologies do have some influence on social customs and ethics. On the other hand, I cannot agree with the statement that technologies could determine social customs and ehtics. Here I will explain a few of the most important reasons to support my position.

In the first place, with more technologies coming into being, people's life will be changed sometimes dramatically and therefore social customs and ethics will also be influenced. To illustrate this point, I'd like to take television as an example. On the one hand, with a TV set, people will spent less time in direct communication with others, as a result, some social customs would be changed. On the other hand, TV programs will present many different views on social customs and ethical issues, in this way, the audience's opinion and belief would be influenced.

In the second place, social customs and ethics are formed through very long time during which many factors have an  effect and technologies cannot play the major role. Among the factors contributing to social customs and ethics, culture and tradition are essentially the most important ones. To begin with, customs is always the product of culture. For example, Americans will embrace each other when they meet together after a period of separation. On the contrary, Chinese will shake their hands for a very long time. The difference between these two customs is mainly due to the difference of the two cultures. In other words, Americans are always open-minded while Chinese are relatively traditional. In addition, ethical standard is largely determined by people's value and view of the world. Given the fact that sometimes technologies do have certain influence on ethics. For instance, cloning technique provoked heat debate about when does a person's life really begin, at the time of fertilization or after the child being born. I still believe that ethical principles are decided mainly by people's value. There is an good example to demonstrate this.

In summary, technologies affect social customs and ethics by influencing people's daily life while customs and ethical standard are actually determined by culture and tradition.

albertzlhUID: 168106

social 是同时修饰customs 和 ethics吗？

大闻UID: 202356

I think you are too careful to analyze your  subtopics, and your examples don not closely relate to topic.

albertzlhUID: 168106

Thank you very much for your comment!