Issue 88为我所用小组第七次作业

bitdxcUID: 2465290

TOPIC: ISSUE88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
WORDS: 508          TIME: 0:43:32          DATE: 2008-3-31                15错

Do technologies not only influence but also determine social customs and ethics, as the speaker stands? Although technologies have affected the ethics and customs, they can not ultimately decide the moralities and traditions of our society. On the contrast, the development of technologies should be controlled under the bound of social customs and moralities.

Admittedly, technologies have a large effect on social customs. From the Revival of Learning, the science and technology, going out from the fetter of religion, has become main stream in our society, which changes the society largely from all aspects including social customs.  For example, with the development of mechanical production, more and more women, who are traditionally considered to stay at home, to do some house work and to foster children, go into the work place, becoming the same labor pools with men.  Another example lies in the way for people to communicate with each other. In the past, people can only write letter to associate with their friends who live far away from them. But such conventional way is being gradually replaced by mobile phone and emails with the rapid advancement of telecommunication technologies.

However, the fact that technologies influence customs does not mean that they can decide our moralities and customs, which overemphasize the functions and influence of technologies. The role of technologies can only be seen as one of the factors that have some effects on the traditions and ethics. There exist many other factors, such as culture, history, racism and so forth, which play vital and useful roles in the forming of customs and ethics. Therefore, customs and rituals can not be determined and even influenced and changed by technologies. It is for the reason that such customs and ethics were formed hundreds or even thousands years ago under the interaction between culture and racism, the status of which can not be waved by technologies. For example, the traditional festivals such as Christmas in Western World and Spring Festival in China remain unchanged though they are under the influence of the technologies.

On the other hand, the development of technologies should be under the control of social moralities and customs, which can prevent the excessive growing of technologies from destroying and damaging our society.  It is because the technology is a double blade sword which has both positive and negative effects on human being and society. Cloning technology, for example, can provide another effective method to cure disease of people, which can largely decrease the dead rate of humans and make a great contribution to prosperity of society. But using such technology to clone human is a crime to the precious lives of human beings, which should be criticized from moral aspect and inhibited by governments.

To sum up, the assertion that technologies not only make effects on social customs and ethics but also determine them exaggerate the functions and influence of technologies. On the contrast, we should carefully supervise the development of technologies, making the improvement in technologies not go outside the bound of moralities and ethics.