issue88 【红尘笑看沧桑】互改小组第7次作业 by moon

bigeyes_1314UID: 2736288

12.20
题目：ISSUE88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
字数：420
用时：00:37:57
日期：2009/12/20 11:24:40


The author asserts that technologies influence and determine social customs and ethics. Admittedly technologies produce essential impacts on social customs and ethics, however, technologies do not determine social customs and ethics.

On one hand, social customs and ethics are influenced by technologies. Nowadays, along with the rapid development of technologies, lots of social customs and ethics change. For example, a growing number of people email to each other or make a phone call to communicate with each other. On some special festivals such as New Year, young people prefer to email to each other to say Happy New Year to express their best wishes.

Meanwhile, some social ethics also change with the development of technologies. Take the internet marriage for instance , more and more young people got married on the Internet. They formed their own family even have their babies in their Internet house. It is hardly imagined to happen about decades of years ago. Because of the development of the technologies, the ideas and attitudes of people change.

On the other hand, although technologies influence social customs and ethics, technologies do not determine social customs and ethics. Actually social customs and ethics are more influenced and determined by many kinds of social factors such as social environment and ecnomic development. Why China and the United States have so many different social customs and ethics? The most important reason is that we live in different countries and people are brought up in different societies. For example, when Americans get married, the wife will take after husband's family name while Chinese wives do not. As for cooking, there are also lots of different customs between Chinese and Americans. From these different social customs and ethics, we can possibly conclude that social customs and ethics are determined by lots of complicated aspects.

At the same time, though lots of social customs and ethics change along with technologies, the essence of these social customs and ethics do not change. The way of people with which they use to communicate with each other changes, the wishes which they want to express to each other do not change. The ethics of some young people's marriage change, the heart of pursuing their own happiness do not change.

From what has been discussed above, we can safely arrive in the conclusion that technologies actually influence the social customs and ethics, however, technologies do not determine them. We should make good use of technologies and promote social customs and ethics which will enhance the development of the whole society.
   
题目：ARGUMENT202 - Humans arrived in the Kaliko Islands about 7,000 years ago, and within 3,000 years most of the large mammal species that had lived in the forests of the Kaliko Islands had become extinct. Yet humans cannot have been a factor in the species' extinctions, because there is no evidence that the humans had any significant contact with the mammals. Further, archaeologists have discovered numerous sites where the bones of fish had been discarded, but they found no such areas containing the bones of large mammals, so the humans cannot have hunted the mammals. Therefore, some climate change or other environmental factor must have caused the species' extinctions.
字数：307
用时：00:30:00
日期：2009/12/20 11:24:40


In this argument, the arguer concludes that some climate change or other environmental factors caused the species' extinctions and humans can not been a factor in the species' extinction. To support the conclusion, the argue points out that there is no evidence to show that humans had any significant contact with the mammals. In addition, the arguer reasons that the bones of fish have been discarded while archaeologists found no such areas containing the bones of large mammals. This argument suffers from several fallacies.

To begin with, the arguer assumes that humans cannot have been a factor in the species' extinction. There is no evidence which can show that humans had any significant contact with the mammals does not mean that humans cannot play essential roles in species' extinction. All species are related to each other while humans must influence other species in the society.

Secondly, the mere fact that the sites where the bones of fish had been discarded does not contain the bones of large mammals is insufficient to conclude that humans cannot have hunted the mammals. The arguer fails to take into account that maybe the mammals were so huge that the humans only brought a small part of mammals back home and ate it. And the arguer does not consider the cooperation among humans to finish the same task, which means lots of humans may help each other and hunted the mammals.

In addition, the arguer fails to provide any evidence that some climate change or other environmental factors must have caused the species' extinctions. Admittedly
climate change and environment factors will influence the existent of the species, humans' behaviors also play favorable or unfavorable role on other species' existent.

To sum up, the arguer's conclusion are based on several flaws which fails to convince me to get the same conclusion with the arguer. To make it more convincing, the arguer would have to provide more information regarding the  mammals  in the Kaliko Islands at that time, for example, the diet of them, where they lived before humans arrived on the islands and where after that. To better evaluate the argument, we need to know more about the humans' living ways in the Kaliko Islands; particularly, we need to know what humans did to the mammals.