Ethics in America` essays

Ethics in America` essays In the beginning I felt as though I was taking a class with no meaning. I wondered to my self how will I ever stay awake through this. This is how I recall my first day of class, as we watched a video about Greek civilization. I opened my book titled Western Vision and American Values thinking this may be interesting. As I got into the first chapter Contesting World Traditions I grew confused and disinterested by the complexity of the readings which seemed to be a lot of philosophical jibber jabber but as I opened my mind to the readings I was exposed to a deeper understanding of American History including the birth of the system of government a values that are now the core of America. In chapter one of our text Contesting World traditions we learned of the many views and religious beliefs that have shaped our country. The first reading by Eagle Man a contemporary Native American writer shares his views on nature and humanity and the responsibility we have to nature and mother earth as human beings. Eagle Man expressed that man see views himself as being related to all things. Eagle wrote; Our survival is dependent on the realization that mother earth is a truly holy being that all things in this world are holy and must not be violated, and that we must share and be generous with one another. (Eagle Man 1992 pg 5 Kirkpatrick Signature Series Reader). This chapter touches the issues of environmental traditional and religious values. Chapter two focused on the rationalization of these traditions. Week three focused on the Western Vision its influences on America including Greece and Britain. A reading that sticks in my head is the Character of Citizens written by Aristotle in c. 350 B.C. in which Aristotle expresses the type of citizen a functional society must be comprised of, this my understanding of Aristotles writing. In reading Aristotles dissertation The Character of ci...