Monday, January 15, 2018

Pictures from the Honor 6x & Moral Philosophy Article Number 3

Phone Camera - Looking out into daylight is always a challenge

First real use of the camera that's within the Honor 6x 'phone.

I'm finding out more about the remote operation of the Canon camera -and transferring pictures to and from the camera - still trying to find how to mute the shutter click when in remote though.

And a remote triggered timed shot










Moral Philosophy


Final reading for this week was an article by Ruth Benedict called  'Anthropology and the Abnormal this article highlights (quite strongly) the concept of Moral Relativism.

Ruth Benedict who was an anthropologist traumatised by her father's early death and the effect it had on her mother writes in the article in a clear manner on some of the more extreme variations of 'Social Norms' in the world.

Increasingly as the world becomes more homogenised what is acceptable in major 'developed' cities around thew world looks similar.

What was very surprising to me was to read  just how different some cultures 'acceptable' behaviour was when the article was published (1934) - some of it might be partially attributed to lesser developed countries being 'out of step' but the dramatic differences point to something more around the adaptability of group behaviour .

One of the examples that Benedict cites is the belief in Witchcraft and related poisoning in Melanesia (which continues today to feed into the local behaviour and which has  provided a rich selection of research projects).

Another example of very different social mores is the Kwakiutl (of North America) and their attachment to the custom of the Potlatch along with how they seek to 'mourn' in a very different way from a Christian wake.

Benedict does (I think) make a point that even in these extreme examples there may be some common agreements around what is 'Good'.

Korean stuff

Korea is more than just a War story

I sometimes watch NHK and Ariang TV - I was incredibly impressed to see a TV programme (on NHK)  that covered sympathetically the story of a Japanese woman ( Fusako Kunita) who married a Korean man (his nationality was not known to her at the time), this was during the time Korea was  a Japanese colony - subsequently she moved to Korea where she still leads an active life  - a story that was worth hearing.

Also on Ariang TV (The Korean channel) I was surprised to hear a K-Pop Star attributing a quote to  the Philosopher  Jeremy Bentham, the quote was  -it is  Darkest under the Candlestick  -I'm not sure that it is Bentham's but mention of him and such a quote was not expected by me. (After a little research and it's not too clear what it means/refers to either).

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