Cultural Pride
Q&A Webcast Episode: 30 January 2011, Question 6
In this segment of the Q&A Webcast of 30 January 2011, Dr. Diana Hsieh answered a question on cultural pride.
Is it wrong to be proud of or obtain your pride from your culture, family and ancestors? Is it correct to have pride in one's culture, family and ancestors? For example in Samoan society a Pe'a is a traditional male Samoan tattoo. According to my friend the pe'a tells him that the wearer has pride in their culture, their family and their ancestors. It is not just a physical marking but an indicator of his/her soul according to him.
My Answer, In Brief: Pride, whether as virtue or feeling, must be selective and based on your own choices and achievements. To speak of "pride in one's culture" is to distort the term beyond all sensible meaning.
Tags: Body Modification, Culture, Discrimination, Pride, Race, Relativism
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- Duration: 6:22
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Every Sunday morning, philosopher Dr. Diana Hsieh answers four meaty questions applying rational principles to the challenges of real life in her live hour-long internet radio show, Philosophy in Action Advice Radio. Greg Perkins of Objectivist Answers co-hosts the show. The audience can ask follow-up questions and make comments in the text-based chat.
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Dr. Diana Hsieh is a philosopher specializing in practical ethics. She received her Ph.D in philosophy from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2009. Her dissertation argued that Thomas Nagel's "problem of moral luck" can be resolved by an Aristotelian theory of moral responsibility. She began podcasting in 2009, then webcasting in 2010.
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