Custom «Verstehen» Essay Paper Sample

Globalization has enabled people to move from one part to another world wide in search for greener pastures. This has made our societies to have diversity in terms of culture. Consequently cultural related conflicts have become common in our societies due to lack people to appreciate a culture that is different from theirs. This has made social researchers to come up with concepts on how to ensure peace and functionality in a multicultural society. It is very crucial for as people to understand concept s of free will and principles of moral and immoral character deeply in order to improve our relationship with people from other cultures. It should be noted that what is moral in one culture may be immoral in another culture and there is no need to judge or despise one another based on cultural differences.

Culture is one of the major principles of moral and immoral character. Every society has what it refers to as moral and immoral depending on their cultural provisions. For instance, alcohol is taken as moral in some societies and immoral in others where it is not consumed. When individuals from different cultural backgrounds live together, cultural clashes normally arise as they differ in determining what is acceptable to the society. These conflicts if not addressed at early stages result to ethnic fights between people from different cultural backgrounds. Other principles of moral and immoral character include; religion, age, sex, and age among others. For instance, some activities are immoral in some religions while in others they are acceptable. There are specific practices for people of certain sex, and age which may not be acceptable to individual of the same sex, and age from another society. When individual from such societies live together, cultural misunderstandings are experienced, hindering maintenance and functionality among the society members.

It is of paramount importance to understand all the concepts of free will in order to analyze how they affect relationship in a multicultural society. Free will refers to the ability of human beings to make choices whether reasonable on not without any constraints. Followers of this concept believe that human beings are capable of making choices without influence from other agents whether from external environment or from an internal environment. However, there are those who believe that man is not capable of making decisions freely. They argue that human actions are influenced by physical constraints such a as chains and imprisonment, psychological constrains such as compulsions and social constraints such as threat and punishment among others. However both approaches are applicable depending with the context and events in question. The principle of free will has immense implications on scientific, religious and more so on social and ethical lives of human beings.

It is this principle that determines whether a person can be held responsible of his/her actions or not. Those who believe that human beings are not responsible of their own deeds argue that a person should not be blamed for behaving differently from what the society expect. Their counterparts who believe that human being are capable of making choices without any constraints argue that everyone is accountable of his or her actions since human beings have a free will to determine what to do and what not to, what is moral and immoral before doing it. Free will has been a contentious issue since the beginning of philosophical theory and a concrete decision has not been made so far to determine whether there is free will on not. However, to harmonize both principles, human beings are empowered with the responsibility to determine whether specific actions are within the free will or not. All in all, the most important thing is ensuring that our actions are not causing any harm to the society. Every sane person is believed to have the ability to determine what is ethically acceptable regardless of his or her cultural background. Human beings should go beyond free will and determinism factors before making their decisions.

There are several things that we as people need to do to ensure there is peace and functionality in multicultural societies. Appreciation is one of the most important things that ensure people with different cultural backgrounds are able to live in peace as one community. We should learn to appreciate other people's culture and learn to take what is good from other cultures. Conflicts arise in modern societies when individuals fail to appreciate other peoples' cultural practices. No one decides to be born in one culture or another and therefore we don't need to judge other people in terms of cultural differences. This is where the concept of free will arises. It is believed that human beings have the ability to make informed decisions without any constraints: Therefore, human beings are assumed to be knowledgeable enough to realize actions that could have harm to other people and therefore they can stop their occurrence. Appreciation will enable people to respect other people's cultures even if some of their practices are in conflict with their culture.

People also ought to be flexible when it comes to relationship with people in their community who have different cultural backgrounds. We should learn to accept good traits from other cultures and incorporate them in our own culture for the good of our communities. People should not pay attention to what is provided by their culture and ignore what other cultures have to offer. Flexibility means accepting what is moral and good from other cultures into our own cultures. We should allow our free will to help us differentiate what is moral from other cultures and ignore what is immoral. When a person moves into a community with a different culture, he or she should be ready to accept what people from his or her new community practice in order to avoid cultural clashes. On the other hand, a community that has strangers living in their community ought to respect them and give them an opportunity to practice what is moral depending on their culture.

They should not pressure them into accepting what they believe to be morally right (Frankl 56).

People living in a multicultural society ought to come up with values and norms that harmonize cultural diversities to ensure reduced cultural clashes among the people or eliminate them all. Most of cultural clashes in modern communities are caused by conflicting values and norms from individuals of different cultural practices. When new values and norms are developed in consideration of all cultural practices from different cultural backgrounds, every person feels represented and cultural conflicts are minimized. These values should be used to determine what is immoral or moral to the society in question and not values from different members of the society who might be from differing cultural backgrounds.

Social amenities contribute greatly to peace and harmony in our societies. These include hospitals, places of worship, sport clubs, schools and recreational centers among others. These institutions bring people together and there is an opportunity to socialize and overcome their cultural differences. Social amenities enable people with different cultural backgrounds to share cultural factors and come up with norms that are acceptable to all members of the society. Diversities in determining what is moral and immoral between individuals from different cultural backgrounds can be harmonized if individuals are allowed to mingle freely and share their differences. Considering that human beings have a free will to determine what is good and wrong, social amenities enable people to become friends and there is no way a person can turn up against his or her friend. This promotes peace in a society with people from different cultural practices.

Integrating individuals from different cultural backgrounds, play a very important role in promoting peace among the society members from different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, people ought to integrate themselves through marriages in order to dilute strong cultural practices that are believed to cause havoc among the society members. Researchers have proven that marriages bring families, clans and communities, to some extent, together and these ties can overcome cultural differences. When people from conflicting cultures are united through marriage, their hostility towards one another reduces. They are able to appreciate one another and work together to improve lives of all the entire society regardless of their cultural backgrounds. Modern societies normally comprise of people from different cultural backgrounds.

These differences have been a major cause of clashes in our societies. Time has come when cultural diversity should be used as a source of development and not a cause if disagreement between people from different cultural backgrounds. People should use their free will to come up with decisions that promote harmony between different cultures. According to determinism theory, human actions are affected by cultural factors which determine whether what they do can be judged as moral or immoral (Frankl 78). When individuals from a different culture accept other people's culture, they therefore make decisions that are in cohesion with their way of life. Cultural unity in a society promotes peace and harmony among the people. Decisions pertaining what is moral and immoral are no longer contentious since all members of the society depend on similar norms and values. In this way, it becomes easy to ensure peace and functionality in a multicultural society.