One of the largest issues that Benson seems to have gotten himself into comes near the end of his paper against Michelle Moody Adams. In “Culture and Responsibility: A reply to Moody Adams”, Benson gives three characteristics preventing others from constructing a strong argument against the inability thesis. These three characteristics, which can be found on pages 616 and 617 of his article are as follows. The first characteristic is when an agent performs an action unintentionally and can perpetuate or modify cultures. The second characteristic is when an agent performs an action deliberately, and permeates culture with their action, but did not choose their action in respect to preserving on shaping culture. The final characteristic that
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He uses the example of actions like sitting, walking, talking, and gesturing, and how they can influence culture. He fails to make the connection between these actions and the inability thesis. It can also be stated, that even if he did make the connection to these actions and their relevance to the inability thesis, they seem as though they would not support his argument. There seem to be many instances in which these things fail to influence culture at all, and if they do influence culture, it seems as though it would be a proportionately small part of any culture. All of these actions that Benson has mentioned are things that one can bring their own attention to, and therefore, change these unintentional actions by becoming more aware of them. During my presentation, I gave the example of getting a new job as an elementary school teacher, being an individual who has an exceptionally foul mouth. My foul mouthed-ness would definitely be something that I would be able to self-reflect upon and change my behaviours around the children that I work with. I have the motivation to do my job and keep it, so I change my previously unintentional actions to ensure that I keep my job and no longer have a foul mouth at work. This example demonstrates that the inability cannot be relied upon for this characteristic, seeing as there are no examples, at least, examples that I can think of, in which unintentional actions remain unknown to the offending agent, at least in regards to these instances and actions that Benson has provided for his
He uses the example of actions like sitting, walking, talking, and gesturing, and how they can influence culture. He fails to make the connection between these actions and the inability thesis. It can also be stated, that even if he did make the connection to these actions and their relevance to the inability thesis, they seem as though they would not support his argument. There seem to be many instances in which these things fail to influence culture at all, and if they do influence culture, it seems as though it would be a proportionately small part of any culture. All of these actions that Benson has mentioned are things that one can bring their own attention to, and therefore, change these unintentional actions by becoming more aware of them. During my presentation, I gave the example of getting a new job as an elementary school teacher, being an individual who has an exceptionally foul mouth. My foul mouthed-ness would definitely be something that I would be able to self-reflect upon and change my behaviours around the children that I work with. I have the motivation to do my job and keep it, so I change my previously unintentional actions to ensure that I keep my job and no longer have a foul mouth at work. This example demonstrates that the inability cannot be relied upon for this characteristic, seeing as there are no examples, at least, examples that I can think of, in which unintentional actions remain unknown to the offending agent, at least in regards to these instances and actions that Benson has provided for his