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Lauren McKee

Dr. Holt

English 12: Science Fiction

30 April 2018

The Branch of Social Division: Stories

As children, we begin our lives in a state so similar to one another, but as we develop, we

change and grow into such distinct and different individuals. Since children are so

impressionable yet so similar, how are their perspectives developed and transformed into such

diverse beings? What are the factors and influences that direct our desires, morals, and ethics? Is

it the environment in which we are raised that form these qualities? In all of these questions, it is

relevant that culture and the expression of identity hold a huge importance. As we sprout in

different directions, we distance ourselves from one another and struggle to relate unless we have

similar upbringings. Utilizing different ways to understand each other can easily close this gap

that is created in our society. As a society, we tend to disregard the method of understanding

each other through stories and visual images, which is one way that holds the potential to mend

the gap that withholds one another from relating.

The development of a human is affected by many different components, but the most

crucial part in our overall growth is the growth of our mind. While we are young and

impressionable, we are exposed to stories of endless possibilities, sparking a common ground of

innocence and inspiration. We eventually grow, being shaped by our individual experiences,

allowing the various parts of our mind to expand and develop. By hearing stories from our

parents, friends, and family, our individual perspectives, morals, and opinions are shaped and

develop throughout our childhood years. Because we are so impressionable as children, things
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that people say and do that we correlate with being “good” or “bad” influence our own decisions

in our life. When we see people we love in our lives do things that they consider “good,” our

initial impression is that this action or decision is considered good by the rest of society.

The experiences that we encounter not only shape our overall minds but also shape our

personal morality. Morality can be defined in many different ways. Overall, many suggest that

morality regards to a system of behavior that pertains to standards of “right” and “wrong”

behavior. There are many philosophers who provide different conceptions of morality such as

Immanuel Kant. Kant specialized in epistemology during the Enlightenment period, a time

between the 17th and 18th century when philosophers began to question authority and traditional

thinking. Immanuel Kant went on to create a new era in the development of philosophical

thought. Through Kant’s studies of moral law, he stressed the idea of reason behind the

development of morality. His work emphasizes that morality is shaped through culture and

ethics. Immanuel Kant’s studies had implications that morality for each human is developed

through their mind and individual experiences. His new viewpoints changed the way society

thought as a whole and impacted the course of his community’s philosophers such as Joseph

Reisert. Joseph Reisert (2003) sought to defend Rousseua’s theory with his analysis on

friendship by “give[ing] special emphasis to the connection between friendship and moral

learning, persuasively arguing that friendship ‘is the sole relationship within which education to

virtue can take place’. Such an interpretation ties Rousseau’s conception of friendship to the

classical tradition deriving from Aristotle, which comprehends the relation between friends as a

catalyst of virtue and places it at the very center of man’s moral and emotional life” (Warner,

Friendship, Virtue, and Moral Authority). By suggesting that experiences and social relations

affects the way we are formed, concludes that the nurture in which humans undergo strongly
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affects the way our minds function and develop.

Although our minds are a crucial aspect in a human’s development, as expressed in the

“Norton Introduction to Philosophy,” we physically and mentally have a hard time articulating

the relation of the different parts in our mind, but inadvertently grow comfortable with the

relation in which we utilize them due to our experiences and development of our moral

compasses. Although we are comfortable within our own actions and ourselves, it is noted in the

text that we struggle with truly comprehending other people and what goes on in their minds.

This can be seen even in human behavior today as many people avoid speaking about different

backgrounds that they are not familiar with. Norton’s introduction poses questions regarding

how we know knowledge about another person’s mind. The packet asks, “How can we know

about the external world?” It continues to answer this question by stating that we cannot truly

know the state others’ minds are in and that we can only make assumptions based upon

experience and perception. This text implies that as we develop and grow we undergo

experiences that form our individual behavior and how we each perceive things. The text

continues by suggesting that without being faced with the same experiences while developing we

are unable to perceive how others are thinking making it hard to form relations due to this

“skepticism.” Because we are not able to understand the mindset and opinions of others until we

have shared a similar experience, approaching people whom appear unfamiliar is a task that a lot

of us do not want to do. The French philosopher that was referenced previously, Jean-Jacques

Rousseau, expresses that we, as humans, are social beings and have a fundamental need for

social interaction. He proposes that it is imperative that humans have meaningful social relations

and that when a human is lacking these meaningful social relations, their life feels unfulfilled

until they maintain these positive relations. Rousseau also poses the idea that social relation is
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the cause of the divide among humans. He suggests that this inability to understand others is the

root of so many of today’s problems in the world. The packet continues to support the interaction

between humans by proposing Gilbert Ryle’s theory that states, “The sorts of things that I can

find out about myself are the same as the sorts of things that I can find out about other people,

and the methods of finding them out are much the same” (Rosen 242).

In order to eliminate this consequence of social relations, I believe people need to turn to

the impact of stories and visual images. Many professors and philosophers study the importance

of child development and when analyzed with ideas of social relations, one can find similarities

and connections that help one understand the importance of communication between individuals,

even through the idea of sharing stories verbally and visually. Louise Rosenblatt, a retired New

York University Professor, once communicated that we understand ourselves through the lives of

the characters within a story. She explained that stories benefit readers in understanding how

authors and their characters think and act in the way they do. Along with Louis Rosenblatt,

Kathy Short, a current professor at the University of Arizona, conducted research that concludes

the idea that children learn to develop critical perspectives about how to engage in social action

through stories. Short’s research supports that when children are lacking the experience needed

to relate to fellow peers and other people of society, stories are able to educate these children’s

minds in knowing how to form this relationship needed to understand each other.

Studies not only claim that they assist in forming the gap present to children of different

upbringings but they also claim that stories assist in children’s development of empathy and

cultivate imagination that cannot be sparked solely based upon experiences they have

encountered. According to an article written by Peggy Albers, she has found studies that

demonstrate the idea of children developing their perspective on aspects of identity such as
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gender and race before the age of five. Even when children are young and somewhat oblivious to

the realities of the world, their minds are impressionable and have a certain perspective on the

world starting at a young age. Sources of entertainment such as picture books, children’s shows,

and more help children develop a sense of self. “Long before they can read, children respond to

images in an effort to place themselves and the others in their lives into the world around them,”

according to Reading is Fundamental. All of the presented studies show how connected one can

get to someone else’s reality through stories whether they are visual or verbal and also how they

overall benefit in the development of our overall minds.

The power of stories showcase our universal humanity no matter our upbringing so that

no matter our upbringing and development we have a way of mending our differences and truly

comprehending cultures and values that may not be well-known to us. Clinging to what is

familiar in one’s life is easy; confrontation to an uncomfortable situation is hard for many

people. Understanding others and gaining different perspectives throughout one’s life can only

benefit one’s ability to understand contrasting situations. Although sitting back and bonding with

people who have experienced similar events in their lives as you is comfortable, the path of

learning about people with different backgrounds can be an eye-opening experience for many

and may decrease the conflict that is present in our current day society. Being aware of human’s

unique sense of morality and ethics can be a way for us to take a step into someone else’s life for

a change and connect the world in a way that has always been so divided. This awareness can

lead to some not only self-reflection in our own lives but reflection and empathy towards others

that may not seem relevant to us prior to this new relation. Stories can be the branch that is

needed to end the consequences of division among humans and can be our one hope to growing

our upcoming societies in a positive direction of empathy and relation.

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Works Cited

Baier, Kurt. “MORAL DEVELOPMENT.” The Monist, vol. 58, no. 4, 1974, pp. 601–

615. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27902389.

Freeman, Mark. “Telling Stories: Memory and Narrative.” Memory: Histories, Theories,

Debates, edited by SUSANNAH RADSTONE and BILL SCHWARZ, Fordham University,

NEW YORK, 2010, pp. 263–278. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1c999bq.22.

Martin, Laurie, et al. “WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT Social and Emotional

Development in Early Childhood?” Off to a Good Start: Social and Emotional Development of

Memphis’ Children, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif., 2014, pp. 1–10. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt1287mcv.4.

Rosen, Gideon. The Norton Introduction to Philosophy. New York, Norton, 2015.

Sture, Judi. “Moral Development and Ethical Decision-Making.” On the Dual Uses of

Science and Ethics: Principles, Practices, and Prospects, edited by Brian Rappert and Michael J.

Selgelid, ANU Press, 2013, pp. 97–120. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hgz15.12.

WARNER, JOHN M. “Rousseau’s Theory of Human Relations.” Rousseau and the

Problem of Human Relations, Penn State University Press, Pennsylvania, 2015, pp. 5–32.

JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/j.ctt1wf4cqg.6.
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WARNER, JOHN M. “Friendship, Virtue, and Moral Authority.” Rousseau and the

Problem of Human Relations, Penn State University Press, Pennsylvania, 2015, pp. 136–161.

JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/j.ctt1wf4cqg.11.