美国人价值观及其成因_英文_.doc

收稿日期 2007.09.30 作者简介郭贇( 1986.), 女, 内蒙古师范大学外国语学院在读本科生。. 2007年11月内蒙古师范大学学报. (哲学社会科学版) Nov. , 2007. 第36卷. 第6期Jou rn al of Inn erMongolia Norm alU n iversity ( Ph ilosophy & Social Science) Vo.l 36. No. 6 美国人价值观及其成因郭贇(内蒙古师范大学外国语学院, 内蒙古呼和浩特010022) . . Abstract . 美国是一个移民国家, 在其历史上共有两次持续时间较长的移民运动, 来自欧洲、亚洲、非洲和美洲的移民不仅带来他们的技术, 而且也将其文化带入美国社会, 这对美国人价值观和世界观的形成起了很大的影响作用。追求平等自由独立和自我是美国人价值观的核心组成部分, 这些价值观的渊源既可上溯到清教文化, 同时, 独立战争中发表的美国.独立宣言 对其形成也产生了深远的影响。 KeyW o rds . 美国; 移民; 核心价值观; .独立宣言 中图分类号 D09 . . 文献标识码 A. . 文章编号 1001.7623( 2007) S1.0404.03 ! .American Values America has been p lay ing an important ro le in our w orld sinceWo rldWar II. A lthough its history is on ly about three hundred years long, it still has great effects on many aspects on o ther countries. Un likemost other people, America is primarily a nation of imm ig rants. Their ancestors em igrated from m any parts of the globe. This great ly influenced the ideas and va lues on w hich American are based. 1.Deve lopm ent o fAmerican Va lues. As an imm i. grated country, American values are different from oth. er countries. V arious ethn icit ies, d ifferent re lig ions and some other pecu liarities lead to different va lues. W hat. s more, the values a lso change in d ifferent t ime periods. So according to the time line, there are three ma instream values in American society, w hich are Tra. dit iona l value, Modern va lue, and Post- modern va l. ue. # . T rad itionalVa lue. The time frame of tradition. al value is up to 1700s. Priests are themost influential people fo r those who hold th is belie.f They believe that hum an be ing is God. s creat ion in God. s image- bear. er. So they are inc lined to preserve the past and obey the au thorit ies. They also think that hum an beings are created good, but gradually has fa llen and people have been separated from God by sin. So in o rder to recon. cile to God by Jesus, they emphasize more onmora lity and have very str ict se lf- disc ip lines. They sincerely believe that God and h is w ords in the B ib le have de. fined the ir morality. Genera lly speak ing, Traditiona l va lue is more conservative and h ierarch ica.l . . Modern Va lue. Modern value started from 1875 and now is very common in American. They be. lieve in science and treat sc ientists as themost influen. tial peop le. Comparing to Trad itional va lue, they th ink tha t hum an beings are just random chance beings, in. stead of being created by God. So they w ant to improve the past by the ir own th inking. On the o ther hand, they a lso dare to question the authority. Because in the ir op in ions, know ledge is from what people discover but notwhatGod says. A s fo r them, chaos is humans. basic problem, and in order to so lve th is, theyw an t to pro long the ir life and se ize everyday. As to morality, they acknow ledge it as a hum an construc,t therefore peop le can have their ow nmora lities. % . Post- modern V alue. Post- modern value be. g ins in 1960. It is a lso called Pop culture, because some rock stars lead the fash ion and influence people qu ite a lo.t For these people, they are inclined to ig. nore the past and they don. t count on authority for ob. ta in ing know ledge. They just w ant to know every thing & 404&from the ir own experiences. In the ir op in ions, every. body is equa,l nom atter for a president or a hom eless person. They treat themselves as their own authorit ies, so they do no t need to obey o thers. orders. How ever they are somet ime pessim ist ic because they cannot know everything absolute ly. A s to them, the basic problem is they do not have enough to lerance because they care too much abou t persona l stories and think that certa in commun it ies can define morals. 2.CoreVa lues. American society is basically foun. ded on the princ ip les of equality, liberty, pursu it of happ iness and pioneering sp iri.t American people re. gard these values very h ighly and cherish them as their nat ional spirits. # . Equality. Equa lity is the basic be lief in Am er. ican values, just as the D ec lara tion o f Independence said, . A ll men are created equa,l that they are en. dow ed by the irC reatorw ith certa in inalienab le rights(. So in the ir eyes all people are equal and have the ir ow n values, and no one is born superior to anyone e lse. Once a baby is born, he begins to have va lue. God creates him, so he is un ique in this w orld. Even fo r a home less person, he is still in the same level as peop le w ith high status. God loves every person. He w ill not look down upon som ebody on ly because o f h is status. They have their own understandings o f things that seem inequality: . Ourw ealth is unequaled, but Jesus taught that our faith shou ldm ake w ea lthm ean ingless(. In A. merican h istory, there are many social movements w hose aim is to get equa lity, such as the w omen. s movemen.t It w as started by three groups o f w omen, w ho thought wom en w ere discrim inated in the soc iety and w anted to fight for their equal rights. Thew omen. s movem ent gains m any rights and opportunities for w omen. How ever in the m id - 1990s, the number of w omen in leadership in government and business corpo. rat ions is still very low. But w e can st ill see that w omen. s position has been improved a lot since then. M ostAmericans dare to speak out all the ir ideas direct. ly and need not consider about others. op in ions. Eve. ryone is equa,l so everyone can do w hatever they w ant to do, so w e can say that equality is one of the co re values in American cu lture. . . L iberty. The second core value of America is liberty, which is also the basic point in the Declaration of Independence and American history. Since Christo. pher Columbus discovered the new land in 1492, A. merican people have been suffering a lot from colonial rule for nearly 300 years, how ever they never stopped the ir struggle for liberty dur ing th is period of time. A f. ter America gained independence from colonial rule, liberty is still a nat iona l pursu it for American people. The C iv ilR ightsMovem ent and Free SpeechMovement bo th demonstrate this po in.t Lega l seg regation ending in the South, theU. S. sign ing a peace treaty in 1973, and peop le getting freedom o f speech are a ll ach ieve. ments ofAmerican people. s pursu it of liberty. % . Independence and Ind iv idua lism. For most peop le, independence and individualism are the first two w ords that com e into theirm inds when they ta lk a. bout Am er icans. The one va lue that nearly every A. merican w ould agree upon is indiv idual freedom. Whether you ca ll it ind iv idua l freedom, ind iv idua lism, or independence, it is the corn of American va lues. It influences nearly every aspect of the ir society. The concept o f indiv idualism also affects the type o f govern. ment somuch that ind iv idual rights are also guaranteed in the United States Constitution. . These rights are so protected in our judic ial system tha,t even though A. mericans may compla in that crim inals somet imes ) get aw ay w ithmurder, . most people believe it is better to free a few guilty persons than to imprison one person who is innocent(. Most Americans have their own persona l spaces and usua lly they do no t w ant o thers to get involved in the ir personal affa irs. In genera,l most Am ericans ex. press the ir ideas directly, w ithout too much considera. tion. They care more about the ir ow n fee lings instead o f o thers. opin ions. In add ition, Am er ican people pre. fer to re ly on their own efforts. They are inc lined to create everyth ing by themselves, so they high ly value se lf- reliance. O f course it. s different from what w e ca ll selfishness. It is an expression o f equa lity, liber. ty, and independence and the reason w hy American peop le care so much about th is is just the ir pursuit o f equa lity and liberty. Privacy is also of great sign if icance to Am er icans. The indiv idual privacy may m ake it d ifficu lt to m ake friends. B ecause Am er icans respect their ow n privacy, they may not like to go to a person and say . he llo(. A lthoughm any Am ericans are much opener than Chi. nese peop le, they are st ill not so friend ly and hosp ita. ble as Chinese. . . The pioneering spiri.t The pioneering spirit o f the early imm igrants is also an important American trai.t A lw ays attracted to the new and fresh th ings, A. mericans constantly move a lo.t They not only trave l & 405& 郭贇/ Ame rican Value and Its Or ig infrom place to p lace in search for a better life, but a lso try to raise the socia l h ierarchy because they cherish the American Dream so much. + .The Origins ofAmerican Values American ma instream cu lture is deve loped from w ha t is know n as .WASP( culture, w hich isWh ite Anglo- Saxon Protestan.t So generally speaking, there are tw o ma in factors that affect Am erican va lues qu ite much, and they are the imm igra tion o fPuritans and the Dec laration o f Independence. 1.The Imm igrat ion of Puritans. In 17 th century, a group of people thought that the Church ofEngland w as too Catho lic and they w anted to purify the Church. How ever the ir be liefs w ere heret ica l to the Church of Eng land, so they had to leave there because they w ere re lig iously persecuted. In 1620, one hundred and two people reached North Am er ica and began new life there from then on. They hoped to bu ild a city upon a hillan ideal commun ity, w hich w as equa,l free, and w ith. out persecution. A fter they came, they strugg led very hard to surv ive in the comp lete ly strange env ironm en.t N ow adays Puritans are no longer in ex istence there, but the ir legac ies are still show n in Am erican soc iety and va lues. W hat. s more, they estab lished a string of into lerant moralism. They be lieved that governments shou ld enforce God mora lity. The Puritans have left rich culture heritage to futureAmericans. So theAm er. ican va lues such as ind iv idua lism ow e very much to the Puritan be liefs. In American society, peop le think h ighly ofAm er. ican D ream: It is the be lief that any individua,l no matter how poor, can ach ievew ealth and fame through diligence and v irtue. It symbo lizes the American belief in equalizing o f opportunity. Besides th is, American Dream a lso affects people. s hard w orking ideas. They all believe that d iligence and efforts are the key to get success. Anyone, no m atter what h is status is, can succeed by hard w orking. This is also a reason w hy A. merican peop le cherish time so much. They like to fill the ir life w ith w ork and never w aste time, and some peop le even fee l gu ilty w hen they have noth ing to do. What. s more, imm igration also brough t Puritan. ism intoAmerica, wh ich has shaped American people. s worldv iew and philosophy a lo .t A lthough it does not make America a complete Christian nation, it still changes people. s va lue. 2.The Dec laration of Independence The Declarat ion o f In