Dorothy Lee: The Key Social Problems Of Western Society

Dorothy Lee is well known for her study of human behaviour in context of personal autonomy. She has devised an idea for a key social problem that she identifies as being the root problem of Western society. Through meeting with people of different cultures and backgrounds, Lee developed her main ideas which resulted in her writing the famous paper that is still influencing sociologists. This paper will discuss; the key social problem of individual autonomy and respect, as well as the Sikh culture in relation of child rearing and personal autonomy. I will also prove the basic resolution to this societal problem.

The key social problem that Dorothy Lee is addressing in her paper is that there is no respect for individual autonomy and integrity in Western Culture. I believe that the problem relates to the expectations surrounded in raising a child and the judgement of a parent if they

This lack of respect comes forwards in ways of permission asking, and explaining how something works instead of letting the person learn on their own (Lee, 6-7). She has shown that there are many ways that other cultures have never had to deal with this social problem unlike the West has. Throughout her chapter she explains how the fundamental value in society should be the respect for the individual. This respect is shown through themes such as child rearing, leadership, and work. The basic resolution is to have respect for individual autonomy and therefore have respect for the individual in itself. She states, we can learn from all these other cultures that have individual integrity/autonomy as important parts within their cultures. Another basic resolution that Lee discussed was the way that respect must be kept throughout generations, as long as it keeps being passed down from parent to child, the respect will always remain in the