-Tara
-Tara
The professor Philip Hallie’s ‘From Cruelty to Goodness’ radiates unwavering genuine philanthropy which by its nature oppose the cruelty and imbalance of power he talks about. The understanding of how cruelty works goes through the understanding what cruelty is and what morality has to say about that. Professor Hallie recognizes two types of ethics- negative and positive- that illuminate the path of good-making. The negative is the ban for actions associated with deliberate harm-making and pain-inflicting on other human beings. The most significant negative ethical rules are the Ten Commandments, says the professor. As reverse, the positive rules enjoin actions that preserve human’s welfare. The positive ethics commands activity; demands courage, and takes sacrifice. The positive ethical rules are for the brave. In close association with the ethical rules, whether negative or positive, comes the question what cruelty is? Had we looked at the institutionalized type of cruelty from the near past to nowadays as the slavery, the Holocaust, the political prisons and the prisoner-of-war camps we would see the cruelty is not mere bloodshed, cut-off limbs, beatings and other atrocities which all are included though. The cruelty goes beyond that- it affects the self-respect, self-esteem, all of that which makes person a person and destroys it. So the cruelty not only (often) kills the body, it first kills the spirit, the soul, the life inside. As professor Hallie uncovers the cruelty derives from something so frequently seen as the imbalanced power in the relationship. The relationship could be both personal (private) or institutionalized. The imbalance is being born when the power between the two parties is unequally distributed, often leaving one of the parties with negligible or no power. Respectively, the strong party gains not only the power to decide for herself but to rule over the destiny of the powerless side. The imbalance of power resides in families, business…
It can be difficult to give a definition for the word ‘good’ especially in the context of an individual’s behavior. Through the analysis of three readings entitled “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, “Civil Disobedience” by Thoreau, and “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” by King, the reader can conclude that the main idea of the nature of good revolves around personal morals and open-mindedness rather than civil law or majority rule in the face of justice.…
There is an old saying that it is better to be lucky than good. This may be true if a person is always lucky, but luck sometimes has a tendency to run out. Making decisions that affect other people’s lives based on luck can be sometimes dangerous, and usually ethically questionable. Leaders who routinely depend on luck for success may find themselves relying on other questionable actions, such as lying, cheating, or stealing, to ensure luck stays on their side. Additionally, this type of behavior may force subordinates to make ethically questionable decisions when luck begins to run out.…
Caswell, M. (2006). The value of humanity and Kant 's conception of evil. Journal of the History of Philosophy 44(4), 635-663. Retrieved June 20, 2010, from Project MUSE database.…
Immanuel Kant’s essays Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Practical Reason led to his critique Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone.…
For Immanuel Kant, guilt is considered a necessary condition for punishment and judicial punishment can never be used merely as a means to promote some other good for the criminal himself or civil society. He argues that, an offender must first be found to be deserving of punishment before any consideration is given to the utility of punishment for himself or his fellow citizens. In this view, utilitarian concerns can never justify the punishment of an innocent person while guilt itself demands punishment even where punishment is entirely devoid of social utility. Therefore, again we observe that the best action is the one that maximizes utility and can be applied in various ways, but most commonly relates to the maintenance of healthy emotional…
To every child, good or bad seemed very clear to mind. If one stole another’s belongings, lie to their parents, or hurt anyone in any way, it would be seen as a wrong doing, as a morally incorrect behavior. But somehow, as life becomes more complicated, everything that has been done might be based on multiple reasons involving both positive and negative elements. Any act of good cannot be explained as simply because of one’s kindness, and this principle can go with an ill-minded act as well.…
Man’s nature is evil; goodness is a result of a conscious activity. The nature of man is such that he is born with a fondness for profit. If he indulges this fondness, it will lead him to wrangling and strife, and all sense of courtesy and humility will disappear. He is born with feelings of envy and hate, and if he indulges these, they will lead him to violence and crime, and all sense of loyalty and good faith will disappear. Man is born with the desires of eyes and ears, with a fondness for beautiful sights and sounds. If he indulges these, they will lead him to license and wantonness, and all ritual principles and correct forms will be lost. Hence, any man who follows his nature and indulges his emotions will inevitably become involved in wrangling and strife, will violate the forms and rules of society and will end as a criminal. Therefore, man must first be transformed by the instructions of the teacher and guided by ritual principles, and only then he will be able to observe the dictates of courtesy and humility, obey the forms and rules of society, and achieve order. It is obvious from this then, that man’s nature is evil, and that his goodness is the result of conscious activity.…
In Kant’s book, The Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, he believes that the “good will” is only good in itself and that reason is what produces the “goodness” of the “good will.” According to Kant, to act out of a “good will” means to act out of “duty,” or doing something because you find it necessary to do. Also, “good will” is will that is in accordance with reason. He believes everyone has a moral obligation or duty to do actions and he backs his theory up by discussing his idea of the “moral law.”…
Immanuel Kant and his Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (1785) attempts to uncover a universal moral principal for all to use. According to Kant, we aren’t only knower’s, we are also doers as we act and make certain decisions in the world. He wants to know what decisions we should make and how should we treat people in this diverse world. He contemplates the use of internal feelings of approval or disapproval to know when something is right or wrong, but deems there are many problems with this has feelings are always changing. Kant believes that goodwill and goodwill alone is good in itself without qualification.…
Emmanuel Kant argues that the human understanding of our world is perceived by our experiences and only through them can we gain knowledge. Kant’s philosophic question is rooted in the theory of understanding; in short, what can we know and how can we know it? Most of our knowledge of the world can be derived from our observation of it. As children, we see things, touch things, smell things and so on. Gradually, we understand the world in which we live in; this is the knowledge of sense-perception. For example, wind has no physical form but we can see its effects and can classify it as being part of nature. Kant, however, perceives knowledge only through our experiences. So going back to the example of wind, Kant would say we have knowledge of wind not because we…
This reading “What Is Enlightenment?”, is written by Kant. Kant claims that man does not use their own enlightenment because there are other people with higher intelligence that can make the hard decisions for them and, that, the people listening will obey. Kant supports his claim that mankind does not utilize their enlightenment because they do not have freedom, they are lazy, and cannot escape their own nonage.…
End of life medical issues are a very sensitive subject for doctors, patients, and family members. Some support the patients’ right to terminate their own life. Euthanasia loosely called physician assisted suicide is when one takes deliberate action to end life when faced with persistent suffering and certain death (Medical News Today, 2012).Many feel that patients should not have to suffer unjustly when faced with serious pain and debilitating illness. Often times it is just as difficult for family members to stand by and watch loved ones suffer. As someone that has witnessed both my grandmothers die on hospice care in the last six months, I know that watching someone die can be more painful than losing them all together. With as much compassion as I have for people in pain, I do not believe people have the right to end their lives whenever they chose. I oppose euthanasia and physician assisted suicide (PAS) because I believe that it is a doctor’s duty to keep patients alive, it may create financial and ethical issues when it comes to patients and insurance companies, and God should be the only one who decides when ones journey has been completed.…
A group of philosophers argue that whether something is right or wrong depends on the result or end of that action. Theories that are interested in ends are called teleological, from the Greek word for 'end'. For a teleological ethical thinker, the end justifies the means. You decide the rightness of an action by the end it produces. A choice that results in good end is morally better than one that results in a bad end. Stealing or lying is right if it leads to a better situation afterwards - for example, if the theft feeds a starving family, or the lie conceals a secret from a spy. Qualities such as love, honesty and kindness are not good in themselves. They are only good in an instrumental way because they cause good results.…
According to Kant, “it is a person that is the source of value. A person is of infinite worth, and what a person has, what a person does, what a person believes, what a person enjoys are all dependent upon the person’s and the person’s autonomy. Kant says that the virtues themselves evenness of temper, patience, can be turned evil if they are used for evil” (O’ Sullivan & Pecorino, 2002). By the words of Kant it would seem that he believes that people have the ability to be good and bad but the choice between good or bad can be impacted by the moral beliefs and nature of the person. A person can decided to be bad if the make up of them or behavior favor morally bad behavior. Kant seems to be touching on an idea that order that caused for morally wrong actions should not be followed.…