Samuel Johnson quote, "Ignorance, when voluntary, is criminal," can be interpreted in many ways while still having the same base meaning. My interpretation of the quote is when one does something that he or she knows is wrong or does something without gaining full knowledge about the action and the consequences of that action, the level of ignorance that person obtains should be considered a crime. When a person knowingly does something that can harm oneself and other people or things around him or her, that person’s action should consider criminal. The level of ignorance that person has to his or self, personal safety and safety for others is dangerous and should not be accept in society. For example, people who smoke in public places, such
There is the question of what acts are voluntary. The Model Penal Code defines an “act” as a “bodily movement whether voluntary or involuntary” (Section 1.13 (2).) Even with this definition it makes distinguishing between whether an act “involuntary” or “voluntary” difficult in certain cases. The rationale of the voluntary act requirement and the reason for excluding criminal liability in the absence of voluntary action is explained in the case book as it being fundamental that a civilized society does not punish for thoughts alone. It continues to say that people whose involuntary move...
Disagreeing with the author, I believe that Chris McCandless was crazy and was somewhat ignorant in his decisions. Chris gives multiple evidence that supports this thesis. Chris may have made friends easily, but were they good friends or was he a good friend? He was not worth admiring, especially to have a book be written about him. Chris also didn’t know enough about living in the wild to survive which made him ignorant.
The first misconception claims that there is the notion that “evil” is only something committed by despots and tyrants, such as the atrocities studied in human history. Second, is the notion that the medical community is complicit in the decline of society by engaging in a “ridiculous pas de deux.” This meaning that eminently predictable problems attributable to bad choices made by individuals are conceptualized and treated as medical ailments, such as depression. The following point states that while few individuals specifically seek to do evil, virtually all of the evil in modern life (at least within non-tyrannical societies) is caused by the choices made by persons throughout their lives. Fourth, the idea that passing judgment on moral choices and irresponsible behaviors is “wrong.” As a final point, he expresses that the state blindly enables the conduct responsible for the decline of society by rewarding and incentivizing personal irresponsibility.
of the Holocaust and Hitler's attitude towards the Jews, he hits home for most of us. Despite
Ignorance and vanity can be good, in small amounts, but too much can lead to very unwelcome consequences. Connie, a teenage girl who can’t get enough of herself, learned this the hard way when a strange man by the name of Arnold Friend arrives at her house with the intent of taking her on a ‘date’. Instead of calling the police or locking herself in, like common sense would imagine, Connie uneasily greets Arnold from her door when he gets out of his car, instantly letting her vanity and ignorance get the best of her. Joyce Carol Oates shocks the reader with the twist ending in her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” in which after hearing Arnold’s threat towards her family, Connie hands herself over to Arnold allowing him
Throughout the history of mankind there have been numerous cases in which people were victims of oppression or hate. Among these cases the sole reasoning behind this oppression or hate being based on the perception of others. History has shown that society is responsible for labeling groups of people, generally these labels are misleading.
When presented with a list of such book titles as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lord of the Flies, and Of Mice and Men, educated and book-loving individuals alike are often reminded fondly of timeless American classics. These novels are frequently taught in advanced literature classes throughout U.S. schools, by highly respectable teachers. However, shift the focus of the matter to an alternate group of people, and you will find these brilliant literary works in a much different category: Banned lists (Kelly). Censorship is defined as “deleting parts of publications or correspondence or theatrical performances” (Wolfram Alpha). Needless to say, the practice of banning books easily fits that description.
For this interview, I have chosen a group in which for Asians overall and Vietnamese specifically, is seen as a low affinity group in which received many frown upon and disapprovals. This group is LGBT. LGBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. They are defined as people who are sexually attracted by other people of the same sex. History has shown that gay people have always been discriminated against; also they have been victims of violence and harassment in our own society because of their sexual orientation. Even in the Bible, Jesus asked the mankind to have children and since gay people don't have the ability to reproduce, therefore, homosexuality is considered an act of sin. This is why I chose this group seeing that they are considered low affinity to not only my group but to other groups as well.
In “Hidden Intellectualism”, author and professor Gerald Graff describes his idea of what book smarts and streets smarts actually are. He details how new ideas can help to teach and build our educational system into something great and that perhaps street smarts students could be the factor that traditional education is missing that could make it great.
According to the poet Stephen Dobyns, “Actions have consequences. Ignorance about the nature of those actions does not free a person from responsibility for the consequences.” The fact that someone is unaware about what could happen to them, does not excuse them from what they have done. People should think before they act, especially actions that could harm themselves and other people or things. In most cases, people are aware that what they are doing is wrong, and should know there will be consequences for their actions. In “Sound of Thunder,” by Ray Bradbury, Eckels does
The foundation of our legal system rest upon the single philosophy that humans hold their own fate. Even though, we perceive in our daily lives the persistence of causation and effect. Even children understand the simplistic principle that every action will have a reaction. Despite this obvious knowledge, we as a society still implanted the belief that our actions are purely our own. Yet, with the comprehension of force that environmental factors impact our development, we continue to sentence people for crimes committed. Moreover, uncontrollable environmental influences are not the only deterministic factors we ignore in our societal view of crime. One’s biological composition can work against any moral motives that they
The number of people with a severe lack of common sense in the modern world is rapidly increasing. Without this common sense, the world turns into a mass of chaos and confusion. Common sense is defined by having sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. Our world is in a grave and desperate drought of common sense, and the only way to quench this thirst is to reevaluate ourselves, our thoughts, and our practices. Common sense begins with respect for others, thinking and controlling your own thoughts, and letting your moral compass guide you down a path of fidelity.
The veil of ignorance means to not know how specific deliberations will affect ones over a particular case and being obliged to evaluate evaluate principles solely on the basis of the general considerations. These people characterize things into two groups. Things that they do not know and are ignored, and things that they must know. Things that they often ignore consist of class positions, social statuses, distribution of goods, and natural assets and abilities. Things within the veil of ignorance that usually known are basic features of human social life, understanding political affairs, principles of economic theories, philosophy, and social organizations. The people incharge of taking a stand on the original position then often use these as a guide to make decisions on new laws and other necessities of a
...g it. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
But when we consider ignorance along with agnosticism which is a mode of the intellective process, there is an obvious contradiction. Because ignorance is not just mere lack of a knowing, conversely, every ignorance is always a process of being ignorant of something quite precise. In other words, one who ignores knows in a particular form what it is that he ignores. For example, a person who has no knowledge on economics is not ignorant of what a Cobb-Douglas equation is, because he lacks information to such equations. Only the man who is told about Cobb-Douglas equations, and does not know what we are talking about because he does not understand the meaning of the words, only then is this man ignorant of what a Cobb-Douglas equation is.