Utilitarianism In The Trigger Warning

1003 Words3 Pages

“Trigger warnings” are messages at the beginning of a text, lecture, or discussion notifying students that the content they are about to be subjected to could potentially be upsetting or startling, possibly triggering unpleasant flashbacks of traumatic experiences. These warnings are becoming increasingly commonplace on college campuses across America. Trigger warnings are useful classroom tools that protect students from unwanted, upsetting memories. Ethical relativism is the belief that ethics are not universal and a sense of right from wrong derives from a society’s beliefs and customs. This belief states that there are no absolute morals that are completely right or wrong in every culture. Acts that seem questionable in our society, such as polygamy and incest, are viewed as acceptable in other cultures but are …show more content…

People refrain from behaviors like murder and rape because they cause unhappiness to the victims as well as the perpetrator if they are caught and prosecuted. Instead of murdering or raping another person people choose to not perform this action, which is the decision creates the most happiness for everyone involved in the situation. Utilitarianism can also explain the ethics behind trigger warnings. Trigger warnings are a small notice printed or verbalized before potentially upsetting content. This notice does not disturb the class, nor does it upset students. The only instance where students could be upset is if the trigger warning was left off of sensitive content. Students could unknowingly be subjected to content that triggers troubling flashbacks, creating unhappiness. Including trigger warnings is the ethical decision because the warnings do not upset anyone and they prevent victims from unhappy feelings and memories. Removing or not including these warnings is the unethical decision because more people would be upset if they were left

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Why I Use Trigger Warnings By Kate Manne

    202 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Kate Manne’s article “Why I Use Trigger Warnings”, she argues that trigger warnings are an important feature to incorporate in an educator’s curriculum, but not as a safety cushion for millennials to fall on to avoid work and serious or uncomfortable topics. Using PTSD studies along with failed tests of exposure therapy for the foundation of her points, she explains that trigger warnings can help mentally prepare a student for what they are about to read instead of blindsiding them and throwing them into a potentially anxiety-induced state where they can’t focus. Manne also brings up how people can react when reading political or religious material in comparison towards reading possibly triggering material in order to differentiate between

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Greg Lukianoff And Haidt's The Coddling Of The American Mind

    1122 Words  | 3 Pages

    First they explain how students have recently started expecting that their professors publish trigger warnings, alerts that students expect with anything that may cause distress, in the name of protecting students who may be reminded of trauma by being exposed to certain topics. While proving the fallacies in the concept of trigger warnings, Lukianoff and Haidt quote Harvard professor, Jeannie Suk 's essay about teaching rape law when students are determined to have protection from unpleasant ideas and demand trigger warnings. She says it is like trying to teach “a medical student who is training to be a surgeon but who fears that he 'll become distressed at the sight of blood (48).” This shows how the students’ desire for protection cause difficulties in teaching for

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Stress Of A Portrait Killer

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    This film was made in 2008, and maybe during that time this observation could be compartmentalized based on geographical location. The research is a bit outdated for the world we live in now. Social environments bleed together in today’s society. The reference of “middle class” becoming more extinct with political influence. The violence and dangers are not limited to congested areas of the economically challenged. We are no longer safe in schools, movie theaters, or work environments. These are no longer isolated incidents, becoming more frequent effecting many levels of our emotional and spiritual health. Humans have adapted the use of their stressful warnings to a non-useful state ignoring the signs. What use to be a safety mechanism is now a

    Read More

  • Greg Lukianoff And Jonathan Haidt's The Coddling Of The American Mind

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    They should start discussions about rape and sexist cases because it’s going on in today’s society and for people to know it’s okay to talk about it if it ever happened to them. Colleges need to prepare students for the real word so they need to have real life discussions in class for the students that are growing up and entering the workforce. College campuses are going through the mircoagression theory and professors fear to talk about trigger warnings in class when both students and professors should have freedom of speech in classrooms. “One of my biggest concerns about trigger warnings,” Roff wrote, “is that they will apply not just to those who have experienced trauma, but to all students, creating an atmosphere in which they are encouraged to believe that there is something dangerous or damaging about discussing difficult aspects of our history.” (49). Professors try to avoid teaching material that will upset sensitive students, but instead they should start warning students about the materials they are going to teach and set boundaries so students can know what they are about to learn to prevent teachers from getting in trouble or risk getting fired from their

    Read More

  • On Trigger Warnings In The Coddling Of The American Mind

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Teachers become afraid to challenges students values and beliefs, also creating a repressive area for debates. The article “On Trigger Warnings” by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) states that “the presumption that need to be protected rather than challenged in a classroom is at once infantilizing and anti-intellectual”. Demanding trigger warnings make comfort more of a priority than learning. Faculty may feel like they need to warn students about the course material because some students might find it disconcerting, but the voluntary use of trigger warnings on syllabus could be counterproductive. Just because some material may cause one person to have trauma does not mean everyone will and by putting a trigger warning on the syllabus might cause others to expect something upsetting. This could cause students to not read assignments or it might provoke a response from students they otherwise would not have had. Trigger warnings also signal an expected response and discourage the reading experience and even eliminate spontaneity. Trigger warnings make students into victims and makes both teachers and students fearful to ask questions because it might make someone uncomfortable. The goal is to educate and challenge students, make students question things and debate on things that they normally do not think about. AAUP also says that “the call for trigger warnings comes

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Shulevitz In College And Hiding From Scary Ideas

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Roxane Gay 's op-ed, "The Seduction of Safety, on Campus and Beyond", she states, "Rather than use trigger warnings, I try to provide students with the context they will need to engage productively in complicated discussions", and this is exactly what I am talking about. People who understand that freedom of speech does not have to be taken away in order to stop "triggering" people. Communication is key and freedom of speech is our given right that allows us to communicate our thoughts and feelings. When I searched, "safe spaces in universities" on google, all I could find was article after article of people criticizing safe spaces and giving reasons why they should not happen on college campuses. The most used reason, was a reason that Shulevitz used as well, that safe spaces create ignorance in the growing teenager and become problematic. While this may be true, I feel I should of found more articles like Gay 's, emphasizing with victims and understanding the need for safety sometimes, but without ignorance. The world is scary, hurtful, and breaks you as you grow older. Safe spaces are needed for comfort, they can bring peace, and give someone a person who understands. It 's wrong to put college students behind a door and shut them in so they are not "triggered" by someone 's opinion, but it 's also wrong to not acknowledge that sometimes, people just need to take a break from all the speech in the world and re-cope themselves to

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Trigger Warnings

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author argues that the use of “trigger warnings” should not become a policy due to the student becoming uncomfortable over a certain lesson in class. The argument is effective in parts, but not as a whole. What about the students who actually are medically unable to deal with a lesson in class due to PTSD? This editorial really only showed the bad side of trigger warnings inside colleges classes instead of showing the pros and the cons like most would. Some people claim that the addition of trigger warnings would not affect a college student’s ability to complete the work. It would also be difficult to do well on parts of a test unless they have a friend who will attend class still and take notes for them. Over all, trigger warnings are not completely bad, but they can most definitely be taken advantage of by students who do not want to go to classes one

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Coddling Of The American Mind

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to The Coddling of the American Mind, trigger warnings and microaggressions confine professors’ and well-educated adults’ unalienable right of speech; furthermore, they can impact one’s health. Protecting rights have a unison consensus; the authors unite them and the audience together to persuade the well-educated adults to protest the use of trigger warnings and microaggressions. While concluding that vindictive protectiveness is the reason for trigger warnings and microaggressions Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt state, “A campus culture devoted to policing speech and punishing speakers is likely to engender patterns of thought that are surprisingly similar to those long identified by cognitive behavioral therapists as causes of depression and anxiety.” (45) The word “policing” holds a negative connotation implying regulation, and no one wants their first amendment right of free speech stolen from them. Also the idea that trigger warnings and microaggressions may lead to depression and anxiety gives more logical reasoning to end trigger warnings and microaggressions in higher level education. When the authors specify the change that colleges should make, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt write their idea of the purpose of college, “Rather than

    Read More

  • Kate Manne, Why I Use Trigger Warnings?

    1394 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although trigger warnings sound like a harmless idea to many, there is an extreme controversy about whether or not they should be used in college lectures. Many college professors have conflicting views about trigger warnings; some agree on using them while others are against it. This debate topic is particularly intriguing in Kate Manne’s article in the New York Times titled, “Why I Use Trigger

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Trigger Warnings

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    Trigger warnings? Some may say necessary while others think of it as people being weak. Imagine sitting in a class and the topic at hand is the war. The professor without giving any warning decides to show a video of the gruesome war. Little did they know in their class sits a student who has just returned from the war and wanted to push their life forward. By not giving this warning, the student freaked out and caused a whole disruption. They managed to calm him down and tired to continue the lesson. Now would you be comfortable to continue the lesson after a huge disruption, or do you think that even a little warning in the beginning of class could have prevented this? Trigger warnings help even in the smallest ways. Trigger warnings are

    Read More

  • Coddling Of The American Mind Rhetorical Analysis

    471 Words  | 1 Pages

    The authors of “Coddling of the American Mind,” Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, use ethos, logos, and pathos convey their negative stance regarding trigger warnings and the effect they on education. Lukianoff and Haidt’s use of rhetorical appeal throughout the article adds to the author’s credibility and the strength of the argument against increasing the use of trigger warnings in school material. The authors, Lukianoff and Haidt, rely heavily upon the use of logos, such as relations between conflicts surrounding trigger warnings and other historical conflicts impacting student ethics. Examples of the use of these logical appeals are the relation between the Columbine Massacre and the younger generations ideology. The author goes on to mention other societal turning points such

    Read More

  • Trigger Warnings: Argumentative Analysis

    1336 Words  | 3 Pages

    Trigger warnings help students in the classroom. Trigger warnings reduce stress and anxiety, help students to be able to prepare beforehand, create a safe environment, allow students with trauma to be able to get some of the power

    Read More

  • The Coddling Of The American Mind By Greg Lukianoff And Jonathan Haidt

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the article The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, the authors go into great detail of describing the effects of trigger warnings. Using real world examples, Lukianoff and Haidt describes how college students are oversensitive and carried along the school year. The authors explain how this is a negative thing for the college students going into the work force in the future.

    Read More

  • What is Culture Relativism: Views by James Rachels

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    Culture Relativism; what is it? Culture Relativism states that we cannot absolute say what is right and what is wrong because it all depends in the society we live in. James Rachels however, does not believe that we cannot absolute know that there is no right and wrong for the mere reason that cultures are different. Rachels as well believes that “certain basic values are common to all cultures.” I agree with Rachels in that culture relativism cannot assure us that there is no knowledge of what is right or wrong. I believe that different cultures must know what is right and what is wrong to do. Cultures are said to be different but if we look at them closely we can actually find that they are not so much different from one’s own culture. Religion for example is a right given to us and that many cultures around the world practices. Of course there are different types of religion but they all are worshipped and practice among the different culture.

    Read More

  • Ethical Relativism and Cultural Relativism

    714 Words  | 2 Pages

    In explaining Cultural Relativism, it is useful to compare and contrast it with Ethical Relativism. Cultural Relativism is a theory about morality focused on the concept that matters of custom and ethics are not universal in nature but rather are culture specific. Each culture evolves its own unique moral code, separate and apart from any other. Ethical Relativism is also a theory of morality with a view of ethics similarly engaged in understanding how morality comes to be culturally defined. However, the formulation is quite different in that from a wide range of human habits, individual opinions drive the culture toward distinguishing normal “good” habits from abnormal “bad” habits. The takeaway is that both theories share the guiding principle that morality is bounded by culture or society.

    Read More

More about Utilitarianism In The Trigger Warning

Open Document