M, a film by Fritz Lang, is a thriller about a town working together to find a local child murderer named Hans Beckert. Much of the search and eventual capture of Beckert is due to the actions of the criminal underworld who’s actions had been disturbed by police searching for Beckert. The penultimate scene of this film sees Beckert captured and held trial by the criminals, where he exclaims that he cannot control himself nor his actions. This scene brings up many ethical questions, involving both the mentally ill as well as if Beckert should be considered guilty at all for actions that are outside of his control. Firstly, whether or not a person who cannot control their actions should be considered evil should be focused on so as to determine …show more content…
By killing children, Beckert is ignoring their desire to survive so as to reduce his pain, and the criminals by killing Beckert ignore his desire to survive so as to increase their pleasure. The use of other people as a means to an end goes against an important part about ethics. Many hedonistic philosophers have a caveat to their hedonism in that they do not think that your own personal and simple joy should come at the expense of others; Epicurus, in his Principal Doctrines states that “it is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly”, with emphasis on the “justly”. Epicurus’ hedonism says that we should only experience these simple pleasure when there can be justification behind experiencing them. For example, while the act of lying in bed all day may be a simple pleasure, there is no justification for ignoring obligations, including one’s own health. Mill’s version of utilitarian hedonism can be used as a counter-argument against the Cyrenaics’ hedonism by showing that while the pain of Beckert is momentarily ceased, the short time it is ceased is not equal to the pain caused to the children killed; Beckert would be happier for a while, but those children would have suffered more pain than that. Furthermore, killing Beckert would increase the
In Fritz Lang’s M, mise en scène is employed to evoke the theme of Machiavellian theory, the characterization of wavering faith in crisis and the tone of impatient anger and fear. As the following analysis of the scene where the mobsters strategize on how to track down M demonstrates, the great light fixture in the center of the room, in conjunction with the mobsters themselves and their meeting room, is used to accentuate the notion of vigilante justice and expediency that circumventing the law provides while also highlighting the paradox of criminals attempting to serve justice.
Murders inflicted upon the Jewish population during the Holocaust are often considered the largest mass murders of innocent people, that some have yet to accept as true. The mentality of the Jewish prisoners as well as the officers during the early 1940’s transformed from an ordinary way of thinking to an abnormal twisted headache. In the books Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi and Ordinary men by Christopher R. Browning we will examine the alterations that the Jewish prisoners as well as the police officers behaviors and qualities changed.
M was directed by Fritz Lang and was released in Germany in 1931. M follows the story of a strand of child murders in a German city. In a hunt for the murderer the police as well as the organized criminal underground of this German city search rapidly for the killer of these innocent children. The specific elements that Fritz Lang uses to express his view of what the sound should be are, how particular sound techniques shape the film, and how the sound affects the story. In a shot by shot analysis of a series scenes that uses diegetic sound the audience can understand what Lang's intentions for sound was for this film.
In John Stuart Mill’s literature (575-580), he describes a system of ethics which he dubs as Utilitarianism. Mill’s Utilitarianism is unique because it is a Consequentialist theory – it focuses on the consequences of things, rather than individual processes involved. In other words, Mill argues that, for an action to be morally correct, it must solely contribute towards benefitting the greater good and maximizing humanity’s happiness. I argue that this ethical theory is flawed and cannot be used as a standard to gauge the morality of our actions because, since Utilitarianism is so entrenched on the outcomes that are produced, it has the potential to sanction clearly wrong actions, so long as they promote the general welfare. In this critique,
John Stuart Mill’s theory of Utilitarianism is a moral consequentialist view that maintains actions are good if they lead to happiness and bad if they lead to suffering. The same rationale can be applied to obstruction—whatever prevents suffering is morally good, and whatever prevents happiness is morally bad. It should be noted Mill characterizes happiness as “pleasure and the absence of pain” (104). He also puts forth that intellectual pleasures—such as the satisfaction that comes with finishing a paper, or having a successful long-term friendship—are better than the animalistic pleasures taken in eating or sex. Proponents of this moral theory believe the most moral action is one that maximizes total happiness for the greatest amount of people.
Mill's Utilitarianism When faced with a moral dilemma, utilitarianism identifies the appropriate considerations, but offers no realistic way to gather the necessary information to make the required calculations. This lack of information is a problem both in evaluating the welfare issues and in evaluating the consequentialist issues which utilitarianism requires be weighed when making moral decisions. Utilitarianism attempts to solve both of these difficulties by appealing to experience; however, no method of reconciling an individual decision with the rules of experience is suggested, and no relative weights are assigned to the various considerations. In deciding whether or not to torture a terrorist who has planted a bomb in New York City, a utilitarian must evaluate both the overall welfare of the people involved or effected by the action taken, and the consequences of the action taken. To calculate the welfare of the people involved in or effected by an action, utilitarianism requires that all individuals be considered equally.
In the debate with the critics of utilitarianism Mill clarifies the principle of utility, which implies general happiness. General happiness requires no...
Evil is a metaphysical term used to describe the thoughts and actions of humans that are seen as morally wrong or ‘bad’. In extreme cases even a person can be labelled as overall evil, such as Adolf Hitler and Jeffrey Dahmer. Previously, it has been thought that a person has the ability to choose between being ‘good’ or ‘evil’ and that they simply make this decision based upon what pleases them. Recently, however, neuroscientists have shed some light upon the physical explanations of human thought and action. In this essay I argue that evil does not exist, and that actions and thoughts previously termed ‘evil’ are in fact malfunctions of the human brain.
The thoughtlessness in which Eichmann embodied in the courtroom, along with the normalcy he possesses, aids in the development of the enigmatic structure of the trial. Arendt's battle to find middle-ground between the idea of Eichmann as a common man attempting to fulfill objectives and his connection to the Nazi regime is what defies original theories on evil. The guilt Eichmann carries is clearly much larger than the man himself, especially one so simplistic and thoughtless. Therefore, the evil presented in Eichma...
John Stuart Mill argues that the rightness or wrongness of an action, or type of action, is a function of the goodness or badness of its consequences, where good consequences are ones that maximize the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. In this essay I will evaluate the essential features of Mill’s ethical theory, how that utilitarianism gives wrong answers to moral questions and partiality are damaging to Utilitarianism.
Director Mark Herman presents a narrative film that attests to the brutal, thought-provoking Nazi regime, in war-torn Europe. It is obvious that with Herman’s relatively clean representation of this era, he felt it was most important to resonate with the audience in a profound and philosophical manner rather than in a ruthlessness infuriating way. Despite scenes that are more graphic than others, the films objective was not to recap on the awful brutality that took place in camps such as the one in the movie. The audience’s focus was meant to be on the experience and life of a fun-loving German boy named Bruno. Surrounding this eight-year-old boy was conspicuous Nazi influences. Bruno is just an example of a young child among many others oblivious of buildings draped in flags, and Jewis...
If This Is a Man or Survival in Auschwitz), stops to exist; the meanings and applications of words such as “good,” “evil,” “just,” and “unjust” begin to merge and the differences between these opposites turn vague. Continued existence in Auschwitz demanded abolition of one’s self-respect and human dignity. Vulnerability to unending dehumanization certainly directs one to be dehumanized, thrusting one to resort to mental, physical, and social adaptation to be able to preserve one’s life and personality. It is in this adaptation that the line distinguishing right and wrong starts to deform. Primo Levi, a survivor, gives account of his incarceration in the Monowitz- Buna concentration camp.
A film bursting with visual and emotional stimuli, the in-depth character transformation of Oscar Schindler in Schindler’s List is a beautiful focal point of the film. Riddled with internal conflict and ethical despair, Schindler challenges his Nazi Party laws when he is faced with continuing his ambitious business ideas or throwing it all away for the lives of those he once saw as solely cheap labor. Confronted with leading a double life and hiding his motivations from those allegiant to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, Schindler undergoes numerous ethical dilemmas that ultimately shape his identity and challenge his humanity. As a descendent of a Jewish-American, Yiddish speaking World War II soldier who helped liberate concentration camps in Poland, this film allowed for an enhanced personal
A moral theory should be one’s guide when deciding whether an action is either good or bad, wrong or right. There are many types of moral theories to choose from, but we will only focus on two: utilitarianism and ancient hedonism. These theories meet in their pursuit of something greater, for hedonism it’s personal pleasure while for utilitarianism it is happiness for the greater number of people. In this work, the differences and the similarities of utilitarianism and hedonism will be pointed out after explaining them separately.
I agree with Mill’s hedonistic view of happiness. Mill believes that pleasure is a fundamental value because it promotes happiness, and diminishes the feelings of pain and unhappiness. The objections to hedonism are invalid because it is always better to be intelligent and consciously aware of everything in one's life, as opposed to being content and selfish, mimicking the lifestyle of a pig whose pleasures have all been satisfied.