A.J. Leonard
Morals
Jeremy
14 December, 2015
Final Paper “Moral decision making is just a class about how a person should act. There is no point in taking that class.” That is the typical thought on this class for many college students. Moral Decision making was more than just a class about right and wrong. The class emphasized what it meant to have a position on many different topics. The “Parable of the River” is probably my favorite story or lesson we read in class. The message was short, but the meaning was strong. Another story we spent quite a bit of time on was Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. “The world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it.” Obviously the class is about morals and what is right
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Prisoners are in a cave chained to a wall with a fire between them and the outside world. The fire casts shadows and the prisoners think these “shadows” are real. The reason they feel they are real is because through what others have told them they have constructed a sort of false reality. This false reality is a reference to the way humans liver their everyday lives. Going back to the idea of just going with what the group wants, the message is the same here. Since the prisoners have been told the shadows are real they believe they are real. Same thing with the way we live out our lives. Most of the time all it takes for someone to believe something is to hear it. We are taught not to lie and I think that causes us to trust that other people will not lie either. This can lead to us committing crimes or even just breaking norms because we feel it is what we are supposed to …show more content…
Most of our discussions were about what we “value” and what “value” means. Several stories show how any more people will choose tangible items over intangible ones. Or if there is any risk of harm they will not chance even if it means they could save the life of another. For example, we talked about a man who sees a child in a pond or fountain I think. The body of water is unimportant to the story. The man had a nice pair of shoes on and the body of water was not deep enough to cause him harm, but yet he chooses to not help the child simply because it would ruin his nice
This lesson ties into the theme of the story which is, value the basic needs that one has and buying things to ...
Values -Everyone has them. Where do those values come from? In literature, one can find the answer to that question by taking a close look at characters and their values. They can be compatible to real life experiences. Look at the two stories, "Abuela Invents the Zero" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. The main characters in the stories are Constancia from "Abuela Invents the Zero" and the Four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth from Little Women. These two stories demonstrate how Experiences can shape, and change values.
In this essay I shall explore the question of moral responsibility and free will, by looking at, and comparing, ideas that stem from a Kantian philosophical position, and those that stem from a naturalist philosophical position. I will also consider the implications that follow from each position, when considering the issue of punishment. Furthermore, I will show that although Kantian and naturalist philosophers typically differ in some aspects, such as their concept of the source of free will, they find themselves in much the same position when it comes to determining when moral responsibility is applicable. However, when we turn to applying moral philosophy to the important practical issue of punishment, the Kantian position becomes incoherent as soon as we consider the possibility that free will does not exist. Conversely, a naturalist position, particularly one of the consequentialist tradition, remains capable of answering such an important normative question, regardless of whether its notion of free will turns out to be correct or incorrect. Ultimately then, I will suggest that it is the naturalist philosopher who is in the better position to tackle the normative question of punishment, that arises in applied moral philosophy.
Now we can picture it that one of these prisoners was librated. First, the prisoner sees the statues and fire that is causing shadows. However, he then believes and sees the shadows as reality and the statues plus bright fire as illusions. Next, when he fined his way out of the cave then he saw true objects for the time. The true objects signify the ideal forms, which are not visible to us. In order words, this was the juncture of the intelligible world. Moreover, this prisoner had gladly and willing...
“Once a teacher has identified an opening in the curriculum for exploring a moral value, the next step is to plan an effective lesson or unit around that value. That means selecting good materials (Lickona, 1991, p. 170)”. I feel this book is exactly that, a riveting story that can expose students to great moral values.
In every civilized society you will always find many varying forms of morality and values, especially in the United States of America. In Societies such as these you find a mosaic of differing religions, cultures, political alignments, and socio economic backgrounds which suggests that morality and values are no different. In Friedrich Nietzsche’s book, Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche discusses morality and the two categories that you will find at the very basis of all varieties of morality. One category of morality focuses on the “Higher Man” and his superiority to all those under him and his caste. The second system is derived from those of a lower caste that may be used by those in higher castes to further themselves and society. These categories as described by Nietzsche are known as Master Morality and Slave Morality. In this modern time in our culture, morality is becoming a more polarizing topic than ever before. Morality is often times held synonymous with religious practice and faith, although morality is an important part of religion and faith, everyone has some variation of morality no matter their religious affiliation or lack thereof. Friedrich Nietzsche’s theories on morality, Master and Slave Morality, describe to categories of morality which can be found at the very basis of most variations of morality. Master and Slave morality differ completely from each other it is not uncommon to find blends of both categories from one person to another. I believe the Master Morality and Slave Morality theories explain not only religious affiliations but also political alignments and stances on certain social issues in American society. By studying the origins and meanings of Nietzsche’s theories, comparing these theories to c...
"A value determines what a person thinks he ought to do, which may or may not be the same as he wants to do, or what is in his interest to, or what in fact he actually does. Values in this sense give rise to general standards and ideal by which we judge our own and others conduct; they also give rise to specific obligations” (CCETSW,
In Plato’s Allegory of The Cave, prisoners are kept since child birth in a dark cave, they are only able to see nothing but shadow figures move on the wall of the cave. They perceive that as their true reality since that is all they have known all their life. A prisoner breaks free from his shackles and is blinded by the light of the sun. He realized that his reality in the cave was not real, he sees people and understands what reality is now. The prisoner goes back to explain to the others what he has seen but they don’t believe him because they believed in their own reality.
Throughout high school, my values played a key part in the examples I set and the actions of the people I was around. For instance, one of my best friends wanted to steal a small item from a store in which we were shopping. I informed her that I simply would not allow her to so something like that while I was with her. I could not control her actions when I was not there, but I would alert someone if she decided to follow through on her plot. In this instance, by asse...
Apart from the diversity aspects, I faced personal experiences for ethical decision making. I obeyed the policies and regulations of my organisation. This led me encountering of different challenges in the organisation but my ethical decision making power enabled me to overcome them. For instance, I was working on a project on which two teams were assigned. For some reasons, the project was delayed and management wanted to know the reasons and mistakes causing the delays in the project. When management enquired me, I responded with unbiased decision for informing management about mistakes from both teams leading to delays in the project. In order to decide while being unbiased, I felt it my ethical obligation towards the project and organisation to put all the
The message to value more important things in order to have a wisely spent life is demonstrated very well through literary devices in “The Necklace”, by Guy de Maupassant. Madame undergoes an ironic moment in life as she learns what is worth valuing. She is a very greedy woman who only cares about herself. The reader would never think of her as the person to do work, but that thought changes as she misplaces what she thinks of as a valuable item. If Madame just learned how to live life in a way that will not make her upset and to value things that are valuable towards life instead of expenses, she will be better off. But this is how Madame views her life, while others take notice of the significance in their lives. Values are different towards people across the world, and Guy de Maupassant defines that in his short story, “The Necklace”.
Ethical judgment is defined as a decision that is made based on moral considerations of what actions are considered to be right and wrong. Using reason and emotion as ways of knowing, individuals or societies may define the meanings of ethics differently. As different individuals form different share various religious beliefs and regions these factors will influence their decision-making and their perceptions of what is right from wrong therefore in other words their morals. Humans produce new knowledge via several methods such as experimentation, debating, literature, paintings and music. However, these methods are subject to ethical judgments, religious restrictions, and the government law restrictions. However these morals and ethical values may restrict our premise of knowledge gain in areas such as natural science and arts. Scientific and artistic development and freedom of expression are hindered by morals and ethical values that may be bias towards a certain group of people, for example governments or religious groups. However they also may have logical reasoning behind the purpose of these moral principles. Therefore in this essay I will be exploring the implications of ethical judgment on knowledge production from natural science and art by questioning, “to what extent do moral values and ethical laws limit the potential of knowledge production in discovery in both natural science and art?”
During everyone 's lifetime, there is always something we hold closest to our hearts; it maybe our principles we live by, values, and even our own beliefs. Values are those things that are very important to us but never really realize how much we actually value them in our life. Have you ever been asked to define three of your main values and rip them up? I have and I never noticed how much they meant to me. Each and every one of us believes in our own personal values. These values are what gives us strength and strive us to do what makes us happy. These values are very important to us and are standards that we live by whether we realize it or not. Everyone has something we value including me. Some of the values I might think highly of,
Value is the wish that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or utility of something or principles or standards of behaviour; one's opinion of what is significant in life . As human beings, there’s things we value as such, as material and physical values, economic values, moral values, societal values, political values, aesthetical values, spiritual values and rational values. As humans, we would like to think we are in charge of our own values and what is worthy of our desires (instrumental values). Merely this is incorrect for there’s intrinsic values, values that are valuable for the grounds of their nature such as life. For lesson, our human body demands water, why do we drink water because we need to life, but why do we need to life?
The concept of morality differs for every individual. Morality is one 's concept of right and wrong as defined by the individual 's society, family, religion, ethnicity and even gender. It is also subject to the individual 's interpretation and experience. This lends credence to the idea that no one 's morality is exactly the same. The next logical question to answer would be how does one develop their morality? Developmental behaviorist such as Piaget and Kohlberg developed theories for this moral development and how it progresses from childhood into adulthood (Barsky, 2010). Kohlberg 's theory centers around three levels of growth: preconventional reasoning, conventional reasoning, and postconventional reasoning. The levels progress from