On Friday, we did a (wonderful) collaborative critical thinking activity on the themes and motifs of Macbeth. One of your number suggested an essay assignment in which you address the topic that was your favorite. ;) I think she was kidding, but I did think that a little bit of additional reflection that hones in a little more on the topic probably wouldn't hurt anyone. SOOOO.... I need you (in the comments on the blog) to give me about a paragraph of further reflection on any one of the topics listed below:
Ambition
Situational Ethics
The "Snowball" Effect
Right vs. Right: Loyalty vs Truth
Right vs. Right: Justice vs. Mercy
Right vs. Right: Individual vs. Community
John Locke~ "Justice and truth are the common ties of society."
George Eliot~ "The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice."
Miguel de Cervantes~ "Truth may be stretched but cannot be broken, and always gets above falsehood, as oil does above water."
**WHEN YOU COMMENT, IT WILL NOT SHOW UP IMMEDIATELY. I HAVE TO APPROVE IT. THIS IS TO PREVENT SOME YAHOO FROM POSTING SOME PROFANE THING ON HERE AND ME NOT KNOWING. YOU DON'T HAVE TO COMMENT AGAIN AND AGAIN (WHILE COMPLAINING ABOUT THE PROCESS--MARK--). IT WILL BE THERE AFTER I APPROVE IT. ;)
Week of 9/10
6 years ago
21 comments:
Truth is the act of adhering to facts or reality. Loyalty, on the other hand, is a commitment to something or someone. I believe that in the situation of right vs right: truth vs loyalty, truth at the end of the road would be the winning choice. I believe that in all situations, one should tell the truth even if it disrupts the ways of being loyal. Telling the truth may be hard to do at the beginning, but everyone (even if they do not admit it) appreciate the truth.
Looking to John Locke's quote, I honestly believe that today's society has twisted the words justice and truth. When you think of the American society, what do you see? I see people stepping on each others trying to reach the top. I see people doing everything they can to be ahead. We have been taught that we HAVE to succeed in life, and that causes us to do whatever we can to achieve that goal. Justice and truth, in my opinion, have been disregarded by today's society. We focus now on such shallow and meaningless things. John Locke's society is very different from today's. His quote rings less truth as time goes by. If you observe the time passed between his society and ours, you will see this is true. Unless a new craze of chivalry comes along, I don't see anything changing. There are of course good people out there, I'm just referring to the majority of people.
In regards to situation within ethics. I believe that those to words almost contradict one another. There shouldn't be situational circumstances in anything pertaining to a right decision or a course of action. All men (and all situations) regardless of the circumstances should be treated the same.. That's sort of the point of ethics. If you treat one circumstance differently than another, you discredit the other decisions you've made in the past, and you blow a hole in your "ethics".
With the Right vs. Right: Truth vs. Loyalty I believe that the truth is always the best way to go, however I do believe that these two things in most cases go hand in hand. If one is not being truthful to his/her peers how could they be loyal? I believe that living by the truth is living a loyal life. Picking between the two though, I believe that I would pick honesty. I believe that it is best in any situation to tell the truth, even if it could possibly damage a relationship. This is where Cervantes's quote comes to play. Even if you are being loyal, if you are being dishonest you will be found out. It doesn't matter how much you can try to cover up the truth, it will ALWAYS come out. Therefore, being truthful is the most important choice in the Right vs. Right: Truth vs. Loyalty situation.
The "Snowball" effect is present in everyday life. Not every situation uses the "snowball" effect. But in those situations you find out what kind a person you really are. I personally think that it is what people do in these "snowball" effected situations that shows who they are and what they are made of. Your ethics or morals should not change just because you are put into a pressing situation or matter that causes a snowball effect. These situations are put into place for that exact reason. what you choose to do with it is your decision, but just because you are put into a situation that is much worse than what was thought does not mean you should change who you are and what you stand on to make it easy. Not all situations in life will be easy and those moments will show others how meaningful staying true to your ethics can be.
In terms of Right vs. Right regarding individual vs. community, most people would say that community should always triumph over the individual. While I don't personally always think that a person's rights should be violated for the "greater good," mainly because I think the idea of greater good holds different meaning to different people, I'd like to question the people who would choose community in the terms of age and ability. Many people would first try to reason with a person in this situation, but what would one do if the individual was too young to understand how to respond to its surroundings or had a disability that prevented this person from behaving in a way people would deem acceptable. Should these people be held more sacred than other individuals? If a mentally disabled man committed the same crime as a mentally able man of the same age, should he have less punishment? Not just that situation, but if a person who is say famous and more well known or an important religious figure commits the same crime as an average citizen, should they have lesser penalty? I personally believe in defending the rights of the individual (especially in terms of, say, capitol punishment and things of the sort), but it seems to me that those who hold a greater value of community have a great bias against many individuals.
In my opinion, ethics and morals should not be situation based. Someone with strong ethics goes into situations standing up for what he or she believes in and doing what is right. If ethics are situational based it shows weakness. People's ethics are a huge part of who they are and should stand firm not matter what situation they may be in.
Ambition: am-bish-uh-n (noun)
1. an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment.
Not only does this theme show up in many famous works of literature but also in our everyday lives. Ambition is the driving factor that causes us to do anything. We may be able to perform tasks that we have no desire to attain, and we might even be able to do them with excellence, however, humans naturally work more efficiently and creatively on the subjects we want to succeed in or the goals we want to reach. Think about the things you greatly want to achieve, the subjects you are most passionate about. For me, that would be dance. I could choreograph four dances in one night if I stayed awake, but when it comes to pulling an all nighter to read a book, I would struggle. However, I'm sure you have stayed up plenty of nights to find out what happens in a novel. Now, don't get me wrong, I love reading, I'm just not passionate about it. I don't have a desire to stay awake to read a book. I would just tell myself to finish it the next day. To be ambitious about something means to wholeheartedly give yourself to that thing. For example, as crazy as Frankenstein was, he devoted a long period of time to creating this monster. That is a perfect example of ambition, although not very positive.
For Situational Ethics, it truly depends on what morals I will follow depending on what is happening. You do not always know the past of certain people, so you cannot always bring about "justice" the same way. Why I say it that way is for a girl my mother once knew. She was sxually abused by her father her enire life, beaten and emotionally tortured. One day, she shot him in self defense. The man was sleeping, yet I believe it was still self defense. She was sentenced to life for saying shooting him while he was not attacking her. I have no problem with her killing him. None at all. Yet, there are other stories where people have had wonderful childhoods and no problems yet kill their parents for no reason. They do not deserve to be out on the streets. You cannot say every situation is the same and should be treated in the same way.
Meredith Markiewicz
The snowball effect is a technique used to start an object small with the intentions of making it grow large. A more common idea of the snowball effect is lying. When a person lies their stories might start off little and mundane. But as the time progresses a person finds themselves lying more, and it starts adding on. "The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf" is a short story based on a lie that becomes out of control, and then the boy dies as a result of his lies. The snowball effect is a great tool, but it can also be troublesome.
I agree with the statement that the strongest principle of growth lies in human choice because I mean it's kind if obvious that we learn from our mistakes. On the flip side we also learn from the good decisions we make because it puts us in different situations to experience different things.
I liked the John Locke quote the best. Without truth and justice, a society cannot exist. Though many in our society distort the truth and ignore justice to serve their personal interests, at the basis of our society (America) as it is at the most basic level of every society. Over time it seems that our society has led people to believe that dishonesty and injustice is ok if neither hurts anyone. However, being that both dishonesty and injustice are fundamentally wrong, someone will inevitably be hurt by these moral failings.
Truth and loyalty are often opposing forces. A truly transparent, open, and honest life cannot be lived with loyalty toward any individual or group. This being said, truth, without compassion, is cold and hateful. When truth would harm an individual or group that one care for, the best option is often silence. Through silence, one can protect loved ones and one's own integrity.
The topic that stuck out most to me was 'Justice vs Mercy.' I don't think there is a clear line between the two. Most often this relates to capital punishment, but I don't believe that shows a difference in the two. If a man were sentenced to death he could consider it mercy for not having to stay in a cell for the rest of his natural life. But then again, it could be mercy in his eyes to get to continue living. 'Justice' and 'Mercy' depend too much on ones person views, choices, and even religions. Is it justice to punish someone for stealing cars and selling them to pay his bills? Or is it mercy to punish them for those same reasons and let them live in jail, eating for free? It's all relevant, and personally I don't think their can ever be a universally clear line, it changes with each situation for each person.
The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice. I feel that this is only partially true. Almost every living thing on earth has the ability to choose things. However, humans have the capability to base these decisions on a set of beliefs and morals. That is the strongest principle of human growth.
Justice vs mercy was one of my favorite topics it is just so relevant in everyday life and especially with what's happening in the news right now. America doesn't produce its own drug that kills people that have been sentenced to the death penalty, so they are forced to purchase it from other countries and. The countries that they purchase the drugs from don't believe in the death penalty and so they are now refusing to produce and sell these drugs to America. So what do we do now. Do you give that criminal Justice or do you have mercy on that person, who did something so inhumane that they were sentenced to the death penalty. But the government is supposed to be above those criminals so they should have mercy ? Right or should they do an eye for an eye policy? And eye for an eye policy would be he best way to go in my opinion. If someone murdered someone by tickling them to death, That should happens to that criminal as well. I believe in justice, or just hang them by their thumbs if they don't want what they did to someone else to be done to them
An eye for an eye
Samantha Douglas
Ambition.
The quote that I used for this poster was, "My ambitions will always be more numerous than my accomplishments." Ambition is a valuable thing to have, but it is useless without motivation. Ambitious people fill our lives. We hear their propositions but, more times than most, we fail to see the proposition come into fruition. As children, we are told that anything is possible. When we reach adulthood we are told the opposite.
Honestly, I really liked talking about the "Snowball" effect. How things that are suppose to be small keep growing. It's how many things in today's world is. Plenty of businesses start small and with enough speed grow big.
George Eliot's quote about human progress holds truth to everything that has been created by man to this day. "He's like a train heading full speed looking baxkwards." This quote gives an example of good intentions but bad choices.
Nelson Chung
"Individual vs Community" has been bubbling to the surface of "American" ethics as of late, especially in the realm of politics. Where the preference lies is entirely dependent on culture. In ours, the benefits of favoring the individual are readily presented. However, societies that focus on society have become increasingly successful, and as a result, some Americans are beginning to question the value of our sacred individualism.
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