There are many theories of philosophy one of which is the idea of ¨Tabula Rasa¨. ¨Tabula Rasa¨ is the idea that man is born neither moral nor immoral but when mankind interacts with one another they are turned moral or immoral. Mary Shelley shows this philosophy through the monster 's creation, actions, and how man treats the monster, Shelly makes the reader realize that even though the monster commits immoral acts he is only doing so out of his experiences with man, in order to show that man is born naturally good but through exposure to mankind and learning is turned immoral. In John Locke 's Essay Concerning Human Understanding he talks about how we acquire knowledge about the world through our senses and experiences. This can be applied
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According to many Christian religions “Though Shalt not Kill” is an absolute command, however, the monster violates this command or law and kills/ is responsible for the death of many characters in Frankenstein. While one could say the reason the monster is alright with killing is because he was never educated in Christian morals, however, “Tabula Rasa” states that we learn moral from our interactions with man, so because the monster is taught to act immorally he sees nothing wrong with killing. The monster experiences that killing is alright after saving a drowning girl he is shot, an act of man trying to kill him. So when the monster kills William, Henry, and Elizabeth he is doing so out of what he had been taught by man. T Goodrich says in his book The Morality of Killing “the common sense morality cannot be summed up in the pristine simplicity of ‘killing is (absolutely) wrong”, but that we have to look at the consequences of killing for example had someone killed Hitler prior to him killing six million jews this would not have been an act of immorality, however, if someone kills a father who brings home the food for the family and that family dies because of this that is an act of immorality (127). , so when we look at the consequences of killing William (the death of Justine) you can reasonably conclude that the killing of an innocent child leading to the death of an innocent woman is an act of
According to many Christian religions “Though Shalt not Kill” is an absolute command, however, the monster violates this command or law and kills/ is responsible for the death of many characters in Frankenstein. While one could say the reason the monster is alright with killing is because he was never educated in Christian morals, however, “Tabula Rasa” states that we learn moral from our interactions with man, so because the monster is taught to act immorally he sees nothing wrong with killing. The monster experiences that killing is alright after saving a drowning girl he is shot, an act of man trying to kill him. So when the monster kills William, Henry, and Elizabeth he is doing so out of what he had been taught by man. T Goodrich says in his book The Morality of Killing “the common sense morality cannot be summed up in the pristine simplicity of ‘killing is (absolutely) wrong”, but that we have to look at the consequences of killing for example had someone killed Hitler prior to him killing six million jews this would not have been an act of immorality, however, if someone kills a father who brings home the food for the family and that family dies because of this that is an act of immorality (127). , so when we look at the consequences of killing William (the death of Justine) you can reasonably conclude that the killing of an innocent child leading to the death of an innocent woman is an act of