He claims that the discrimination is “how things are in a little place like this,” (153). He proceeds to go on about how the town “ain’t no Baton Rouge and it ain’t no New Orleans.” This is important because it demonstrates how cities, such as New Orleans and Baton Rouge is becoming more integrated compared to rural towns. Furthermore, it indicates that there is still de-facto segregation despite the fact that there are laws against it. This sets the hierarchy that is instilled throughout the novel, with the rich whites as the ruling social class, and the blacks on the bottom of the pyramid.…
If you enjoy a good mystery and learning a lesson at the same time, then you should read Maniac Magee Jerry Spinelli. The story begins with a little boy named Jeffrey, whose parents were killed by a drunk driver when he was only three years old. Young Jeffrey was sent to live with his Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan. He remained with them for eight years and then ran away. At age 11, Jeffrey found himself alone and homeless in a new town.…
A Lack of Morals “Jem, how can [Mrs. Gates] hate hitler so bad an’ then turn around to be ugly about folks right here at home-” (331). Scout is wondering how her teacher and the rest of the town of Maycomb can hate hitler for persecuting people, while they themselves are oblivious that they are persecuting african americans. Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” follows a young girl named Scout Finch and her brother Jem Finch. They live in a small, fictional, racist town by the name of Maycomb, Alabama. Scout’s father Atticus is a lawyer who is appointed to a case to defend a african american man by the name of Tom Robinson.…
Locke and Mills say that people will never agree on what exactly happiness is giving no agreement on who should rule. Instead on agreeing on what is and what isn’t happiness, the state’s primary goal should be liberty and nothing else. Unlike Aristotle and Plato, Mills and Locke knew that forcing people to agree on one single item was probably never going to occur, and that the people in society should have free choice. Which is why they both believe that in order for a society to function, society should be structured in such a way that is unique and differently, that way the society can be just and good. Life, liberty and property- the three main rules of life according to John Locke, the main one, being liberty.…
In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the Jim Crow laws played a major role in the plot of the book. The Jim Crow laws were a series of laws and unofficial rules that set the standard for how African Americans should behave in public in the United States, primarily in the South (Pilgrim). According to David Pilgrim, the intended purpose of these laws and rules were to segregate blacks and whites in all parts of society, and to severely restrict the rights of African Americans. Accordingly, these laws and rules included restrictions in regard to when African American men could touch white men and women (in the case of the latter, never). In addition, people had to create “separate but equal” facilities for black people and white people (they were often not equal).…
In John Stuart Mill’s influential book “Utilitarianism”, Mill introduces the belief that moral action is based upon the concept of utility, or how he explains it, the greatest happiness principle. It is this greatest happiness principle that defines Utilitarianism as the notion that the best moral actions are those that promote the most amount of human happiness. Actions that would be regarded as the least favorable are those that promote the opposite, unhappiness. The concept of Utilitarianism and that of Consequentialism are similar as both judge the moral value of an action dependent on its consequences, however each claim leads to different conclusions.…
On page 175, West points out what appears to be an important syntactic distinction Mill failed to make explicit: the difference of what is worthy of being desired, and what has the capability of being desired. Eating trash, for example, might have the capability of being desired (if you plug your nose and close your eyes, perhaps) yet that does not necessarily mean it ought to be worthy of being desirable. So when Mill claims, “the sole evidence it is possible to produce that anything is desirable, is that people actually desire it,” (IV, 3) West explains why Mill is not guilty of conflating the two. According to West, “Mill is clearly making a distinction between matters of fact (knowledge) and matters of conduct (practical ends)” (175) and,…
The question for this both Kant and Mill focus on is: is there absolute moral rule? Kant and Mill provide different perspectives on this question. Kant is a believer in absolute moral rule, whereas Mill is not a believer in it as he believes there are exceptions to moral rule if it maximizes happiness. I agree with Mill, I do not think there is not absolute moral rules and to determine if something is right dependent on the consequences. When coming up with this view, I based it on my own profession of teaching.…
John Stuart Mill, a philosopher during the mid-1800’s, is known as one of the most important western political philosophers in the past three hundred years. Many of his arguments on freedom can be seen intertwined with the current way we run societies around the world today. Being a self proclaimed Utilitarian, Mill focuses his arguments on making the collective reside with the most utility possible, with utility being defined by happiness. To achieve maximum utility, Mill presents three larger arguments,the harm principle, experiments of living, and freedom of speech. Before one can begin to agree or criticize Mill's arguments they must first delve into the core of Mill’s teachings, the harm principle.…
There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes.’” (Lee 302) This is saying that even the children knew how society in Maycomb was split. There were people who had a good amount of money, people who didn’t really have money and never asked for help, others who had no money at all and lived like pigs, and the Negroes who had to work many many hours for just enough money to get by. In the beginning of the book, we get introduced to Burris Ewell.…
In these chapters it tells me that in that period of time, just because Tom Robinson is poor and black, makes him guilty of this crime. This book shows racism because Tom is accused just because he is black. Even though they had all the evidence they could tell that he was not guilty they still found him guilty. This also show poverty because how poor the Ewells and the blacks are.…
Because of all the abuse, some characters became depressed. One of the characters who became depressed is Jefferson. Throughout the book, there are many examples of segregation between the whites and the African Americans.…
John Stuart Mill the liberal and Jean-Jacques Rousseau the republican, are two political philosophers whom focussed on the integration of political liberty with the relationship found between that of the individual, society and the state by the means of power or authority. Both of these political thinkers formed their arguments in their writings, namely; On Liberty (1859) by Mill, and The Social Contract (1913) by Rousseau. On a more specific scale, their views differed in much contrast, whereby Rousseau claims that people and individuals of society may only acquire the entity of freedom through a transitioning process from the natural state to the civil state, whereby they would have to conform to the general will as the common good. On the…
This week’s reading covered Mills’ “But What are You Really? The Metaphysics of Race.” Mills explores how race is both interpreted internally and externally and how it is a social construction. In particular the criteria for racial identity felt largely expanded and made me question why such ideas needed such an expanse. The seven points of criteria is as follows: bodily appearance, ancestry, self awareness, public awareness, culture, experience, and subjective identification.…
The Contracts Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Charles W. Mills have identified parts of our society that have formed sorts of informal contracts about how society sees the world. In Rousseau’s The Social Contract, the first societies are discussed with the colonization of the new world. The differences in the civilization of the people and their subsequent treatment is examined. In Mills’ The Racial Contract, the treatment of different races is examined and historical reason for it is given.…