Joseph Butler

The Importance of Sentiment in Morality In this paper, I will argue that David Hume’s argument on morality is more persuasive than Thomas Hobbes’ argument due to the nature of sentiment that everyone carries. One of the key problems of Hobbes’ argument is that it assumes that everyone is unitary. Hobbes explained the State of Nature and the way people would react to it in a way where all the actors involved would make the obvious--rational--choice, however, this is not the case. Not all individuals will react the same way and it would be naive to assume so. An example of this is in his prisoner’s dilemma. In the Leviathan, Hobbes explains the State of Nature like the prisoner’s dilemma (Hobbes, Ch. 13, 618). In this dilemma, two criminals are arrested by the state. They are brought into separate rooms where they are to be questioned. These criminals have the option to confess to the thing they are convicted of or not. Regardless, the government does not really care for the truth, but just wants the criminals to confess. The following dilemma shows that neither convict has to ask the other to know what that right choice is. If they both do not confess then both convicts will receive the lighter sentence, therefore, choosing the better option. The following is set to show how people who chose the choice that benefits collectively, will evidently be the better choice. This is the entire premise that Hobbes explains in instrumental rationality. However, the choice is not as…

What Does “Do Not Muzzle The Ox” Mean In The Bible? A Biblical Definition by Jack Wellman Thou shall not muzzle the Ox means, the worker should be treated fairly and (all people, for the work they do) must not be stripped of the wages that they deserve (Jack Wellman). What does “Do not muzzle the ox” mean in the Bible? Paul interpretation states; do not muzzle the ox while treading’ as ‘do not ignore to pay Christian ministers,’ commentators have quite naturally assumed that his analysis was…

Feminist theory is a fairly new approach to the IR discipline and the aim is to produce knowledge that helps inform practices to improve the lives of women. Feminists use the experience of women to make research that is beneficial to women. In doing so they believe that their viewpoints might uncover aspects of reality that is hidden by more conventional approaches. Feminists believe that by paying attention to experiences of women IR theories might be reformulated and the understanding of world…

Lorde and Butler Society has a strange fixation with placing anything and everything into one category or another. Talking to any person today can show just how different and similar one can be to another. For instance, when you think of a writer, how many varying faces and personalities’ rushes through your head? Audre Lorde and Judith Butler are two such writers that share a connection through their craft and their meaning. Though they may have these general similarities, they have their…

in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals”. It continues to affirm, “That any teacher found guilty of the violation of this Act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction, shall be fined not less than…

by James H. Leuba, were blaming Darwinian theories for students losing faith in God. Some books, like Headquarters Nights, by Vernon Kellogg, and The Science of Power, by Benjamin Kidd, even went so far as to implicate Darwinian theory as the cause of World War I . The anti-evolution movement made headway in some of the southern state’s legislature. In 1924 William J. Bryan was invited to speak in Nashville, Tennessee. Bryans speech against evolution was well received by those in attendance, and…

These cold November days in Mississippi are miserable, and i think 1931’s school year was the worst year i’ve ever had.. It had been a long rainy day. I got home from work and began getting some food ready for the children as well as some towels. They all came home soaking wet from them dang buses. The children had to walk to school everyday. Little man didn’t like it because he hated to get dirty, and the buses with all them white kids would think it was the funniest thing to drive extra fast…

Back in 1925, the school board had a law (Butler Act) that evolution (the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth) or any theory of creation other than the biblical Creation could not be taught in public schools. This law was targeted at English scientist Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which was that human had ascended from apes. Some people did not agree with this law but others…

Since the advent of civilization, society has tended to experiment with codes that regulate human morality in conformance with established norms and expectations (Halperin, 1990). Of particular interests to societal institutions is sexuality, which for the better part of the centuries leading to the 20th century has been governed by codes drawn from religion and civil laws (Foucault, 1979). Society has continuously normalized heterosexism as the appropriate form of sexuality that should be…

Scopes: The Battle over America’s Soul The battle between science and nature seems to be one that is never ending. One of the times when this battle came to a head was in 1925 when a trial occurred over whether evolution was okay to be taught in school. In Tennessee, the practice was outlawed, but when a teacher in Dayton Ohio was coerced into using a textbook that contained evolution, the debate became one of major national attention. John Scopes, a twenty-four year old math and science…