Moral responsibility

constantly tries to convince himself that the murder was justified. In this part of Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov represents the ideals of Nihilism and Utilitarianism. His relation to Nihilism makes him reject all meaning in life and create his own moral code, which leads him to carry out the murder. He doesn’t value family or relationships, and he rejects values and emotions. His Utilitarian principles convince him that if he murders the woman it will only be beneficial to society, and that…

According to moral relativism, or ethical relativism, all views, no matter if they vary across cultures or people, are equally valid and no single belief is absolute, but is satisfactory to the moral standards of a person or group of people. These beliefs are stemmed from ones’ environment or preference. Just because something may be right for you, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is right for everyone else. Ethical relativism is linked to normative subjectivism, which describes the state under…

properly remembered, and it violates the son who is denied his legacy.” Therefore, the pantomime performance starts in the context of Gertrude’s and not Claudius’s betrayal. This insistence on the behavior of the player-queen creates “an image of the moral censure passed on Gertrude by both Hamlet and the Ghost.” Correspondingly, during The Mousetrap play in the scene where the role playing the queen promises her husband that she will never remarry someone else and to love him forever, Hamlet…

The question of whether or not a fear of death is rational is the crux of Jeffrie Murphy’s article Rationality and the Fear of Death. He sets out to argue that it is irrational to fear death and concludes that a fear of death is only rational if it helps the person live a meaningful life and irrational in all other cases when it has no real purpose in helping one live the way he wishes to. Murphy’s conclusion however leaves much to be desired in terms of strong evidence for his claim that…

The “Bubble Boy” gene therapy experiment is one of the experiments on gene therapy. Gene therapy is still a moral debate to this day, some people beg the question if it’s okay to use gene therapy or what would it do to the human body which are all great questions. The discussion will be on whether the “Bubble Boy” gene therapy experiment was ethical or not and if the treatment was worth the risk. Basically the “Bubble Boy” experiment was on children suffering from the bubble boy disease which…

issues. In his book “Why terrorism works” (p.236), Dershowitz’s expresses serious concern about the moral limitations of the Cost-Benefit Analysis , which he suggests could lead to tyranny. In this essay, I seek to respond to Dershowitz’s concerns on the use of the Cost-Benefit Analysis through a defence of the morality by numbers approach. I suggest that this mathematical scheme, which discards complex moral factors, affords the best possible outcome…

Obedience - a person’s excuse for an otherwise inexcusable act. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Stanley Milgram’s “The Perils of Obedience” attempt to illustrate how civilized, moral, upstanding people will commit heinous acts in order to conform with tradition or comply with an authoritative figure. Both of these writings bring into question how far should conformity and obedience to authority be complied with before it is wrong. Although complying with rules and authority maintains social…

One important reason that Laura and Howie’s excursion was an immature and foolish series of actions, for which they should be punished is that Laura and Howie did not have to leave the island at all. When Howie and Laura were left on the island the counselors were coming back to get Laura and Howie, therefore they didn’t have to leave the island. What Brock Cole is saying is that the counselors were going to bring Laura and Howie back to camp but, instead they ran away and endangered…

In the article, Famine, Affluence, and Morality, by Peter Singer, he argues that affluent people are morally obligated to donate more resources to humanitarian causes. Singer demonstrates a view of ethics through the moral obligation to help someone. If, for example, a child is drowning in a pool of water, then you yourself are morally obligated to save said child. This thought we all have is that we should help everyone in need because it is morally right. While helping the child is the right…

killing each other and taking each other’s armor as a trophy. We don’t have armor to steal from each other so we don’t get the satisfaction of killing someone like the Greeks and Romans did. This is where Thomas Jefferson was wrong there are different morals we have now concerning the fact that it is not ethical to kill people just for the gratification of killing people. Citizens who are in the military gain their respect because they are willing to sacrifice themselves for the betterment of…