Ethics [Tuesday, September 27, 2011, 1st period]

[sith_happened]

"Good morning, class," Anakin said, sweeping into the classroom and taking up his usual position of leaning against his desk at the front. "Today we learn about Immanuel Kant," he began, gesturing to the TAs to hand out information on the man. "He was an influential German philosopher on this planet several hundred years ago who thought every action should have pure intention behind it; otherwise it was meaningless. He did not necessarily believe that the final result was the most important aspect of an action, but that how the person felt while carrying out the action was the time at which value was set to the result."

In his mind, Anakin could hear Obi-Wan nattering on about how many of the truths people cling to depending upon their point of view. He shook his head to clear it and continued. "In other words, it's not the results that make something moral but why you made that decision, and Kant believed that only decisions made purely out of duty have moral worth. For instance, Kant spoke of a shopkeeper who passed up the chance to shortchange a customer only because his business might suffer if other customers found out.  According to Kant, the shopkeeper’s action had no moral worth because he did the right thing for the wrong reason."

He paced the room. "What do you think of Kant's conclusion? Is he being too hard on that shopkeeper? What of people who are in the habit of being good without thinking? Is that being moral, or just being conditioned to interact correctly with society?"

Comments

Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[sith_happened]

Complain about the visitors you have coming, or try to come up with some kind of talent to perform for the guests at the recital on Saturday.

Or sleep. Mmm, sleep.

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[lockestheway]

Peter's parents were coming.

He wasn't sure whether that was something to be happy about or not. He guessed he should be happy they still remembered he was alive, but who knew what kind of ridiculousness they'd wind up in?

He was looking kind of broody today.

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

Nathan had been fucking scared that his mum or dad would end up showing for him. But, he'd gotten word this morning that it was Kelly that was coming so Nathan wasn't worried at all.

Hey, he'd missed her. Shut the fuck up. He liked Kelly and her incomprehensible accent.

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[annieadderall.livejournal.com]

Annie wasn't so much thinking about the weekend yet. She was a little more focused on getting through the day, with class, work, the sorority and her meeting tonight, in addition to trying to work things out for the recital, which okay, was thinking about the weekend. Shut up.

She was spending her time before class trying to work out a little schedule for herself. Maybe a wee bit OCD, this one.

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[hasadestiny]

Even if Lionel was back in the country back home, based on his non-attendance at similar events at Excelsior Lex doubted the invite would even make it past his secretary, so he was looking forward to a weekend of meeting other people's parents.

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[perilless.livejournal.com]

Rosella's mood was a good one this morning; she wasn't about to let even Ethics class spoil that, though she did rather hope that whatever today's discussion or activity was, it didn't annoy her too much. That it went by swiftly, so that she could get closer to the weekend.

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

As far as Luke knew he didn't have anybody coming for him this weekend and there was no way he was performing at some stupid recital so...he was gonna go with sleep. A cat nap on his desk was nice.

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[whitequeensfire.livejournal.com]

Angelica was anxious about parent's weekend. She wasn't sure if Emma was coming, and if she was, she wasn't sure how she was going to react to the whole being able to be out as mutant because no one cared here.

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[new-it-girl.livejournal.com]

Hanna wasn't sure if her mom would be here this weekend. One thing she was sure of? Her dad would not be. Not that she cared or anything. Right.

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

Toby was actually kind of looking forward to the weekend ever since getting word back from Ray that he was definitely interested in coming. The talent show, however, was another matter entirely. He didn't know if he had a talent that could translate to the stage very well.

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

Juliet wasn't sure if anybody was coming for her and Jeremy or not yet. It seemed like things were busy in New York, and it wasn't like they ever got to be a priority.

Hmmph.

She brushed it off. Maybe she'd do a monologue at the recital and send a video home...

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[dollpocalypse]

Topher was here. And sketching designs for a laser.

Also, his clothes may or may not have smelled like laundry.

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[walkswithcoyote]

Mercy was here, but not so much in a mingling mood. She really didn't want to see her mother yet, but she was supposed to be here this weekend and Mercy really didn't have a way to stop her.

Re: Mingle Before Class! [9/27]

[wasthecuteone]

Petra was in her seat, somewhere around half-awake.

Okay. Maybe a little less than half.

Listen to the lecture [9/27]

[sith_happened]

Nothing says "good morning" like an in-depth discussion of German philosophers, right?

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/27]

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

Nathan paid attention for the most part but this was the kind of lecture that had him thinking about how worms got it on with each other. He just had no attention span when it came to certain things.

Re: Listen to the lecture [9/27]

[perilless.livejournal.com]

Rosella tilted her head curiously at the information handed out to her;s he was always interested in learning about new people from this world that didn't exist in hers, so she fought the urge to just read and listened instead to her teacher. It wasn't long before her nose began to wrinkle a little.

Maybe she was mistaken, but it sounded like a lot of the questionable actions done by her and hers might either fall into place under the ideas of this Kant fellow, or go the way of the shopkeeper, really. Which was...interesting.

Answer the discussion questions! [9/27]

[sith_happened]

"Is Kant being too hard on the shopkeeper?" and "What about people who are in the habit of being good without thinking: is that being moral, or just being conditioned to interact correctly with society?"

Pick one and answer it!

Re: Answer the discussion questions! [9/27]

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Nice guys finish last," Nathan said eloquently. "That bloke can be as nice as he wants, can follow all of the weird ass rules of society and he's still not gonna get ahead in life. It's just gonna show people that they can use him and walk all over him like a doormat. It's not being bloody moral. It's leaving yourself open to becoming a well used tool."

Re: Answer the discussion questions! [9/27]

[lockestheway]

"We're all conditioned to interact correctly with society," Peter said. He wasn't exactly mister Participates Much In Class, but he felt twigged to response to this one. "That's where concepts like right and wrong come from. Kant's working off this idea that there's an absolute set of values, or at least that people can keep to absolute values, and ignores the influence culture has on what we even perceive as right and wrong."

Mind, it might be because he had a bit of a stake in this thing where he hoped people weren't inherently good or bad or anything, because if they were, he was all kinds of doomed.

"Why spurn someone for their motivations in a case like that, when even our spurning comes from something society put into our minds about the way everyone else should behave, and the outcome is beneficial?" he asked. "Hell, even in the case of someone doing what Kant believes is 'good', you could still argue that they're simply doing what their conditioning demands of them - to interact correctly with their morals in a certain way, lest god or decency strike them down."

Re: Answer the discussion questions! [9/27]

[perilless.livejournal.com]

"It seems to me," said Rosella, after a while, having made a determined decision on the matter, "that this Kant fellow is being a bit silly. One almost wonders if perhaps he has experienced someone doing what he thought was a nice gesture for him, only to discover that the motives behind the action had little to do with being nice to Kant, and more to do with something else entirely. I think the shopkeeper was being both kind and sensible, all in one, and that's efficient, if you ask me. Doing good, for whatever reason, is still doing good, and that should certainly count for something."

Follow-up question! [9/27]

[sith_happened]

"Suppose that Qui-Gon is always up to mischief, but Obi-Wan is always there to stop it. As a result, Qui-Gon tends to do the right thing, but he always wants to do the wrong thing. Is Qui-Gon moral, according to Kant? What do you think?"

Re: Follow-up question! [9/27]

[lockestheway]

"According to Kant," Peter said, simply, "No, not really. Obi-Wan would be the moral person in that scenario."

Well, Peter didn't give a rat's ass what Kant thought, anyway.

Talk to the TAs [9/27]

[sith_happened]

Maybe they are secretly experts in Kant!

Re: Talk to the TAs [9/27]

[hasadestiny]

Sadly when it came to German philosophers, Nietzsche was more Lionel's speed, but if anyone wanted a quick round up on nihilism and the Übermensch, Lex could do that.

Talk to Anakin [9/27]

[sith_happened]

Who only has limited use for Kant.

OOC

[sith_happened]

Ugh, this is giving me flashbacks to my political philosophy class from college.