fandomhigh | Ethics [Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 1st period]

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ethics

Ethics [Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 1st period]

"Morning, class," Anakin began, striding to the front of the class. "Today we begin discussions about Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, though his influence stretched into many other areas of physical science as well. He believed that justice meant giving each person their due, or what they deserve. But how do we know what people deserve? What goods and opportunities should go to which people? Aristotle’s answer is that we have to consider the telos—the end or the purpose—of the good in question. For example, say we have some nice flutes. Who should get them? According to Aristotle, it’s not the rich person, since playing flutes has nothing to do with money. Nor is it the person who will be made most happy, since making good music is different than being happy. The purpose of a flute is to be played, and to be played well. So, Aristotle thinks, the flutes should go to the best flute players. Do you agree?"

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"Aristotle thought that human beings were by nature meant to use their reason to deliberate about important moral questions, and to share in the political life of the community. He also thought that government should promote this purpose by helping people to become better informed and more virtuous. Do you agree?"

[OOC: As always, make the threads as messy and jacked as you'd like!]

"Well sure. That makes sense but people are dumb," Jack replied. "Sure the government can try and make us better informed and virtuous but I'm pretty sure that Fox News taints the whole picture."

"If you don't know what's going on in your community, you won't see it coming when something goes wrong," Katniss said, a little darkly. "And you have no opportunity to change it."

"Nah," Topher said dismissively. "If it's not interesting to people, why should they have to watch?"

"One might argue that it makes one partly responsible for what goes wrong," Lucrezia said. "A less altruistic reason is that the community matters might affect them in subtle ways that they miss by being unobservant."

"So? That's their fault," Topher countered. "It's not the government's, like, job to make them smart, right? If you're stupid, you're stupid."

"I was arguing from self-interest," Lucrezia said. "Why it would behoove one to pay attention, regardless of whether the details hold one's attention. The ramifications can be immense. If those individuals choose not to, there's little anyone else can do, I would imagine."

"So there's two kinds of people here," Topher assessed. "The ones who are kinda dumb and wouldn't understand stuff anyway, which is most people--" He was so generous to people -- "and then the ones who are like, 'meh' about the whole thing. The dumb ones, I mean, what are you gonna do, right? And the people who are just bored, they're probably busy with more important stuff anyway, so..."

"Government helps people be virtuous by locking them up," Kenzi said, not really clear on the concepts. "...unless you're talking school, and this class, I guess. And you need to know what the government's doing. Otherwise you won't know how to avoid taxes."

"Sort of," Annie said. "Not everyone's going to want to be better informed, but it'd help them in the long run if they did, so there should at least be some effort made. The more virtuous thing, though... I think that's more a personal thing."

"I dunno, that sounds all, like, vague and stuff to me. I think people aren't really meant to do anything in particular, and they have to make their OWN destiny. And government should promote that purpose by buying more weapons from my pop."

"Virtue belongs to the church," Lucrezia said. "The government should seek to inform its populace, but not to impose virtue upon them. All who come to redemption must do so willingly, not because a government has lead them there. It's meaningless otherwise."

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Ethics [Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 1st period]

Oooh, a hypothetical [10/25]

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