In one
day the average person makes many decisions; should I wake up now or press the
snooze button, what should I wear today, what should I ear, should I take a
shower? (please take a shower!) We just woke up but we already have our brains
working on overdrive. These are all mundane decisions that we no longer think
as important but some decisions are more important like should I study for a
test today, should I get my car serviced, or should I get married? John Stuart Mills, a British
philosopher, and know for is work on the philosophy of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is
judging whether an act is moral based on the consequences. Mills founded the principle
of utility, that “actions are that actions are right to the extent that
they promote happiness for anyone affected by them, and wrong to the extent
that they promote unhappiness”.
Immanuel Kant, a modern
philosopher, disagrees with Mills when he implies
that, “good will is the only thing that is always good”. He goes on the say
that even a clumsy person who cause more harm than good is moral if he has good
intentions. He believes that it is not the consequences of your actions that
make you moral but your intentions. The problem with that theory is that some
people have good intentions but there wrongs are still immoral. Take Hitler for
example, a fanatical radical who started a political movement to wipe out the
“undesirables” of society like jews and gypsys. Anyone who stood in his way was
considered “undesirable” and was sent to concentration camp to slowly die of
either poisonous gas, cold, or starvation. He felt that, “As a Christian I have no duty to
allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and
justice.” He
believed that he was doing the right thing, fighting for truth and justice, but
just because your intentions are good doesn’t mean that your actions were
moral.
Lelouch
had good will, he wanted to make the world a safer and gentler place for his
sister and Light wanted to clean the world of criminals but the question is,
are there actions moral? I believe that because of the consequences of there
actions, causing pain and suffering while fighting, their actions were immoral.
Even though I love Lelouch I have to say that his actions were immoral because
of the suffering he caused to get what he wanted.
This argument is strikingly similar to the "do the ends justify the means" question, and it brings to mind similar issues about morality. Kant's take on morality is an interesting one, and probably one that I more likely agree with, because if you're doing harm to people but you're not meaning to, that doesn't mean you're immoral--you are just making mistakes. On the other hand, Lelouch was intentionally hurting people and causing chaos, so I agree with you that his morality was a bit off.
ReplyDeleteJudging whether a person is immoral shouldn't solely be based on good intentions if they have bad outcomes. I think that deciding whether a person is immoral or moral should be based on a combination of their intentions and actions. If you are doing more wrong than right, are you really doing the right thing? Only so much harm can be forgiven. If they can't recognize their errors, than I feel that their actions are more immoral than moral.
ReplyDeleteThe only way a person can tell if they are doing the right thing is to ask themselves internally. Although to avoid the Hitler situation I think it takes your peers to basically tell you their opnions the rights and wrongs of your decisions. My opnion of morality is on eof a christian point of view, you have to ask yourslef if what you are doing is right in the eyes of god. Overall I though you made a great argument with excellent sources.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your debate; using God as a judge is wrong in the idea itself. There have been people like the ones in the Christian persecution of others, Hitler, and even other religious groups who believe that they are doing right in the eyes of God. Morality is a system employed by man, but to follow it restricts yourself to the box man puts himself in. It hinders us. I agree that morality falls onto if what you have done was in good intentions; although, good intentions cannot change the world because man is evil in nature. However, you can force change, and, changing society in good intentions would be of the better for mankind, even with the consequences.
DeleteLelouch caused death and dispair to achieve his goals: A world without suffering. Ironic true, however, I find it more ironic that you spend all this time disproving Kant's theory only to proclaim Lelouch to be immoral using it. you said the consequences of Lelouches actions were pain and suffering but as I said earlier these were but the means to his ends. Therefore, you may only defend your claim of Lelouchs immorality by suggesting that he didn't carry his actions with good will, but since you already insisted on the illegitimacy of Immanuel Kant's theory, Lelouch vi Britania's actions cannot be deemed immoral. As mills put it, the consequences judges the actions, and I think it's obvious, that the state of the world after Lelouch's atonement can justify any and all of his sins.
ReplyDelete